Joe Craven
02-18-2015, 6:19 PM
Greetings Creekers,
I made a mid-project change recently and now I need some input as to how to finish it.
To give a little background, Rockler had a really good sale during Christmas season in their "I-Semble" table frames, so I bought 1 of each (sofa, coffee, side). We're in a new home, which means new furniture...good for everyone!
I picked up some maple on sale at Austin Hardwoods and figured I would just make a simple top, and put it on this I-Semble sofa table frame (stock photo - picture it w/ a simple, 3/4" maple top):
307256
I starting thinking that it would be nice to add a band of contrasting wood around the edge of that maple top, and I had a piece of 4/4 walnut laying around that was full of knot holes...so much so that I would have a hard time using on another project. It was only 38" x ~8" and w/ all the defects, I would have been lucky to get 50% yield. Given that the top maple top is 47" x 13", I was about to give up on the thought of putting that piece of walnut to use because it was a good 10" short of the longest dimension that I needed to be able to wrap around the maple.
Then I had this idea: what if I cut that board into a bunch of thin strips, then stack them (in an "organic masonry" fashion...I can't think of a better way to describe it) to get the yield that I needed. This also makes for great joinery on the banding's corners by using simple lap joints. Here's how it turned out (disregard the joinery...it's definitely a lot looser than it would be finished):
307257 307258 307263 307264
My original plan (or, what I'd plan if I was using traditional banding) was to dado the insides of the banding and inset the top into the dados. I could definitely put these strips through the planer and glue it all up with precision to make it appear (at distance, especially) like regular, one-piece trim/banding. However, I like this "organic masonry" approach - in NOT pursuing glue-up perfection - because I think it adds some character.
And now for the point of my outreach: if you were to keep this banding less-than-perfect as I'm leaning toward, would you try to take the same inset approach with the maple top, or do you think it would look better by having the maple top "float" just inside (by a mm or two) the internal boundaries of this edging? The only functional risk I can imagine in this floating idea would be managing anything that might get stuck between the maple and the walnut banding. Given that the table will probably just be the home to some pictures, I'm not too worried about that. I think this floating idea might really help the artistic character of the piece, too.
Finally and FWIW, I do think this table top now deserves a proper base but that's another project...so keep that in mind.
TIA,
Joe
I made a mid-project change recently and now I need some input as to how to finish it.
To give a little background, Rockler had a really good sale during Christmas season in their "I-Semble" table frames, so I bought 1 of each (sofa, coffee, side). We're in a new home, which means new furniture...good for everyone!
I picked up some maple on sale at Austin Hardwoods and figured I would just make a simple top, and put it on this I-Semble sofa table frame (stock photo - picture it w/ a simple, 3/4" maple top):
307256
I starting thinking that it would be nice to add a band of contrasting wood around the edge of that maple top, and I had a piece of 4/4 walnut laying around that was full of knot holes...so much so that I would have a hard time using on another project. It was only 38" x ~8" and w/ all the defects, I would have been lucky to get 50% yield. Given that the top maple top is 47" x 13", I was about to give up on the thought of putting that piece of walnut to use because it was a good 10" short of the longest dimension that I needed to be able to wrap around the maple.
Then I had this idea: what if I cut that board into a bunch of thin strips, then stack them (in an "organic masonry" fashion...I can't think of a better way to describe it) to get the yield that I needed. This also makes for great joinery on the banding's corners by using simple lap joints. Here's how it turned out (disregard the joinery...it's definitely a lot looser than it would be finished):
307257 307258 307263 307264
My original plan (or, what I'd plan if I was using traditional banding) was to dado the insides of the banding and inset the top into the dados. I could definitely put these strips through the planer and glue it all up with precision to make it appear (at distance, especially) like regular, one-piece trim/banding. However, I like this "organic masonry" approach - in NOT pursuing glue-up perfection - because I think it adds some character.
And now for the point of my outreach: if you were to keep this banding less-than-perfect as I'm leaning toward, would you try to take the same inset approach with the maple top, or do you think it would look better by having the maple top "float" just inside (by a mm or two) the internal boundaries of this edging? The only functional risk I can imagine in this floating idea would be managing anything that might get stuck between the maple and the walnut banding. Given that the table will probably just be the home to some pictures, I'm not too worried about that. I think this floating idea might really help the artistic character of the piece, too.
Finally and FWIW, I do think this table top now deserves a proper base but that's another project...so keep that in mind.
TIA,
Joe