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Unity Cross (semi-)Build-Along - Caution: Pic Heavy - Blaine - 11-19-2015
Haven't started a new thread here in quite a while. Fact is that I took a hiatus from most of my woodworking for a while.
My older daughter is getting married next month to a guy we like very much. When her sister got married a couple of years ago, that daughter asked me to make a Unity Sand Ceremony stand for their service and it was pretty nice. This daughter wanted me to make something for her, too, and it's also for their Unity Ceremony at the wedding. When I first saw what she wanted, my eyes got wide and I said (literally), "Oh, Shi....."
I knew it was going to be hard.Here's the final product (minus the name plaque which will go where the green tape is located):
For those who are interested, there is a lot of religious symbolism in the woods I used. The red padauk represents the blood of Christ and the black walnut and the light maple represent the darkness overcome by the light of Christ.
The actual pieces of wood also have meaning. The padauk and walnut came from Woodnetters; the padauk as a gift. I purchased the lighter (curly) maple on the Christmas Auction and the "stylized" center piece came from the same board I used to make the Unity Sand Ceremony piece for my other daughter's wedding. The "nails" that hold the inner cross to the framed cross are made from redwood that came from her grandmother's lawn furniture. Since my younger daughter is the matron of honor for her sister, I really like the connection between the pieces for their weddings.
The way this works is that the whole thing comes apart before the ceremony. The groom puts the framed cross into the base, the bride puts the stylized cross inside of it, and the bride, groom, and pastor each put a nail in to hold it all together.
Anyway, here's the build-along portion. A lot of this was done using hand tools.
The first thing I did was to make a template for the framed cross This was done using power tools, including the pocket screws to hold the arms to the upright of the cross. I don't have an individual picture of the template, but you can see it among the other prototypes in the picture below.
I had to make prototypes of everything. I wanted to be sure that the framed cross was going to be strong enough, so I made a piece out of scrap and did some "destructive" testing on it.
I squeezed the prototype in my hand to try to break it. It took a pretty significant amount of force to break it, so I knew the glued miter joints would be strong enough without any kind of reinforcement.
Next, I made the laminate of the walnut and maple for the framed cross. You can see a remnant of that in the picture of all the prototypes. A lot of this was also done using power tools.
The next step was to cut all of the miters. This was pretty delicate work. I borrowed a small miter box from Joemac (thanks Joe!!) and it worked oh-so-much better than a power miter box would have worked. Some of the pieces were quite small and there might have been some safety issues with a power tool, also.
Each piece was cut a bit long with the miter box, then trimmed to size and to the correct angle using a low-angle jack on a shooting board equipped with a Donkey's ear. This picture shows my clamping protocol, which was a bit complicated considering the 12 pieces involved. I figure that each of the miters had to be +/- 0.1° because the cumulative effect of error over the 24 miter cuts would have been enough to have a pretty significant gap in the joints and would seriously compromise the strength of the frame.
Here's the framed cross after glue up.
Continued on the next post.
Blaine
Re: Unity Cross (semi-)Build-Along - Caution: Pic Heavy - Wilbur Pan - 11-19-2015
I know I should wait until you get the whole story posted, but…
WOW. I can’t believe how well the cross turned out. And the backstory is just terrific.
Congratulations on the upcoming nuptials, Blaine!
Re: Unity Cross (semi-)Build-Along - Caution: Pic Heavy - Blaine - 11-19-2015
The next step was to start making the inner cross. I had help with this as my wife is much better with a scroll saw than I am, so she did all the cutting on this after I made some prototypes for her. I'll post the prototypes picture again:
As you can see, there were several of these inner crosses made. I knew I needed at least one extra for a template and my wife wanted to practice doing the cuts on the scroll saw using both the poplar blanks and in the curly maple for the final piece.
Here's a picture of the framed cross with the curly maple inner cross before it was cut on the scroll saw.
After she completed the cut on the final piece, it was my job to round over the edges and make it look a bit less "stark". I did that in several steps. The first was with a Dremel tool followed by a small rasp. The rasp I had wasn't the best tool for the job (too big, too round), so I resorted to strips of sandpaper. The cut piece was relatively fragile, so I had to do a lot of moving it around in the vise to expose the edges to the sandpaper. Each step took about 45 minutes to complete, but in the end, I got a pretty decent product. I started with 100 grit paper and progressed to 220, and 320 grit.
