As mentioned a while ago, I have been waiting for some time for my timber yard to obtain the quarter inch thick white melamine faced MDF sheets needed for the back panel and shelves of my new display unit. I am pleased to report these sheets have now been delivered cut to my specified sizes.
My workshop is just too small to be able to easily handle 8 by 4 sheets so I get the timber yard to break the sheets down to manageable sizes which I can then cut to final dimensions. Also seen in the photo are the two 16 foot and one 6 foot long planks which will provide the actual frame of the display unit. In the past I have always used factory made sheets of 8 by 2 foot pine and cut the various parts from them. However as previously mentioned these panels are next to impossible to obtain at the present time so I opted to buy regular planks which I can cut/join together to make the components. It is not a good idea to use very broad planks of solid timber to make anything as they are prone to warping and twisting. The factory made panels I usually use are made of strips of wood only two inches wide. I have found that when I make panels the best size of plank to use is about 4 to 5 inches.
The machine I use to make panels is the biscuit joiner. This cuts slots in the edge of timber planks into which are glued biscuits of beech as seen in the plastic box above.
Shown here is a slot full of glue into which the biscuit is inserted. The edge of the plank is then glued together with the exposed part of the biscuit and the next plank laid on top.
Once all the planks are attached together the whole thing is clamped up and left to dry overnight.
The reason for the central clamp being located on the other side is to stop the boards bowing out under the clamping pressure of the outer clamps.
Shown above are the top and bottom panels which I made a few days ago. You can actually see the three planks they are made from on the panel to the rear. The colour variation will disappear during sanding after which they will be cut to final size. The two panels I made today will each be cut in half to form two of the central uprights of the display unit. The other two will be made from the shelves of the redundant bookcase which I need to dismantle shortly. I see no point in wasting perfectly good timber if it can be easily reused.
Just as a reminder of what I am making , below is a photo of an existing display unit above the bookcase that will shortly be removed and re-purposed. The new unit will be located where the bookcase now resides. Each of my three existing display units is about 5.5 feet long, 2.5 feet high, 8 inches deep including decorative overhangs and has 80 shelves which give 40 square feet of shelf which accommodates a complete army of c.20,000.
The next posting will cover cutting panels to size, routing of door track and back panel groves and re-use of the redundant bookcase.
One of the Super Cheap Wargaming groups on Facebook had a query whether anyone had made or a trash built a fleet of ships or ship counters for naval Wargames from Biscuit Joiners !
ReplyDeleteFrom above they have a fat warship look to them
Hi Mark.
ReplyDeleteThat's an idea I had never thought of and yes they would make good ship hulls. The plywood versions would be better as they have a smoother face than beech and are very cheap. What a good idea. Regards.