a bookcase begins

[Cliff]

I am starting a bookcase This is the beginning of the base unit and I've finally taken a short vod of my slot mortising machine / milling machine.  The head tilts the power head is a Triton plunge router

 

The miller

Some components of the bookcase

 

little tenons

I can make 'em any size I need

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2016 by John Morris
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[lew]

You know you live in a really bad neighborhood when you have to keep a gun in the workshop 

 

Nice machine!

[John Morris]

Ha! I just saw the rifle! That's not for the bad guys, that's for the deer that keep eating away cliffs yard!

[David Sudekum]

Wonder .... secret compartment? Looking forward to seeing it as it progresses.

 

DW

[Cliff]

Ya know that saying "You can never have too many clamps"

Well I Disagree.

There are never have enough clamps, period.

 

The idea of using mortise and tenons in the leg glue up was my   overkill gilding of the Lilly.  A straight glue up would have been fine.  But hey it's a hobby it's not supposed to make sense.

 

 

 

 

As an interesting aside.  The Bessy Clamps were not string enough to close it up. The wood was not bowed of warped either.

The tenons became so tight once the water based glue hit  the slots and tenons  (temporary swelling) that it took considerable force to close the joint.

 

 

[Cliff]

Actually I lied.  Well it wasn't a lie,  but it was an inaccuracy:

HERE is where the bookcase began

That's where the wood came from.  A Norway maple felled in the yard.   There was a lot of really nice figure in that wood. Too bad I gotta paint the bookcase white. 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting ready for some glue.

 

 

[Cliff]

Slot mortisery

[lew]

Lookin' Good!

Did you air dry or have the wood kiln dried??

 

Sweet chainsaw, too!

[Cliff]

Indoor air dried.

The shop has a dehumidifier running all the time and is heated with parasite heat off  an entry way  to the cellar.

got a weird "tunnel" off my shop adjacent to a garage door and under  part of  the kitchen There is a concrete wall on the outside side of the building and a stone and mortar wall inside that probably used to be the  outside wall of the house prior to some addition later on.  The tunnel is a skosh over 5 feet wide and about 15 feet  deep. In  that tunnel  I put the drying cants.   Last summer I built a massive storage rack that lets me shove enormous amounts of lumber in the tunnel.

So it is indoor air dried.

[lew]

Thanks!

[Cliff]

Gettin' 'r Dun

The glue up

Those clamps are double extra heavy black iron pipe and they are 8  feet long. I got 'em in 1979 when  I was building a massive waterbed with a monster mirrored head board with  lead glass fronted cubpoards and other storage.  It was totally period.

 

Anyway I rarely use all 8 feet of clamp

 

[Cliff]

the clamps are off

[lew]

You can never have too many clamps or enough hands to hold them in place while you crank them down!

[Cliff]

Yah.  I couldn't hold those big bars in place so  I had to clamp boards in place to hold them.  People sometimes turn up their noses  at the pony bar clamp but they are very very strong.  My expensive Bessys didn't have the moxie to close the joints on the sides but the Eight Dollar Ponys did.

[Courtland]

The project is looking good Cliff!! Nice and clean and professional. A thought about your Bessey's, I just got done Googling and looking for any complaints about the Bessy's not being strong enough I was hard pressed to find any. My first instinct when I saw your clamping was that first off, those clamps are better fitted to panel and case glue ups, the handles are not made for max torque, because you cannot get max torque from spindle handles, the grip is just not there, those C Clamps you are using are waaaay better suited to provide the clamping power you would need for small bulky glue ups like you are doing in that image. The proper clamps need to be used for certain glue ups, just like we need the proper tools for certain aspects of woodworking, clamping is no different. Once those joints swelled from the glue, those K-Body's were not the right choice to grab and try to bring that joint to close. The C clamps were definitely the proper clamp for that job.

 

Those Pony pipe clamps are really good too at closing troublesome joints, you can get a ton of torque with the lever style handles, unlike the smaller spindle handles of the Bessey's. Again, you used the proper clamp for the job. I see you really torqued down those Ponies by the looks of the pipe flexing, this is where the Ponies excell, I have a good stash of the Pipe Clamps myself and love them for large glue ups and for troubled joints.

 

I have no doubt if you put a pipe clamp up on the handles of the Bessey's you would be able to close the trouble mortise and tenons in your earlier images. That is the biggest difference between the clamps you used, the handles, you can apply waaaaay more torque with lever handles such as you have on the C Clamps and the Pipe Clamps. Again, the proper clamp for the job is very important here.

 

The Bessey's excel at large frame and panel glue-ups, that is the original intention for their use. 

[Gene Howe]

Looks like a good job cliff. Nice clean work.

I love my ponys and my F style Jorgys, too. The F style has wooden handles that can be drilled to accept a 3/8" dowel or steel rod that will give you plenty of leverage.

I just bought 8 of the 36" Irwin Quick Grip XP600. Those things are surprisingly strong. I do use them to close M&T joints.

[Courtland]

29 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

Looks like a good job cliff. Nice clean work.

I love my ponys and my F style Jorgys, too. The F style has wooden handles that can be drilled to accept a 3/8" dowel or steel rod that will give you plenty of leverage.

I just bought 8 of the 36" Irwin Quick Grip XP600. Those things are surprisingly strong. I do use them to close M&T joints.

Gene, I own the F style Jorgys too, I literally used channel locks to turn the handles for troublesome clamping, problem with that is my handles are getting destroyed, never thought of drilling holes in the handles to insert a dowel or steel rod, thanks!

[Cliff]

pics of the top being glued up

 

Took a good thumping on a finger.   My ZCI  is a bit on the shabby side and I was cutting little tenons for the glue up and one got  caught in the ZCI and the blade and   the blade hurled it up and into my hand which was about 8 inches away.  OWWWWW~!! Tip of the middle finger.

 

Good thing there's snow outside.  I stuck it in a snow ball for a while.  It still smarts a little.  

Now I gotta make a new ZCI and this time I think I'll do it right by making a jig into which I put a hunk of wood to mill with a router.  It's unlike a conventional ZCI in that it has to accommodate the furniture of the table saw and the trunnion hangars ate in the picture.  So it's a lot more complex than a traditional oval cutout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are NEVER enough clamps

 

[lew]

Glad it wasn't any worse!

Looks like we are both working on tops today.

[Cliff]

yah  it's still a touch tender, but that's it.   Got a way  nearly clean this time. 

What  'r you topping?