Hey boss! De planer! De planer!

Daddy: “Hey Bubba, do you want to go out to the workshop?”

Danger Boy: “You bet!  Let’s go right now!”

There’s nothing better than an eager and willing apprentice!  The pace of the work slows down quite a bit, but the time sure seems to fly by too fast when my short accomplice is with me.

“Hey Bubba.  How are we going to get those pieces to a ¾ inch thickness?”

“De planer!  De planer!"

I need some ¾ inch stock for the Zebrawood box lids, so we carted out the planer to mill the Padauk and Walnut pieces that I had picked out. 

While we were at it, we worked in a stack of Cherry off-cuts and a piece of clear Poplar left over from other projects for the upcoming Lego experiment.

Once all the pieces were milled to thickness we headed back into the shop to start cutting the parts to size.

The lids will be ¾ inch thick and 3 ½ inches square.  I sketched out the best options for the layout with chalk.  I tried to mark out the best pattern of stripping on the Padauk, and to capture the interesting knots in the walnut.

I used one of my cross-cut sleds for the first time since moving to Minnesota only to find that the oak runners had expanded a little with the increased humidity here.  I ended up having to trim the runners to refit them to the miter slots on the table saw.  My Stanley no. 92 shoulder plane was just the right tool for the fix.

I made a few light trimming passes on the outside surfaces of the runners.  The key was to trim the size of the runners, yet maintain the extact distance between them so that the sled slides over the saw with no slop. 

Once the runners were trued up, the sled was back in action.  I trimmed the Padauk and Walnut lid stock to the final dimmensions.

I also went ahead and trimmed up an extra Padauk lid blank...just in case.

There are several steps left to finish the lids, but here is a sneak peak of the look I'm going for.

All in all, it was a good day in the shop.  The boy and I each still have all ten of our fingers and we didn't track any sawdust into the house...at least none that Mommy knows about.