A place for me to display some of the varied projects that come out of my shop, as well as to "talk" about some of my experiences working with wood.

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Maloof table finds Loving Home


The table is finally complete, 7-8 coats of Deft danish Oil and its ready to move into its long-term resting place.



Finished table gleaming in morning sunlight.
This spot is under our back window which looks out onto the backyard where LOML and myself sit down to eat and talk about our day. A few pictures and an update on the chairs.













Closeup of the base showing the ingenious joinery,
Maloof was inspired by tree roots in the original design.


Another angle showing entire base.

A couple more construction shots which did not make the cut before:

A complicated glue-up for the legs, the dowels inside keep everything aligned.

Cleaning up the groove in the centre post with the router to ensure joint line disappears.
This is what makes the base look like one piece when it is done.

And where am I with the chairs for this table? I had a lot of head scratching to do in order to come up with my final design for the chairs and I am still not there. Building the chairs is the easy part, turning them into a gorgeous flowing piece of art takes the time. I am almost there. Lots of time was spent shaping the transitions of the joints and finding a way to join these elements to one another. I took advantage of the nice weather over the weekend to do some carving outside; both to deal with the dust and the oblique lighting helps the refinement process.

Three-quarter view

Side view showing my unique arm treatment - almost there!!

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Maloof-inspired Table nearly complete

The chairs I have been working on still require some shaping to be complete. In the meantime I have been working on the dining table to go with the chairs. It is another Scott Morrison design and the finished table will be 40" in diameter.

Here's the top in the final smoothing stage, this is from some nice wide walnut boards.

The construction of the base is a cool design with a neat way to attach the legs into a monolithic piece.
A rough fitup yo make sure everything goes together. Each leg is 3 pieces mitred together before cutting, reinforced with dowels across the mitres.

The centre post has a dado cut into its length on all four sides. Each leg has a matching tenon for its length and once glued up provides a very solid piece. The exposed corners above become a cove to blend the legs into one another, completing the organic look.
One leg at a time...

All glued up. The leg parts have all been routed to give a round look, the foot area needs to be shaped and lots of sanding to blend everything together.

First coat of finish on base!!

First coat of Deft on the top, comes up really nice.

The finished table needing a few more coats to be done.  Time to get back to chair-making!!