The Legacy Redwood Project Continues

After a hectic Spring, I finally had a chance to tackle the first furniture piece from the legacy redwood project. The first "chunk" to be used was really more of a waste piece that was left over after all the larger pieces for milling were separated from the original round. It was a funny little triangular piece whose shape was complete happenstance. 

 

This piece had a big bark inclusion and had many large cracks and splits that precluded slicing it up. So, the task was to see what could be made of it as is. After playing around with various orientations I settled on a rather unconventional plan to use if tipped up on its point as a console table base. 

 

The real trick to this piece was to keep 70 lbs of wood and glass stable. You can see in this drawing that the original idea was to have a steel post inserted into the bottom of the wood. After more thought and consultation with my personal engineering guru, David, that idea was abandoned for an approach that involved a steel bracket that could cradle the slab and bolt to it. I had the bracket fabricated by local metal artists Paul and Forrest Cheney of Cheney Metals. The bracket bolts to the solid wenge base, and then attaches to the wood slab with lag screws.

Before the wood could be mounted in the bracket, though, the severe checking would have to be dealt with to stabilize the slab. To do that, I ran two 16" long screws made for log cabin construction all the way into the slab parallel to each side to bridge the major sections of the slab.

Once everything was secured, it was just a matter of adding a glass top, along with a steel rod to support the glass in the bark void.

With a good penetrating oil finish the figure really popped out, and this little afterthought of a chunk became a beautiful piece of furniture.

The biggest problem my client will have now is deciding which side to display. 

Stay tuned for the next installment as this project continues on.

 

 

Curvy Nightstands Slide through the Home Stretch

Once the outsides of the legs were shaped it was time to shape the front faces of the legs to better define their curvy shape. This was done using a simple jig and pattern-following router bit while the case was dry-fit together.

The last step for the case parts was to finish the joinery - the shelves were joined to the sides with Dominos, while the top was joined with dowels. The latter were located using a simple shop-made positioning jig.

The bodies then went together very nicely, albeit with a lot of clamps!

The next step was to add the drawers, and of course, curvy sides deserve curvy drawers (or at least drawer fronts). To ensure smooth running of the drawer slides, the inside of the case was made square, but the drawer fronts were shaped to follow the curvature of the legs faces. Once the drawers were mounted, handles were fashioned out of solid wenge to match the rest of the accent trim.

The final result was very satisfying.

Now they just have to make their way to the other side of the country!

Sledding Through the Curves

How do you make a perfectly fair curved surface out of solid wood that's 20" wide , 28" long, and almost 3" thick? That was the challenge of the latest project in the shop. The project is a pair of nightstands made of solid mahogany, and based on a Klismos-inspired stool I made last year. 

I know what you're saying .... go find a 20" capacity bandsaw and just cut the curves. Easier said than done, and then there would still be the challenge of building a jig to keep the slender blank perfectly perpendicular to the saw table - no easy feat. Ultimately, I decided to stick with the equipment I had, for convenience. Since I only have a 12" capacity bandsaw, and the premium pattern-grade Sapele I was using was only about 6-8" wide, the sides would have to be glued up in three pieces.

To strengthen the joints, I added dowels, which were positioned properly in the blank using a shop made drilling jig.

After the dowel holes were drilled, the outline of the side was cut using the bandsaw. The blanks were then glued up and set into a fairing jig. 

The fairing jig works with like the setup often used to flatten large slabs with a router. The sides of the lower part of the jig are the exact fair arc that describes the curve of the nightstand side. Riding across these is a sled, along which a trim router rides. As the sled moves along the curved rails a series of narrow flats is created.

The faired surface can then be sanded smooth, resulting in a fair curved nightstand side. 

Bandsawn blank (L), rough faired blank (R), and sanded fair side (bottom).

The faired sides can then get their joinery cut and the nightstands take shape - stay tuned....

Monumental Coffee Table Hits the Mark

Now that you've seen what went into making this massive coffee table, here's the final result. 

