Finishing Test

I couldn't resist. I did a test with the finish I have in mind for my piece. It will require 2-3 applications, with at least a day of drying in between apps. But man, does it bring out the color! I used Land Ark's Natural Wood Finish.

Before:


After:

Sanded!

Today I used a great piece of machinery - the wide belt sander. Digitally controlled, it sanded my panels down from 75/100 to 71/100 or something like that. Amazing.

Gluing and Clamping

The next step was to glue the strips to form panels for my table. Each panel has three pieces to it. Gluing and clamping was a process that required more on the thinking and prepping side before actually executing. Once the glue is applied you have just a few minutes to set it and clamp it in place before the glue will start to bond.

Here are my clamped pieces, drying:





We made a sandwich. Clamped from the top, bottom, and sides, to ensure a smooth glue-up.





And here they are, a day after, all dried and glued together!





It's hard to tell if it was a good glue job or not - the edges are quite uneven, and the dried glue is covering up the seams. Next step is to sand it down. After that we'll be able to see how well they are pieced together.

Piecing the Puzzle

Last week was spent trying to piece together my puzzle of a table. Since some of the wood I bought was bowed and twisted, parts were not usable. What I ended up doing was cutting each piece down to a rough size, in hopes that the bowing and bending would ease up. Some pieces did, and some didn't. I now have a pile of cut pieces that are not straight enough to use, since I don't want to lose any more thickness. They were bought at 3/4". So, with the remaining usable pieces, I have to put them together in a seamless way....

Getting closer.....I layed it out with the top in the middle and the four sides surrounding. The goal was to find strips long enough to wrap 3 sides - the top and 2 sides next to it. The finished piece will show the end grain of the side panels as a frame around the top panel.








Think I got it.

LACK CUBE

I went with the Ball and Chain idea but scrapped the name. The idea remains the same - to make LACK's complement. To find it's other half, in table form. The result, when the two are enclosed together, will take on the shape of a cube (almost - 21 5/8"Lx21 5/8"Wx18"H).

LACK's other half will contrast in material and construction. LACK is mass produced; its partner HAVE will be handcrafted. LACK is constructed of honeycomb paper insides, particle board, and laminate, and includes screws to attach legs; HAVE will be constructed of solid wood, attached only by joinery.

After a second visit to Crosscut last Friday, I found the wood I will be using! It is poplar, and it is beautiful. There are mineral streaks that naturally occur in some trees, causing the wood to change in color. The normally light-colored wood is painted with beautiful streaks of yellows, greens, and blue/browns:







I bought 6 pieces, ranging in size. My initial design involved laminating pieces together to give the table more thickness. I have yet to mill, but after looking at the pieces for a long time yesterday, I would like to try and show both sides of the wood. It's just too beautiful not to. I haven't milled them down yet; hopefully after doing so I will still have pieces thick enough to stand on their own.

Several pieces are a bit bowed, and one may be twisted a bit. But, I am optimistic. Tomorrow is face jointing.

MY 3 PROPOSALS: