Anderson Ranch, Intro to Furniture Design, day 2, afternoon, (post 8 of ??).
You get a photo of my lunch because it was one of the yummiest at the ranch (they had fajita-spice-marinated grilled eggplant for the vegetarians, interesting!), and because I really like this pumpkin hot sauce — enough that I went to their website and ordered some for my house. It’s fruity and tasty, not just hot. But also hot. But not searingly hot.
When last we checked in, I had gotten my giant piece of poplar. Did I mention that I missed the bit where they suggested something like 18″ x 18″ x 18″? And so I designed a 24″ x 40″ chess table? I had to buy $100 more of wood to build something that large, and people kept asking how I planned to get it home, but I had gotten a little fixated on the idea, and it seemed worth it.
The first step was measuring (so much measuring) and marking (so much marking) what I’d need for the tabletop. I cut that piece off, cut it into six boards (using the chop saw). Easy-peasy.
Next step was taking those very rough boards and making them both smooth and perfectly perpendicular. That’s a surprisingly complicated process, involving three separate machines. First, you send a board through the jointer, making the bottom of it flat.
Then you stand it on its edge and send it through again, carefully pressing against the vertical metal edge, so that you get a perfectly perpendicular edge (squaring up the edge). Two sides done.
Then you take it to a second machine, a planer (well, you do all six boards on the jointer first, but when they’re done), and put it through that, rough side down, and it makes the rough side flat. (That’s easy.) A planer will also reduce the thickness of a board, so if you do it over and over, eventually you’ll have no board left. Don’t do that.
(NOTE: Apparently, there are combined jointer-planers, but I think those are more limited on size of boards you can put through. Maybe a good option for a smaller home shop?)
Then you take it to a THIRD machine, to get the last perpendicular edge. (I can’t remember what this is called, and I’m a little confused, because when I look online, I only see a jointer and planer mentioned. Carollina, help?)
And now you have boards that are smooth on the flat sides and long edges, ready to glue together into a tabletop.
The only really tricky thing (once I got over feeling a little anxious about the GIANT machines with their GIANT blades) was that I still have that tendon injury in my wrists. It’s mostly better, but not all better.
And it turned out that the jointer is the one machine that I basically can’t use properly, even wearing my braces (which were key to being able to do this at all, glad I remembered to pack them!), because to run the second edge, you have to hold it in such a way that you’re applying firm pressure with your thumbs, which is the one thing I basically cannot do.
By the third board I was running through, those injured tendons had progressed from mild discomfort to (sorry to be dramatic, but it really hurt) screaming pain. I was a little freaked out, to be honest, and not sure what to do next, but our lovely and wildly competent intern Gabrielle stepped in and finished the last three boards for me — and also scolded me for pushing it.
NO INJURIES IN THE WOODSHOP. Yes, ma’am.
