Same old sawn and dance
Saturday was more sawing of all kinds, though mostly shell. I attempted to make myself a sanding block, but my craptastic wannabe saw wasn’t up to the task. However, it will soon be replaced by the real deal, and I can make all the sanding blocks I want. Of course, that will probably equal exactly one, but it’s the principle of the thing!
After spending way too much time on my knees on the cement looking for dropped pieces the previous week, I decided to get smart and do something proactive to avoid losing them in the first place. When I went to Ace to pick up acetone Saturday morning, I picked up a shop apron, too, since it caught my eye and I’ve been using my one kitchen apron out there. Turns out that apron is nice and long, so I rigged up this fancy SSPRS (that would be Small Shell Piece Retention System. I’m thinking of patenting it.)
This project I decided to have a zero-tolerance policy for crappy sawing. If it was bad and couldn’t be filed into submission, or I just broke it while sawing, I made a new one. I ended up having to do several pieces over because of this policy, but I figured it would serve me well in the long run. Here are 4 that had to be redone for various reasons.
I realized that I caused myself a wee bit of trouble, and a good amount of extra sanding, by putting some of the pieces on the green abalone when their size and/or curvature precluded putting them on the thin paua blanks. The green abalone is noticeably thicker than both the paua and the abalam, which are .040”. I think the green is .050”. Ah well. I also noticed that I prefer cutting the green. As beautiful as the paua is, it’s riddled with wormholes and tends to brittleness. This causes a lot of sawing hang-ups. The green abalone has a creamier consistency. MOP is the most homogenous of the bunch. I’m starting to learn my material, it seems. Yay!
My zero-tolerance policy lasted through all but one piece, #53/55 in the bottom right of the leaves. Because of the thin part in the middle of the 2 chunks, it broke twice. And I dutifully resawed it twice, because it’s the principle of the thing. But when the third one broke, too, I decided to fudge the 2 pieces the best I could. We’ll see later if it’s a disaster.
I glued all the pieces together into one plate, as I learned from watching my video, working from the top down, and from the inside out. I found some pieces fit perfectly and others needed filing. A couple I recut entirely because the gap was so bad. But I found that doing it in this sequence allowed me to adjust each piece as I placed it, making for a better whole. Even if it was slightly off the original drawing, it was cohesive unto itself. I think it looks pretty good, although it is by no means perfect. However, I think it shows real growth, and that’s all that matters right now.
Once the glue dried, I stuck it onto the alder piece with some Duco where it waits for scribing. Between the scribing and routing to be done, I’m hoping my new saw will be here in time to make my sanding block and use it on this project.
