American Federal Period Desk: Installment 1

Chris Barton

Member
Messages
294
Location
Brentwood, TN
Well, this will be a little different in as far as I've never done a work in progress kind of "serial" post. As many of you know I do as much flatwork as I do lathe work and often combine the two. This thread will detail from beginning to end my construction of a Federal Period style desk. The desk will be made of cherry, many veneers and will include inlay and banding work. So, there should be something here for everyone. However, this first installment is turning of the legs but, since the project is mostly flatwork I chose to post it here.

First, when I've posted pictures of my past projects I've often gotten questions about where I got plans for my project. This project like almost all of my projects was born from historical pieces I've discovered in my readings but, not pure duplications. In fact, the majority of my projects carry a theme from a given period of American furniture but, are usually self created to suit my needs. I decided when I finished the curly maple hutch project that my next project would be for me; a new desk. After looking over many examples of period pieces I drew my plans for a desk as can be seen in the first picture. I would love to use Sketchup to do this but, I'm too lazy to invest the time. Drawing is much faster. As you can see, I don't get into a lot of detail...

My first step in making this piece was to make the template master for the legs of this desk which will feature reeding. Most of the time I make a prototype using poplar but, I decided to go strait to making the first leg and I will reproduce the other 3 using this one as the master. I turn all my reproductions by hand and don't use a duplicator.

The pictures below show the leg prior to, and following the reeding process as well as my hi-falootin reeding lathe thing (hey, it works). Using the indexing wheel on my lathe I ran 12 reeds along the axis.

Please feel free to question my sanity at any time or offer suggestions or critques...

Thanks for looking... more to come
 

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Off to a great start Chris, I’m looking forward to the next installment. During the reeding process, did you eyeball the start & stop points? Will you go back and terminate the reeds using a neander tool?
 
Hi Bruce,

I did use stops on the lathe bed to determine the start and stop points. After all of the legs are turned I will go back with a set of carving tools and and do some fine tuning work. I will also be adding banding and inlays on the flat portions on the tops of the legs.
 
Good-looking start, Chris. :thumb: When you have a chance, I'd like to see more details about your "reeding lathe thing".
 
This should be fun and educational to watch :thumb:

BTW, I never thought I'd say this to you Chris, but "Nice Legs" :D

...assuming the other three will be as nice ;) :wave:
 
Good Morning,

Well, with a new weekend in front of me I hope to complete the turning portion of this project. Last weekend I managed to get my master leg done and since I'm going from master to production I only need to turn 3 more, perfectly that is. I will post some pictures of my progress as the weekend moves along. But, first I need to post a couple of pictures of my reeding router thing. I made this contraption to make reeded legs for a American Federal Period side table made from paduk, satinwood, spalted curly maple and banding made in my early turning period when my lathe was a Ridgid WL1200 twin tube lathe. Since building my router rig I've seen some made by others that either looked similar or placed the router perpendicular to the piece and above it using the lathe ways as a guide. Mine is set at the center point of the drive center and the bearings on the bit follow the turned piece, and don't rely on the lathe for alignment. I use the banjo of the lathe as a stop at one end and a scrap of wood clamped at the other end as a stop. This system works well and was easy to make. Mine is adjustable in height using the knob you see in the front.

More to come...
 

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Today I got my turning blanks for the remaining 3 legs milled to proper size and constructed a "Dancer Jig" to guide rough turning of the legs. A dancer jig is a rod (in my case a dowel since that's what I had laying around) with wire dangles that are cut to length at critical points in the turning. I think the pictures do better justice to describing how this works than my trying to put it into words. Anyway, once the dancer jig is set up you don't have to go back and forth with calipers and such. The wire dangles on mine are made from coat hangers (Joan Crawford was wrong about the "wire coat hangers") that come just short of touching at the points of transition on the master leg. These can be swung out of the way for you to rough the blank into a cylinder and then flipped back down so they glide along the cylinder while the lathe is spinning. This allows you to use a parting tool to determine the rough sizes of the transitions very quickly and repeatably. Once the rough sizing has been done you can flip them back out of the way to do the final turning of the piece. The dancer jig can remain on the lathe for the other legs making them more consistent leg to leg wise and making the job of hand duplication much easier. As you can see, I spared no expense or exotic materials in the construction of my dancer...

Two legs down, 2 to go...
 

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Dear Chris :wave:,
Keep up the good work, and the amusing play by play. Question from a flatlander, (not a flat liner :D) how do you move your nicely made router jig along the fluctuating contour of the leg? I guess the in and out confuses me most.
Thanks for doing this. It takes alot of effort, keep up the good work.
Shaz :)
 
Hi Rob,

The reeding bit I'm using in the router has two bearings on it. One below and one above the cutter. So, the router bit follows the shape of the leg just like using a flush cutting bit with bearing on a table top or edge of a laminate. To me, that is one of the advantages of my jig; it doesn't rely on the lathe bed for the cut, it follows the shape of the leg.

Thanks for the cudos and I hope to keep plugging away at it. Tomorrow I hope to complete the legs and get into the pure flat work...
 
Doc....I need to get you and Kurt out here for a little fly fishing on the Lochsa River and Kelly Creek......Native Western Slope Cutthroat trout....catch and release only but.......20-40 fish per day isn't unheard of for experienced fly fishermen.....I've got a couple of retired Marine friends who do quite well on those streams.

I've got a 26' 5th wheel that can be parked in one of the numerous Forest Service campgrounds. I'll warn you though....I bought it for my wife and her idea of roughing it is camped in a campground where we don't have electricity to use the air conditioner or the microwave...:rolleyes:

BTW....I'm not much of a fly fisherman.....I tie my own flies and slap the water, however.
 
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