First Glue Up!

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Steve Branam
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First Glue Up!

Post by Steve Branam »

Woohoo! Several firsts today:
  • First ever use of hide glue.
    First rubbed joint.
    First use of pinch dogs.
    First attempt at making an arched plate.
Did I have the right viscosity? The right temperature? Did I have the edge shot well enough? Did I rub the joint properly? Did I use my pinch dogs correctly? Will it fall apart? Who knows! What excitement!

This is a first step in developing my violin-making skills. I'm using a walnut tree that came down in a coworker's yard 9 years ago. I traded him some of the oak I had collected from people's yards for a prime 5' long section of trunk about 20" in diameter. I didn't treat it properly, just left it sitting whole in the open on some firewood stickers for about 5 years, then finally quartered it and brought it into my workshop, where it's checked horribly in the ends. I cut one quarter into shorter lengths.

Today I split one of the short section into sixteenths, planed flat faces into two of them, then shot the edge on my long shooting board and glued them up. This isn't for any instrument yet, just to get the skills down. I'll arch the plate like a violin back and make a nice arched and curved box lid out of it. My goal is to make some side strips out of the some of the walnut and get some hot bending practice in. Then I'll make up corner blocks and build the box around an inside mold, and put a flat bottom on it. I have a 1.5" curling iron for bending, and I'm going to try the propane torch and 1" aluminum tube method. I may try some purfling on it as well; I got some holly a few years ago that I can make strips from.

I have carving chisels that should do the job on the arching. I've been playing with them on pine and maple. I'm going to have to break down and spend some money on finger planes pretty soon.

So I'll have gone through a number of the steps to build a soundbox and work out a bunch of kinks in the process. In the end I'll have something to show for my practice, a nice box I can give as a gift.
Michael Lewis
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Re: First Glue Up!

Post by Michael Lewis »

Steve, take a look in the LIBRARY for an article Mario Proulx put together regarding making your own finger planes. It isn't as difficult as you think. Start with a suitable piece of steel for your blade (iron).
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Steve Branam
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Re: First Glue Up!

Post by Steve Branam »

Thank you, Michael, that's perfect! I've cut up an old mostly used up Stanley plane iron and a much older rusted up hunk of Buck Bros. plane iron into suitable iron blanks of various width. The steel cut surprising easy with a hacksaw until I got to the hardened edge section. There I scored it with the corner of a file and worked it back and forth with vise grips until metal fatigue broke it off. Finished up by cleaning up the edges on a grinder.

So now I have good thick 8, 10, 14, 18, and 24mm irons with heat treated ends. I'll grind the edge shapes once I have the bodies curved.

The glue up turned out just fine, nice flat inner side, outer side still rough from riving. I resawed a side strip from another split and planed and scraped it to just under 2mm. I made a bending strap from some aluminum sheathing and a bending iron from 1" aluminum tube (sleeved inside with a copper tube that fit nicely for extra thermal mass) heated with propane torch. The walnut bent beautifully; I was afraid I had left it too thick. I was able to form a C bout easily. The strap made all the difference, since it applies the bending pressure externally, rather than by pulling the wood and risking cracks.
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Steve Branam
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Re: First Glue Up!

Post by Steve Branam »

The 8mm plane is done. It's curved in width and length. This one is pretty high angle, 60 degrees, though I sanded the tail end to pitch it a bit lower. Also making a 45 degree body for it.

This one tends to jam up, hence the awl for clearing it.

I've never used tiny convex planes like this before, so there's some learning curve to overcome.

(Eh, the photos are in reverse order of the way I wanted them, look at them from the bottom up!)
Attachments
Bottom view.
Bottom view.
Side view.
Side view.
On pine, sitting in the nice hollow it made.
On pine, sitting in the nice hollow it made.
On maple.
On maple.
Michael Lewis
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Re: First Glue Up!

Post by Michael Lewis »

Smooth off the "cap" for the iron so the chips don't catch on it. The chips need a smooth path to exit the cutting process.

For such a steep angle you need a really sharp cutting edge, and you basically have a scraper plane. You're off to a good start, and you will learn a lot by making lower angle bodies and using them.
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Steve Branam
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Re: First Glue Up!

Post by Steve Branam »

New body with 40 degree bed angle works MUCH better.

Shavings come out warm from friction, but unlike metal bodied planes, these wooden bodies stay cool to the touch. I'll probably get a bit of a hand cramp gripping these tiny things, though. I can actually use them two handed for easier grip, at front and back.
Attachments
New and old body, with lovely little pine shavings.
New and old body, with lovely little pine shavings.
And on maple, just as nice.
And on maple, just as nice.
Top comparison. New one stays nice and clear of shavings.
Top comparison. New one stays nice and clear of shavings.
Bottoms, nicely burnished from use.
Bottoms, nicely burnished from use.
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