Part 4 of the shade construction (pulled over from the other site)


Time to bevel the sides and put the darn thing together!

On a previous episode, the sets of four frames that make up each shade were assembled, rabbeted for mica (or any other flat panel) and flush trimmed on top.

There are a few more places that need the chamfer to be cut now.

The inside of the lower rail:

If you want, you can square up the transition from the protruding stub to the lower rail. I just leave it as is since no one will ever see it.

At this point, every edge on the outside surface of the frame should have the chamfer except the outside edge of the stiles where the frames join each other and the inside corners (shown above)  of the lower protrusions (these get done by hand).

The plans call for a 22 degree cut to join the frame pieces together. In a perfect world, yes, but remember that earlier adjustments were made (the top rail was lengthened). These were to get everything having the same dimensions and the fit of each part as good as practical.

22 degrees is a good starting point however.

The magazine articles have the tip of the angled saw blade embedded into a sacrificial fence. The workpiece ends up running against the fence on a sharp edge. If the blade is slightly too high, the cut won't be straight.
Not a good way to do this when you want a straight beveled edge.

(side note: further down I make a better version of this sled)

I begin by placing a frame on a piece of masonite hardboard that has had two opposite sides cut parallel. This piece should be wider that the frame as seen in this picture.

Note that I have one of the stiles aligned with the edge. I use a slightly thicker board (darker masonite) on the left to help in the alignment.
This gets the frame perfect with the lighter masonite sled.

I want to place several scraps from my setup pieces onto the hardboard to help hold things in position

Since I have a right-tilt saw and am cutting this on the right side of the blade, I need to have the frame outside-face-down during the cuts.

The scrap on the left has an angle cut that fits well into the frames corner. The length runs up to the corner at the other end. The scrap on the right snugly fits into the opposite corner.

I use DS tape to initially position these scraps while I hold the frame to the edge of the hardboard.

The tape is placed, the frame is positioned, then the scrap is located and pressed onto the tape.
I then carefully remove the frame and secure the scrap from the other side with several screws.

The frame is rotated so the other stile now aligns with the hardboard edge and a third piece of scrap is taped and screwed to the hardboard.
This makes the sled into a jig able to position and cut both frame sides.

This will hold the frame perfectly aligned while the stiles are beveled. The key being all frame sides will have the same dimensions after being cut.

Since the frame is face down, the top/bottom rails don't make contact with the hardboard due to the stiles being thicker (the shadow line). I add some 1/8" strips it support the rails since these are where I'll place my hand during the cut. Without the spacers, my hand pressure would cause the frame to warp, making the angle cut on the stiles incorrect.

As with the other cuts, I knock off most of the excess at the bandsaw to prevent kickback.

Make the cut

The blade is tilted to 22 degrees and the fence is slid over until about 1/2" remains between the blade and the hardboard edge. This is a test cut to verify that the bevel is smooth and consistent.

The "better" jig
This is a new jig I made to securely hold the complete frame sides (outer face up) and cut the side bevels. I can cut each side by switching stations on the jig. This photo (sorry for the blurriness) shows a completely assembled frame mounted since that is all I had. This rides on the fence, to the left side of the blade (right tilt saw). Advantage is the outer frame face is up and the down cut minimizes chipout. Better in the sense that the frame is not trapped between the fence and angled blade. The down cut also makes for a cleaner seam when assembled.

Same function with a bit more secure hold down (and to the left of the blade)
Repeat this cut on the opposite stile of a second frame. This makes up a set of two frames with a common corner.
Note that the test cut has produced a bevel with enough surface for a good test fit. These is still plenty of material on the style if I need to try another test cut (or two).
The two frames are placed into position and held as a square is placed on the top rails (the frame is sitting top down on the bench in this photo and I have the square sitting on some supports so I can also take the photo 8^)

Notice the gap between the square and frame on the right? In this case, 22 degrees wasn't quite steep enough (hence the test cut)!

Given the pyramid shape, I can't just measure this angle and add/subtract from the 22 degree setup to fix (so I just guess!)
I readjust the blade, I believe I went to about 23.5 degrees, just a slight turn of the crank, then repeat the cut with two different frames.

Bingo! (I actually got the angle correct with the first adjustment 8^)

(Wicked flash flare!)
The saw angle is perfect so I bump over the fence until the blade tooth just kisses the top corner of the hardboard. This will cut the full bevel.

I now make the final cuts on all the pieces.

Glue time

A good glue up always has a small amount of squeeze out. To protect the wood and make cleanup simple, I apply a thick coating of paste wax to the inner and outer surfaces of the stiles and to the top/bottom ends. The glue will not stick here and will be easy to flick off after it has set up.

I temporarily clamp the frames together to apply the wax and check the fit.

Two frames are selected to be next to each other based on grain pattern and color. If I cut the styles out properly from the original board (and labeled everything correctly), the grain and color should match well.
Glue is applied.
This is looking down one corner of the frame from the top

Remember that these parts align at the top edges.

Spring clamps are used and the parts are held in perfect alignment for a few minutes until things stick and stop sliding. After the first few were glued, I sprinkled on some table salt to help lock things in place, it worked very well 8^)

These spring clamps have small lips at the ends which grab onto the frame corners and won't pop off like QuickGrip clamps would
Three clamps per joint, top, middle, and bottom.
After the frame panel pairs  dried for an hour, I glued the two halves into a complete shade.

The top corners where the frames were aligned came out excellent (as expected since that is where I aligned everything)

and as hoped for, the bottom came out flush as well

And the glue joint between the frame panels?

Flush and a good grain/color match. Important since the two styles form a single spoke for the shade.

The inside:

Just some sanding to tune it all up, install the mica, and finish.