Because of the size and severity of the check line along one side, the slab had to be stabilized from both sides. Because I didn't have to worry about aesthetics on the underside, I added a full complement of butterflies along the entire length, to add extra stability.

 

And here's the final result after finishing with polyurethane....

Hope you enjoyed hearing about the process of making this table. I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself - but most of the credit goes to Mother Nature for the real star of the piece, the wood.

The Coffee Table Base

Once the top was shaped, flattened and sanded, it was time to tackle the base. The base of this table consists of only four parts. The legs and bottom rail are half-lapped together, which is a pretty simple joint to cut, normally, but in this case the legs are canted out at a 10 degree angle. Cutting the angled joint is still pretty straightforward, but requires an extra jig, and some thoughtful planning.

The secret to a well-fitting joint is to do all the angled milling operations with the same table saw blade setup.  After setting the blade to 10 degrees, I first trimmed the top and bottom faces of the legs. Next, without moving the blade, I cut the angled half-laps in the bottom rail. To do this, I used a crosscut sled. You can also see in the photo how the rip fence and a stop block defined the limits of the cut as the material is nibbled away. That meant that I could cut both sides with only a single setup by just flipping the rail, yielding two dadoes exactly the same size and perfectly symmetrical.

 

While the blade was still tilted, I also cut the front and bottom parts for the leg dadoing jig. This jig was used in conjunction with my normal 90 degree crosscut sled to cut the mating dadoes in the legs. Stop blocks again defined the limits of the cut, and allowed me to cut both legs with a single setup. The same sled setup was also used to cut the dadoes for the upper rail.

The ragged edges left by nibbling with the table saw were cleaned up with a chisel, and with all the joint halves cut using only two setups, there was no doubt that the joint would fit properly.

Now that the joinery was cut, the various parts could be shaped. First, the bottom rail's upper half was given a parabolic arched profile. Using a paper template, the shape was drawn onto the rail ends, and the majority of the waste material removed with a couple of passes on the table saw. The profile was then refined with a plane, scraper, and sander. By leaving the lower half of the rail square, the joint was fully maintained.

Shaping of the legs was done in two steps. First, the outer edges were curved to give a softened trapezoidal outline. This was done on the band saw, and then faired with a belt sander.

Next the sides of each leg were given a thumbnail profile. This was done by first laying out a center line down the face and relief lines on each side, then using a compass to lay out the curve.

Then it was back to the plane and sander to fair it all out. The base was now complete and ready for finishing.

A Swoopy Sideboard

My latest commission is a sideboard with plenty of curve appeal. Meant to be a display piece for my clients' stem and serving ware, it features curved and tapered legs, as well a curved door rails. It will have inlay accents along the top and sides of the case, as well as a glass top.

Originally imagined in mahogany, my client fell in love with a sample of figured bubinga I had from a past commission. And to our great fortune, the supplier I had used for the first piece, Global Wood Source in San Jose, had a few more large boards of similar material. It is premium material (at a premium price), and should look great when finished. The two boards are just barely enough to make all the necessary parts, so I'll have to be extra careful, as there's no backup material!

While waiting for the maple interior panel glue-ups to cure, the first order of business was to make the legs. The curved design we're using is based on true radii of 63.25", so the shaping template could be made with a router and trammel to get "perfect" curves. First the center points of the arcs were laid out using trammel points.

By swinging arcs from each end of the final arc, the exact center was found. Then a router on a shop-made trammel arm could be swung to produce each arc.

Which left a great template with very little hand fairing necessary.

Next the pattern was transferred to each leg blank and the shape was rough cut on the band saw. Each blank was then trimmed to final shape on the router table using a flush-trim bit with both top and bottom bearings. This allowed for the blank and template to be flipped so that the direction of cut was always "downhill" to the grain, to avoid tear-out.

Next, each leg was tapered using a sled that raised the foot and held the leg in place as it traveled through the planer.

The last steps were to first round over all edges, then shape the upper portion of the leg to a more pleasing elliptical cross-section.

Then final hand fairing with planes and scrapers, and lots of sanding.

Next up, the case carcass. Stay tuned...

Done and Delivered!

