Indoor Weather Station

[Rob Young]

I had a wild idea to use some of the left-over curly maple from a chessboard build to make a mount for some indoor weather station instruments I got from Lee Valley.  They sell a thermometer, barometer and RH gauges.  They require a large mounting hole, 2-1/4" I think.  And you have the choice of "silver" or "gold" color for the bezel.  I bought the silver bezel and so the maple will look good.  

In thinking about how to make it, I decided on two other things.  First, it won't be a square or a rectangle.  And second, it will be miter framed in a contrasting wood.  I seem to have a pile of odd-length 5/4 cherry from other projects, so cherry it is.

Here's the drawing I came up with:

The drawing is 1:1.  The cut list is only "exact" for the length and wide end of the center panel (curly maple).  The narrowing is a 1:4 ratio.  The overall height and spacing of the gauges was done using a "unit" based on the diameter of the gauge.  Then by dividing up the space into fractions above and below which are stepped off using the compass, I end up with centered gauges and no real measuring.  But to get rough lengths for the frame pieces, I did take a measurement off the drawing to make sure I cut the stock plenty long.  Also made 6 pieces instead of four, just in case I screwed up a miter.

Making the panel isn't anything special except for three things.  First I wanted the seam centered (it isn't a book-match, it is a slip-match which means the grain is more or less going the same way on both pieces).  Second, I wanted the taper to be 1:4 no mater what length I ended up with.  So once I had it squared across the top and down the long sides, I just step off and get the slopes.  Rough cut and plane to the line.  This means however that it is likely the angles at the top are not identical.  Same at the bottom.  More on that later.  And third, I wanted a small bevel on the face of the panel.  Wimped out and did that with the table saw.  But all clean up work was done with a #4 hand plane.  Nice and clean, no tearout.  Sharp blade and close set cap-iron does the trick in curly wood.  Including cleaning up bevels with, against and across the grain.

The panel is pre-finished using blonde shellac.  The frame will be pre-finished using garnet shellac for more contrast.  Here's the panel:



The cherry for the frame pieces was milled to thickness and width.  Again, the surface was prepped after the machines (being lazy) with a #4.  Continuing with the lazy theme, I used my router table to make the groove.  Since the cherry pieces are rather narrow at roughly an inch wide, making an accurate groove with a plow plane would have required I make a sticking board to hold them on the bench.  The siren song of the router table called more loudly (literally).  However the little bevel was done quickly with the calibrated finger-gauge and a block plane.  


Now for the interesting part.  Since each of the four corners is a different angle, it means that each miter is different.  The "easy" method I came up with was to find the bisecting angle, set my 358 miter box to that angle, rough cut and then use my shooting board to tune it up.  This all relies on measuring NOTHING, no protractors, no calculating!  That will just screw you up.  Better to use 8th grade geometry and a bevel gauge.

First, trace all four corners (label them) to get the outside angle:

Then use a compass to bisect the angle.  Everybody knows how to do that, right?  

Next I clamped on some temporary fences so that I could set a bevel gauge.  Thanks to GregoryOfSherwoodForest I have a nice Stanley #18 that works very well for this kind of work because the lock doesn't get in the way!  And it locks TIGHT.



Now transfer that angle to the miter box.  This means working off the detents on the 358.  The lock isn't very firm on my box so it also requires an extra clamp (not shown) and a small block of wood under the arm.  The clamp gently squeezes down on the arm, the block and then the benchtop to keep things from drifting.  Gentle sawing motion is also key.  I did few test cuts this way and it worked just fine.



Next, I set an adjustable fence on my shooting board using the same bevel gauge setting.  This is fussy, but because I have extra length in my pieces, I can take a few test swipes with the plane to confirm the angle is right.


I slowly work my way around the center board, testing each miter and picking up the over-all length by marking where the center board ends in the groove.  Tedious work but it pays off.  Here, I've got three sides done (the easy part).


Then I miter a 3rd corner, fit it and then pick up the length for the fourth side, happens to be the shortest side.  This one I saw plenty long and just sneak up with the shooting board.  I can take a pretty aggressive shaving for a while and then when I'm getting close, back off on the cut so I don't blow out the sharp corner.  

A bit gut wrenching at this point but...

Victory is mine!




Dry fit with the gauges in place:


Doing the miter frame took the longest.  I think it was about 3 hours start to finish.  Test cuts to determine if my method would work followed by slogging through all the steps and fuss 8 times to make it fit.  Next step is to do a little final cleanup of the cherry to remove marks and dings, the bench rash.  Then I can pre-finish (tape off the miters) with shellac before gluing up.  Once it is glued I'll be adding some splines for a little extra strength.  No worries on damaging the finish since the shellac can be sanded and touched up, never showing that anything was done to it.

[Adnick]

Very nicely presented and a fine project, really like the end result...

Andy-- mos maiorum

[bennybmn]

Kudos on those miters. I spend a couple hours just trying to get a rectangular frame tight the other day... It's only about 3/8" smaller than when I started

[Rob Young]

Kudos on those miters. I spend a couple hours just trying to get a rectangular frame tight the other day... It's only about 3/8" smaller than when I started

If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and build a shooting board.  Then add to it the necessary bits to handle miter work.

Here's my small board with its "inverted donkey's ear" attached.  Lets me do long miters.  For thin stock, I just plane them in.  For stock thicker than 1/4" I cut them first and then shoot them true.  The ramp is somewhat adjustable with some small screws underneath and along the portion that rests against the fence and a bolted on fence to the ramp.  However I've found it is just as easy to use blue tape as shims.  This requires a backer board when planing as I didn't get the fence quite right.




And shown above is the same small shooting board with its very fancy adjustable fence.  Otherwise known as a board screwed down to another board.  About time to make a new adjustable fence though as this method tends to chew up the end as you swing it through different angles, meaning you loose the backing support.

Finally, always measure picture frames from the rabbet. 
 Took me a few screw-ups to realize that's the right way to get the size right.

[cputnam]

Mostly what Andy said, Great Presentation of a nice little project. Which of your rooms will it grace?

[Rob Young]

Mostly what Andy said, Great Presentation of a nice little project.  Which of your rooms will it grace?

The one most likely to have a storm. Bathroom on burrito Wednesday?

Kitchen / dining area most likely though.

[Rob Young]

Cherry frame pieces pre-finished with garnet shellac.  And the frame glued up. They will get touched up after I add some splines to the miters.



And now we wait...

[C. in Indy]

This is great work!   Very interesting and effective techniques as well.

When I saw the title, I was first associating it with my "shop humidity gage", which is actually my Colen Clenton marking gage:  He points out in the instructions that the brass insets will be just proud of the wood when the air is dry, and vice versa.   Sort of a brass Braille gage....

[bennybmn]

If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and build a shooting board.  Then add to it the necessary bits to handle miter work.

******************
Finally, always measure picture frames from the rabbet. 
 Took me a few screw-ups to realize that's the right way to get the size right.

Don't judge the mess...

I have a miter trimmer. But dialing it in is tricky, as the stops for the 45s are finicky.... I really should have done a full size test our of pine or something. 

And I at least had the forethought to sketch it out based on the rabbet size! It's the one part I got right

[Jim Waldron]

A well tuned miter trimmer may be as good as a good miter box with a sharp blade, but it can't hold a candle to a shooting board for accuracy, precision and repeatability (as for all four corners). With a good shooting board, you don't need either one and can do as well with a hand cut miter with a good back saw.

In essence, back saws, miter boxes and miter trimmers create rough input to a shooting board.