Patching a chipout on old furniture

[mdutch]

I have a lid on an old aromatic cedar blanket chest whose 3/4 x 1.5 banding had been split from repeated hinge "accidents" and bad repairs. I cut away the banding and am ready to re-band it with new aromatic cedar I've milled down. However, the panel of the top has a nasty old chipout where a bad repair had been effected. (It may have been a surface knot that fell apart and someone gooped it up with putty, but it was nasty looking). I want to replace it with some clear wood from the old scraps.

I built a small jig to mortise a 1/8" recess into the surface of the top and remove that irregular chipped stuff. I've saved enough of the old banding that I've joined and glued up a nice little 6" x 2" x 1/4" plank. (Speaking of which, I think I'm in love with Titebond Hide glue!)

How should I mill down my piece to 1/8" Stick my "patch" with double-side tape onto some tailstock and face-mill it with the saw then touch it up with a sander? (I don't own a planer) Or block it up and hand-plane it to thickness? (old school charm if nothing else) Or just sand the bejezuz out of it?

Any tips on the recess I'm making? Should I undercut the edges of the mortise with a dovetail bit, bevel the patch and "slide" it in? Or go with a flush edge and clamp-er down?

[monte]

For safety I would use the hand plane to get the piece down to size.

[scorrpio]

If you had a planer, you would still have to affix this patch piece to something else, since I dont think any planers will work with a 1/8" thick piece. And you are going to have one heck of a time securely clamping that thin a piece for hand planing as well. I say stick it to a larger piece and run through the TS. But make sure it is a bit thicker than you need.

No need to dovetail - just make sure the patch fits the recess snugly. When you glue it in, it should be slightly proud of the surface - at which point you take out the block plane and make everything flat.

[Napoleon]

They just had a topic on Wood Works addressing this issue. http://www.diynet.com/diy/shows_wwk/..._26963,00.html
Apparently even David J has "mistakes of the hand". Very interesting episode. Sure glad I have the Tivo at times!
Mark

[JimD]

I have a little template guide/router bit set that is made to do inlays. I has a bushing for the template guide so that you can cut out a piece and make a recess exactly the same size and shape. They are about $30 if I remember right. You don't have to have this.

Most of the pieces of wood that I have that are 1/8 thick are the scrap piece from the left side of the saw blade. If the piece you want to cut down is thick enough, you might be able to do the same thing. Otherwise, I would cut it down about 1/32 oversize on the BT3100 cutting from both sides if necessary and about 1 inch at a time. Obviously you need a push stick to move the stock past the blade but otherwise this is not unusually dangerous for me (but I do not normally use the guard which would also need to be off). I would remove the final 1/32 after the patch is glued in place by planning or sanding.

I would not attempt to sand it to thickness by hand because I would not get it to a consistent thickness this way. You could probably plane it by hand to a consistent thickness but it would not be easy. My planner will work down to about 1/8 but I would not use it for anything but to remove the saw marks because it's pretty easy to just rip off most of the excess material.

I've made a lot of long pieces 1 1/8 wide and 1/8 thick as dividers for jewelry boxes. I did it with the BT3100 and a pass or two through the planner plus sanding before finish was applied. I had no real difficulty.

Jim