posted 06-29-2007 09:04 AM               

Remember to drill a little long so you don't botttom out the drift and crack the wood. I laid out all the pins on the pattern so I know where everything is when I drill for hardware and tiller.

Also, be careful when you put the second half of the wood on the drifts. The drifts are already set in one side and when you tap the other side on it can still push the drifts deeper into the first half.

posted 06-30-2007 01:09 AM               

As the others have posted you should:

1). Make sure the holes are longer than the drifts or you will split the plank.
2). Check the plan drawing for the locations of the drifts.
3). Test bore the holes on mahogany cutoffs. Don’t use different wood, like pine (which is cheaper I know), because the bores will come out different on woods that have different densities. It a shame I know to waste good mahogany but you may get a different fit on softer woods.
4). Bore from both sides of the plank. Any errors will be smaller if you only bore half way through the plank. You must make very accurate layout lines of course.
5). I read opinions on driving the drifts dry and with a light epoxy coat. I drove mine dry and think the drifts have plenty of bite. I doubt they will loosen.
6). Round the leading end so it drives cleanly. I didn’t on the first one and it stuck, luckily only a few inches in so I was able to remove it and file down the ends.
7). I used a combination of driving with a hammer and using the clamps to pull the planks together. Basically I used the drifts to connect any two planks together and then used the clamps to pull those planks together.
8). Although you didn’t ask, I highly recommend dry fitting the planks together and use registration marks on the planks once your happy with the fit. But don’t install the drifts until your ready to commit to assembly! Once my planks were fully assembled I would not have been able to pull them apart with out causing damage. I hardly needed to clamp them to allow the epoxy to dry.
9). I was very nervous about boring the holes and blowing out the side of the plank, and I’m sure that’s a real risk, but I found that because I laid out the drift positions, made accurate layout lines, dry fit until I was happy and took lots of time (I spent 3 nights dry fitting everything, anal retentive I know) it went very well and wasn’t scary at all.

Good luck.