So, Christine insists we will have heat in the shop over the Winter, so I have to get back to the tasks at hand. We still haven't found a source for the inwale wood but Christine is speaking with a couple of private mills so that could work out eventually.
In the past couple of weeks I've been puttering away and bending the new stems. Usually we only need to replace maybe the top 4 inches but on this we are replacing about half and there is a wicked curve right where it needs to be cut. These stems are white cedar and quite small, 1/2" on the backside, 1/4" on the leading edge. The edge is also concave, but I will do that later.
First attempt using solid wood both pieces broke. I think our cedar might be too dry. So, I cut new stock to do a lamination, it won't be seen and it will be stronger. The laminates bent beautifully even without steaming and after a couple days on the forms I pulled them off, added glue and put them back for a day. Came out exactly as they need to be.
Today's task was cutting in the rough shape. I will clean them up with the belt sander later, but for now, this will work. I mark the two edges for final shape, set up the band saw on an angle with a guide, and slowly take the taper off to give me the rough shape. Sounds easy enough. Problem with the less expensive band saws is, if you put too much pressure on the blade they break, which can be annoying.
It worked out well and I plan to use a bird's mouth joint so I roughed that as well and it looks like it will all work out. It will be tedious to get it to fit just right and straight, so I will tackle that when I have more patience than today.
Funny thing about all this is, I really don't know what I'm doing, I just make it up as I go along. Perhaps time will help solve that.
