Preliminaries - Milling

[Rogu]

Chris,

Are these boards at their finished thickness at this point?

[Chris Hall]

Robert,

the carcase boards finish at 0.5", so at this point they are 1/100" (0.25mm approx) fat. I leave that final trim to dimension for the hand plane.

The floor boards are more like 1/32" (0.8mm approx) fat at this point, so I have room for any last minute tweaks. They will finish out at 0.375".

[Rogu]

Chris,

Is that finish pass done before joinery or after?

[Chris Hall]

Depends. Generally before - in the case of the end boards, the face will be planed clean before the handles are attached, and the board assembled to the side. The long side boards are a different situation as they have many location with through-tenons. I will be trimming those through-tenons flush, so I will definitely be giving at least a final pass over the side boards after that since the chance of a slight scratch from the saw is always there. I usually cut most of the joinery with the boards a hair oversize, as I then have a final pass or three to remove pencil marks and scratches before assembly.

Certain places require a lot of care in that regard. The fit of a sliding dovetail is going to be ruined if you cut the dovetail into the receiving board, fitted the batten, and then planed the face of the receiving board down.

So, I guess the best answer is, if you'll excuse the pun, it's 'case-by-case'

[Rogu]

I'm assuming that that 1/100" is too fine to register with a marking gauge, so it's just a matter of counting passes with the plane?

[Chris Hall]

Well, for me it's a matter of taking a pass with a plane and measuring the result with my digi-friend. Well, once you have a good handle on that though, you don't need to measure all the time. I expect taking about 0.01" of material off will require at least half a dozen passes. And frankly if the board thickness was within +/- 0.01" it's going to be just fine.

[Dan McC]

OK, got everything milled up oversize. Will give it a few days to settle then take it down closer to final dimensions. Did notice a bit more warping off the saw than I would have liked, so I still have a bit of work ahead of me to take everything back to flat. Had enough material to make a few spares pieces "just in case".

Body is catalpa, top elm, bottom Monterey cypress, battens black limba.

Dan

[Chris Hall]

Had enough material to make a few spares pieces "just in case".

That is a wise move. Looking good!

Is Black Limba a bit similar to mahogany in working qualities? I've never worked with it.

[Dan McC]

Is Black Limba a bit similar to mahogany in working qualities? I've never worked with it.

This is my first time so I will let you know!Bbased on the couple of cuts I made today I would say so, seems to work pretty nicely.

I selected it since I thought with the top being elm that battens made of catalpa might not be strong enough to resist any tendancy for the elm to warp over time. I figured the black limba would be a bit stronger, and the colour seems to complement the catalpa.

[Chris Hall]

I did a round of planing today on the Wenge top, which went well. I videotaped and and am currently trying to figure out why there is no sound

The starting thickness was around 0.395"~0.400". After round one of planing, I took some measurements of the thickness at the four corners:

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It seems like I take about 0.005"~0.010" off with a round of planing before I have to resharpen. After the above measurements, I did a little more planing to take down the two highest corners. Now the four corners are in the range of 0.380"~0.385"

I realized though that the Wenge is going to need a coat or three of Tung Oil, and I usually wet sand the first coat of oil in with Wenge (and more tropical hardwoods for that matter). So, though I am a round of planing short of the target thickness of 0.375", I will probably hold off on any more planing, at least on the upper surface. I'll work in a couple of coats of Tung Oil into the upper and lower surfaces next, then I'll set up to do the dovetail mortises for the battens. When the tray gets fitted, It can be adjusted up and down to give a good fit against the underside of the lid. I'm thinking though that the lid finish on the underside is going to tend to get rubbed a bit by the upper tray edges every time the lid is slid on and off. So, I won't build the Tung oil up at all on the lid underside, just a soak-in coat and then one more, followed by a steel-wooling.