Secret Singer Project - now can be revelaed

[slodave]

Some may know that I've been lucky enough to work with Singer on integrating wood into some of their 911's. Mostly shift knobs, but there was a dashboard project that ended up on their Mulholland commission and this floorboard project for another commission - of which has one of my ebony shift knobs and soon will also have a ebony parking brake handle.

So... Here's the making of the ebony floorboards, since some of you are interested in how things are made.

Rough piece of ebony as it comes from Africa. It is kiln dried there, then waxed. What's not so visible is the very rough saw cuts from the mill. In order to make it usable the top and bottom need to be surfaced. That was done via the planer - machine with cutting blades that spin super fast and can be height adjustable to adjust cut height.


Didn't get a shot of the planning, as the wood is heavy and all hands were needed at the machine. Top and bottom have been surfaced and ready to true up the sides, as these boards can be 7" at one end and 8" at the other. For this project I need three 7" wide pieces from the two boards (other board not shown).


First we need to make one side straight. That side will then go against the fence of the table saw to make a nice rectangle. We tried to use heavy duty double sided tape to hold the ebony to the sled underneath, but we were having problems getting the tape to stick because of residual wax that transferred to the sled. Since the boards are longer than needed, we resorted to a nail on each end to hole the ebony to the sled. The sled is perfectly cut and acts as the guide against the fence for the first cut.


Done! Now we have a piece of ebony that can be cut into three pieces. Sounds easy, but it's not. The saw blade only extends 3" above the table, and the board is 7" wide. That's not going to work, so we decided to make a first pass, then flip the board 180* and make the second cut. That leaves 1" of material in the center of the board that needs to be cut, but how? To the bandsaw!


Before we made the first cuts on the ebony, we tested on a piece of scrap to make sure that the table saw cuts would leave enough wood for the three pieces we need from this board. Deeper cut towards the middle simulates the 1" thickness of the board, the two shallow cuts show that we will get the three pieces from this board.


Here you can see the middle of the board that the table saw couldn't cut. Also notice how the cut at the bottom bends out to the left. This is because wood is under a lot of tension when one big piece and as you cut the piece into thinner pieces, tension in the grain is released and the wood moves. The bottom cut is perfect, turns out the top cut on the opposite end actually closed the gap.That presents a problem on the bandsaw.


Where things were left tonight.... We are going to need to put wedges into the cut that closed - even though the thin part is just over 1/8" thick, it does not want to budge and we needed to use a screw driver to gently pry it apart so we could put the wedges in that will ultimately get cut away. Tomorrow, I'll make longer, uniform wedges to keep the gap consistent.


Meh, thought it would have showed how the cut closed, but it's not easy to see. Move along...


You can kind of make out how it is spreading apart at this end...


Continuing onto the bandsaw, my dad and I setup a jig so we could accurately cut the 1” of wood remaining in the middle of the board.

[slodave]

Closer look...




Since wood moves when tension is released, we had to use some maple scrap as spacers to keep the wood from closing in and clamping down on the blade.


After about five hours the first piece has finally been rough cut. Three more cuts to go!


After about 10 hours, I finally have the first three cut and milled to the proper thickness. Next step is to joint the edges and glue them together to make one piece of thick veneer. Now to cut the other board of ebony into three pieces. So far, we have about 10 hours in this project. Since we’ve solved a bunch of problems on how to get to this point, the next board will hopefully take half that time to get to this stage.


Didn’t want to bore with the same steps again, but the second board has been cut up and is now the proper thickness. There almost was a major oops that would have rendered this board useless for this project, but fortunately I caught it in time and saved it. Next is to glue these three pieces together to make one piece of thick veneer and do the same with the other three pieces. Then, laminate the glued up pieces to the plywood bases and then the real fun begins - cutting and routing to make the actual floorboard patterns.my dad was invaluable once again, but it’s almost time for him to say goodbye to this project, as I’m at just about at the point where it becomes a one person job again.


A lot of time, thin boards (even thick) will warp. It’s partly due to the grain and released tension, but also because of moisture content. Depends if in how the wood is stored, one side can be more exposed to atmosphere and dry out more than the other side. To fix this “cupping”, you can put the wood on grass that is moist, with the dry side down and a short time later, it’ll absorb moisture, expand and flatten out.


