Entryway Bench

The arched panel incorporated into the back of the bench stretches all the way across the bench, none of the templates for my new toy come anywhere near being big enough to make this arch -- so I have to make my own.  This is one reason why Full Custom pieces tend to be more expensive than the Semi-Custom versions; once they get to be Semi-Custom we have already done the design work and made up any templates needed, they are hanging on the wall (somewhere) ready to be pulled down as needed to make the parts.

I start by taping together enough sheets of paper to accommodate the full length template, then fold it in half lengthwise.  Drawing the curve is done entirely freehand.  I look at the photo Bill & Carolyn provided and take off some measurements with a scale to get an idea of the overall rise, then sketch.  If it doesn't turn out right, erase the parts I don't like and try again.  When I think I have it right, hold the half-pattern up on a window with the sun shining through, and trace the line I just drew onto the blank side; that way both sides are perfectly matched.  Then unfold the pattern, step back and look at it.

Once I'm happy with the curve of the top edge, I fold the pattern in half again and measure along the top edge of the paper making a tick mark every inch, then do the same along the bottom edge.  At each set of tick marks I measure down from the top line 2 1/4" and make a mark.  Then I connect the dots to form the lower edge of the back top rail.  As I draw it in, I fair out the angles that would result from connecting these dots with straight lines.  It's an art.  When that's done I cut out the pattern very carefully and transfer the shape to a piece of 1/4" plywood - good stuff, with a solid core, not junk plywood that will end up with voids along the edges.  I rough out the shape on the band saw, cutting just outside the lines.

Then I fit a sanding drum to my drill press, kick the speed up and use it to take the templates to their final shape.  This is done slowly and carefully, taking off just a little at a time as I approach the lines; putting the wood back is a lot harder than taking it off!

The ideal tool for this task is an oscillating spindle sander - but one of those is not in the plan for another 3 months, so I make do with what I have.

When they are done they look like this.

Making templates is one place where having one of thse computer controlled (CNC) router thingies would be a definite time saver.  But, we don't want one of those in our shop for two reasons.  One is that one big enough to be any good costs about 30 grand.  There are a lot of wonderful things we could do with 30 thousand dollars.  The other reason is that having one tends to cause workshops to abandon hand crafting anything.  Instead of woodworkers, you have a programmer, a machine operator (who does nothing but load pieces of plywood -- or more often particle board -- into the machine when it tells him to) and a couple of assembly guys.  Little, if any skill is involved other than the designer/programmer guy.  This is not what Smoky Mountain Woodworks is all about.

But I digress.

Now we need to figure out where the mid-rail needs to be and how high each of the two filler panels must be.  I have worked out rough figures on paper, but without knowing exactly what the shape of the upper back rail is, it is difficult to have a precise dimension.  It's much easier to take the dimensions off of the completed parts and fill in the blanks here.

Uh oh...

"Houston, we have a problem."  I grossly under estimated the height of the top back panel - by several inches.  What to do, what to do... I see two options: add a piece to the existing panel or make a new one from scratch.

The lumber I have left - that which has not already been dedicated to some part - is not the prettiest stuff, and none of it matches very well with the wood in the existing top panel.  But, the wood in the lower back panel matches the wood in the top back panel nicely; they both came from the same part of a log.  Hmmm... a thought is forming...

So I joint the two existing panels and glue them together.  At the same time I joint up and glue several more pieces of the not quite so pretty stuff to become a new lower back panel.  The lower back panel is considerably smaller than the upper panel so I will be able to run it through the surface planer to smooth and thickness it quickly.  And the front of the lower panel is inside the chest of the bench, the back will be toward the wall, so the fact that it is not made of the most beautiful lumber will have little impact.  The upper back panel, which is a focal point of the whole bench, will match very well and look great.  And by joining the two panels together I will not have to spend hours smoothing and thicknessing the big panel - that has already been done and a few minutes with a random orbit sander will have it looking like I actually knew what I was doing when I built it!

Once the glue is set up in the reworked upper back panel, which doesn't take long since there was no tension in the joint, I rip the piece to finished height, then trim the ends to length with a cut-off sled and sand the panel to remove any faint ridge of glue spots at the seam.  Then I can lay-out the arched top, bandsaw it to rough shape and finish the shape on the router table just as I did with the filler panels for end and from panels.

Routing the parts for the back panel requires some special considerations for work support; one is a roller ball stand to help hold the long outboard end up so the inboard end doesn't tend to lift up off the router bit.  There are no do-overs here; if I flub up a coping cut I make a new part and start again.

Another is devising as way to hold a serpentine rail square to the fence to get a good, even cut across it's end.  I solved the problem by saving the pieces I cut off when cutting out the shape and using then as shims between part and coping sled.

The lower panel presents a unique problem.  I don't want the fancy routed edges like the top panel (and all of the panels we've made so far have) inside the chest because they will provide places for dirt and gunk from wet shoes or other things that might be stored in the chest to build up.  I want to keep the inside faces of the chest as smooth as possible.  Fancy routed edges on the back side of the chest makes no sense either.  What I need here is a raised panel without the sloping edge or the routed edges on the rails and stiles.  Just a groove around the inside perimeter of the lower back panel, and a panel with a simple tongue to fit into those grooves.  Simple huh?  Nope!  It would be simple except that I have to transition the routed edge of the upper back panel to a groove only segment in the lower panel, AND the routed edge section forms the glue joint for the middle rail.

I route the upper portion of the stiles like normal, but stop at a predetermined point, then finish cutting the joinery by hand with a small chisel.

To keep the slot width and depth consistent, I pull the top cutter off the Rail & Stile bit and use only the slot cutter section to shape the panel.

Then I use the normally routed portion of a rail or stile to set the slot location, so the slot will be exactly the same position all around the frame, and route the slots in the lower edge of the middle rail, the lower portions of the stiles and the upper edge of the bottom rail.  The bottom rail also got coped when I routed the panel to form the tongue.

While I have the bit set up this way I also square up the back cut on the panel.  The panel raiser bit leaves a curved cut that jams into the slot.  squaring up this cut allows me to leave the panel full sized for the best fit possible, instead of having to cut the panel down and re-routing it, which can leave the panel rattling in it's slots.

Now that all the parts are made I can test fit the entire back assembly.  If any joints don't want to draw up nice and tight, I can trim a panel a bit, but we are good on this one.

So I take it all apart again, do the detail sanding in those areas that will be very difficult to sand without scratching up an adjoining part once it's put together, and finish the edges of the filler panel.

When the finish is dry I glue and clamp the assembly and let it set until the glue is good and hard; we don't want the panel changing shape on me as I handle it.  Then I can sand the rails and stiles.

And that completes the building of the back panel.

Project Home