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Project Ikea
I got the idea to make projects out of cutting boards a while back because
I like the look of bamboo, and I made a kitchen knife saya out of bamboo
(think of it as a scarab for transporting really big kitchen knives). Its
hard to source the material and a lot of cutting boards are cheaply made,
not flat, and hollow.
Ikea however has good flat boards, is solid through out, and is reasonable.
Each cutting board is about 17" x 11" x 5/8".
The grain is vertical and not flat so more glue, and I'm guessing more
stable since the faces of the bamboo are joined rather than the thinner
edges. My plan is to re-do my home office with bamboo accessories (I
already have a desk lamp and phone cradle made up (which once this project
is done, I'll take a family photo)
I won't review any process already reviewed/posted/explained by countless
others.... but I did want to share my build-up in case my design gave ideas
to others. This is my very first speaker build, and I'm a complete novice
woodworker.... I've only built maybe a dozen random projects for my house.
Design aspects:
Tools that help
Lessons Learned:
Machine Finishing details
Finishing Bamboo
I got the idea to make projects out of cutting boards a while back because
I like the look of bamboo, and I made a kitchen knife saya out of bamboo
(think of it as a scarab for transporting really big kitchen knives). Its
hard to source the material and a lot of cutting boards are cheaply made,
not flat, and hollow.
Ikea however has good flat boards, is solid through out, and is reasonable.
Each cutting board is about 17" x 11" x 5/8".
The grain is vertical and not flat so more glue, and I'm guessing more
stable since the faces of the bamboo are joined rather than the thinner
edges. My plan is to re-do my home office with bamboo accessories (I
already have a desk lamp and phone cradle made up (which once this project
is done, I'll take a family photo)
I won't review any process already reviewed/posted/explained by countless
others.... but I did want to share my build-up in case my design gave ideas
to others. This is my very first speaker build, and I'm a complete novice
woodworker.... I've only built maybe a dozen random projects for my house.
Design aspects:
- Solid wood - hoping all the glue holding the bamboo makes the wood more dimensionally stable.
- Wedge shaped cabinet. (All of my other desk appointments attempt to stay away from 90deg angles, so this is in keeping with that theme)
Tools that help
- #5 hand plane. I have a cheaper old stanley, not a high-zoot $300 hand plane. But it allows removal of shavings probably 1/125" - 1/64" thick to help when edges were not perfectly square
- DIY Cross-cut sled (This allow repeatable 90-deg cuts with real precision.) I included a picture of a cut-off piece of board that measured ~1/32" thick. That would have been literally impossible using a fence on my contractor-grade table saw and fence, as there is enough friction between the fence/bade/table that ALWAYS seem to bind up the board so that the edge tends to skew ever-so slightly and create a 1/64 or maybe
a .5-degree skew on my boards. I hate that! - Freud saw blades. They are popular for a reason and leave edges glue ready with zero extra prep. Seriously, just spend the $65 for the blade and then be prepared to replace all the rest of your blades with Freud in short-order.
Lessons Learned:
- I unfortunately cut the back panel to the final dimension about 1/8" short since I did not account for the fact that the front of the of the panel is wider than the back. So if you copy this design, double check your cut-list.
- Tear-out on bamboo when routing with a straight bit on the end grain is viscous. So I routed the edge grain first, then the end grain, so that all the tear-out would be hidden.
- I didn't account for the volume I ended up taking up with some battens.... so the internal volume is going to be shy of the desired 280 cubic inches. Next time I need to account for this. (Without the battens, my internal volume was measured at 283 cubic inches)
- I purposely oriented the grain horizontally (although vertical would probably look slightly better) so that the glued rabbits had as much edge grain as possible for the strongest joint. Vertical orientation would have meant that the top/bottom/front/back joints would be 100% edge to end grain glue joints, which are not the strongest way to go.
- I am doing a straight but+ joint on the sides of the cabinet to the front and back panels. The rabbit required for those would have required two 6-degree angles to be cut and I'm not confident at all in making those cuts. The battens will help ensure a better seal and a strong joint.
- Since I don't own a spiral bit, I made extra spacers for my router table to cut the rabbits in 1/16" increments. Taking the full 5/16 rabbit in one pass resulted in a choppy and dangerous cut as the bit was being asked to take way too much material off in a single pass. If I had setup bars for my
router table I could have just raised the router bit gradually to accomplish the same task, but that was one more expense I didn't want to add to this project. - I was going to use my dado blade on my table saw for the rabbits, but found setup super difficult to dial in (its way easier on a router table). And since I was building the sides of the boxes AFTER I glued up the top/bottom/front/back boards, I would have had to tear down my dado setup to cut the boards, then carefully reposition everything exactly how they were to keep the rabbit cuts dead even. Having a separate router table meant the saw was only used to cut, and my rabbit setup remained unchanged throughout the project.
Machine Finishing details
- I ended up using the table saw and cutting small bevels on the front and the back edges to ensure the surfaces were flat. This didn't go exactly as planned and I ended up rushing and my eye-ball measurements made one of the cutoffs a bit too deep. In the end, you would need a ruler and a detailed inspection of both boxes to notice.... but when you spent a month or two planning and many weeks building.... to fat-finger one of the final cuts was lazy and silly. I chalk it up to being excited to finish. I have been guilty of this error in the past.... too much of a rush to be done and see the final product.
- All edges were eased with a 45deg chamfer bit. All but the front baffle have maybe a 1/16 -3/32" chamfer. Very subtle. Just enough to show its not a round-over, and bring out the details of the bevels I put into the wood.
- The front baffle has probably a full 1/4" chamfer to give it some dimension.
Finishing Bamboo
- To ease the bevels I used a large random orbital Porter Cable Sander with a 220-grit disc. I tried a sanding block but quickly realized I was imparting low spots and the random orbital would keep the edges more even.
- I started with 220 grit paper as there were only a few burn marks and freud blades leave a nicer finish. I went from 320-600-1000. At 1000 grit the finished product was shiny and smooth. After 1000 Grit I sealed the wood simply with furniture bee's wax polish to give a satin finish, impart some color and bring out the grain. I have used this in the past and for things that don't require durability, this finish is easy to maintain and lasts a long time. I might reapply once every 6 months.... maybe.
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