masonsailor2 Finally got all the wood in the shop to start the first big project for the house. It is a TV cabinet, mantle piece and display cabinet. It is primarily mahogany with alder, ebony and zebra wood inlay/accent. The biggest challenge is that they no longer supply Honduran mahogany 1/4" ply for the backs of the display area. I decided to make the backing first and started milling everything today. They will be 91" X 12". First I sliced up poplar into 2 1/2" strips for the backing which involved a lot of wafering. I sliced it into strips and then mixed them up before wafering and gluing to increase the stability of the backing. Now I am laminating the mahogany between two pieces of poplar at 4 1/4" wide and will slice it down the middle with the band saw which will allow me to bookmatch the mahogany, wafer three of them together and then use the planer to remove most of the poplar backing and smooth the mahogany surface ending up with a 12" wide by 91" piece of mahogany with backing that will be about 3/8" thick. I have done this in the past to make backing out of exotic woods but never for mahogany. Up until now 1/4" ply was available. Paul
Hobbyman2 Do you use a lot of mahogany? Years ago we used a lot of Brazilian mahogany , it was fuzzy wood,,, had a lot of what we called shake in it,, ,,,,,, where the tree had bent one way and then the other in the wind and the grain would snap and heal ,it was very strong ,,,held up in foundry patterns when other wood would fail, it was sort of labor intensive to sand smooth. It was also some of the nicest looking wood when finished . Honduran mahogany may be different. Hobbymnan2
benush26 Paul, Before you give up on the 1/4" ply, call Peterman's (if you haven't already). What they have in stock or can order might surprise you. I'm certain they still have a shop in Las Vegas, because I just checked. Anyway, just a thought. Be well, Ben
masonsailor2 Thanks Ben. I already have. They have nothing. Can't even order it. I have a plywood distributor in LA who said it is unavailable but he could have it specially laid up at twice the cost of the actual wood. This is not unusual for exotic woods. Since they are no longer able to import Honduran mahogany it has now become a "rare wood". The actual wood I am using on this house is called "genuine mahogany " which is the same species but grown on different islands etc. The mahogany I am buying is from Pederman. This mahogany is not nearly as stable as the actual Honduran but we can make it work. The extreme widths ( 16" wide or better ) is not available at least through them. It means a lot more laminating and planing/surface sanding to make it work. Paul
masonsailor2 Not a long day in the shop. I managed to get the backing blanks cut to size and resawn. I finally got to use the PowerPro and a Woodslicer blade both for the first time. Together they cut through 4 1/2" mahogany like butter. Those blades are really amazing. Also I took Beav's advice and used a second SS for support while resawing. Great idea ! Paul
Hobbyman2 :) Any one who can use that many band saws at the same time has my full attention!! :D Hobbyman2
JPG Hobbyman2 wrote:) Any one who can use that many band saws at the same time has my full attention!! :D Hobbyman2 Only one was 'running'. :)
masonsailor2 The last two days in the shop have been slow due to supervising a crew that is rebuilding a deck on the back of the house. I did get the mantle laminated and started on the Zebra wood inlay. I am cutting at a 30 degree bias and then there will be a small triangle of ebony at the center where the two sides of zebra wood will meet. Paul
ERLover Hobbyman2 wrote:) Any one who can use that many band saws at the same time has my full attention!! :D Hobbyman2 2 SS, 2 Band saws, 2 hands, and 2 eyes, multi tasking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rpd JPG wroteHobbyman2 wrote:) Any one who can use that many band saws at the same time has my full attention!! :D Hobbyman2 Only one was 'running'. :) True, but the other one deserves an award for best bandsaw in a supporting role. ;)
masonsailor2 Managed to get some shop time yesterday and made progress on the mantle inlay. Now I have to sand it down flush and laminate it to the actual mantle. The ebony triangle was a definite challenge but the SS sled worked very well in the end. Paul
masonsailor2 And just when you think it's all going so well ..... blowout and time to start over ! Paul
JPG I'm guessing the zebra wood was loose(glue starved) and lifted as it was fed into the disk sander*. * Or saw blade.
masonsailor2 No what happened was a spot in the zebra wood where the band saw varied slightly and caused a thin spot which broke through. The big mess you see is where I tried to chisel it out to try and save it but the edges were too well glued and it tore up the mahogany edges. The one saving grace is that I need three of them total and the other two are shorter than this one so I can use what's left for one of the other two I think. I wasn't planning on doing the ebony on the other two but sometimes design is a product of fate also ! For the next two I will surface one side of the zebra wood smooth before I slice it off to eliminate the problem. I will also probably make the inlay a little deeper to give me more wiggle room. Paul
masonsailor2 I have finished gluing up all the components and today the last task which was planing down the backing. Now it is just cut to size and assemble. The planing was my first time using the planer with the PowerPro headstock. What a remarkable difference. I planed both pieces down from 1 1/8" to about 7/16" so it was a lot of passes on 12" wide pieces that are 94" long. I was able to make 1/32" passes and it never whimpered. It ran about 2 1/2 hours continuously with no issues. It definitely got warm but not overheated. The pieces came out perfect with the book matching very well aligned. I planed down through the wafers in the upper layers of poplar. There is still an embedded row of wafers along the joints which are lying half on half off the layers of mahogany and poplar to give strength to the backing. I also finished the vertical pieces of the unit which have have a double bead on the edge which was not possible to do on the router table so I routered them by hand which involved two routers and three passes. Paul
masonsailor2 Had a few productive days in the shop and made progress on the mantle / entertainment center. The carcass is on the wall and now to add the final pieces which involves more zebra wood inlay and building the TV mechanism, which is a cradle suspended on four FE drawer slides which will allow the TV and its frame to be pulled out for access to cables and wires. Paul
