Bending form for the apron

Available shop time has been low lately. I caught one of the early cold bugs going around, and then my wife caught it from me. This last weekend I felt better and had a little bit of time I could spend in the shop. I finished up the bending form I will use to make the apron for the Small Hall table.

I also started to cut some of the laminates I will use to do a test glue up. I had some issues with my band saw while doing this. I was hearing a thumping sound coming from the saw whenever I was cutting. This was unusual, because my band saw always sounded and cut smoothly. After a little investigation I found that a nice little chunk had been taken out of one my tires. I can't even begin to think how this happened. They were petty new tires, but I have ordered some replacements. Replacing the tires will be one of this weekend’s tasks. I’m also going to try a nicer resaw blade to see if I can get a smoother cut. I'd like to cut down on how much time I have to spend cleaning up each laminate. I'll post the results after I have had a chance to use the blade.

Which leads to the question, “How do you clean up the laminates”? Most of the woodworking shows and articles I have seen on resawing laminates, say to use a drum stander to clean up the surfaces. I would say that most amateur woodworkers don’t have a drum sander, and it’s pretty far done on my list of tools if it’s even on my list. I hate sanding dust!

I searched and found two articles, both of which I think I had read in the past. The first was in Fine Woodworking # 164. In this article Lon Schleining, uses a melamine board and double stick tape to attach the laminates to it. He then ran the board through a thickness planer, or drum sander if you have one :). I had thought of this, but the idea just scared me. Even taped down to another board, I have this image of the thin pieces coming apart under the fast spinning knives. It was good to know that it has been done.

Because I was still uncomfortable with the thickness planer idea, I kept digging. I found an even newer article I had read in Popular Woodworking. They say your memory is the 2nd thing go, I can’t remember what the first is. The article was written by David Charlesworth, one the people that really got me interested in hand tools. He attaches his laminates to a piece of MDF, using a couple drops of Super Glue at one end. He then uses a hand plane to clean up the surface. You only need the glue at one end, because as you are hand planing the piece it will be under tension. It also has the advantage of letting you left the piece up, to check on how you are doing. This method really seems to be what I’m looking for. It is safer and uses a hand plane. I may give the thickness planer a try, just to prove myself wrong or right. I'll post results of both methods soon.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

I tend to try to remember things without writing them down. Just ask my wife when she gives me a list of things to pickup at the store. She’d always ask do you want to write that down. I’d always say, no it’s just 4 or 5 items I can remember that. Needless to say I always forget something. Now she just hands me her list.

This time it wasn’t remembering something it was doing math in my head, which is just as bad. Last weekend I started to work on the form for the bent laminate apron, for the small table I’m working. I knew what the finished radii were for the apron. I then had to compensate for the cork I was going to line the form with. I though it’s only a 1/8” I can do that math in my head. I don’t know what happened. Where I need to subtract a 1/8” I added and/or where I needed to add a 1/8” I subtracted. In any case, the measurements were off. Luckily this wasn’t a big deal, it was only a couple small pieces of MDF I had to through in the trashcan. I’m really glad I found my mistake before I got all the way through my glue-up!

What I learned from this? I failed on the Measure Twice part. Even though I was dead on in laying out the wrong measurements. I really need to write everything down. I think I’m saving time by doing stuff in my head. In reality, it has cost me time and money more than once. I think I have finally learned my lesson. I may even start to make grocery lists now :).

Small Hall Table – Starting the Mock-Up

This weekend I had some free time and spent my time working on the mock-up for the small hall table.

I started with the legs. I was concerned that the size of the legs I drew up in my plans might be too bulky. The legs I drew up were 1 ¾” square at the top and tapered down to 1” square. After making the first leg I was sure it was going to be too bulky, for this table. I mocked-up another leg that was 1 ½” square at the top and tapered down to ¾”. I like this leg much better. It just goes to show that it is hard to judge size and proportion in a "CAD" program. A full size drawing or a mock-up might be needed.


To cut the tapers I made a simple jig. It’s just a piece of ½” MDF, with a couple stops attached to it. The stops held the blank in place pretty well, but I added some double-stick tape for good measure. After cutting the first two tapers, I had to add a small “shim”, the size of the waste I cut off, to the lower part of the jig. This kept everything lined up for each cut. The cuts were made on the table saw. The jig runs up against the rip fence.

After getting the legs worked out, I had some time to start on the form I was going to use to glue-up the apron. The apron will be a bent-laminate glue-up. This is going to be a somewhat “small” glue-up, so I just plan to use a few pieces of MDF. The apron will be about 1 ¾” wide. 3 layers for ¾” MFD will give me the width I need to do the glue-up. To make the radius cuts I need, I used my band saw. I’ve seen this done on many woodworking shows, but haven’t tried it yet. I didn’t make fancy jig for this, it's just a piece of MDF attached to my top. I then drilled holes for the different radii I needed, and used a piece dowel as the pivot point.

The boards that were going to be cut, were somewhat small so I only used double-stick tape to attach the jig to my top. Someday, I may spend some time to make a “reusable” jig. For now a simple board taped to the top worked well.

I started the glue up of the 3 layers of MDF. I plan to use some cork to line the form, but I have to track it down first. I think I’ll have time next weekend to do a test glue-up of the apron. I’ll show the completed form and glued up apron at that time.

Looking for lumber

I went by 2 of the larger hardwood suppliers in my area (Crosscut Hardwoods and Edensaw), looking for lumber for the small table I'm starting. For the first time I struck out finding what I wanted. I was looking to build the table out of Cherry. I wanted the top to be one piece and it needed to be about 10" x 20". Most of the boards I found were closer to 6" and 8" wide. I didn't want to glue up the top, I thought the joint might look odd on the half circle shape. I did find one board that would work, but they were calling it "Figured Cherry" and it was over $20/bf. If it had figure in it I might have gone with it, but I didn't really see any figure in it. Unless you call sapwood figure!

On to Plan B. Now I'm looking to use veneer for the top. I'll just add one more thing to this project that I haven't done yet. This simple little table is turning into a real experiment for me now. I started looking around online for veneers. I found some really nice Redwood Burl veneer at B&B Rare Woods. I had come across this company awhile ago, but I haven't ordered from them yet. I sent off a few questions to them, and I'm waiting to hear back. It sounds like they are in the middle of moving to a new location, so I'll give them a little while to get back to me.

In the meantime, I plan to pick up some inexpensive wood to start the mock-up. I plan to mock-up a couple different sizes of legs, to figure out which proportions work best. Design and proportions is something I'm still working on and I think a mock-up is needed. I've seen a lot of new woodworkers try their own designs, and quite often they come out chunky and heavy. This is going to be a somewhat small/delicate table, and I don't want tree trunks for legs.

It's interesting, Christopher Schwarz just talked about design in the latest issue of Popular Woodworking (Oct 2008). I had recently come to the same realization that there are no real design classes out there for woodworkers. Part of what I want to share in this blog, is how I develop that skill. I've been thinking about looking at some of the community colleges around me to see what they offer. If anyone is aware of design classes that can be taken by "average" people let me know.