Marc Spagnuolo's Blog, page 75
July 9, 2015
Mike’s Walnut Coffee Table
This is a project my dad and I built together. The way it works is I come up with the difficult ideas and then my dad helps me figure out how we’re going to actually build them. For this coffee table I wanted to create a simple contemporary design that stood out from the ones everyone else has. For the sides and legs we used walnut. For the top, I gathered several weathered gray pallet boards I found on job sites and in some friend’s old wood piles. I let the pallets sit out quite some time in a dry area and even sprayed a little bit of disinfectant on them just in case. While those were drying, we milled the walnut boards and glued up the legs and cut them at the angle.
For the top, I planed the pallet boards on one side so they would be the same thickness and ripped them all to about 2″ in width–random lengths. We arranged them on the top and then glued and clamped together on the sides and to a plywood base. We mitered all four edges, which was the trickiest.
We then mitered the walnut sides to match up. Then more glue and more clamps. For the legs, I wanted to angle them to give the table more of a modern stance.
The top got a very light sanding to loosen any splinters and one coat of poly. For the walnut, I finished it with several coats of satin poly. I am very excited with how this table turned out. The best part was building this with my dad!
The post Mike’s Walnut Coffee Table appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
Jeremy’s Teak Side Table
My wife is from Bali, Indonesia and we’ve been importing teak furniture to North Carolina for the past year through our retail store. Our business marks my first exposure to woodworking, just fixing dings at first, and the more repairs I did the more I wanted to build.
For awhile now I’ve been devouring YouTube videos and gathering tools. I’ve managed to carve out a workshop in the basement of our store and have been experimenting.
We had some rustic teak root benches that shipped missing a leg, so I had a thick teak root slab and some teak branches to get creative with. I milled branches to make the legs and cut down the teak root slab for the top. The legs are joined with mortise and tenon (one through mortise with wedge) and lots of butterflies in the Nakashima style. This side table was finished with teak oil.
The post Jeremy’s Teak Side Table appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
July 8, 2015
Greene & Greene Inspired Foosball Table
This foosball table was inspired by the Blanket Chest in the Guild, adapted to the wood I had on hand, which was walnut that we had harvested from fallen trees on our family’s farm in Virginia. We brought the logs to a local Virginia mill to have them sawn into lumber and kiln dried, then drove it back home to Texas. The hardware, with the exception of the stainless steel scoring units and recessed drink holders, was salvaged from an old particle board foosball table that had been sitting in our garage for 10+ years. I did repaint the players from their original faded tan and yellow to the new red and white. The table surface is 3/16″ thick shop-sawn walnut veneer on an MDF substrate. The rest is solid walnut and ebony. The inspiration for the base came from perusing the internet for G&G trestle designs. Joinery is integral mortise and tenon. I finished it with 4 coats of Arm-R-Seal gloss and a final coat of satin, sanding up to 800 grit between coats.
The post Greene & Greene Inspired Foosball Table appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
July 7, 2015
Scrap Pallet Bedside Table
I had a short stint as a union carpenter in NYC, but I am now a chef and have a degree in the culinary arts. I do projects to incorporate both of my passions cooking and woodworking.
My wife had seen a bedside table made from pallets and quickly wanted one. I had recently remodeled our guest room and she wanted this bedside table to fit her decor. I used the same stain I had put on the wood floors in the room so it would somewhat match. Then I put a couple of coats waterbase poly to finish.
The post Scrap Pallet Bedside Table appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
How to Sharpen a Gooseneck Scraper
There’s no shortage of scraper-sharpening videos available on the web. Heck, even our site has two of them: Scraper Sharpening with William Ng and How to Sharpen a Card Scraper. But even after you gain confidence in your ability to sharpen a regular card scraper, you might balk at the challenge of sharpening a curved or gooseneck scraper. The good news is it’s really no different. In this video, I show you the method I use to get a nice burnished hook on my curved and gooseneck scrapers.
Square it Up
tThe first step is to square up and hone the edge. Even though the shape of the scraper is curved, this can still be done using a file (when necessary) and sharpening stones. As usual, I use a block of wood to help me keep the scraper perpendicular to the surface. Once the edge is honed up to 1000-1200 grit, I start working on the faces. The end result is a nice square edge with two sharp corners. Sharpening a scraper is a lot like sharpening a chisel, though I don’t feel it’s necessary to hone it to extremely high grits. In my experience, there’s a diminishing return once you go over 1000 grit.
