With 50+ pieces in this design, it’s now an adventure in dimensioning lumber. Which is made lots easier by my new planer, 
which works really well. The walnut, as i said before, was free, and quite warped/cupped/bowed. pretty much everything. So I needed a sled to help the planing/jointing/4-square process:
built on particleboard, which isnt the best, but it did well enough considering that after using my table saw to do its most accurate, precise work demanded of it yet with the help of a micro-adjust thin-rip setup,
what i got was warped pieces!
pretty
but not straight. So what’s the lesson?
plane smaller pieces?
not use such curvy lumber?
any suggestions?
I didn’t want to be running 1/2” thick pieces through the planer or router/jointer – they’re really flexible! so… i dont know.
the other piece i’ve milled is the base:
which i selected for that awesome symmetrical grain pattern.
One last thing. I changed the plan to be based on 1/2” square beams, as opposed to the 3/8” i had originally. I have been struggling with Sketchup and how to scale up the size of the lumber without actually expanding overall object dimensions (ie, the lamp remains the same size, just the framework is thicker). “Scale” is making a real mess of things! I’d like to say, take a piece with lap joints at the end and keep it the same length, just different width/thickness.this appears to be a completely non-trivial process. Any advice other than settle on dimensions at the get-go?
3 comments so far
a1Jim
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16910 posts in 473 days
posted 189 days ago
interesting >I see people do this a lot but to me it’s pretty scary to have c clamps traveling over a spinning saw blade knowing C clamps tendicies to loosen an fall off when used in operations with even minimal vibrations.
-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon
Skarp
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179 posts in 222 days
posted 189 days ago
Well, to get straight kumiko you have to start with dead straight grain. You can sort of work around grain irregularity only in larger pieces. I tend to get as large a piece of stock as I can find and as straight grain. Then you can get nice long, straight pieces that might have a little warp here and there, but can manage proper sized pieces being cut from them. Riven lumber is another alternative, but that requires you harvest the trees yourself. Also doesn’t negate the need for straight grain. As you go smaller in stock size, the more grain movement becomes a concern. Shoji are a challenge. I’d say pick up a copy of Toshio Odate’s book on shoji-making if you intend on doing more than a couple. Oh yeah get some smaller wooden clamps for use on the table saw. C-clamps are scary.
-- Ooo, er.
AaronK
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409 posts in 360 days
posted 188 days ago
a good thing to keep in mind. in this case it was clamped down hard to the fence and not traveling, but i’ll be careful of that in the future!