20/10/2016

We finally arrive at the stage of this project that has generated the most anxiety for me. It will be my first attempt at using Windsor technology in any piece of furniture. As you know from the previous posts in this series I have completed the bulk of the so called trapezoid leg, so now we need to grapple with the so called Windsor leg. The rest of the table was inspired by (and leans heavily on) the work of George Nakashima, but this leg is entirely my creation. Having said that I am quite sure there would be similar designs out there, but it was not something I can remember seeing on the net during my research phase.

The idea with this design in general is that it suites the feral nature of the wood I have available. As most of you probably know, Nakashima was a master in the art of allowing the wood to speak for itself. The idea behind this particular leg is to create an elegant counterpoint to the otherwise rugged robustness of the design. It is meant to establish a sense of the top deceiving gravity. In other words, I wanted it to appear as if the top is floating in mid air. There will be a few more details added to the inside of the trapezoid leg to further enhance the mentioned effect, but for that you will have wait.

As you might remember the Kershout beams that will form the top and the bottom of the Windsor leg were laminated previously. My first step thus, was to square up a face and an edge by hand planing. I included the monstrous beam that runs between the two legs (at floor level) in this process as it has exactly the same dimensions i.e. 66 mm x 88 mm.

The electric planer then leached off my elbow grease to flatten the opposite sides of the beams.

The spindles presented the first major challenge. I did not want to laminate stock for the spindles as it would be very obvious in the final product. As I discussed earlier in this post these spindles also need to be elegant, which are the two main reasons why I prepared Kershout stock in the order of 1″ (25 mm) x 1″. As you can see the square stock was first planed into an octagon-shaped spindle, before it was introduced to the lathe.

The major challenge of turning these spindles was that I purposefully kept them ever so slightly bowed (lengthwise) as it would aid in turning more natural looking bamboos. Yes Bamboos. I want these spindles to look like bamboos to fit in with the Japanese theme of the table’s design, as well as the feral nature of the timber that was chosen.

That of course is no drama at all, but as anyone knows who’s tried to turn off centre work it is not a joke. You add to that the Kershout characteristic of being ridiculously hard and you have yourself a full-blown drama.

In the end I was forced to use 60 grid sandpaper to do the rounding as every other more conventional technique wanted to rip big chunks of timber out at the fat end of the bow (if you see what I am saying).

As you would expect, while rounding off the last of the four spindles I found that this particular one had an area where the grain developed a brief psychotic episode, which would have compromised the strength of it. Given the delicate nature of the design I could not risk any weakness to one of these four spindles, which meant that I had to start from scratch with fresh stock.

25/10/2016

Once all the spindles were round and passed the grain-reading/strength test I marked out the location of the tenons and Bamboo’s nodes. As you can see I used the trapezoid leg as a guide seeing that the Windsor leg will mirror it’s shape. The angle of the spindles is exactly the same as the sides of the trapezoid leg i.e. 9º. The nodes were placed in such a way that the different sets of nodes (across the 4 spindles)  will form (partly invisible) chevrons pointing upwards. The chevrons are at 9º in relation to a line that run perpendicular to the spindle. Now that sounds very confusing, but it is the best my grasp of the English language will allow for.

Once all that was done I had to take the plunge and try to shape natural looking bamboos from spindles that is neither completely round nor completely straight. First, I very carefully placed the nodes using a skew lathe tool. After that I used 60 grid sandpaper to hollow out the internode segments ever so slightly. I purposefully made no attempt to shape them exactly the same. This was a deliberate ploy to have it looking more natural. Unfortunately attempts at making stuff look natural often ends up with it looking tacky, which was one of my main concerns. Luckily it came out looking reasonably good.

Once all four of the spindles were roughly shaped, they went back to the lathe for finishing (sanding with progressively higher grid sandpaper) and the shaping of the tendons.

At last it was time to use a set of hand tools I made back in January. I am of course referring to my shop made Reamer and tenon cutter.

As you can see here I again used the trapezoid leg to position the two beams of the Windsor leg before marking out the location and angle of the mortises.

It all went swimmingly as I first drilled pilot holes on the drill press to keep the spade bit that followed honest. Unfortunately I decided to drill these pilot holes out (with the spade bit) at the end of a very long Saturday. The concentration was going south and it ended up with me drilling one of the holes in the wrong direction!!!!

Enter: Panic Attack! #@!$^%*(&^&*%#@%^!!!!!

Seeing that this is not the first stuff-up I have made in the shop, I know that it is better to just stop working and try to calm down. In this case I added an ice cold G&T to treat the acute exacerbation of my Anxiety Disorder. After my rational mind retuned, it became quite clear how to fix the indiscretion. I had to turn a piece of Kershout to the exact diameter of the hole and glue it into place.

