Base molding completed, I am fitting and gluing the cap pieces around the top of the font

 

After a week of behind the scene progress, it is time to bring everyone up to date on the font's construction. I finished fitting and gluing the base moldings last week, after shaping each of the individual profiles with either one of my bench planes, or my rounding planes. With that done, I made up eight feet of crown molding using my hollow and rounding planes. I briefly considered taking pictures of the process, but not being sure that I wasn't spending a lot of time making kindling, concentrated on the work in front of me. Then I needed to make up the cap molding which runs around the top of the font. I made the cap stock like a traditional bolection molding with a rabbet that sits over the top edges of the font's upper section. The rabbet hides the gap between the  font sides and a top panel which holds the bowl. The bowl panel floats unglued, sitting on cleats glued and screwed to the inside side faces of the upper box. I cut the top panel a little under sized so that it could shrink or swell with the seasons with out breaking the joints of the box in which it sits. The rabbeted cap hides this gap and holds the top panel in the top section of the font. Today's picture shows the completed base moulding and the partially applied cap fitting around the top and sides of the upper section, in which a bowl will fit.

The cap molding as I write has been glued in place. Tomorrow I will start fitting the crown molding which fits immediatly underneath the cap. Have a great day. Thank you for stopping by.