Today was raining anyway, so I ripped the boards for the shelves and then planed them down to 1/4". That process came out fine. Given that these are 1" thick boards, I removed most of the wood! I need to let the wood stabilize before trimming them to length tomorrow. Tomorrow I will also tackle the fixes to the shelf sides and get them cleaned-up. I'm hoping some Alder wood filler I ordered arrives tomorrow as well. Enjoy the pics below and thanks for visiting. click to enlarge.
I spent several hours on my shelf project today. Using the pattern template with the Alder is still a challenge. I had a tear-out in the exact same place as side #1, so decided I would alter the design to accommodate. You can see the breaks and part of the design change in the slideshow below. I'm finding the Alder wood to be somewhat brittle which may be due to it being kiln dried, but I doubt it. Both of the shelf sides are routed-out so the next step is fixing the tear-outs, clean-up and sanding. Then, on to the three shelves. I tested putting boiled linseed oil on a scrap piece of Alder and it looked just like the bed set I am trying to match. So like the clock, I will be using boiled linseed oil and wax - although the wax will not be a dark wax as used on the clock. Since we are having visitors for the next few days, I won't be getting back to the shelf until the weekend. Today, I worked on the shelf side pieces. I used the band saw to take away some of the waste wood. Then I decided to use the router table to make the dados for the shelves. The process I used is not really recommended and I messed-up two of the four shelf sides. One of the good sides has several flaws in the wood but I'll have to work with it. Then, using forstner bits, I drilled holes to accept the router trimming bit. That all worked OK but I did get tear-out on one cut that was so bad it broke the template and a piece of the side. I've glued the template back together and will proceed again tomorrow. Not sure how I'm going to fix the tear-out. I never had this much trouble when I was making the grandfather clock. It's not like the clock was an easy project! Here is a slideshow from today. Enjoy! I planed-down the piece of stock that will form the side pieces for 2 sets of shelves. Because the design is flip-flopped on the lumber to make room for all four sides, making the dado groove for the shelf pieces will be more complex than it otherwise would have been if I could have square cuts on the end pieces. You will understand this better tomorrow when I use the band saw to separate each piece from the 8' stock. Also, I discovered that I will not be able to use the router to make the dados as the side pieces are too long. Instead, I will need to use the table saw and its miter gauge and fence, along with an attached squared-off piece of stock. Otherwise known as a jig. I cleaned-up in haste today and before I could snap a picture of today's sawdust mess. But I do have a picture of the full bag. I need to let the stock stabilize before I make any more cuts. Following planing, lumber can move, twist, cup, etc. The wood has already twisted. I don't believe it will cause a problem though as the shelves will keep the sides rigid. I have traced the design for all four shelf sides onto the, now, 3/8" stock. Tomorrow, I will use the band saw to separate each side piece. Then, I will create a jig to allow me to make the dado groves which receive the shelves. That will be tricky. If I get that done, I will try to rout-out one of the side pieces. This will require me to drill holes to allow the router bit to have a starting point, and I will use my 2-sided tape to tape a template [original side piece] to the new side shelf piece. That will be interesting. Enjoy the photos from today in the slideshow below! Today I got started building my Alder wall shelf. Since the weather here is in the high 90's, and since running my larger tools requires me to shut-off the a/c's to prevent circuits tripping, I didn't actually start planing-down the lumber. But I made good progress and all went well. First, I got together my tools and spent time to find the appropriate lumber piece for the shelf sides. I figured-out that even with accounting for planer "snipe", I could conceivably create 4 shelf sides from one 8' X 6.5" stock. In order to make this happen, I need to overlap the design on the lumber. This will allow me to 1. make two sets of shelves, or, 2. make mistakes on the router table and simply begin again. The shelf sides are 5.75" wide. So my first task was to rip the 8' X 6.5" stock down to 5.75". And that task came out just fine. The stock needed ripping anyway as it is only trued-up on one edge. You can see the rough edge in the first pic below. Tomorrow, I will plane this cut stock down to 3/8", creating much sawdust in the process. BTW, the actual shelves are only 1/4" thick and stand proud of the sides by 1/16". I don't remember planing any thinner than 3/8" on the clock build. So it will be a challenge. I noticed in ripping the Alder lumber that it smells different than the walnut. I prefer the walnut. Please enjoy the photos below and stay tuned! Click to enlarge.
