Day 5 - Catherine
This morning I removed my two panels from the clamps and found that a ton of glue had dried and stuck onto the clamps in the process. I had to use a chisel and special solvent that smelled severely of oranges to scrape of the glue. Once that was done, I used the cross-cut sled and table saw to trim the sides of the boards to create a straight edge and size that would fit through the planer which has a max-width of 12.5”. I then was able to get the more fun and most satisfying part: planing the boards.
Because the planer was now working against the grain, it was shaving off long straw-like strips instead of the usual sawdust and wood chips. This jammed up the vacuum so much that I had to disconnect it and then Sutton had to stand on the other side of the planer and hold the vacuum to gather all of the strips. As the panels were planed the vacuum would catch all of the strips at the tip but they wouldn’t actually go through so then we had to manually take it off the vacuum end and put it into the trash. It was quite the process but it definitely was as satisfying as anticipated.
In the afternoon, we watched an hour-long video about wood movement. I learned that wood contracts and expands radially which means that wood movement, for the most part, happens widthwise only, the length of the wood does not change. The way that the tree rings are cut around the boards also affects the movement of the wood. For example, if the rings go with the board then the board will cup in the opposite direction because the rings will want to straighten out. Quartersawn cuts are where all of the rings cut across the board which makes quarter-sawn wood very stable with minimal wood movement. I also thought it was really interesting how furniture makers have to take into account the time of year for making furniture because the wood expands with water and contracts due to the lack of water and temperature affects the dryness. Often when people make chairs in the winter, they will put the wood into the kiln to evaporate the water inside the wood causing the wood to shrink to fit the chair socket, and then as the wood absorbs moisture from the temperature change it expands to create a tight fit.
Next week, I will repeat the same cutting, planing, and gluing process across my board to create the illusion pattern. I am a little nervous because some of the pieces came apart when I was trimming the edges (Mr. Grisbee said this was due to the glue being stronger than the wood) and I have to do the same 4mm cuts as before so fingers crossed that the wood holds up.
Because the planer was now working against the grain, it was shaving off long straw-like strips instead of the usual sawdust and wood chips. This jammed up the vacuum so much that I had to disconnect it and then Sutton had to stand on the other side of the planer and hold the vacuum to gather all of the strips. As the panels were planed the vacuum would catch all of the strips at the tip but they wouldn’t actually go through so then we had to manually take it off the vacuum end and put it into the trash. It was quite the process but it definitely was as satisfying as anticipated.
In the afternoon, we watched an hour-long video about wood movement. I learned that wood contracts and expands radially which means that wood movement, for the most part, happens widthwise only, the length of the wood does not change. The way that the tree rings are cut around the boards also affects the movement of the wood. For example, if the rings go with the board then the board will cup in the opposite direction because the rings will want to straighten out. Quartersawn cuts are where all of the rings cut across the board which makes quarter-sawn wood very stable with minimal wood movement. I also thought it was really interesting how furniture makers have to take into account the time of year for making furniture because the wood expands with water and contracts due to the lack of water and temperature affects the dryness. Often when people make chairs in the winter, they will put the wood into the kiln to evaporate the water inside the wood causing the wood to shrink to fit the chair socket, and then as the wood absorbs moisture from the temperature change it expands to create a tight fit.
Next week, I will repeat the same cutting, planing, and gluing process across my board to create the illusion pattern. I am a little nervous because some of the pieces came apart when I was trimming the edges (Mr. Grisbee said this was due to the glue being stronger than the wood) and I have to do the same 4mm cuts as before so fingers crossed that the wood holds up.
Before planing
After planing
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