New Member in Michigan

[Doug Shepard]

Hi folks. Thought I'd introduce myself. I stumbled across this site last week and joined up. As much net surfing as I do, I amazed that I haven't discovered this site sooner. I'm a weekend wood warrior in Waterford, Michigan on currently WW hiatus until the shop (garage) gets warm enough to work in again. I've been woodworking for about 25 years now and I still don't know nuthin.

Didn't have a digital pic of myself handy, so the Avatar is of my little girl 'China' - an Aussie/Chow mix shelter rescue adopted last year who lays patiently on the shop floor while her dad makes all that noise and sawdust.

Don't have that many digital pics of projects yet. I've got to get some of my earlier stuff scanned into digital format, but here's the last major piece I did. Sorry in advance for the picture quality. I'd just gotten the digital cam and was still learning with it. Got some very wierd reflections off the kitchen floor that look like bird crud on the bottom of the legs.

This is made of cherry, Corian top, and paduak inlay and tenon pins.
It's one of 4 I made of the same materials, but the other 3 are rectangular - one low coffee table, and 2 end tables with lower square grid shelf.

Doug S.

[Tyler Howell]

Welcome Doug,

Beautiful work, Glad to have wading in the creek.

[David Wilson]

Welcome aboard Doug. Nice work.

[Glenn Clabo]

Welcome to SMC Doug,
Nice work!
Can you give us a hint on how you did the bottom shelf? Individual parts---bent?

[Mark Singer]

Very nice work...Welcome to SMC

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Welcome to the 'Creek Doug! Great work!

[Jim Hinze]

Welcome form a fellow Michigander! Beautiful Work sir!!!

Where about's are ya from?

[Doug Shepard]

Glenn
The bottom shelf curved pieces are also bent laminations like the apron and front lower stretchers. You can't see it in the pic, but there's a cross piece that runs from the back of the front leg to the back stretcher, so each curve is only a 1/4 circle - not a 1/2 circle. There's also a hidden piece at the same point under the top for a little extra support of the Corian.

[Doug Shepard]

Hey Jim
I'm in Waterford - about 2 miles west of the Summit Place mall.

[Steve Ash]

Hi Doug,
I'm new here too and also from Michigan...over near Lansing.

[Ted Shrader]

Hi Doug -

Welcome to the Creek. A friendly place to hang out and exchange ideas. Glad you surfed on over.

Nice work on the table!

Welcome,
Ted

[Lou Morrissette]

Doug,

Welcome to the Creek. Very nice work.

Lou

[Doug Shepard]

Thanks all for the warm welcome and compliments

[Jim Young]

Welcome and nice work. Go get that camera figured out and make picks of your other projects :)

[John Miliunas]

Doug, a BIG welcome to the Creek! You jumped in with a big splash! Wonderful work on the table!:) Me thinks you're going to have to do us a round or two of "How to's" on that unit! Great detail and fit. Glad you found us out here, now and like Jim said, get that camera a-shootin'!:D Come often and stay long.:) :cool:

[Doug Shepard]

Me thinks you're going to have to do us a round or two of "How to's" on that unit!
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
Ok John - you asked for it. Here's the "How To". Sorry for the length. Wasn't sure how much to leave out.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>

To do the bent lams, I used 1/8" slices for the apron and lower stretchers (7/8" thick), and 1/16" for the lower shelf pieces (7/16" thick). I made male/female bending forms out of MDF and faced them with some scrap formica to keep glue from sticking. The lams were glued up using Urac adhesive from http://www.nelsonpaint.com After doing some experimenting on scrap, I ended up soaking each lam stack in hot water for about 30 mins, pulling it out, drying it off and clamping into the bending forms (w/out glue) for about a week. The soaking made everything a lot more pliable, and when I pulled the stack out of the form it had quite a bit of the curve memorized. I had a lot less wrestling to do when I started gluing up and putting them back in the forms. For the 1/8" stacks, I made them wide enough to cut the apron and stretcher for each side out of the same piece. I was worried about springback and wanted to make sure that if I got any, that both pieces were at least the same. Surprisingly I got no springback. Don't know if that's due to the first clamp-up after soaking, the Urac glue, or just dumb luck. For the 1/16" stacks I made them wide enough to get both pieces so each side was at least symmetrical if I got springback.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