My order of Alder lumber arrived this afternoon as expected. It looks great and is plenty wide. Actually, I should have enough lumber to make two shelf units if I decide to do so. My 3/8" and 1/4" straight trimming bits for my router should arrive tomorrow. So, the first step is to plane-down the lumber to the required thickness. Then, I will have to wait another day to let the lumber stabilize before I do any cutting. This first step will wait until Sunday as I have an important event I will be attending tomorrow. So, please come back on Sunday and I should have the first step complete. Here are some pics of the Alder lumber delivery. Click to enlarge. Thanks for visiting!
Since I still need to wait until Friday's Alder wood delivery before I can really begin, I decided to go ahead and repair the 2nd side of the original shelf so that I can use it as a backup template. It had numerous cracks and fractures. I will also be tracing the design onto yet another blank stock, as well as the Alder stock, as a final fall-back plan. I found my 2-sided tape today so that's ready as well. I purchased a pack of assorted size and width Alder wood. It's cheaper that way. I am hopeful that at least two of the pieces will be 6" or wider as that's the width I need for the intricate side pieces and two of the three shelves. If so, than my first step will be to plan the stock down to, I believe, 3/8" for the sides and, I think, 1/4" for the shelves. If I run-out of sufficiently wide pieces of stock, I will likely join the shelves using a lap joint. Here are a few pics from today. Boring stuff, but wait a few days!
I mentioned in yesterday's blog that I needed a narrow straight bit with a collar, or bearing, that would ride along the template as the knives cut the Alder wood to the templates design. Ive included a pic below of the bit that I ordered so you can get a feel for how it works. I inverted the picture as my router will be inverted since I am using my router table. In the picture, the bit is trimming laminate that is glued to its base. But these bits can also be used effectively with templates as I hope to do. Just to be on the safe side, I will trace the template onto some other stock as a back-up in the event that I have a failure using the existing shelf as a template on the router table. Thanks for visiting!
I found out today that I won't get my Alder lumber until July 22nd. But it has shipped. So I thought I would go ahead and get some prep work done. I carefully separated the old shelf unit which will serve as the design for my new shelf. It was brittle from age and already had many glue repairs done to it over the years. I caused a few breaks in the fragile side pieces, so spent some time glueing them back up. I am relying on the side pieces to serve as a template, so they have to stay together. They are that much more fragile from the 3 rabbet groves that hold the 3 shelves. I did conclude that the old shelf is mahogany. The shelf side template will be temporarily affixed to the planed-down Alder wood stock, probably with 2-sided tape. I will be routing with a straight bit with a collar. After first drilling holes in each of the cutaway areas to accept the router bit, the collar will ride along the template cutting the Alder along the way. At least that's the plan [and I don't have a Plan B]. This shelf would have been originally manufactured in a similar way. I plan to again use the router table as I have become accustomed to using it. Here are some pics below from this evening's prep work. Click to enlarge. BTW, on another project, I plan to use my Walnut and Alder stock to guide my grandson in building a cutting board while he is here in early August. It will be mostly Walnut with Alder filler pieces. He will be using hand tools. I will make sure that you get to see that as well. Thanks for visiting my site!
I recently renovated a bedroom and in the process replaced all of the furniture. The new furniture is Alder which is a light wood grown only on the west coast. I had previously had two wall shelves in that room but they were a dark wood and will not match the light color of Alder. I decided to build one or two shelves but I wanted to create an Alder replacement that matched the intricate design of one of the previous shelves that was likely 70-years+ old. That shelf was worn with age but had a nice, light design. I figured I could pull-off the side pieces and use them as a template to router the same design on the new Alder stock. So, today I ordered some Alder lumber and should have it in a week. This should be a fun project and I have the tools I need to build this. I hope you will follow this blog! Here is a picture of what Alder wood looks like and a few pictures of the current shelf unit that will serve as my design template! Click to enlarge.
|
AuthorI needed to build an Alder wood wall shelf to match a new bedroom set. ArchivesCategories |