Using Enough Glue
It was sunny from early this morning, with low humidity and sunshine strong enough to feel a little warm. But summer is over, so the warmth was not uncomfortable. I can feel autumn slowly deepening. Today, I was relieved to safely ship a special order I received at the beginning of this year. The order included some natural wood puzzle boxes that I used to make quite often. Working on them brought back memories of the time and care I put into making those boxes. It seems everyone is starting to get ready for the Christmas sales.
As expected, the humidity dropped today, so I attached the panels on the other side of the 5-sun puzzle boxes. This completes the assembly of the boxes themselves, but since they have drawers, I still need to finish those too. The top surface of each drawer lid panel needs a light coat of finish before I continue working on the drawers. At the moment, the drawers are only partly finished. After applying the finish to the lid panels, I slide them into the drawers and sand the drawers and lids together. Then I attach the handles. This process is a little different from making the boxes themselves. So I am waiting until the boxes are ready for their finishing coat. I will give the drawer lid panels a coat of finish at the same time, then continue working on the drawers.
After that, I continued working on the 3-sun 18-steps puzzle boxes. There was a small mix-up, and I was short of some parts, so I quickly made some extra ones yesterday. In the end, I will be making 44 boxes this time. Since the work was still at an early stage, I was able to make this change smoothly. Today, I started working on the frame parts, made the axis panels, and assembled the frames. The photo shows this stage of the work.As I wrote yesterday, you may be able to see from the photo that the frame is held together by two axis panels. After assembling the frames with 7 mm axis panels, I can feel that they are more stable. The overall balance seems good too. You may also notice a little glue squeezing out in the photo. This is because I apply a little extra glue. Too much glue squeezing out is not good, as it can get in the way when I attach the parts later. So once the frame and axis panels are firmly joined, but before the glue has dried completely, I remove any glue that would be in the way.However, using too little glue just to prevent it from squeezing out is not a good idea either. For a strong bond, I try to spread the glue over as much of the joining surfaces as possible.
Many years ago, I asked someone else to help with this assembly work. They were very skillful and could make everything look neat. But to keep the work clean, they used very little glue. The assembled frames looked beautiful, but many of the boxes later came apart, either when I tested the mechanisms or after they had been sent to customers. When the axis panels come away from the frame panels, the whole box really does fall apart! 🤣 That is why a strong glue bond here is so important. After that, I was also able to attach the parts. Everything is now ready for the next stage: making the Aruki panels, which I plan to start tomorrow.
As expected, the humidity dropped today, so I attached the panels on the other side of the 5-sun puzzle boxes. This completes the assembly of the boxes themselves, but since they have drawers, I still need to finish those too. The top surface of each drawer lid panel needs a light coat of finish before I continue working on the drawers. At the moment, the drawers are only partly finished. After applying the finish to the lid panels, I slide them into the drawers and sand the drawers and lids together. Then I attach the handles. This process is a little different from making the boxes themselves. So I am waiting until the boxes are ready for their finishing coat. I will give the drawer lid panels a coat of finish at the same time, then continue working on the drawers.
After that, I continued working on the 3-sun 18-steps puzzle boxes. There was a small mix-up, and I was short of some parts, so I quickly made some extra ones yesterday. In the end, I will be making 44 boxes this time. Since the work was still at an early stage, I was able to make this change smoothly. Today, I started working on the frame parts, made the axis panels, and assembled the frames. The photo shows this stage of the work.As I wrote yesterday, you may be able to see from the photo that the frame is held together by two axis panels. After assembling the frames with 7 mm axis panels, I can feel that they are more stable. The overall balance seems good too. You may also notice a little glue squeezing out in the photo. This is because I apply a little extra glue. Too much glue squeezing out is not good, as it can get in the way when I attach the parts later. So once the frame and axis panels are firmly joined, but before the glue has dried completely, I remove any glue that would be in the way.However, using too little glue just to prevent it from squeezing out is not a good idea either. For a strong bond, I try to spread the glue over as much of the joining surfaces as possible.
Many years ago, I asked someone else to help with this assembly work. They were very skillful and could make everything look neat. But to keep the work clean, they used very little glue. The assembled frames looked beautiful, but many of the boxes later came apart, either when I tested the mechanisms or after they had been sent to customers. When the axis panels come away from the frame panels, the whole box really does fall apart! 🤣 That is why a strong glue bond here is so important. After that, I was also able to attach the parts. Everything is now ready for the next stage: making the Aruki panels, which I plan to start tomorrow.