Some professional wood working advice

the quarter sawn grain of the wood is really starting to come out with the sanding! with a few layers of tung oil it will be lustrous and shiny!


"The Grizzly" home of "wally the wandering sanding belt"
Brent Swanson
Feeding the grizzly

I went out to visit Brent Swanson of Normaltown Woodworks out in Winterville the other day, and showed him everything I had done here to fore. He said I can work with what I've got, and offered some next steps to take to add structural integrity to my joints, as well as covering up my shoddy fitting. Today I finished cutting all the mortises, and by tomorrow I will have all the joints glued and ready to sand, which he offered to let me do in his big sander. Thanks Brent!


I went down stairs and took the last of four similar trusses out of the clamps, then made to start on the next mortises, which are quite a bit trickier...anyways, here are some pictures of what I have done, and what I have left to do. The fit of the pieces I have made thus far is.. not too good, and I also took pictures of the gouges I mentioned that were made when the pieces I was cutting the tenons in got away from me when the saw caught in the wood. I guess what I want to know is: should I continue with what I have already done, try to fill in the gaps with epoxy and through fasten it with dowels, or should I just scrap it, buy some more wood and hire someone to help me start over and do it right/tight fitting?
I know there are more boards out there in Bishop... and I didn't get a chance to Landus' picture last time.

this is the marked for the mortise I need to work, it's 3 5/8th" deep.. and an acute angle, the X is the material that need to be removed, down to the pencil line you see running across the board.



poor fit up @ the base of the four joints I have made so far.

It was hard for me to hold the line when I cut the tenons with the radial arm saw, so the other boards don't fit snuggly.


cutting the tenons along the bias of the grain of a hard wood, sometimes the saw bit into the wood, and I wasn't strong enough to hold it, so big chunks were torn away, on the edges of the tenons.. I don't know if thse can be filled with epoxy or not.
when cutting the mortises, I have started by removing wood with the circular saw, and then a chisel, but my cuts are quite un-even, so the fit inside the joint is not so good.
the joints are angled, and it seems that my angels are too deep on one side, or another, usually both! and/or, since the inside of the mortise is uneven the tenon piece doesn't fit well, or fit all the way down into the joint....so there is space @ the bottom
more gouges where I lost control of the wod