Preparing for Ipe furniture build

allen levine

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new york city burbs
My momma always told me never jump into the deep end of the pool first.
She was right.
I never listened.

I'm leaving for WNY tomorrow or next day(furniture delivery), and I've already contacted a supplier to put together an order of Ipe.

I wish I never met the stuff, but its beauty is something I cant get past.

My back let up a bit, and I've avoided all work, so I decided to spend a couple of hours drawing out a template,sketch for the chairs.

I make chairs. Lots of chairs. But I use screws and glue and screw the joints together.

Today, mortise and tenons, its another world.

A chair is for lack of a better word, unforgiving. Theres very little room for error, and Im quite sure the experts here know that.

Why I chose to build this way with zero experience in this joinery, noone around to help or suggest things, I dont know.

I can gather info from here, I hope once in a blue moon over this build someone will step in and steer me in the right direction if I stray too far.
This is going to be way above my skill level. I know chair makers might giggle at this, but this is by far the most difficult build I have ever tried.
This aint no cabinet.
Cut some scrap 2x6s, made 2 legs, decided to just cut out half the mortises on each leg to see if I can make some tenons and see how this stuff works.

Laid the two back legs together before I marked them, nothing detailed here, this is scrap, so if Im off a tiny bit I wont lose sleep over it.

I have yet to build a simple tenon jig, that I will do before I cut another one.

It came together with the first few pieces I test fit, but man, this is very difficult stuff.

My intention is to cut every piece to size,(couple extra on slats and supports in case I cut errors with tenons somewhere along the way) then cut all the mortises, then cut each tenon, test fitting them on every piece, even though they should all be identical.(I might taper the front 2 legs and round over the top of the back, but wouldnt do that till all the mortises are cut first.)
 

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Allen,
Looks like quite the project, and I'm far from an expert on M&T jointery. One thing I do seem to recall however, is that one ought to cut the mortise first, then fit the tennon to it. I would guess that it is easier to cut away the material around the tennon vs hogging out more on the mortise, or worse, having to fill in the mortise. Your mileage might vary of course.
 
Allen,

I have one word for you


CARBIDE

When you put IPE in for decking, the tell you to buy several carbide tipped drills and plan to throw them away when you are done :eek::rolleyes::dunno:

In other words, you are going to spend a lot of time sharpening chisels for those mortices and perhaps a saw blade or two.
 
Ive noticed if I use the mortising attachment on the Ipe, moving only in small increments at a time, it works fine, dont know how long the chisel and bit will hold out for, I will pick up more.
Cutting, well, Ive purchased a new TS blade, and my dados are fairly new.
Ive built a chair, a small table,and 2 planters out of Ipe,(I thought is was cumaru, but I was corrected by the seller)
Didnt seem overwehlmingly difficult.

Btw, anyone interested in some really cheap Ipe, although I didnt see it, and its only 1x4 in 3 foot lengths or shorter, I saw an ad yesterday or the day before(craigslist NY) on City Island in the bronx ny, 1.00 per foot, (Im sure everything is negotiable). If youre in the market for planters, or smaller projects, its a great deal if its all in good shape. In the picture the guy had tons of it.
I would have made the short trip, but my truck is already loaded down with furniture and there was no way I was going to unload it again.
 
I wish you luck on your project. Two of these evil Ipenistas totally toasted a couple of HH Woodslicer blades, a couple pattern router bits, and my sanity. It looks good in the end but thats murderous stuff to work.
IpeChair.JPG
 
Make sure you work outside or wear a respirator as the dust is fine and is known to cause allergic reactions.

$1 a ft is a good buy and I'd love some but thats too far a drive.
 
I wish you luck on your project. Two of these evil Ipenistas totally toasted a couple of HH Woodslicer blades, a couple pattern router bits, and my sanity. It looks good in the end but thats murderous stuff to work.
View attachment 23194

looks great, must weigh around 50-60 lbs, I just wiped my ipe chair and table down with linseed oil today to bring back the color.2-3 times a year.
This build will teach me or test my patience.

I do need a few screws, anyone know a good place to get stainless steel philips head 1.25 inch? without shipping costs killing me.
 
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Allen, I suspect you will surprise yourself with how well you do on this chair. Should be a challenging but rewarding project.

