The next table. part 4

The delivery date nears and I still want to apply a few more coats of finish so it looks like, once again, I won’t be able to take the time to properly photograph a piece before it leaves the shop.

I have been building up the polyurethane finish to a point which I can then sand it flat.

At this point the table is ready for the final coats.

Although these shots don’t really show it there is a subtle wood grain showing through.

Here’s the table with two more coats to go.

Part 3 is here.

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The next table. part 3

With the veneers glued on I do some final trimming of the top.

I use sharp chisels with masking tape applied the areas that will ride along the face adjacent to the veneer being trimmed so that I only cut what needs to be trimmed. A sharp knife and guide board also comes in handy.

I then use a card scraper to flatten the veneers.

Once everything is as flat as possible without scraping through the veneer to the paper backing beneath I apply a black dye and start building up the layers of polyurethane finish.

This process will take some time and will require a few adjustments as it progresses. I’ve started with gloss polyurethane varnish to build up the base coats but will finish with a semi-gloss finish. It is important to keep the shop, or at least this area of it, as dust free as possible while the varnish dries.

Part 4 is here. Part 2 is here.

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Glass base

Some time ago a delightful young lady called my studio. She had an idea for a table she wanted but had become very frustrated in trying to find aomeone that would make the table for her. I invited her in to the studio and she layed out her idea for me. It was very challenging. She wanted the table to be completely supported by two glass panels.

I thought it over and developed a rough idea about how it could be accomplished. My price came in considerably higher than her budget for this project however. I offered to lower my price  if she would handle the purchasing of the glass. We also agreed that the project would be put on hold until she was able to save enough money for it. I believe it was a year later that she called back and was ready to proceed.

Along with the chairs she found here is the result.

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The next table. part 2

So, the “machine” turned this:

into this:

And this is the lower part of the table. A top will be added to this. Then I will apply the veneers. In this case I am using maple veneers on a paper backing.

Each piece of veneer is  trimmed to prepare for the next piece  on the adjacent face.

I am using a very sharp, rather flat carving gouge to trim the veneer. One wrong move and… well it’s not worth thinking about at this stage.

I don’t use a vacuum bag to clamp  these veneers, primarily because I don’t have the set up. Instead I use just about every trick in the clamping book.

I am using weights, clamps (shop made and store bought) and long spring sticks that go up to the ceiling. I have a product known as kerf-board ontop of the veneer to help spread the clamping pressure. The most important thing is the glue I use. It is made for applying this particular kind of veneer, that is,  paper backed veneer. It is a water based contact cement that you set by applying hand pressure with something known as a veneer hammer. The glue needs to be “dry stacked”,  that is,  have some pressure applied,  for 24 hours after you use the veneer hammer, so that is what all of this in the above picture is about.

Just before writing this I just finished applying the final piece of veneer, the top piece, and will post the final finishing steps soon.

part 3 part 1

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The next table. part 1

I’m finishing a project that was originally commisioned exactly one year ago. It got delayed because the end user wanted to have a chair re-upholstered and wanted to be sure that this table came out to the exact same height as the arm of the chair. The upholsterer took quite a while to get that job done so even though I had been given the deposit, had completed the drawings, had started making the tooling required and had purchased some of the materials I was told to hold off until the chair was done.

This table is a pedestal with curved sides veneered in maple, dyed black and finished with a polyurethane semi-gloss finish.  Here’s a screen grab from the design I created.

This design was based on a table my client, an interior designer found elsewhere and asked me to modify to suit the end user.

I decided to carve the shape out of stacked MDF board. I had done this before, for the same client and end user actually, on a piece that was finished by Catherine Lottes.

I started by making two stacks.

Then glued the 2 halves together.

To create the shape from the glued up stack, the work piece, I designed a “machine” to guide a grinder with a cutter attached. I used my Rhino program to design the machine.

The work piece is shaped on one face then the machine is taken apart and the work piece is rotated 90 degrees about the vertical axis (vertical when the table is standing upright) and the machine is put back together around the work piece to carve the next face. The grinder that spins the cutter is fixed to a piece of PVC pipe that rides on guides attached to the carriage. The carriage in turn rides on rails from side to side. I can easily lift the cutter assembly out as well as slide the carriage out to access the work piece for final sanding.

Here’s the machine in action.

Some interesting textures are created in this process and I would like to make a table using this process that would retain the texture in some way.

See part 2 for the next phase of the making of this table.
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part 2