Candle Slide Mortise?

[awleonard]

I decided to tackle the candle slides while I was waiting on the glue to dry (glued the sides the the ends).  I ended up making the slides out of curly ample and running the grain the same direction as the top.  It is very humid here, so I assume the fit will get worse and not swell them shut!  I routed the mortise into a large piece of 3/4" stock, then ripped the piece off.  I then double taped it back to the original piece upside down to run it across the router table.   I found I was getting lots of tear out and lots of burning running it through the correct way, so I ran them through backwards and got a better cut.  I then cut them to length, cleaned up the profiles and shaped the end grain profile by hand.  I was pretty happy with the results.  Lotsof work in those tiny little pieces!

Thanks for the help.  On to the side skirts..and someday the top and the molding.

Tony

[ttalma]

The table looks great! the grain looks good without any finish. I can't wait to see it all done.

A word of caution about running wood backwards on a router table. Be sure you have a good hold on the wood using some sort of hold down. And be sure to have some sort of guard on the bit.

The router will want to pull the wood and can suprise you when you start to feed it.

3 reconstructive surgeries later, I have full use of my finger, about 90% of the feeling. But the finger nail is messed up for good doing exactly what you were doing. But I did get a really cool x-ray.

[awleonard]

Wow, thanks for the warning and the compliments.  I've never done much routing like that.  I just happened to read an article about it the other day.  I believe it was by Patrick Warner.   He mentioned all of the safety issues, so I was very cautious.  I made a push block with sandpaper so I had a good grip and I locked my fingers over the fence.  I took very small bites too.  Seems like starting was the worst part.  One thing I always think about (thanks to a good instructor) is where are your hands going to land when the tool takes the wood out of your hands?  That applies to any tool.  One thing I did learn this go around was that if you have cleaned your wood with paint thinner to remove tape residue, let it dry completely before you apply more tape!  By the time the whole operation was over, the adhesive was getting pretty soft.  I had let it dry, but obviously, not good enough. 

I was checking the angle between the side and the knee.  Not all of them are perfectly square.  That's why I have a small gap on one of the short skirt/knee joints.  I'll spend more time fitting the long skirts in. 


Tony