The Penny Collector poster nestled into its new home.
The Penny Collector poster is ready for hanging in my office. I carved a simple Buhl-diamond on the backside of the top rail with V-gouge. Then finished with multiple, thin coats of Tru-Oil finish. I may take the sheen down a bit after it is fully cured with light 0000 steel wool buffing or I may leave it as is. Time will tell. I found out about Tru-Oil from the BenchCrafted blog [http://benchcrafted.blogspot.com/2015/01/why-you-should-be-using-tru-oil.html]. Jameel’s blog and BenchCrafted are at the top of my list for insights and inspiration.
Cherry plywood for backer
I wanted to make the backer from material on hand. Made one using left-over teak plywood. Liked the look (not that it will matter facing the wall), but the board had severe cup which would stress the hardware holding it in place. Oh, btw, I used two figure-eight connectors for that task.
Next I dug out some cherry plywood left over from one earliest projects (before I swore off plywood). The figure is not particularly pleasing, but it will amuse the spiders as they spin their webs in the dark.
The glass was cut to size (12 x 18) at my local glass shop and placed along with the poster and backer into position. Then it was photo time.
If you missed part one of this short series, this letterpress poster was from Carrie Elkin [http://carrieelkin.com] as part of her Kickstarter campaign for THE PENNY COLLECTOR.
We left the last post with a destroyed lower rail. Before attempting a patch, I felt it necessary to stabilize that rail from the back side. Flowed lots of West Systems epoxy into the rotted areas, but did not attempt to level the surface. Once cured I sanded any epoxy above the rail’s plane.
Drawing rail shapes
I drew a curve for the upper rail as well as angled ends of each rail then blended those with rounded corners. Cut the angles and curves at the bandsaw and cleaned up with rasps and sanding. I also drilled a shallow hole which will have a shiny penny placed once everything is complete.
Dry fit test. Shows hole for penny and the destruction to the right side of the lower rail.
Here you can see the consequence of the destruction. My material supply was pretty limited but I found a piece to create a full-width patch. After gluing the frame I routed a shallow rabbet to capture the patch. When gluing the patch in place I did not notice it had slipped away from the cavity. I used liquid hide glue so was able to apply water and prying to remove the patch.
Patch number two
However, the fragile patch did not survive. Next I made a patch of two separate pieces which matched each other pretty well, though not as well at the ledge as my first attempt. Glued those into place while paying better attention this time. The patch was sanded level with the ledge of original material and edges cleaned up.
After a final sanding it was time to begin finishing. Jameel of BenchCrafted had blogged of Tru-Oil a while back. I tried it for one of my Esherick-style music stands and liked the look. No sure I would do a large piece that way. But this would be a good opportunity give it another look.
A 1-3/4 inch thick hunk of chestnut being trimmed to “straighten” the grain lines.
A picture/poster frame can be a nice one-day or weekend project. Four sticks of wood with a bit of joinery. No big deal. Or, you can work like me and enjoy weeks of fun and lessons learned the hard way.
For my support of Austin-based singer/songwriter Carrie Elkin’s Kickstarter campaign I received some fun swag. In addition to her touch-your-soul music, there was a 12 x 18 letterpress poster which deserves a nice frame. Check out THE PENNY COLLECTOR if you are interested (hint: you should be).
Parts milled (jointed and planed) four-square but a bit over-sized. This allowed me to decide on widths of each element.
For this project I used the last remains of the large Chestnut slab I bought from a Maryland hardwood dealer several years ago. This would be tricky with some rotted areas to contend with. I selected half-blind dovetail or maybe it should be called dovetailed ship-lapped for the joinery. The stiles were identical while the top and bottom rails would each have different thicknesses and widths. The stiles came in at ~1/2 inch thick, top rail ~3/4 inch and the bottom ~5/8 inch.
The four sticks were rough cut from the slab at the band saw, then one face and one edge made true at the jointer. Power planing took the pieces to final thickness. All sticks were over-sized at this point. Rabbets were routed to receive the glass, poster and backer. Stiles were through cuts and the rails stopped, then squared with chisel.
Dovetails cut on stiles. A small ledge was created on the upper face to create a shoulder.
Dovetails were marked at each end of the stiles. Shoulders yield 18 inches between the upper and lower rail rabbets and 12 inches between the stile rabbets. A 1/32 inch ledge was created at the router table, then the dovetails cut at the band saw. Final clean up with chisel to create clean shoulders. In the photo you can see the consequence of making through rabbets. The tail is flush to the socket so should be fine. However, that small triangular area is fragile and broke off on two of the joints. Not a big deal as the contact at intersection is intact. However, as I was cutting these (and the sockets) freehand I did not need to keep them to standard shape. Small lesson learned (more serious lessons to follow).
Ready to begin chisel paring to the knife lines. What you do not see in this image, but can tell if you are familiar with the Roubo wagon vise, is the cavity underneath where I am about to cut with the chisel. Yes, I cut right through to the face with major blow out.
Sockets were first cut with a trim router and straight bit. I stayed away from the knife lines. The router makes a nice flat reference depth (unless you tip the silly router as you work). The top rail went well and fit nicely with just a bit of chisel finessing. The bottom rail began as a minor problem and then escalated. The underside had considerable rot, which I was aware of. I was not, however, aware of how deep and extensive that rot was. Then the big lesson. After routing the base depth, I began to pare to the knife lines and KAPOW! Chisel went right through the face side. Why, you might ask. Well the rail was directly above a cavity in the workbench. That cavity is for the wagon vise block to move in and out. I saved the two large and one small busted pieces thinking I might be able to repair. Later I will discover the puzzle would not go together.
