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Weather Station Finishing Touches
A few finishing touches and the weather station should be complete. First is to cut the holes for the instruments. Using a compass I drew three circles on the panels and then using my hand drill put a hole in each one to allow me to pass the blade from my saw. I then cut each circle out. I left the holes rough since they will be covered by the instruments.
The top and bottom have curved edges, These are done with a smoothing plane and are very quick. A little sandpaper to smooth the edges and they are complete. A few hours after glue up and clamping and the project is all but done. A nice little project with many lessons. This like my last two projects will have to wait for warmer weather so that i can put a finish on them. Now what’s next on the list????
Weather Station Decisions
Cutting the grooves for the front panel in each side and in the top and bottom rails required a little engineering. Several months ago I added a guide to my Veritas plow plane. It really helped me guide the plane and improved performance. The only downside is that it is rather large. When I have a narrow board to groove, I am unable to use my bench dogs for support or my Moxon vise since the guide will not clear the vise. My solution which I have shown once before is to insert a bar clamp in a vise and use it to clamp the work. This provides the clearance I need.
Once the grooves are cut I begin making tenons on the rails that will slide into the grooves. I use a mortise gage to mark the end pieces and then use my dovetail saw to cut them out. The nice thing about having a two pin gage is that it is very easy to lay out mortises on several pieces once you have it set up. I cleaned up with a chisel and rails are complete.
The front panel for the piece is designed as a raised panel. This is all done with a hand plane, in this instance I used a Stanley number 3. Marking off the edges of the panel 3/8″ and the panel at 1″. I placed the panel in my vise and working the ends first began shaving off the material. The picture is very poor so let me describe the process. I angle the plane and begin shaving material from the edge of the board working back and forth until I have cut the reached the lines, I then repeat on the other edge and the sides. This order is important since It allows you to plane off any spelching when you plane the end grain.