Printer-Shredder Table.. Pot Luck!

[Don Bullock]

Sarge, I think your design works on its own. I would have never known the "restraints" put on the design if you hadn't included them in your post. In fact, I saved the pictures for future inspiration before I read what you said. I've been looking at designs for a table to set sculptures on. I've been looking for designs with space on top for one sculpture and a tall enough space below for a second piece of art to be visible. Raising the lower shelf off the ground also works into meeting my needs as well. While I don't have cats and my basset hounds wouldn't fit under the table, I want the lower sculpture to well above the floor. Your design fits those requirements very well. The leg detail on your table is very different. I really like the leg design. How did you make them? Are they made of four separate pieces or one solid piece?

[John Thompson]

Sarge, I think your design works on its own. I would have never known the "restraints" put on the design if you hadn't included them in your post. In fact, I saved the pictures for future inspiration before I read what you said. I've been looking at designs for a table to set sculptures on. I've been looking for designs with space on top for one sculpture and a tall enough space below for a second piece of art to be visible. Raising the lower shelf off the ground also works into meeting my needs as well. While I don't have cats and my basset hounds wouldn't fit under the table, I want the lower sculpture to well above the floor. Your design fits those requirements very well. The leg detail on your table is very different. I really like the leg design. How did you make them? Are they made of four separate pieces or one solid piece?

Thanks very much, Don. The legs are four separate pieced tenoned into the bottom foot mortises. The bottom foot is a two piece glue up as I had several darker heart pieces of QSWO left over from 3 previous projects. I try not to mix the darker and lighter out of necessity but will use it when I want a slight contrast.

The square holes cut in the legs are done with my mortise machine... the attaching thinner and rectangular hole were simply drawn on and cut with a Bosch barrel grip and Extra Clean blade to 1mm of the line. I intended to do a MDF template and finish them off with a router over-head pattern bit as I normally do.

But... I cut the lines so true with my beloved Bosch barrel and the cut was so clean with the Extra Clean blade, it wasn't necessary which suprised me somewhat. A few passes with 120 then 180 grit wrapped around a 1/4" x 1/4" piece of stock passed at a diagonal was simply good enough as the blade left no machine marks in that 1" thick white oak. I can't say enough about the jig-saw or blade. I suppose I can hold a steady line well as I have been free-hand bandsawing for years and I used to practice pool with a cue-stick about 6 hours a day in my earlier years so...

Good luck with your build and it sounds as if this design might just fit the description of what you need for your scenario.

Regards and again.. thanks mucho!

[Robert Meyer]

John, very nice work. I used a paint program to lighten your photos a bit to show the super details of your work better. I use Paint Shop Pro but Adobe Elements will also do the trick.

[John Keeton]

Robert, good work on the photos. Wonder if adjusting the contrast after the lightening would help with the hazy look?

Sarge did some great work on these companion pieces, and the details deserve more notice.

[John Thompson]

Thanks Robert. My wife does the photos and she will lighten and darken them for me to let my be the judge. What I see in my original pictures is probably a truer color as your shows up on my screen a few shades lighter. I have always wondered just how what I see on my computer screen will appear on someone elses?

I don't know how all that works but.. I did intentionally send a picture to my BIL's computer the day before Thanksgiving last year as we were going over for TG day. It definitely looked different from how I see it on my computer.. That has made me wonder about that even more and I would love to be able to send a picture to several computers with various servers just to see the comparison?

But.. probably not as I stay behind the 8 ball with projects and leaf blowing time has now arrived here in Georgia. So.. priorities rule.

Thanks for enhancing...

[Shawn Pixley]

Great Job! I especially like the leg work, the proportions come off quite nicely. Not always an easy thing to accomplish when creating a piece that needs to nestle into a precise spot.

[Walt Caza]

Hi Sarge,
Another terrific project from your busy workshop.
Oh, ya...
you have achieved a pleasing overall table with a nice sense of proportion.
I don't see much furniture designed in the Arts & Craftsy style that remains
lighter and more airy.(not chunky like my stuff!)
You have accomplished this, and on an original piece too.
Your build looks great, as usual, but for me your design shines.
(you may have raised the bar too high...)

Clever application of curves and details. Nice colour, rays and finish too.
I really like your tusk tenons, and have yet to try my hand at them.

Just kicking around ideas... (brace for quibble)
for me, I'm wild about the notion of adding ebony for accent.
But, personally, sorry...
I'd prefer the illusion that the upper tenons poke all the way through as well.
I value the appearance of a single board on both sides of the leg, passing thru.
The ebony false tenon tells me it is just a cap...
something I'd rather not know.
(or did my eyes get it wrong?)