You might try McFeely's for the screws. Also, your local True Value-type hardware store will likely have stainless steel screws. I know of a couple local "small box" stores that have the rows and rows of thin-drawer cabinets full of oddball hardware.
 
looks great, must weigh around 50-60 lbs, ...
I anyone know a good place to get stainless steel philips head 1.25 inch? without shipping costs killing me.

I think they're quite a bit heavier than that. It's very difficult for one person to move one. Two of us loaded them on a roof rack for a ride from here to AZ and we were both sweating and cursing. My guess is closer to 80-90 Lbs ea.

I'll 2nd Vaughn's suggestion on McFeeleys or the Small Box stores. I've bought a number of different SS screws/bolts at a local hardware store that's a Do-All store. But even the Borg has some SS screws.
 
not questioning fate, but the back held out ok.......drove from Long Island to just south of buffalo, then headed over to buffalo for Ipe and Garapa, then headed over to syracuse and had to attend to a few silly matters today so I never had the chance this moring to head up to PUlaski ny to check out the cherry. Next time. The Ipe is home, now if I could only get one of my neighbors to gimme a hand unloading it......nah....Im ok so far.

Would have liked to visit a buddy or so up in syracuse, sorry, work called.
 
687 dollars later, not including tax, 450 miles of a drive, 450 miles back home, no damage to my truck, its sure gonna hurt making mistakes. Dont look like too much for all that money and effort.
 

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687 dollars later, not including tax, 450 miles of a drive, 450 miles back home, no damage to my truck, its sure gonna hurt making mistakes. Dont look like too much for all that money and effort.
Sometimes I think the same way when I pick up a load of lumber - hundreds of bucks for a pile of wood. What was I thinking?:dunno:

Don't worry - you'll make some nice things, sell them for a lot of money........ then go back and buy more.:D
 
For the Ipe deck I did I got #10 X 1.5" square drive SS screws from McFeeleys. It was about $90 for a box of 1000 I think.


I ordered them , 1.25 inch SS, and I ordered a box of 6 square head #2 driving heads, slim shaft(I have so many square head drivers in my assorted collections of drive heads, but I dont know the quality or the actual sizes, since Ive never used them before, figured buy with the screws, get the right ones)
 
allen, sorry if i missed it but how many bdft is there. or did they sell it by the lineal ft?

i'm guessing 100 by looking at it but without knowing the length it's hard to say.

can't wait to see it come to life

chris
 
all of their Ipe products are sold by linear feet.(or at least priced on the site like that)
Its a huge place, my order was sitting on the loading dock waiting for me, a nice young strong kid helped me load,(advantage lumber)

Theres 120linear ft of 3/4 and 84 feet 5/4.
I also purchased a small amount of 2x2 and one piece of Garapa, about 7 feet.
Garapa is bascially an ash colored wood, and its invovled with the first bit of the build.
Not really my set, but its a present for my son for his birthday coming up in Oct.
Hope he doesnt read this, Im making him an outdoor chess table. Size of an end table, he has nice enough boards for inside, thought this would be appreciated.
Dont know how these things turn out, I always keep my fingers crossed.
Then Ill get started ripping up this stuff.
 
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at least IM having fun:)

to any experienced craftsman, this is childs play, but this is the first time in my life Im actually using a drill press for something Im building.

I spent an awful lot of time setting up the measurements and ofcourse, the first one came out a bit off, but since its just a slight bit off, and its only for leg aprons, I decided to leave it or Id have to waste wood I dont have.
It wont be noticable. In the simple construction, it wont be important.
Just so Rennie could get a good laugh in, I forgot when I was setting the depth of the cut on the drill press, I had to take into consideration where the starting point was above the wood. Hehehehe.....hey, its a learning experience also.

The top, well, the photo is bad, but there are tiny spaces, I cant get a perfect cut in such dense wood(garapa isnt any better) with a 99 dollar table saw with the cheapest fence known to mankind, so I have to accept it or just go out and buy a new one.
OUtdoor use, tiny spaces wont ruin it, its not going to be a masterpiece, but who else has a ipe/garapa chess table.(maybe if one lives in the Brazilian rainforest)

Some beginning shots, the cuts on the Delta mortiser attachment are very clean, I was impressed.(Moderators: if my amateur thread takes up too much bandwidth, please let me know, Ill stop, most of this stuff is first year for most craftsmen here)

gotta go build a jig for tenons, should be interesting to say the least.
 

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