Once the boards are flat enough, we can take them to the jointer to create perfect 90* edges to glue together. In a perfect world, this will result in a glue joint that is invisible to the eye.


Once the edges are perfectly jointed, we do trial fits over and over until we are happy, then figure out how to glue the three boards together so there is pressure on the tips to make sure any wraps left will be flattened out with clamps - but in our case, clamps were not an option. So....


...We got creative with weights and other heavy objects. Hopefully tomorrow when everything is removed, we will have perfect joints that won’t be seen be the naked eye. This procedure will be repeated for the other three boards. If this all goes well, next step will be to laminate the glued up ebony to the base plywood, then cut to shape.

[slodave]

First ebony veneer done! The right third has mineral spirits on it to simulate his dark the ebony will look after the finish is applied.


Do or die time. First board in the vacuum bag. 7.5 hours to go before we can take it out. Hopefully the pump doesn’t fail. Second board goes in tonight, but the pump will have to run all night, since the outside temp will drop, slowing the curing time for the glue.


Now we weight.... The second set of ebony panels glued up to make the veneer board. After dinner, this will be glued to the plywood substrate and put in the vacuum bag all night.


First laminated board out of the bag. I was hoping to get this one cut and trimmed to the template, but didn’t have time. Second board was put into the vacuum bag press around 9:45pm and will be taken out mid morning Friday.


Both boards laminated. They were put in the sun because when they came out of the vacuum bag, they warped because of the water in the glue that was absorbed by the wood. The heat of the sun helped dry the remains moisture. When they were brought back into the shop and put on a flat surface, they flattened out a few minutes later.


Now to finish sand and apply the finish.


Final test fit at Singer.


Final passenger test fit at Singer.


Into the finish stage..


Closeup of one of the joints.

[slodave]

Because I need to put finish on the backsides of the boards, I used two pieces of scrap plywood with 4 nails sticking up to act as a support and so as not to wipe off any of the finish on the underside.


In between coats, drying.


Down to the final stage in this process. It’s hard to get the best idea of how the board on the left looks in the picture, but you can get an idea looking at the bottom of the board. After the final coat of finish, I just used 4O steel wool to cut the sheen, then used ground pumice and water to get the fine scratches out the the slightly coarser steel wool left. The board on the right hasn’t been touched after the last coat of finish and you can see some reflections at the top.


Done, though I know I’ll work on the passenger side a touch more after dinner.


One of the last time I saw the bards before being installed. I still have yet to see them in car, in person and it's been 5 months since dropping them off.

One last look...


These last 4 are courtesy Singer.





***Disclaimer - Singer doesn't endorse me and I don't endorse Singer*** - I have to say that.

[speeder]

Really nice work! I'll have to go see it up close, they are right down the street from me and I drop in and see them once in a while.

[Tobra]

I like the upholstery too.

How durable is ebony going to be for floor board material?

[slodave]

Originally Posted by speeder

Really nice work! I'll have to go see it up close, they are right down the street from me and I drop in and see them once in a while.

Thanks! Give it a couple of weeks and the parking handle should be installed as well. The owner decided to have that installed after personally saw the car.

Originally Posted by Tobra

I like the upholstery too.

How durable is ebony going to be for floor board material?

The finish used is designed for regular wood floors found in homes. That said, nothing is impervious to scratching and it's understood by all that this will happen. The owner specifically did not want traditional carpet floor mats. This 911 was commissioned to go with a lot of basics with the idea that it'll pick up "patina" with use. Not going to disclose who he is, but I totally understand his reasoning to go with a more exotic route. It was decided to not create true veneer out of the ebony, as that would have made things difficult to refinish down the road of there was a deeper scratch. The ebony is 1/8" thick to allow for at least two refinishes.

[ckissick]

Nice work. It reminds of building guitars. A go-bar deck is a good alternative to weights or multiple clamps:



Also, to join the two halves of the top or bottom of a guitar, I built a jig that uses large rubber bands to exert the pressure. I don't have pic of it. Both methods are used in lutherie because they're very fast and easy.

