Woodworker's Journal 1981-5-6, страница 14
Rockwell Saw $419.00 I ,ist $549.00 ,1 IK VOIR C.RANDFATHKR % DIDN'T C.IVK VOl HIS..._ For over 4(1 years the most popular handsaw made. Rockwell's 14" Delta designed handsaw is made of cast iron, with stamped steel guards and precision balanced aluminum wheels. Cuts up to 13% " from frame to blade and up to (i1," thick. Comes with saw. stand, guards, pullevs. V-belt. and X" blade. Wt. 174 lbs. Motor and Switch Kit $86.00 H2-142 (wt. 27 lhs.» List $98.9(1 The Beginning Woodworker Frame and Panel Construction As far back as 2000 B.C. the Egyptians were using frame and panel construction. The Greeks and Romans also employed this rather sophisticated joinery but unfortunately, most of the woodworking knowledge that had been accumulated over thousands of years of trial and error was lost after the final collapse of the Roman Empire by the 5th century A.D. There followed a long period of confusion and ignorance during which Western civilization slowly blundered its way back to the enlightenment enjoyed by the ancient Egyptians. It took nearly one thousand years before advanced woodworking techniques, including frame and panel construction, were rediscovered. Prior to this rediscovery, woodworkers made large flat sections by using very wide boards or sometimes by cleating several boards together. This resulted in a rather plain and heavy construction. Also, since boards shrink and swell across their width according to seasonal changes in humidity, the use of wide boards resulted in slabs that "moved" or changed in width, swelling wider in wet seasons and shrinking during prolonged dry spells. Fig. 1 shows a sketch of a 15th century English cupboard of pierced Gothic design. The cupboard sides, front stiles and door were made of single wide boards. With this sort of construction it becomes very difficult to achieve a good permanent fit of the door as the stiles and the door itself swell and shrink. During prolonged periods of damp weather, one can imagine the door and stiles each gaining perhaps '/»" in width. This would cause the door to jam tightly between the stiles. On the other hand, during prolonged dry weather, the boards would shrink causing unsightly gaps. Boards that are restrained with nails, screws or other such fastenings will surely split. Narrow boards shrink proportionately less than wide boards so if we redesigned the cupboard and used narrow stiles with a wider door made up of narrow stiles and rails grooved to hold a pierced panel, we will have achieved an attractive and much more stable design (Fig. 2). If the door panel is made of one wide board or several narrow boards joined with glue, there will still be a fair amount of swelling and shrinkage across the width. If we set the panel into grooves in the frame and these grooves are deep enough to contain the panel through the extremes of swelling and shrinkage, we will have effectively solved the seasonal problem of sticking door, warping, splitting and unsightly gaps between members. That, basically, is the logic behind frame and panel construction. If a thin door panel is used, we will also reduce the weight and use less wood in the process although, admittedly, we've also increased the amount of labor required to build the cupboard. This extra labor is a worthwhile trade-off if our goal is to build a piece that not only looks good today but will also look good 50 or even 100 years from now. Once the decision has been made to use frame and panel construction for the door (we could also use it for the chest sides), we can turn our attention to the problem of how to join and groove the horizontal rails and vertical stiles to form a good sturdy frame to hold the panel. There are many methods of joinery to choose from but the beginning CHARCK IT ON MASTKRCARI) OR VISA CALL US COLLECT (505) 821-0500 Or send your order to: Woodworker's Supply 5604A Alameda NK Albuquerque. NM 871 13 Send $1.00 for our New Kail Catalogue |
