Worry Cross – The Making Of

I thought I would make another Worry Cross and take more pictures and give a bit more information on how I make them.

I start out with a ¾” piece of pine.  Pine works well for this as there is a lot of sanding by hand.

The next step, I draw lines as to where I would like to have the groves I am going to make using my
router.  I use a ½” Core Box bit.  I set it so the groove will  be  about 1/8” deep.  After running a test on scrap wood, I route both sides with a groove going horizontally and vertically.  I put these groves in to help lessen the amount of sanding as well as giving me a guide to where I want to sand.

If you can see in the picture I had a spot where the wood shifted on the router.  As it was not too bad I can still use it because it was not a major mistake and I will be sanding this down further.

Once the grooves are cut and match up, I glue the pattern onto the wood making sure to center on the groves.  Now I go to the scroll saw and using a #5 blade I cut out the piece to the shape.  The size is about 6” tall by 4” wide.

Once cut I remove the pattern and go back to the router. The goal here is to round the edges. I used ¼” Roundover.  Again I suggest running a scrap piece to make sure you have the router setup how you want. Now I run the piece through on both sides.

Now the sanding - I start out with 80 grit to shape the piece.  Then move to a 150 grit to start to smooth the piece then finish it off with 400 grit.

From here I stain the piece and then start putting on Polyurethane.  After a couple of coats ,I run a piece of 400 grit lightly over it to keep the piece as smooth as I can.

One piece I used Minwax Cherry #235 and the other Watco Danish Oil Black Walnut.

Here is the final product.

For more, see the post on 4/16/2012.

Thanks again to my sister Tami for the idea.


Pictures below show the various steps:

 

Final Product (on the Armstrong tartan)