Good Monday Morning Patriot Woodworkers! February 6, 2023

[DAB]

saw, chisel, hammer....that's my CNC..

[4DThinker]

1 hour ago, DAB said:

saw, chisel, hammer....that's my CNC..

That was what I used until I purchased my second CNC.   Haven't had a good use for a chisel since then.  With the ability to clamp boards vertically or at any angle or compound angle between horizontal and vertical on my CNC far more complicated joinery solutions have revealed themselves.   I cut the first mortises on one leg a few minutes ago.  Realized while it was cutting that I could speed it up for the next leg.  Realized when I tried to slip the first stretcher into those mortises that I need to add a few thousandths allowance to the mortise toolpaths.  First set went in, but with more struggle than should have been necessary. 

4D

[DAB]

crazy talk.

 

it's just black box voodoo to me.  wood goes here, push some buttons, something happens, viola - carved/cut piece.

 

i'm too old to learn such things, so i'll stick with what i know, and with joinery i know.

[4DThinker]

I came with some skills that proved useful once I had a CNC. Starting to learn about woodworking and metal working in Junior High classes.  2 semesters of drafting classes in high school.  One bachelor's degree in Interior Architecture.  Figuring out what to do with a PC when I won a Texas TI-99/4A home computer from a grand opening Target store lottery. A Master's degree in Product Design.    Some genetic predisposition for engineering and architecture thanks to brilliant relatives I've descended from.  Throw in teaching furniture design to college students for 40 years which often required complex joinery I used to discourage (Simplify!) before I had a CNC that could cut it.  The drafting courses were the most valuable.  One department head was convinced the complex joinery I could figure out and cut using the CNC required calculus. My theory about calculus is that is only came to be for problem solving when you weren't taught auxiliary plane projection in drafting courses. 

4D

[4DThinker]

Mortises in legs all done. First image has the last leg on the CNC. Second image is the base dry assembled.  Behind it is the top sitting on a couple of saw horses. The top inside of the legs need a bit more work for the drawer rails.  Last will be the drawer,  When I have it back apart I'll run all sides of the legs across my jointer to clean them off, then do a 1/4"r roundover pass on the corners. 

4D

 

[DAB]

yeah, at that point of the design i'm out.  angled legs and joinery?  time for re-design to get rid of those angles....

 

nice.

[4DThinker]

Yep, I had to splay the legs.  The steel bench behind in the photo seems solidly built, but will shake when I'm cabinet scraping or sanding anything on it.    Parallel vertical legs with no cross bracing will rack.   Splay the legs out for a stable stance once the stretchers are glued in and base is attached to the top. 

When our college shop was remodeled/enlarged and I knew more workbenches would be needed I designed one and made a scale model to show the crew.  https://4dfurniture.blogspot.com/2022/07/25-x-48-hobby-workbench-design.html

First day of classes  in the new shop and several new benches had been made.  One or two had legs that spread out in one plane.  Most had vertical legs and in use they were indeed easy to shake when working on them. 

For the bench I'm making the top of the legs is 1/5 the width in from the edges of the top.  The bottom of the legs will have casters, but basically reach out to the corners under the table top.  I respect the glue to keep the tenons in so the table won't do the splits, but just in case may run a 1/4" dowel through the bottom tenon on each corner to pin them in place.   I kept the stretchers vertical as I may eventually put a shelf atop them, with dados over their top edges. 

4D