Burnishing
Once you have a sharp corner to work with, you can begin to mold the steel into a hook. This is done via a 2-step process involving a burnisher, which is a simple metal rod that’s made of a harder steel than the scraper itself. First, place the scraper flat on the workbench right near the edge. Run the burnisher just a few degrees off-horizontal along the edge. You need to apply a good amount of pressure but don’t “white knuckle” it. Unlike a square scraper, this isn’t just a matter of 2-3 strokes and you’re done. You’ll need to work a small section of the scraper at a time, rotating it around after every 2-3 strokes and following the curved shape around the perimeter.
Once you see a nice even burnishing line at the edge, place the scrape in a vise for the second part of the burnishing process: folding the metal into a hook. With the burnisher a couple of degrees off-perpindicular, run it along the edge of the scraper. Once again 2-3 strokes will do the trick. Reposition the scraper in the vise as needed. And if you can’t comfortably reach certain parts of the scraper, don’t worry. Those are the areas you probably won’t ever use anyway.
Looking for a decent scraper set? Try this one from Crown. it includes three basic scarpers and a burnisher.
Note: Those of you who saw TWW Live 11 might recall this demo. I decided to re-record it for additional clarity so it might be worth re-watching.
The post How to Sharpen a Gooseneck Scraper appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
July 6, 2015
Rob’s Gaming/Kitchen Table
I was definitely inspired by the beautiful tables produced by GeekChic, but wanted to build one of my own that fit my wife’s design sense. It was quite a learning experience, and took me just shy of a year to complete (other projects kept interrupting it). I also just saw that something like this is slated for a TWW Guild project soon, so I’ll be interested to see how it compares to what Marc’s creating! This was definitely the most ambitious project I’ve ever attempted, but in the end I’m quite happy with the results, and am looking forward to spending the summer relaxing and playing games at it.
There are 8 drawers; one on each end with push-to-open slides, two wider drawers on each side with handles, and a small drawer with drink holders (and push-to-open slides) in the center. The top has 5 removable leaves (with a removable central support), which exposes the game area below. The inner rails have a dado cut into them, that is destined to allow accessories to be attached (such as dice trays, or book stands). There is an aluminum pin along one side that can be pushed up from the bottom so you can pull out the leaves. I’m also planning on making an insert that replaces the leaves with a card table felt.
The base is hard maple, painted with black oil enamel. The top is cherry, which I aged/darkened using a lye solution, followed by a coat of shellac, and 3 coats of arm-r-seal. The bottom of the play area and drawers is cherry plywood. Most of the joinery is dovetails, with some mortise and tenons.
The post Rob’s Gaming/Kitchen Table appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
July 5, 2015
Bookmatched Walnut Coffee Table
About a year ago, I purchased a pile of Walnut lumber from a local sawyer that included a couple of 5/4 bookmatched pairs. I decided that one of them should become a coffee table and that I wanted to try out a cantilevered design. I explored the design in SketchUp and sought some design feedback. Around that time, I was reading “By Hand and Eye” (Walker/Tolpin), and decided to use some the principles in that book to work out as many of the final dimensions as possible. I prototyped the table using some scrap material to see if it would be stable enough to live with, and once I was satisfied, I got to building the real thing.
I used a combination of hand and power tools to build this table. The exposed butterfly joint, the leg tapers, and the bevel angles on the legs were all done by hand. The table top, with the exception of the mortises for the butterfly joint, was built using power tools. The concealed joinery used to connect the legs to each other and to the top used a domino joiner. The finish is General Finishes Arm-r-seal.
A full build album is available here:
Coffee Table
The post Bookmatched Walnut Coffee Table appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
July 3, 2015
Bent Lamination
When it comes to cutting curves, the easiest way to get the job done is to simply cut the curve from a piece of solid wood. But solid wood has significant limitations. Some curves would require a piece of stock so thick that it would not only be incredibly wasteful, but you aren’t likely to find the wood in the first place. The second issue comes down to stability. When you cut a curve in a straight-grained piece of solid wood, you inevitably create weak point where the curve cuts across the grain (a situation known as “short-grain). So your best bet with heavilyt-curved parts is to either steam bed the material to shape or do a bent lamination. Pictured left you can see a closeup of one of the rockers on my Maloof-Inspired Rocker. This is a perfect example of a situation where bent lamination is a good choice.
How it Works
The concept is actually pretty simple. Thick boards don’t bend well but thin ones do. So we simply cut a board into thin strips so that when bundled together, the strips can flex to the desired shape. With glue between each lamination, a press is used to bend the bundle of laminations around a form. Once the glue dries, the workpiece will hold it’s new shape. So the first order of business is to build the form followed by cutting the wood into lamination strips.