I don't usually post many photos of completed pieces, but I thought this one deserved it. You've seen what went into this piece, so now here's how it came out. My thanks to Paul Schraub Photography for the studio beauty shots.

To pivot the drawer, there's a small finger-pull carved into the end of each drawer.

Because the pivot point for the drawer is close to the center line of the table, about half of the main compartment is somewhat inaccessible, so I fitted a small sliding inner container to fill that space.

The shape of the drawers is vaguely boat-like, which fits well with other nautical-themed details in the house. Here's its new home in the entry way.

A Shapely Top for that Leggy Console

With the shapely base for the console table completed, the next step in this project was to make the equally shapely top to go with it. Because of the shape and detailing of the top, I decided to make it using shop-cut veneers. This way I could achieve the most consistent color and grain match. It was more work that way, but made for a more stable platform in the end. The first step was to cut and fair the marine plywood substrate. Next, the leaves of veneer had to be jointed and glued together. At just over 7' long and only 3/32" thick, the veneer leaves were much too flexible to joint on a machine. So, I turned to an age old hand tool technique. Adjacent veneer pairs were sandwiched between two pieces of plywood to make a shooting board, of sorts, so they could be planed for a perfectly matched joint.

The jointed leaves were then taped together and their edges glued before being pressed to the substrate in a vacuum bag.

After the bottom face was pressed, a chamfer was cut in the front edge. The chamfer was then veneered and faired. Before the top face was pressed, T-nuts for mounting the drawer pivots and stiffener were mortised into the top surface of the substrate. The mortises were then filled and leveled before the top face was pressed.

Once the top face was pressed, the front edge could then be faired to final shape and the drawer pivot post and leg attachment mortises could then be cut.


Finally, the top face was mortised and stringing inlaid. To make the string inlay fit easily into the tight curve at the ends of the top, it was pre-bent before insertion using a simple clothes iron for steaming, and the edge of the original top template as a form.

Once the top was completed, it was time to tackle the drawers. Stay tuned....

New Project: A Leggy Console Table

My newest commission is an entry console table that features swoopy, sculptured legs and two curvy drawers for small items like keys and such.

Complex legs like these start with a paper pattern printed full-scale from the computer model. The patterns are placed on the plywood template material such that the mating edges of the parts line up with the straight-and-square milled plywood edges.

Once they're rough milled on the bandsaw, they're smoothed and faired by hand with rasps and sandpaper.

The parts are then laid out on the rough lumber to take best advantage of grain.

Once they're rough milled, again on the bandsaw, the mating edges are trimmed straight using a straight-edge saw guide.

After the mating faces are established, dadoes are cut across them to form bridle joints.

The next step is to trim them to exactly match the templates using the router table. In a design like this, with highly curved parts that meet at variable angles its important to leave flat ears to act as clamping aids.

The next step is to mill and attach the contrasting feet. To create a pleasing look, its important to maintain a continuous grain flow from leg to foot. With legs that are square in cross-section, structural integrity can be maintained by creating the foot by just veneering the bottom of the leg. But with curved legs that are rounded in cross-section its much easier to simply attach a solid foot to the leg that can be shaped and smoothed with impunity. Because the joint between feet and legs in this situation is, by necessity, an end-grain to end-grain joint, it has very little structural integrity. Therefore I always support this type of joint with a mechanical fastener, aka, a screw. Once the pre-drilled foot is glued in place, a pilot hole is drilled into the leg and the screw inserted.

Once the foot is attached, the leg can be tapered and rounded. Because the tapered legs change in thickness along their length, the radius of the edges has to change, as well. To make this easier, I use several round-over router bits of increasing radius as I move up the leg. This makes creating a consistently changing edge profile a snap.

Here are the four back leg pieces dry fit together. You can see the floating bridle tenon that connects all four pieces, as well as the positions of the clamping ears at critical points.

Then its just a matter of gluing it all up.

After the back leg sub-assembly has dried, the clamping ears are removed and the final fairing completed.

Et voilá, the assembled base.

Stay tuned for more as the piece progresses.