Large plaques, large project

For me, at least. The trophy shop I often do woodworking for asked me last year to make 15 large plaques out of Walnut. These are 17" x 28" with Roman Ogee edge and sprayed with Nitrocellulose lacquer. So I made five each week for three weeks and they said that's all they would 'ever' need. Well, the insurance company they provide these for bought some other companies and earlier this year the trophy shop said they needed five more plaques.

I delivered the five plaques and they said to make ten more. So I made ten more but this time they needed five 17" x 28" and five 24" x 28". I delivered those and they said to make another 25. About the time I got home they called and said to make it 35. I had already cleaned out my local sawmill of unsteamed Walnut and began shopping around for steamed Walnut (I don't care for steamed but it wasn't going to matter on these plaques).

After checking in with about 8 suppliers within 250 miles, which was about as far as I was willing to drive, I found a source who would actually deliver to a friend's cabinet shop. My friend not only ordered it on his account (he gets a discount) but was willing to store it for me and let me come get what I needed each week because we don't have room for that much of any kind of wood. By the time we placed the order the trophy shop had called and raised the number to 45 plaques so we ordered 200 bd. ft.

I began making five 17" x 28" and five 24" x 28" each week and a few weeks into the job the number rose to 70 plaques. So we ordered another 200 bd. ft. of Walnut...

Anyway, that's all I have been working on for the last 8 weeks is plaques and I finished them all on time with no rejects and a perfectly happy customer. It was a bit of a stretch for our small little shop in our two-car garage. There were times when Sandy would help at night and that really helped. And of course, we were still getting orders on Etsy for Longworth chucks so I had to squeeze those in. I think I cut about 12 in that 8 week period of doing the plaques.

Normally the dust collector bag needs to be emptied every 6 weeks or so. For this job I was having to empty the bag twice each week because of all the planing and sanding. I think I spent more time on the drum sander than I did on any other tool but I sure am glad we have it. The DeWalt 735 planer sure got a workout, as well.

So here are some photos of this project -

First load of Walnut -

Cut to length, had to buy $250 worth of new clamps :wink:

Since I was using the planer so much it stayed out and in the way for two months. Usually it's under the table saw extension.

Planed, jointed edges, ready for matching and sizing -

Five small, five large, matched and ready for biscuit joining -

Biscuits for each joint. I know some folks don't like biscuits but they work just fine for me so I'm good with them -

Clamped and drying. These were stacked everywhere I could put them in the shop.

Ready for the drum sander -

Quick dust collection rigged up and ready for cutting the edge profile -

A quick pass with the ROS and 120 grit before spraying -

More in a minute -

David