Step 1: clean up the carcase
Low angle plane for the end grain and cross grain ends ..
Then the face grain top and bottom ..
And I had a chance to use a small BU infill smoother I made several years ago on the edges. Perfect for one-handed smoothing ...
Step 2: Time to round the ends.
In the test piece, it looked like this ..
This lacked the inside hollowed filet. The build today starts with the making of the filet.
The first decision was that this had to be made of end grain. If it was made of side grain, the sides of the filet would be end grain, which would clash - darken - with the side grain of the carcase when a finish is applied. Fortunately, I had this one last offcut. Just enough ...
The filet is triangular with a hollow on the outside. I first tried shaping this with a hollow plane on a sticking board, having sliced off a triangular section on the table saw. It was impossible to do. No way to hold the wood and plane it. I tried a number of variations. I won't go there. They were all impossible. You do it, you're a better man - or woman - than me. You're probably better anyway
Finally I came up with this. Start with ripping a 45 degree bevel on the table saw (slider here, with board held in a Fritz and Franz jig) ...
The router table is set up with a round nose bit ...
The mitre can be run past this and the bit will shape a round hollow ..
Now slice this off on the table saw ...
I made a bunch of them (as they are a little fragile) ...
Before glueing them in, each was sanded - 80/120/240 grit on a dowel, with the filet held on the sticking board ..
The filets were then glued in (Titebond hide glue for everything). A dowel was used to place pressure evenly on the corners ...
Step 3: shape the ends
I used a larger washer than this one this time to mark out the curve (as the radius needed to be reduced) ...
Then began planing ...
Refined with a block plane ...
... and finished with sandpaper.
That's it for today. Next I begin the tapered and splayed legs.
Regards from Perth
Derek