All your sweet details remind me of G&G style.
Have you ever built anything Greene & Greene Sarge?
It kinda seems you are leaning that way, more refined than clunky.
I'm eager to tackle that style sometime.

Congrats on a great companion piece to your fancy desk!
play safe,
Walt

ps I guess you have earned a break?

[John Thompson]

Great Job! I especially like the leg work, the proportions come off quite nicely. Not always an easy thing to accomplish when creating a piece that needs to nestle into a precise spot.

Thanks Shawn... I have never used others plans but... I am somewhat of a rookie at my own design from the git-go as I have always borrowed others elements and incorpoarted into my final design piece. In this case and the 3 before it I did not go looking for ideas and simply sat down with a note-pad (as I always have done) and concocted the whole thing from visual impressions of what I have seen or experienced.

When it comes down to it.. it would be extremely difficult to totally design any piece not using elements from the past as the past covers around 5000 years and about every element in a component has been probably thought of and used at some point. That's life!

[John Thompson]

Hi Sarge,
Just kicking around ideas... (brace for quibble)
for me, I'm wild about the notion of adding ebony for accent.
But, personally, sorry...
I'd prefer the illusion that the upper tenons poke all the way through as well.
I value the appearance of a single board on both sides of the leg, passing thru.
The ebony false tenon tells me it is just a cap...
something I'd rather not know.
(or did my eyes get it wrong?)

All your sweet details remind me of G&G style.
Have you ever built anything Greene & Greene Sarge?
It kinda seems you are leaning that way, more refined than clunky.
I'm eager to tackle that style sometime.

Congrats on a great companion piece to your fancy desk!
play safe,
Walt

ps I guess you have earned a break?

Thanks Walt.. Your eyes did not get it wrong and the reason I made a concious attempt to state in my original post "ebony accents" which I hoped would make that clear. To those that are experienced in joinery having an exposed tenon end on both sides is a clear give-away to the fact the ends are fake. The only way you could accomplish it would be to fork the tenon so the one from the side and the one from the front could by-pass each other to allow both to expose. There would be nothing gained by doing so structually so it would be a mere waste of real time.

You are only the second to mention this. A friend of mine.. Richard Jones who teacheds WW'ing and design at Leed's College in England pointed it out also. This was done as strickly a "what if" as I did want some black accent in the work. I debated the fact that the technical joinery technique would not be correct but over-ruled it as most that view a piece would not give it a thought. The majority that view a piece that are not juried judges could care less as they either like a piece at first sight or they don't.

When you don't use Auto-cad or other means of previewing the final look of a piece in advance.. and you make the cuts, you are committed to them regardless of the fact you might not like that effect once you actually see it in use. So... in this case I personally feel they should be left off al-together or have an ebony end showing on the outside only. But those are strickly after-thoughts and once those reciever holes were cut I was commited so.. what you see is what you get as everything about how I work is strickly risk taking without preview.

So.. sometimes you hit.. sometimes you miss. In your case and Richard's (and perhaps others that try to be polite but keep it silent to not risk offending) the element is not personally pleasing. I personally agree with not using the double effect but.. I also think that an ebony accent on the outside would have been fine. We all have different taste and that must be realized but.. the end result only really matters when a piece is for home use and not gallery as few will really see it and the recieverss taste is the dominant factor.

I have not done a lot of G & G, Walt. But.. I use elements from G & G as I do Stickley and countless others. Their pieces are more A & C meaning verticluar in design.. simple and robust often with showing joints being the only ornamentation but... if you study the A & C movement from the broader perspective... you will discover there were hundreds and I mean hundreds of designers from that period that make up the whole. Most of the A & C work will never be seen by most as the G & G and Stickley are popular here in the U.S but they make up only a very small portion of the complete works.

So.. yes I like G & G.. Stickly.. mission but I draw from at least 25 other designers I have seen work from and really from a few hundred. I am a fan of Limbert who was Dutch-American who was a fan of the Scottish designer McIntosh and his Glasgow movement which leaned heavy on art noveau. I don't limit my work to simply A & C but in-corporate a bit of art noveau as long as it is not overly radical as some can be. I also draw from the German Jugendskil movement which had and a somewhat different touch.

The subject of A & C is broad and we could talk about it for days on end if not years. I suggest the book Arts and Crafts Furniture by John Andrews for a look at the European connection and Arts and Crafts.. Classic to Contemporary by Rodell and Binzen for the American prospective. Both are excellent with the broader lean on the book by Andrews. You will find that not all A & C is what the general WW'ing public think is between the lines of what they concieve as A & C.

Yep.. a break is welcome until after Xmas even though I'm already bored and getting antzy. My wife has already suggested... "get back to the shop and build something, would ya"?

