For this week’s project, I wanted to create a merkabah out of two of my favorite woods — walnut and purple heart. Unfortunately due to delays, my purple heart came in about 4 days too late to be included in this project. Also, due to some angular limitations with using the miter saw and my planning, I was not able to create the cubic triangles that I had intended. Instead, I created 6 wedge-like triangle pieces that are oddly shaped yet almost uniform.
To begin, I ordered on amazon two uniform milled planks of walnut wood that I then glued together with several clamps and let it cure overnight. In the interim, I attempted to understand the angles and how I needed to cut and practiced with some scrap wood I found in the shop.
two walnut planks
3/4” x 4” x 12” purchased on amazon.com
gorilla wood glue
used for a 24 hr cure
glue applied almost evenly
need a few more clamps
Next I took the piece to the Miter saw and attempted to cut in half (a bit dangerous I figured out quickly) and took the pieces to the sander to be more of a triangular shape (thanks to Ben’s suggestion). After about an hour at the sander, I had 3 pieces ready to cut.
measured and ready to cut
not able to cut angels on the miter saw at this point
roughly measured
sanding down
three ready to cut
cutting on the miter saw
After the miter saw I took the pieces back to the sander and took the edges down a bit. I ended up making 6 and saw that they made a nice hexagon shape when put together.
singular piece