Easter Crosses

I sell a number of these each year and this time I had almost forgot to build some for the Easter holiday.

Last batch was bought up by a lady visiting from some church in Europe (Italy I think). She sent a photo to her pastor and he told her to grab them all.

Inlay cross is walnut, the other is jatoba. Long arm is 6", shorts are 3". plus the end caps.

I've done this style before and posted "over there", based on a design by Dick (recycle1943).

I've revisited the construction and came up with some steps that allow me to make these in a few hours.

For the jatoba cross, I began with a section of flooring that I re-sawed and drum sanded to 3/8" thick.
Strips for the flats are 1-1/4" wide, the trim is about 3/4".
Everything is pre-sanded.

Long arm pieces are cut to 6-1/2", shorts are 3-1/2"

I route 45's on the edges of the strips which are then glued to the sides of the flats.

The glue is allowed to set up for about 30 minutes before I square off the ends and cut the miter points.

Need to be careful here to avoid flaking the outfeed areas as the blade passes.

I'm always a bit paranoid about end grain glue joints failing and since these crosses might be hung on a wall (and eventually fall off), I cut and install a square spline at the joint.
The parts are DS taped to a masonite board with a back fence and run by the FTG blade.

Spline installed and the arms are glued up then clamped for 30 minutes.

While the glue sets up, I cut the end caps. These are a bit wider and taller than the arms, 45's on all exposed edges.

Caps glued in place and clamped up on a granite plate to keep everything flat.

Some evening of the back side to remove any squeeze-out on a circle of 180grit. I sanded flush the front side before adding the caps.

Some oil to pop the red in the jatoba and it's done (about 3 hours).

Thanks for comments and having a look-see!