Let this be a lesson to all of us, stop working when you get tired (or gatvol as we would say in this part of the world).

The next day I was able to plane the fix flat and drill a new hole, this time in the correct direction. After that I got to play with the second of my two shop made tools, the reamer.

I drew a square around the hole before I started reaming. This helps to give a visual guide of the progress and alignment.

I tend to do only 3-5 turns with the reamer before scraping out the debris (that tends to clog the reamer) and checking my alignment.

I use this stick that has a tenon of the exact size and a straight shaft as a reference point for my bevel. That way you can make small adjustments as you go.

One done seven to go.

9/8/2016

Actually, from my feverish and extensive research through the length and breadth of this fair land, a table is by no means compulsory in a shebeen. In fact the only compulsory ingredient is a delinquent supply of Zamalek and/or Windhoek Lager. However in the few exceptional cases where it were found to be present, it was a very welcome addition.  So I thought my shebeen should have one, but it took a long long time to find all the ideal ingredients to build a shebeen proof/worthy table.

This project got underway in late July after I managed to secure a beautiful slab of wood from a friend who insisted that he did not want any money for it. In the end I gave him a Record no. 6 fore plane that I restored some time ago as payment. The slab of wood will make an ideal top for a table in Wamboland (our shebeen in the backyard).

Just to remind you what Wamboland looks like, a few pics.

And here it is, a massive slice of Eucalyptus. Unfortunately I do not know much more about the origin and specific species of this wood. I know it came from South Africa and measures up to 2700 mm (length) x 1000 mm (wide at one end and 1200 at the other) x 70 mm (thick). After a bit of research on the net I would say it is probably what is called Rose Gum or Eucalyptus grandis, but by the time it is finished some of our Australian friends will probably give us a better idea of the exact species.

I apologise for the poor quality of this picture due to the contrast in lighting. What I am trying to illustrate is how I marked out the longitudinal centre line on the underside of the slab. Seeing that it is wider at one end than the other, I measured out the centre at each end and tapped in a panel pin. A piece of string stretched between the two pins then helped me to mark out the centre line.

I used trammel points (not pictured) to divide the length of the slab into 5 equal parts along the centre line. The areas to be flattened for the legs were then marked out perpendicular to the centre line at the intersection between the 1st and 2nd fifth, as well as the 4th and 5th fifth. I hope that makes sense to native English speakers.

The first of these areas were flattened using my Festool router with the guide rail. I propped up the rail with bits of wood to stop it from bending. This was a very unpleasant experience. I have developed an allergy to electrical routers. They make too much noise and feel very unsafe to me.

The waste was removed by chisel and a slick (not pictured).

At this stage it was time to start the process of preparing the reclaimed Scots Pine, which will become the undercarriage of the table. I wrote a post on the origin of this wood which you can find here. These beams were first cut to length using my Disston no. 12 24″ crosscut handsaw and then ripped where necessary on the bandsaw. Unfortunately this was also the last job I will ever be able to do with this Chinese made 1982 model bandsaw, as it raised the white flag after an admirable career. Now I am in the market for a good affordable bandsaw, which is something that is probably impossible to find given the #Nenegate #Zuptamustfall #Nkandla #Failedtoupholdtheconstitution #Paybackthemoney #Khwesi #Itookashowerafterwards #eleventyseventyhundred #UntilJesuscomes-induced currency tragedy. RIP my dear friend, you have served us well (in reference to the bandsaw, not you know who).

8/9/2016

OK so back to the top. The second of the areas that needed flattening had quite a big bump in it. I decided to use my Festool tracksaw rather than the router.

As you can see below, I again propped up the guide rail with bits of wood until the two winding sticks were lined up perfectly. This ensured that the two flattened areas would be in the same plane (or wind free if you like).

So in this case I made a series of cuts checking the orientation of the guide rail with the aid of the winding sticks prior to each cut.

I got lucky in that this area ended up “open” on one side, which allowed me to get in there with my shop made scrub plane to remove the waste (in conjunction with a slick and a chisel of course).

This is the slick I mentioned earlier. The actual slick handle were removed for this job, so I simply seated an old pairing chisel handle as I did not feel up to turning a custom one for such a quick task. It is a Peck, Stow & Wilcox (PEXTO) for the sake of the tool geeks (like me).

Seeing that there is a major crack in this slab of wood running all the way from one end to the other, I wanted to ensure that it does not fold like a book being closed when the top is handled during the building process. It actually feels quite resistant to such movement, but you never know. In order to lend it some extra support I screwed down these two heavy blocks of wood across the crack. I know, I know, possibly more screws than needed #JonathanWhite!! This is of course only a temporary arrangement, while working on the top. Eventually the undercarriage will fulfil this role.