I made a full size drawing on MDF that showed the apron/leg intersections and the top profile. I placed the apron pieces on the drawing to transfer the layout lines onto them for the end cuts and tenon cuts as well as the mortise locations on the legs. I had another full size MDF drawing for the lower shelf section that was just basically used to try out various spacings of the grid section. When I finally got a pattern that looked OK, I used those measurements to size the bending forms. At this point I still didn't have a concrete plan worked out as to how I was going to cut and fit the grid section. My original thought was to transfer the layout lines from the MDF drawing to cut all the pieces. That bothered me though. I was concerned that the theory (MDF drawing) wouldn't match reality. After a few days of staring at the drawing I started wondering if I could make the cuts in-place using my router. Nope - too big. Wait - what about the laminate trimmer? Dang! - it will get most of the cuts, but still too big to fit into the corners by the legs. Then I remembered about the offset base that came with the lam trimmer kit, that I'd never found a use for yet. I held it up against the drawing and suddenly I had a plan. So before starting the shelf grid I glued up the legs, aprons, and stretchers.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

The shelf was definitely the trickiest part. The lower stretchers are 1-3/8" wide and the interior grid pieces are 7/8" wide. When I made up the gluing forms I cut an extra piece of MDF to use as a router template. I clamped that onto the stretchers, lining it up with a centerline drawn on the middle stretcher (hidden in the pic) that runs front to back. A 7/16" bearing guided bit in the laminate trimmer cut the 7/8" deep rounded sockets into the back stretcher and middle stretcher for the arc segments. Then I just had to cut the arc segments to length, round over the ends, and slide them into the sockets. Next I had to fit the straight pieces (3/8" x 7/8") of the grid. The arcs and straight pieces are half-lapped together. A 3/8" bearing guided bit along a straight scrap was used to cut the dados in the arc segments (while they were clamped in place) and the sockets for the ends of the straight pieces on the front and rear stretchers. I cut the straight pieces to length, rounded over the ends, and slid them into place. Then I marked their dado locations from where they intersected the arc dados, pulled them back out, and cut the lap dados on them with a handsaw and chisels. Slid everything back into place after any necessary adjustment trimming. The thought of trying to get any glue squeeze out of the grid holes gave me the willies so I blue-taped the whole grid section before pulling it apart. After glue up, I leveled everything off with the RO sander. The most tedious part of all of this, was that for every single cut you'd have to pay attention to which side of the cut was going to have the spinning bit exiting the wood and clamp on small blocks just over the cut line so that you didn't get tearout. So each cut took a bit of time to set up.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

The table top curve is 5 segments glued together with biscuits. I think I used 2 at each joint, but can't remember for sure.After I got the arc segments glued together, I put a couple of screws through a MDF workboard into the bottom of the stock. I used those metal table top fastening clips to hook the top to the apron, so I planned my screw holes to work as the clip attachment hole. Either way, you won't see them as they're behind the apron. I also screwed a scrap block the same thickness as the table top onto the MDF at the point that was going to be my pivot point. I did all the circle cuts for the top with a router (or lam trimmer) and circle cutting jig (Microfence). The table top is a fat 13/16" thick, which gives me a 5/16" x 1/2" ledge that the Corian sits in. There's also a support piece underneath the Corian that runs from the front leg to the back stretcher.<o:p></o:p>

The top inlay is a 1/16th strip of Paduak that I routed in about 1/8" deep then sanded flush with the top. <o:p></o:p>

The tenon pins are 1/4" Paduak. Couldn't find a 1/4" plug cutter that would give me a long enough pin, so I used a 3/8" plug/tenon cutter bit, then stuck them in the lathe and turned them down to 1/4"<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>


<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

[John Miliunas]

Doug, once again, wonderful job on the table and many thanks for the explanation! I thought it looked like there was a lot that went into building it and now I *know* that to be the case!:) Well done. BTW, really love your signature line! I may end up "borrowing" :D it for some of my personal email sigs!:) :cool:

[John Shuk]

Nice table doug. Very nice. Welcome to the Creek.

[Doug Shepard]

BTW, really love your signature line! I may end up "borrowing" it for some of my personal email sigs! Go ahead - I stole it from Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now (or something similar):D