New To You, and New To Me !!

     This a new thing for me, blogging, hopefully it will be fun and informative, for myself and anyone that happens by.  I am now involved in the repairing of a 1932 Chevrolet 5 window coupe which I purchased a couple of months ago.  The repairs started out to be rather minor as things go, but things started snowballing on me.  You know how that goes, just a small thing here and there and the next thing you know you are in up to your eyeballs!  At first it was just a few mechanical issues, a new shift lever assembly and a emergency brake lever with attaching parts.  I knew that the rumble seat floor pan was in bad shape but in reality it was missing altogether.  There had been a 1/4 inch hardboard makeshift floor installed, so the search was on.  I found a fellow in Ohio that makes all the floor pans for the coupe and I promptly ordered the same.  As I kept digging I found dry rot in several places, you see the folks at Chevrolet were as much carriage builders as car builders.  There is a complete wooden frame glued and screwed together before any sheet metal can be attached.  In a way that is why I am now blogging.  I found several other blogs that woody wagon builders are writing, and it dawned on me that this might be a great way to share my experiences as well as garner some information.  The need to make several finger joints for the wooded skeleton of the 32 has had me searching the net high and low.  There is a lot of talk about the joint but very little meat and bones of the how to of the joint.  As time marches on and hopefully progress with the project I will post more information in regards to my accomplishments and hardships.
     I would like information on companies that manufacture finger joint cutters, not the big elaborate production machinery but something more for the home shop.  These joints are of the structural nature, that is,  they are 7/8 " deep.  Most others are a maximum of 1/2" in depth which is sufficient for joining two boards end to end for the purpose of lengthening the board and consuming short cutoff lumber pieces but not for structural purposes.  Nor is  it in keeping with the original methods of construction.  It is also not to be confused with a box joint which is commonly referred to as a finger joint.  The box joint has rectilinear (square or rectangle) fingers and the true finger joint has long tapered fingers.  These long tapered fingers provide much more long grain gluing surface and they also wedge together to create a very strong structural joint.
 
More later from---Beneath The Bark