The Bending Form
There are many ways to construct a form and apply pressure. The way I learned to do it leaves little room for error and produces a form that can be re-used time and time again. Using 3/4″ plywood, I cut and finesse the desired shape and then build the stack as tall as I need. A flush trim bit makes sure each layer conforms to the shape perfectly. I then create a negative of the curved profile that will serve as the caul, applying pressure to the laminations and pushing them into the form. This negative takes into consideration the thickness of the bent piece so that the curves match up perfectly with no dead space, once the stack is placed between them. I also like to use cork on the bending surfaces to help distribute the pressure evenly. The entire form is covered in packing tape to prevent the glue from sticking. Wax is a good idea as well for a belt and suspenders approach.
The Strips
The strips are usually cut at the bandsaw, a tool that excels at resawing. A table saw could also be used. How thin you cut the strips depends on a number of factors, include the wood’s natural bending properties, the severity of the curve, and your tolerance for springback. 1/8 – 1/4″ is common but I usually end up somewhere around 3/16″. Once the strips are cut, they need to be smoothed out and brought down to final desired thickness. I usually use my drum sander for this task but a planer can be used as well.
The Adhesive
There are many glues on the market and just as many schools of thought about which glue works best. In my opinion, a good rigid glue line will provide the best long-term results. That would be resin glues like DAP Weldwood and Unibond 800 and also epoxy. But many folks will use standard PVA glues in their laminations with no trouble at all. In fact, that’s what Sam Maloof himself used in his chairs so I decided to try it on mine. I used Titebond Extend for the extra working time. I’ll let you know in a few years if it decides to delaminate.
What Now?
Once the laminates are in the press, leave them under pressure overnight. The next day, you might need a mallet or dead blow hammer to pop the workpiece out of the form. At that point I usually sand the excess glue off the surface and then joint and plane as needed.
Once you understand how this process works, it really opens up the playbook of design possibilities! Give it a shot!
The post Bent Lamination appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
July 2, 2015
Steve’s Garage Shop
I’m Steve, a hobbyist woodworker from Oklahoma. I have been into woodworking since I was 16 years old, I’m 51 now, but only into finer tools and woodwork for the past 5 years. My shop is my 2-car garage, 20’ x 22’ with a 2’ x 4.5’ alcove in the back where I have my dust collector and air compressor. Some of the storage solutions in my shop are store bought and some I built. My real journey in building up my shop started with the building of a Roubo work bench with Benchcrafted hardware. After that I have been hooked on turning my garage into a woodworking haven with good tools and storage. My real work is seasonal, so I’m lucky enough to spend half or more of each year off work with nothing better to do than play around in my shop. I like to keep my shop clean so all of the large tools are connected to a cyclone dust collector via 6” pvc with automated blast gates and dust collector controls. Most of my smaller tools are Festool which are always used with the Festool dust collectors. Most of my projects consist of furniture builds and home remodeling for myself, along with a few small items for friends.
My desire now is a detached shop in my back yard that is bigger than my current garage, I’m running out of room for tools!!! Thanks for looking.
The post Steve’s Garage Shop appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
David’s Danish Cord Bench
I’ve always loved the look of the Danish modern chairs made by Moller, which typically have woven seats. So, when my wife asked me to make a bench for the kitchen entrance to our house, I knew I wanted to make one with a woven seat. Surprisingly, I was able to find a number of videos and articles online discussing how to weave the particular pattern that is used on the Moller chairs. I also was able to find a supplier in California that sells Danish cord.
The first step in making the bench was the legs, which are made out of walnut. I cut a slight taper using a band saw and shaped the subtle curve at the top of the leg by hand with a rasp. The legs are attached to the stretchers with mortise and tenon joints. I cut the mortises by hand with a chisel. Since I’d never done that before, I watched a few videos of Roy Underhill cutting mortises and figured I was ready to go. As it turns out, Roy made it look a bit easier than it actually was (go figure). As I now know, it’s best not to cut the leg to length before chopping a mortise near the top of the leg. The small piece of wood that remained above the mortise broke out on two of my three legs. Since more 8/4 walnut was not in my budget, I had to just glue the broken piece back in.
Before attaching the maple stretchers, I wrapped the long ones in Danish cord using special nails called Danish L nails. Once the stretchers were wrapped in cord, I glued them to the legs and the frame was complete. I then started the weave. The weaving was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. A good tip I picked up from the internet was to wear golf gloves when doing the weave–the Danish cord is rather rough and you have to pull it tight with a lot of tension, so it gets hard on the hands pretty quickly.
Other than a few little projects, this was my first real furniture project. All in all, I was happy with the result and it was a great learning experience.
The post David’s Danish Cord Bench appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.
