No planer, no jointer - a lot of problems
Hello kind sir or madam.
I watched Steve Ramsey's chess board project like 6 months ago and I determined that I have to make this project. My dad is turning 60 in the beginning of January, so I decided to make this for him. He likes chess and the set we have at home is cheap and like 20 years old. He deserves better.
Now I have started work on this project - yes I am late, I know… Anyhow, I have the wood and I started it, but I have a problem, a huge one to be honest. The boards I purchased had a slight warp in them, and I "planed" it out with a router sled. I am using Sapele and White oak. Here are the boards after router work.
They are different thickness, but I figured I'll split them and then I will see where I am at. Which I did, but I did not do a very good job, I tried to make a quick jig, but that meant that I also did not get the result I intended - didn't think that one through to be honest.
So now I am left with 2 sets of 4, which are out of square, well the sides should be square, but the thicnkess varies from from 5/16 to 1/2.. they are mainly wedge shaped, oak being the thicker version, because the stock I started with was thicker.. And the bad part is that i don't own a planer and the company i used to rent it from went belly up and I haven't found another company that rents these, and getting a proper one would cost me about 950$. As much as I do love him, I don't have the cash to spend.
So here is my main question:
1. How do i get it to uniform thickness, I do have a hand held router which seems to be my best option, because I do not trust my table saw that much as well, and these small boards are flimsy. The only thing I could come up was to make an inset in a plywood, where I would fasten the strips with wedges, "plane" them from one side, and then see what is the max height I can leave them at. If I could get them accurate to 1/32 I would be very pleased, I can glue them and sand them down to uniform thickness after.
Can anyone reccomend a good method or a jig?
Design questions:
I was planning on using the darker oak for the sides and top edge (see 2nd pic the long board) but it seems too light, my options are:
1. use the sapele for the edges instead and make the inlay around the board in teh darker oak and the sides as well, making the corner posts from Sapele to give it some contrast?
2. use the dark oak with white oak posts but stain the darker oak? (I do love wood without a stain to be honest)
3. Some other combination - the reason I would like to use the darker oak is that this stock is almost perfectly square.
(I don't know what the "darker Oak" is actually called, english not being my first language I don't know the proper names, so if you could educate me that would be awesome. )
Additional question:
Should I oil the board before laquering t bring out the grain?
Sorry for the long post, but I am a bit worried about this project and I needed to get out of my cave and articulate my concerns/questions.
Jake
Hello kind sir or madam.
I watched Steve Ramsey's chess board project like 6 months ago and I determined that I have to make this project. My dad is turning 60 in the beginning of January, so I decided to make this for him. He likes chess and the set we have at home is cheap and like 20 years old. He deserves better.
Now I have started work on this project - yes I am late, I know… Anyhow, I have the wood and I started it, but I have a problem, a huge one to be honest. The boards I purchased had a slight warp in them, and I "planed" it out with a router sled. I am using Sapele and White oak. Here are the boards after router work.
They are different thickness, but I figured I'll split them and then I will see where I am at. Which I did, but I did not do a very good job, I tried to make a quick jig, but that meant that I also did not get the result I intended - didn't think that one through to be honest.
So now I am left with 2 sets of 4, which are out of square, well the sides should be square, but the thicnkess varies from from 5/16 to 1/2.. they are mainly wedge shaped, oak being the thicker version, because the stock I started with was thicker.. And the bad part is that i don't own a planer and the company i used to rent it from went belly up and I haven't found another company that rents these, and getting a proper one would cost me about 950$. As much as I do love him, I don't have the cash to spend.
So here is my main question:
1. How do i get it to uniform thickness, I do have a hand held router which seems to be my best option, because I do not trust my table saw that much as well, and these small boards are flimsy. The only thing I could come up was to make an inset in a plywood, where I would fasten the strips with wedges, "plane" them from one side, and then see what is the max height I can leave them at. If I could get them accurate to 1/32 I would be very pleased, I can glue them and sand them down to uniform thickness after.
Can anyone reccomend a good method or a jig?
Design questions:
I was planning on using the darker oak for the sides and top edge (see 2nd pic the long board) but it seems too light, my options are:
1. use the sapele for the edges instead and make the inlay around the board in teh darker oak and the sides as well, making the corner posts from Sapele to give it some contrast?
2. use the dark oak with white oak posts but stain the darker oak? (I do love wood without a stain to be honest)
3. Some other combination - the reason I would like to use the darker oak is that this stock is almost perfectly square.
(I don't know what the "darker Oak" is actually called, english not being my first language I don't know the proper names, so if you could educate me that would be awesome. )
Additional question:
Should I oil the board before laquering t bring out the grain?
Sorry for the long post, but I am a bit worried about this project and I needed to get out of my cave and articulate my concerns/questions.
Jake