[slodave]

Originally Posted by ckissick

Nice work. It reminds of building guitars. A go-bar deck is a good alternative to weights or multiple clamps:



Also, to join the two halves of the top or bottom of a guitar, I built a jig that uses large rubber bands to exert the pressure. I don't have pic of it. Both methods are used in lutherie because they're very fast and easy.

Thanks! I’m actually familiar with both process from having built acoustic and electric guitars. The go-bar system wasn’t a good choice to attempt to glue the six 1/8” pieces of ebony side to side (three per floorboard). I used the rubberband method when binding my Les Paul that I built.

[Geronimo '74]

Once again, excellent craftsmanship!
Very cool!

[tabs]

Ditto the craftsmanship.

I don't get a wood floorboard in a 911 though?
That kind of material went out with the horse and buggy. It would be ok for deck of the Titanic but a 911?

[masraum]

Wow, very cool. Beautiful work. I'd hate to put my shoes on the boards, get dirt/grit on them and wear them in spots. I think I'd require people to remove their shoes and wear soft cotton socks or booties of some sort to ride in the car.

[E38Driver]

Awesome work Dave. Thank you for letting us watch great craftsmanship at work.

Dave

[slodave]

Originally Posted by Geronimo '74

Once again, excellent craftsmanship!
Very cool!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by tabs

Ditto the craftsmanship.

I don't get a wood floorboard in a 911 though?
That kind of material went out with the horse and buggy. It would be ok for deck of the Titanic but a 911?

Thank you!
Who says it can't come back? It's a special wishes project, all I can say is that it's been done with reason.

Originally Posted by masraum

Wow, very cool. Beautiful work. I'd hate to put my shoes on the boards, get dirt/grit on them and wear them in spots. I think I'd require people to remove their shoes and wear soft cotton socks or booties of some sort to ride in the car.

Thank you!
I *think* I saw a pair of smaller mats made to protect for servicing, photoshoots (to get the car into position), etc... I actually did mean to get a few pair of booties from a Dr friend of mine (Noah930) and give them to Singer when I delivered the boards.

Originally Posted by E38Driver

Awesome work Dave. Thank you for letting us watch great craftsmanship at work.

Dave

Thanks, Dave, I appreciate that. I'll post other projects when I can.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by E38Driver

Awesome work Dave. Thank you for letting us watch great craftsmanship at work.

Exactly. I enjoy looking at the journey as much as the finished product.

[Steve F]

Very Nice work! Are you at liberty to give a rough idea of what the ebony blank cost....maybe a ballpark range? I understand if not:<)

Thanks

[onewhippedpuppy]

Dave, beautiful work as always. Sounds like the partnership is a good one, you also provide their 917 style shift knobs correct?

Did you put any sort of gritty surface on the driver’s side for heel grip? Seems like finished wood could be very slippery. Here we go, one of the peasants knocking a car that costs more than his house (by a lot).

[slodave]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Exactly. I enjoy looking at the journey as much as the finished product.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Steve F

Very Nice work! Are you at liberty to give a rough idea of what the ebony blank cost....maybe a ballpark range? I understand if not:<)

Thanks

Around 1kUS

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Dave, beautiful work as always. Sounds like the partnership is a good one, you also provide their 917 style shift knobs correct?

Did you put any sort of gritty surface on the driver’s side for heel grip? Seems like finished wood could be very slippery. Here we go, one of the peasants knocking a car that costs more than his house (by a lot).

Thank you! I Do.

I did not. There was talk about putting a rubber rectangle that they use on soe of the regular floor mats.

[javadog]

Nice work. Thanks for the photos, your work is always enjoyable to watch.

I've never worked with ebony as it too expensive and I 'd hate to subject a saw blade to it's density. I'd imaging it's like sawing a rock in half...

Resawing a board like that gives me the willies. Well done. Most people don't know how hard that is.

[mepstein]

Originally Posted by slodave

These last 4 are courtesy Singer.



***Disclaimer - Singer doesn't endorse me and I don't endorse Singer*** - I have to say that.

Slodave - I like your work. Thanks for sharing. The rest is too over the top for me.