Building Childrens Furntiture /Part 2In assembling the pieces, too, the full-scale layout proves its worth. Points of assembly can be marked accurately on the various pieces by laying them in super-imposed position on the drawing and using the drawing as a guide in marking the points on the wood where other pieces are to be joined.Constant references to the full-scale drawing in this manner will result in a well-constructed project with a minimum of mistakes and wood waste. The assembly of a piece of furniture can proceed in many ways, some right, many wrong. The right way to assemble a piece is to break it up into a series of "T's" and "L's", joining together all the T's first, and then all the L's. A "T" assembly consists of two pieces that form a "T" when joined together; two pieces that form an "L" when joined constitute an "L" assembly. By joining your T's and L's first, you give each screwed and glued joint a chance for the glue to harden before straining it with an added assembly. Soon after a piece has been glued and joined, the glue forms a skin and begins to harden. At this crucial stage if the piece is mishandled enough to break this skin and separate the glued pieces slightly, the two separated surfaces of glue will form individual skins and thus destroy the glue's ability to bond For best results, surfaces to be glued should be well squared (use a large square to check this) and glued pieces should be given sufficient time to dry before working with them further. Check the instructions on the glue container for required drying time. When assembling with glue, it is important to apply instant pressure to the two joined pieces as soon as the glued surfaces have been brought together. Screws should be fastened immediately to effect this pressure and, where necessary, clamps should be brought into play. An inexpensive system of clamping down a large area without going to the expense of buying dozens of clamps, is to make a simple wedge clamp. These are made of 2-inch thick hardwood and function very efficiently by means of small wooden wedges forced under them. To use the wedge clamp, slip it over the freshly glued and joined pieces, then force a pair of small wooden wedges under the upper iaw, driving the wedges in from opposite sides until the desired pressure is brought to bear on the glued pieces. Do not force the wedges in too much or the clamp may break. The correct amount of pressure is reached when glue begins to squeeze out of the joint. To protect the surface of the wood from injury, slip a sheet of heavy cardboard between the clamp jaw and the good surface, and drive the wedges only on the underside of the panel. Having glued and joined all T's and L's, the next step is to assemble these joined sections together to complete the basic shape of the piece. It is best to do this without glue at first, assembling the entire unit with screws alone. Then, when it is together in good order and you are satisfied that nothing is out of line, take it apart, clean and sand all the pieces to prepare them for finishing, and reassemble the unit again, this time permanently with glue. Though this method imposes some extra time and effort on your part, it makes the sanding operation easier and better, and reassembly goes fast and accurate with everything fitting back into place like a glove. Furniture, in order to have good lines and smooth working drawers and doors, must be squared up during assembly before letting the glue joined sections dry. In many cases, a large square will serve to check the accuracy of smaller joined sections. On larger cabinets with big rectangular compartments, you can check for squareness by measuring diagonally across the compartment opening from corner to corner. Note this measurement and then measure the opposite crossing diagonal in the same manner. If the cabinet is square, the two measurements will be the same. If the measurements differ, the piece is not square. To make it square, apply pressure on the corner that has the longer measurement until the cabinet has been forced into a square shape and both diagonal measurements are the same. Having squared the cabinet, it is a good idea to tack the back panel on next before making any doors or drawers, or doing any further work. The back panel will serve to hold the cabinet in shape while adding the rest of the features and, if necessary, it can be removed temporarily whenever it interferes with work to be done.
Wood finishing can be tricky and after spending hours on building your project you want to be sure that you get the best outcome possible. In The Complete Guide To Wood Finishing you will learn how to get beautiful, professional results no matter what your project is, even if you have never tried your hand at wood finishing before. You will learn about every step in the wood finishing process from a professional wood finisher with years of experience. Here are just a few of the chapters you will find inside The Complete Guide To Wood Finishing:
Why take a chance on the woodworking project you have spent hours on when you can own The Complete Guide To Wood Finishing and get professional results the very first time for only 5.97 | |||||||
|
| |||||||
|
Clip art used with permission from
www.straw.com/clipart
info@grandmascraftguides.com
|
