Replies

1. 
   SgianDubh | Mar 24, 2009 01:16am | #1

   Pre-finish the slats and the morticed face of top and bottom rail. Glue up and peel off the partially dried glue from the finish with a chisel or putty knife. Glue up in batches of 24 so the glue peeling job is manageable. 

   The dowel bump you describe is due to shrinkage of the piece of wood the dowel is driven in to. You are dealing with the fact that the dowel does not appreciably shrink in length, but the piece of wood it fits in shrinks across the grain width. There is nothing you can do to prevent this occuring. Slainte.

   richardjonesfurniture.com

1. 
   packitupfortoday | Mar 24, 2009 03:18am | #2

   thank you for such a quick response. i had planned on having it finished by a friend who has a professional set-up to spray . i cannot remember at the moment what he called the product just that it is supposed to be much more durable than the polyurethane i had said i was using for the finish. that was why i figured having to do all this with unfinished wood ,because i was relying on the professoinally applied finish.at the end.
   i had watched a FWW video on squezze out but his method was impractical for my project and began considering carefully taping for protection. is this a practical solution or am i setting myself up for more problems? i do not for a second want to pass myself off as even a semi-experienced woodworker, just a grandfather to be come july. thank you very much for the time you have given

1. 
   integrity_woodworks | Mar 24, 2009 07:35am | #3

   hello sir .

   I have been building and finishing for wellover20 years and I also stress you have your freind spray it before assemblly. thats a lot of spindles which means a lot of kick back. Just a thought but the finish should be non toxic for baby anything ,they are like puppys  no matter how hard ,there teeth will go right on through                    

   best of luck Dan thewoodbug

    

1. 
   packitupfortoday | Mar 25, 2009 04:48am | #5

   thank you Dan for taking the time, I am going to see about a first coat before starting.

2. 
   SgianDubh | Mar 24, 2009 11:25pm | #4

   I have never found the perfect solution to removing glue squeeze out. I gave you the method I find works most effectively most often when there are a lot of members going together, as in your 48 slats into a pair of rails, two top and two at the bottom.

   I have tried the masking/painter's tape method with some, but limited, success. The problems with this method occur when you don't have the time to remove the tape and the glue stuck around it quick enough in the window of opportunity available to remove it and the glue cleanly: the glue needs to be at that rubbery phase. If the glue sets much beyond that the tape tears and then you have to pick and fiddle to get the rest of the tape and glue out of the corner. The advantage of the pre-polishing method is that the glue will pick out relatively easily even if it's gone off pretty hard. 

   I hope this helps a bit more. There are, incidentally, quite a few methods for dealing with glue squeeze out, but to save confusing issues through adding more possible methods I'll leave my contribution on the subject here as is. Others may want to add to the thread suggesting, for example, how they use plastic drinking straws, and other methods. Slainte.richardjonesfurniture.com

1. 
   packitupfortoday | Mar 25, 2009 04:52am | #6

   thank you also for your follow up , I am going to see about a first coat before starting. this has been quite a resource thanks again

2. 
   WillGeorge | Mar 25, 2009 07:59pm | #8

   Richard! E...DANG!  Others may want to add to the thread suggesting, for example, how they use plastic drinking straws

   how they use plastic drinking straws? Waxed Paper straws in my youngennons' days..

   I have always wonder how us 1939 children would have turned out if we had them bendable plastic straws?

1. 
   SgianDubh | Mar 26, 2009 11:06pm | #9

   So now you do have those plastic bendy straws WillG. How are you turning out as a born again child of grandparent age? Slainte.richardjonesfurniture.com

2. 
   Cincinnati | Mar 25, 2009 04:40pm | #7

   Does each slat have a tenon, or does the slat fit into the mortise, like shutter slats?

   Have you considered floating the slats, or at least most of them? I might glue the mid point or the 1/4 points. Then I have to clean glue on three to five slats.

   If the M/T's are not so tight that they won't move without glue, (and you want no movement on the slats) I might consider brushing glue into each mortise, but only so that the lower 1/2 of the tenon is glued, but not high enough to the shoulders that you get glue squeeze-out.

   I believe with three to five spaced slats completely glued and cleaned, the others could be glued in a way as to not create a squeeze-out problem.

   Greg

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   Exo 35:30-35