Planning to make a wrongko

[Johan van Zyl]

I'm sorry to burden you all with more pics of my project so soon (I know there's lots more important stuff going on in our forum members' collections & discussions) but I'm feeling like a kid now, who's just won a big prize. The reason I say this is that I've been dreading the moment of joining the gandar to the gambar. What if I don't do it correctly & accurately and the join looks sloppy? Well, the job went well & I've got a burden off my shoulders! So I'd like to share my method with you, not to brag about my success but because I'm so relieved. I've got new enthusiasm now for the endless sanding procedure to make the join look neat on the outside.

The four pics will show. First I made a few cardboard templates and experimentally clipped holes into them that correspond to the four bambu pins in the gandar. From these I selected the one that fits best. Then I transferred the hole marks onto the end of the gambar with a pencil, following which I drilled pilot holes into the gambar. Of course, I had to secure the gambar on the vertical drill press platform and make sure the drill holes are made perpendicularly into the gambar join face. Then I changed to a bigger drill bit and expanded the pilot holes. You'll see from the 3rd & 4th pics that I have some reason to be elated. The epoxy has not been applied yet, there will come a time for that. Alan's suggestion will also still be put into practice.

I excitedly explained the steps I followed to my 82 year old sister living with us, and she had the following to say: "What a beautiful pink colour the wood is!" Pink indeed.