Stock prep – tray bottom

Here’s a quick look at the boards again – this is the starting point.

The oak board had big cracks and was badly cupped, but I managed to get a few decent pieces out of it. I chopped the board using my modified Spear & Jackson 9500R – I have reshaped the handle into something that looks AND feels good. And that saw cuts FAST!

I cleaned up one face and checked for twist using twist sticks:

By sighting down, I am able to tell if the sticks are parallell. Note – twist sticks does NOT need to be dead on 6S, they just need to be identical in height, compared to each other. Mine are just two pieces of pine gash, which I clamped together in the vise and planed the top- and bottom sides.

With one face dead flat and twist free, I used my band saw as a thicknesser. A hand plane removed the saw marks, like so:

After planing the meeting edges into a spring joint, I applied glue to both edges using a piece of gash – no need for fancy silicone brushes!

I put the boards together and rubbed them back and forth until the glue “grabbed”. I then clamped the boards together using sash clamps:

By feeling for level and adjusting the clamps, I got the boards flush on one side. They are not dead on equal in thickness, something I’ll fix when planing the piece smooth. I then placed them in a corner for the glue to dry while I continued on the next task at hand.

On the next page, I’ll continue prepping stock – now for the cherry sides.