5 Attachment(s)
Project: Purple Heart and Figured Maple Night Stands (Finished)
One of the things under the tree for Professor Dr. SWMBO was a picture of a nightstand that I planned on making for our new master bedroom in the addition. Needing a break from the cabinetry type projects that have been consuming all my limited shop time, I decided not to to delay in getting them started. So the day after Christmas, after fitting the doors to my tall linen cabinet (and fixing a major, umm...measuring mistake...:rolleyes:) I got to work.
These night stands are based loosely on a picture that caught my eye in the February 2007 issue of Fine Woodworking on page 46. The article is about table edge treatments, and this piece was given as an example of a beveled underside. Nicely Shaker style to my taste, too.
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Now, I would normally build something like this in the cherry it's illustrated in. But I had been poking around in my lumber rack recently and remembered that my cabinetmaker neighbor had gifted me a whole bunch of stuff when he was cleaning out his shop...including some very nice purpleheart. Hmmm...maybe. Yes! Shaker style but "different". Purpleheart for the major structure and...hmmm....how about curly maple for the top and drawer fronts. Let's do it! :p :D And so I have.
I did a quick sketch for basic dimensions and then started to round up the materials and do the prep work necessary for the components. All of the purpleheart in the rack was 8/4 material, so I cut out the leg blanks, using the band saw to preserve some thin material for future use and resawed another piece for apron facings. Some of the leftovers from the leg blanks were just right for other structure components. I also glued up some poplar stock for secondary purposes. (I didn't document things like re-sawing, flattening and thicknessing for this as I'm working on them quickly...I want them done in a few days before I have to get back to the "grind")
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Before proceeding further with the legs, I took some thick scrap (in this case it was cherry with a lot of sap) and made a duplicate leg blank. On this, I drew out the locations for the aprons and other structure so I could ascertain where the leg tapers should start.
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Once that was done, I configured my taper jig to match the necessary cut and locked it down on the slider for "processing". (note that the blade is NOT spinning in this picture, despite looking like it. I was just putting the template blank in the jig to do my test cuts)
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