Here you can see the legs, (some of the) stretchers and aprons after hand and machine planing.

The legs being cut to final length.

Hand sawing of joinery.

12/9/2016

The pictures illustrate a technique that I employee fairly often now. I leave an area of waste which helps to stabilise the sole of my Lie-Nielsen router plane. Once the router plane have the area perfectly flat and to it’s exact depth I remove the waste and use the flat area created by the router plane as a reference surface for a pairing chisel.

For some reason I did not take a picture of the part with the waste removed. Sorry.

The next major task is to stabilise that massive split in the top Nakashima-style as approached from the side that will face upwards. For this purpose I had to laminate Kershout stock to created massive Dutchmen (aka doveltail keys).

Now they need a cosy new home. As I have described this process previously I will not bore you with it again. The pictures will probably do the job anyway.

Glued into position using slow setting epoxy.

At this stage I am in a race against time as this top is living outside my shop (due to it’s size) so I need to finish my Dutchmen-placement-activities before the rain comes. If we are lucky we might see a few drops around the start of October. The top needs to be safe and sound under roof in Wamboland by then. Then I can happy toil away at the undercarriage (which does fit in the shop) until it is ready to be joined in matrimony.

9/8/2016

It has been a long time since I posted the previous update on this project, so here goes.

Maybe we should first just remind each other what we are aiming for. Below are two photos of the final version of my protracted design process in the form of a small mockup. In this post you will see how I progress with work on the solid trapezoid shaped leg and stock preparation/lamination of the various parts of the so called Windsor leg.

In the pictures below you can see how I cut dovetail keys from Kershout. I recently learned that the these keys which were made famous by George Nakashima are also known as “Dutchmen”. Why, I do not know, maybe Dutchmen like wearing bowties??

The keys placed on the face side of the trapezoid leg.

The Dutchmen is meant to stabilise natural cracks in the wood. Of course it also adds a certain je ne sais quoi, as you would expect.

I used slow setting epoxy to fix the Dutchmen about two thirds of the way into the thickness of the Witpeer panel. As you can see they stood proud of the surface of the panel by quite some margin (post insertion).

As a result of how incredibly hard the Kershout is and the amount of material to remove I followed the approach pictured. Several crossgrain cuts with a carcass saw, followed by chisel, followed by Jack plane.

The two edges of the panel were then laminated with the off-cut piece of Witpeer flipped over head-to-toe and back-to-front. This ensures the best colour match possible and per definition results in the grain running perfectly in the same direction. The lamination on the one hand aims to create a component that is twice as thick as the top of this table, which is a choice made in the interest of pleasing proportions (from a design perspective). It also creates space to hide a second layer of strips that run perpendicular to that of the first layer. This is quite useful when working with my beloved feral hardwood as it has a tendency to warp in the absence of something to keep it honest.

As you can see below, I used Dominos to keep the edges flush during glue-up.

After glue-up the edges were cleaned up with a hand plane.

Next came the preparation of the strips of wood that will run perpendicular to the grain of the trapezoid panel. This involved the usual array of tools including winding sticks, straight edge, and hand plane.

As this will ultimately be a layer that will be completely hidden from sight, I used proper off-cut level stock.

Preparing lapjoints  at end of the perpendicular strips.

Followed by the mating lap joints in the raised section of the trapezoid panel.

A useful trick that I employed here is to leave a narrow strip of waste intact to support the sole of the router plane while shaving 90% the floor of the lap mortise (for lack of a better term) perfectly flat and to the desired depth. Then it is easy to use the flat area as a reference surface for your chisel while pairing away the remaining waste.

The gaps you see in the lap joints are there to allow for ample movement of the trapezoid panel with changes in ambient humidity, while the perpendicular strips resist warping. You will also note the slots around each screw which allows for the same thing. I used my Festool Domino to cut the slots. At this stage the leg is ready for it’s final layer, which will cover up the perpendicular one and take the thickness up to 44 mm. More about that in a month or so as we now have to first build the other leg using Windsor technology!!! It will be my first time so I am stressing!!!

At the level of the paint bucket you can see the Kershout I chose for the Windsor leg.

6/9/2016

I can assure you that the time and effort it takes to liberate the few pieces of Kershout (aka Candle Wood or Pterocelastrus tricuspidatus)  pictured below from the pile pictured above will surprise you. This stuff is very hard and extremely heavy. It actually sinks in water!!! The Kershout is the deep red coloured wood.

Below I am laminating the top and bottom beam of the Windsor leg.

In the next addition of this series of posts we will plunge into the world of Windsor technology.