The final, inner, cross fits pretty nicely inside the framed cross.
Next was to drill holes in the arms and top of the cross for the nails. I held the two pieces together using hand screw clamps and drilled through both the frame and the inner cross. I wasn't too worried about blow-out because I knew I was going to be softening the edges of the holes anyway.
I also drilled two holes in the bottom of the framed cross for dowels to connect it to the base.
The next step was to make the base. I cut a piece the size I wanted and squared the ends on a shooting board. Padauk planes very nicely and the UV darkened board brightens to a very intense red color. Here's a picture of the cross the first time I mounted it into the blank base.
I then marked a 45° miter on the front of the base and scrubbed off the waste with a jack plane with a highly cambered blade. This worked up a sweat, but was quicker and safer than doing it just about any other way. I also got the edge exactly where I wanted it.
During a lot of this, I was continually trying different versions of the nails. I'm not a very experienced turner, but these were pretty quick to be made, so I could work on different versions. The first ones were poplar and painted gold. Those were (very) quickly nixed by the bride.
I made a few different varieties out of cherry and you can see those in the prototype picture. The "heads" of the nails and the taper of the body were the challenges. I also wanted "red" for the nails, and remembered I had the pieces from Grandma's lawn furniture. Redwood splinters, but after a few prototypes using it, I (and the bride) am satisfied.Next was the finishing process. I used shellac for the two cross pieces. Figuring out how to allow them to dry was a challenge. I got creative using a paper clip to hang the inner cross from a trouble light and drilled a couple of holes in some plywood scrap for the framed cross.
The finish on the base is a clear acrylic with a UV protectant in it. Padauk turns brown in light and I wanted it to stay red for as long as possible (I'm storing it on the top shelf of a closet as we speak). Gotta thank JR1 for the choice of finish (gotta go look what it is.....). I also used the acrylic for the nails. I stuck some push pins through some cardboard and placed the ends of the nails on the point of the pushpins to let them dry.
I am pleased with how this turned out. The wedding date is December 20. I'm excited about the wedding. The groom teaches music and all but one of his groomsmen are professional musicians. One is the "principle" for the US Navy Band in Washington, DC, and another one played backup for Aretha Franklin in Chicago a few weeks ago. They, and a couple of others will be playing as I walk my daughter down the aisle and for parts of the reception (first dances). My future son-in-law is arranging music for his friends to play.
Hope you enjoyed the build along.
Blaine
Re: Unity Cross (semi-)Build-Along - Caution: Pic Heavy - Blaine - 11-19-2015
Thanks Wilbur. This was the hardest, most intricate, most detailed, and most artistic piece I've every made.
As an aside, a woman at our church offered me $750 to make one for her. I laughed and said "no way".
After being away from woodworking for a while, some things that used to come naturally needed to be re-learned.
Blaine
Re: Unity Cross (semi-)Build-Along - Caution: Pic Heavy - Blaine - 11-19-2015
For those who care, the UV resistant finish on the padauk is Chrystalac Poly-ox.
Thanks again to JR1 for the suggestion to use it.
It's wipe on and very easy to use.
Blaine
Re: Unity Cross (semi-)Build-Along - Caution: Pic Heavy - Arlin Eastman - 11-19-2015
Really nice job on it.
Arlin
Re: Unity Cross (semi-)Build-Along - Caution: Pic Heavy - Skip J. - 11-19-2015
Just wonderful Blaine!
Good to see you back in the shop!
Re: Unity Cross (semi-)Build-Along - Caution: Pic Heavy - Blaine - 11-19-2015
For those who may care, here's a picture of my two girls. This was taken a couple of years ago when the older (taller) one was the maid of honor at her younger sister's wedding. They'll reverse roles at this wedding.
Blaine
Re: Unity Cross (semi-)Build-Along - Caution: Pic Heavy - AHill - 11-19-2015
Great to see you back in the shop again, Blaine! You did a great job on the cross, and you put a lot of thought into making it a sentimental piece on many levels. Knowing you, I'm sure you are proud of both your daughters and that they reflect the good values of both their parents! Best wishes to your daughter and future son-in-law!
BTW, I'm due to get hitched in December. Only took her 5 years to say yes!
Re: Unity Cross (semi-)Build-Along - Caution: Pic Heavy - Blaine - 11-19-2015
That's great Alan!! Seems like it's been longer than 5 years.
Blaine