The wood has been planed, and now it's ready to be cut to size for slats. The table saw has been set up to cut 1-1/2"-wide pieces; each board should yield three with a bit of waste wood left over. Then, after the slats have been cut to the correct length and width, each individual piece is split on the band saw to make two thinner slats (figure A).
The edges of the slats are square, too sharp for a crib. So next they must be rounded off on the router table with a round-nose bit (figure B). There are about 35 of them, so this is a relatively time-consuming job. The pieces will be sanded, and then -- well, Johnson's still working on the crib, so our visit to his shop has to come to an end. But we predict it won't be long before a certain baby boy has a brand-new crib made by his grandpa with a whole lot of love!
Gene Johnson has a workshop that's well stocked with fine power tools, but woodworking expert Todd Waite also uses the predecessors to such state-of-the-art gadgets. A hand plane (figure C), for instance, takes a lot of elbow grease but produces an edge that's as smooth as if it had been sanded.
How do you decide what type of wood to use? Waite says it depends on the type of object you're creating: for example, if you're making a mission-style piece, the traditional wood is quarter-sawn oak (figure D). Tiger maple (figure E) and bird's-eye maple have distinctive grain patterns that give them their respective names. And cherry (figure F), a traditional American wood thanks to the large number of cherry trees that grown in this country, is easy to work with. That and the fact that it finishes beautifully make it a popular wood for a variety of projects. Whatever the wood you decide to use, though, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you've created your own little piece of history -- and that's a pretty good legacy to leave in anyone's book!
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Author: Katie Hamilton & Gene Hamilton
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ISBN: 0811724212
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Author: Kevin McGuire
To order this title from Amazon.com, click here.
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Rolling Meadows, IL 60008
Phone: 837-734-1777
Fax: 515-996-9154
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