Bonjour a tous et a toutes

Last year I wrote a short post about how to flatten a « thin » piece of wood

here

http://www.blog.laurentcluet.com/?p=529

Now today I will show how to flatten a panel.

The problem is this:

 

 

and this is the left side of this (in red circle):

 

As usual, before doing anything, you have to think twice or even thrice, what could be the best solution.

Panel are usually assemble to edge grain , and most probably with  live sawn boards as the face grain side curved.

OK, so one solution would be simply insert glue between the curved part of the panel and the side and put a clamp . But by pushing by hand you can see there is quit some pressure, so this would not work or at least not last.

So the second solution would be decrease the tensions in that board by making some grooves in that opposite side of the panel, the one which is on the opposite side of the veneer.

With less tensions in the board and a good gluing, this shall be fine

So first you have to remove the top and background panel,

and then remove the panel you want to work on:

Once again, you know that this is hide glue, so you can soften it either with water or either with heat,  to be honest I worked  little bit with force too.

Once I opened this box, I notice that the solution I choose , had already been used,

as you can see on the photo below, some grooves are already there.

 

Which means despite the grooves, the wood still curves, so you have to use a more radical solution:

First, if possible increase the depth of the grooves and the number too.

Then little by little, flatten the boar, easy easy, be careful to no rip the veneer on opposite side,

once you reach your goal, maintain the fully flat position to get free hands,

as below I hold it with clamps.

 

Then start to dig the space to place the piece of wood perpendicularly to the face grain of the panel. I used chisel and mallet.

To be honest I took this piece of satiné cause it was approximately the size I needed and I did not need to do any cutting.

Like this you will assure flatness to the panel

Now before you place your piece of wood, think about the drawer that should slide and need a

passage, so decrease a bit the thickness of the piece where the drawer is supposed to slide

 

 

Now it seems to fit properly

 

As usual,  I used the fish glue.

Let it dry

and:

 

Now it is not done yet,

you have to make a proper gluing,

and remove all the old glue to have a good grip power once glued again,

I used the same technique as usual, described here:

http://www.blog.laurentcluet.com/?p=978

 

Once wood is clean and dry

you can go for the final step

 

Et voilà:

 

 

 

Bonjour

ロザスを加えました:

 

 

Bonsoir

I am very glad to work on an 18th century piece, I have to be « very careful »

but this is very enjoyable.

Of course this is a very old piece and mainly there are two type of issues to take care of,

the first one is « structural » with the side panels being loose

and the second one is « aesthetic » with some parts of the parquetry missing.

So of course, first I will take care of the structural issue.

As you can see below, the space is quite big, of course as your are on the end grain side

you can not just put glue and press it, the adhesive power would be too weak,

 

so to fix it properly in the way that it will be fully and strongly fixed, you have to removed the

whole panel.

As the veneer is  bit missing you can see you are not in a dovetail assembly but a tenon-mortise assembly.

So the front side of this panel is properly fix, but anyway you have to disassemble it too.

So first I will remove the veneer piece,  the one in the red circle

One of the quick method is to use an iron and a very wet piece of fabric

 

Now you fully have access to the junction.

But also in front, you have to un-stick the veneers pieces to make sure you

don’t rip them when you disassemble it.

 

Now as you now that it is hide glue that was used you can make the whole humid to soften the glue

 

So I put a wet piece of fabric and simply wait for a while and inject water some times to times

 

 

So after a while, sensible part is coming:

remove the panel, anyway is ok BUT the aim of the game is to not break or rip anything

or at least to rip the less things possible and specially the tenons.

 

 

 

I used the same method for the right side

Of course I ripped some few things, but basically result is fine.

Now just let is rest for a while…