5/5/2011 Table for the great outdoors

This is a 60" dia. outdoor table. I'm using a material called Garapa which is from Brazil (also refered to as Brazalian Ash) , the material is recomended for outdoor use much like teak and Ipe. It's hard, dense but machines and glues well. The top is on the left, and on the right is cutting the leg mortises.

Legs are glued uo on the left. The top is going to incorporate 4 "drop leaf's" so I needed to cut the 60" diameter into a square then take the cuttings and cut them into an arc completing the circle. So on the right is a template being made for the arc's

At left is the straight edge for cutting the circle into a square, and at right is the first cut. Yes thats a very old B&D saw. Dont use one very often so I had to summon that one up from the archives.

Not sure why these are here, just more of the cutting process, not very good with a skil saw so maybe just documenting the fact I didn't ruin the top. Who knows. And here we are waiting for the drop leaf hinges and cutting the arc's.

5/5/2011 Update Architectural Digest Home Design Show - NYC

This is a Walnut Jewelry Box I submitted for the Furniture Society Silent Auction at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show in NYC in Mid March

This is the booth with all items on display. Unintended but I did get the Furniture Society's mission statement in the pic on the right.

The picture below shows my Jewelry box in the background with a Sam Maloof chair front and center.

April 13th update

Here's to starting up the blog again. A little bit of woodworking but more on Spring and the garden. Had a piece at the Architectural Design Home Show in NYC, and finished a rather large bookcase project, but will be working more on stuff for the house. The porch is now finished and in use (right).

Making a new table for the porch. 60" diameter with four drop leaf's. Table goes in the spot on left, table top in progress on right.

Here is a bit on gardening, the left is the compost piles, the right is the main garden. Have some early season greens and lettuce out, plus broccoli and cabbage. Been told I'm good at two things making sawdust and dirt. I may get a little carried away on the compost.

Two shots of the backside of the house, shop on left with the new porch in the middle. Pic on right shows the mighty oak and the garden.

Here was another project from the shop for a client. This is a grilling stand to be used with a "Green Egg" grill. Great grill but a bit pricey...sticken with my cheap ole webber. Margaret's gardening wagon is on the right. Stand is cypress with a General Finishes Outdoor Oil finish.

New shop entrance on the left...the door is the same just a new deck and railing system. Kylie on the right soaking up the rays next to the vegatable transplants. Thats it from ole Barnsdale road for now.

BPB

Pedestal Table Part IV

Pedestal Table Part IV

This is the fun stage where things start coming together and it begins to look like something.

I like to cut the dado's first, usually in several passes until I reach the desired depth.
Without changing the height of the blade I set the fence up for cutting the tongues.

Here again I make several passes until I reach the desired thickness of the tongue.

At this stage I like to dry fit everything together to check the fit.


Clamping this base together is a bit tricky. The blue clamps on the left are old Record clamps that have real deep jaws. There real nice and are some of my favorites, cant find them anymore.







So now we can see what its going to look like, pretty cool I think.












And here we are.......

Pedest Table Part III

Pedestal Table Part III

This is the stage where we start assembling the arch and shaping the legs.

Once all the arch pieces are cut I like to lay them out, and then trace the pattern on the pieces. Then I can layout where the mortises will be cut without interfering with the layout.

The mortises were cut in the same manner as used with the legs, however here on the arch I varied the width to stay within the pattern.

The glue up for the arch is slightly different than with the legs. First since the arch will be a closed loop, I rough cut to the inside pattern lines before gluing. I glued the top three pieces in the same manner as the legs using the bench vice and clamps. Then I glued and pieced together the whole arch as shown at right.

With the glue applied then I just used clamps and equal pressure to get the arch square and let the glue cure.

Even with glue and tenons, I like to reinforce the joint with pegs.

Depending on the design and the wood, I'll either use a matching peg or a contrasting wood for the peg. To maintain a strong joint I do not drill and peg completely thru the material, just thru the loose tenon material.

The next step in the process is to rough cut the pieces. I like to do a quick sanding of the pieces then retrace the template outline in case some of the pieces have shifted during clamping and gluing.

I rough cut using the bandsaw, I'm not trying to be precise at this point, since I'll be using the router to clean up all the waste.

Using a top bearing flush trim bit and the template, its a very straight forward process to remove the waste.

Since all these parts are 1 3/4" thick, I make one pass with the top bearing bit and the template, then I can remove the template and make another pass just using the top bearing bit.

Then I can switch to a bottom bearing bit to finish removing the waste material. Top and bottom bearing bits are showed at left. On the right are all the finished parts.

The next step will be to cut the dado's in the hubs, and the tongues on the legs and the arch. Below I have one of the tablesaws set up to start cutting the dado's in the hubs. The shops starting to look a little crowded.

Pedestal Table - Part II

Pedestal Table - Part II

Here we are concentrating on the two "hubs" that will be the atacching point for the legs and the "arch". Nothing complicated just a bit bulky because there 5" thick. I rip to a 5" width using the bandsaw then clean up the face on the jointer.

The same applies to cutting to length I rough cut to a 10" length using the bandsaw, then cleanup this cut using the tablesaw. When I laminated the hubs together I made sure that one end square and flush, so then I can use this end as a reference point in squaring up the cut on the tablesaw. Since its 5" thick I cut halfway then flip it over and cut the other side.

The two legs are splayed from the hub at a 30 deg angle in relation to the arch. Rip these on the bandsaw and clean up the cuts on the jointer. These need to be nice and flat since this is the attachment point for the legs. Later on I'll cut a 1" deep dado here for the legs.

The last two pictures illustrate my high tech angle gauge I use for setting up the saws and making the cuts.