Regards...

[Walt Caza]

Hi Sarge,
Another terrific project from your busy workshop.
Oh, ya...
you have achieved a pleasing overall table with a nice sense of proportion.
I don't see much furniture designed in the Arts & Craftsy style that remains
lighter and more airy.(not chunky like my stuff!)
You have accomplished this, and on an original piece too.
Your build looks great, as usual, but for me your design shines.
(you may have raised the bar too high...)

Clever application of curves and details. Nice colour, rays and finish too.
I really like your tusk tenons, and have yet to try my hand at them.

All your sweet details remind me of G&G style.
Have you ever built anything Greene & Greene Sarge?
It kinda seems you are leaning that way, more refined than clunky.
I'm eager to tackle that style sometime.

Congrats on a great companion piece to your fancy desk!
play safe,
Walt

ps I guess you have earned a break?

Haha... ohh boy
Hi again Sarge,
Thanks for your patient response.
You really gotta hand it to us hobby woodworkers...
I count 21 compliments I gave your latest effort in the above quotation,
and yet the thing that stands out is my quibble.
Gave me a good chuckle!

I really am impressed with your companion table.
It meets all your design goals, is handsome despite being handcuffed by those limitations,
and is truly an inspired original.(which includes a cat-nap shelf!)

Typing makes clunky conversation, and much is lost in translation.
To be clear...
I was trying to refer to a single thru tenon,
where you see rail on one side of the leg, and the poked-thru tenon on the other side.
I typed it very muddy, sorry.

Yes, of course, you are correct.
You cannot have two rails meet the same leg with real poke-thru tenons.
I was talking about just a single rail.

Also, I was referring to the exposed tenon/cap being a sharply contrasting
different wood - the ebony - as making me more aware of it being a cap,
than I might prefer.
The caps are fine, but for me, I would have also done them in the same wood to be more discreet. Wha-do-I-know...

Ya, you did point out they are accents.
Yes, they do look good.
Yes, you are right, no structural advantage could have been gained.
I'm sorry if my quibble sounded less than friendly.

I love your forum contributions, vast experience, huge frame of reference and your constant flow of wonderful new works.
I was more trying to have a design conversation, than to seem like I
was harshly criticizing your table.

I find value in kicking these ideas around... I did not mean for it to seem to be at your expense.
I enjoy and appreciate that you design on the fly.
That is why I titled my post "seat-of-the-pants original table design..."

I like the Charles Limbert pieces I have seen.
I built his plantstand and showed it in an old Creek thread.
His cut-outs are a nifty twist.

I envy your broad grasp of the A&C movement, and am inspired to
advance my own understanding.
I will seek the books you mentioned, and thanks for the recommend.

Thanks for not getting your feathers ruffled,
not always easy when typing back n forth with strangers.
As I said, I do find your table very pleasing.
I always enjoy your posts and projects,
be well,
Walt

[John Thompson]

Walt.. I did indeed see all your compliments and the reason I opened with Thanks... The rest of the "book" I wrote about the accents was simply discussing design.. the reason I took the risk to put them there.. the pro's and con's of doing so.. etc. Your quibble did not over-power the many compliments.. trust me! I love to explain why I do what I do and often that answer may be... I don't have a clue?

Then again.. more often than not it may have to do with I like to stray from the normal just to see if it will work or not. The bottom line on those accents is it may work for some and not work for others which is the case with about any case where you undertake building anything. Taste varies and that's a fact.

Many that are into the art world will tell the painting of the "Mona Lisa" is truly a masterpiece. In "Sarge's World" it is just a portrait of a middle aged woman from the middle ages. If you told me I could purchase it for $20 I would take a rain check and probably spend the $20 on a wall poster of Danica Patrick relaxing on a Corvette hood in a bikini. ha..ha..

Yep.. the whole A & C thing is a bit of intrique after doing some research on it. It was not a sytle but simply a concept that evolved into a movement. The movement pushed making simple.. honest furniture without undue ornamentation.. hand work in lieu of factory line.. and something everyone could afford.

But... with that said, most A & C ended up being produced in a factory with machines and the pieces that were produced by hand pushed the price so high that only the rich or monetarily affluent could afford it! And that was the largest portion of those who purchased it at the time.

The vast majority of A & C designers were architects and did not have a clue about wood-working. They depended on hired craftsman to produce the work. There were exceptions as Sidney Barnsley, etc. The Morris Chair you love was indeed designed by Morris but Morris wouldn't have known a mortise and tenon from a butt joint as he was not a WW as most of the architect trained designers.

Yep... I find it a very facinating subject indeed.

Have a good day, Walt....