I tried to talk myself into the crack, but it just didn't work for me.
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I couldn't live with the crack. |
I sawed a kerf along the big ones, and inserted some maple.
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fixing some cracks. |
When I cut the maple off, and cleaned it up with a plane, I noticed one side of the maple didn't seat fully. This little gap under the maple strip resulted in a hole that wouldn't allow the maple strip to be planed even no matter how much I planed. I fixed this bit by flooding with epoxy, and then planing it flat.
There was one other problem, too. When I tried to re-drill the holes, I wound up with massive tear out theat resulted in a big hole on the face of the board.
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Unacceptable tear out. |
This one-hour project has just landed itself in the multiple week category. I had plenty of time to get this gift ready, but today is probably my last day in the shop before I need to give it away.
Time for the big guns - ebony inlay.
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Waiting for the glue to dry. |
There was also a tiny crack in the spot where the tear out was. I found a nice little ebony scrap from a previous project, and decided it would be perfect here. I wanted originally to keep all of the woods domestic in this project, but what are you going to do. I think it looks nice.
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Interesting feature. |
And as a bonus, I made a new plug. Remember, the last one I made blew off the balcony and was lost. I decided to make this one from cherry. I planed a stick a little smaller than the diameter I needed, and made it octagonal. The threads on the octagonal part don't look as nice as they did on the dowel, but it turns smoothly and the octagonal plug is easier to grip.
Enjoy the glamour shots:
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Ebony is cool. |
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This is a neat shaving. |
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I was super careful not to let the plug blow away in the wind this time. |
This turned out great! It is unique, as all hand made items should be. Way to persevere!
ReplyDeleteGreg
Thanks, Greg! I should have planned on spending some time on this project from the beginning. I think the next one I do will get some Hillbilly Inlay!
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