Started a new project today...

John Pollman

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Rochester Hills, MI
A few days ago my wife came home from one of her "I'm just going to go browse around Barnes & Noble" trips. She plopped something down on the table next to me and said "Here, I got you a couple magazines that looked pretty cool". One was "Big Ideas For Small Shops", and the other was "American Woodworker". How cool is that?!

I started flipping through the shop one first. She got that one because I've been talking about setting up the shop since spending all day in the basement last Saturday cleaning it up and getting ready to try to set up shop. Then she asked me to look at a particular project in American Woodworker. It's called "The Metropolitan Console" and is REALLY cool. It looks fairly easy to do and figured I might give it a try some time. Well this morning I decided that it may end up being one of those "I'll do it someday" things. So I went out in the garage and grabbed a nice piece of MDF that I had left over from a previous job. I figured that I'd start laying out the jig for bending the legs. Heck if I get started, maybe it will actually happen. Layout went well and I had some more time so I actually started constructing the jig. It's almost finished! I've got all but one of the pieces for the jig cut, sanded and ready to go. I had to glue up another block for the main radius portion of the inside curve because I didn't have anything big enough. It will be ready in the morning to cut and sand to its final shape. Then I can assemble the jig and it will be ready to go.

With this much effort into it already, I really think it's going to happen. If it goes well, I'm going to take it over to a client I have that owns a small furniture store. I have a feeling that he may be interested in trying to sell one in his store and see how it goes. I've got some more ideas for some other simple furniture that may work well for the same situation.

This could be a good thing for me right now!

Will post pics as the project progresses.
 
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Took a little time off due to the holiday. But I got back to it today. I'm going to try to use some 1/8" "bending plywood" for the leg lamination. I had some scrap 1/8" Baltic Birch sitting around so I decided to give it a try. It's a little stiff for bending but went OK. I think it will be easier with bending plywood. There's one thing for sure in this world, one can NEVER have TOO MANY clamps! :)

I'm going to let this set until tomorrow and see what happens with the Baltic Birch.

leg bend test.jpg
 
I'm glad to see that you clipped the corners on the jig.

It looks like you used yellow glue? I've found I get virtually no spring back when I unclamp when I use tite bond cold press veneer glue. Plus you get the benefit of it eliminating any tendency for as it dries hard unlike yellow glue which remains pliable and soft.
 
It's Titebond Premium Exterior grade glue. It dries hard and should work fine. When I unclamp it, I'm going to take my Makita electric power planer and clean up one side. When it's good, I'll set up my table saw with a tall aux. fence and trim it to 1-1/4".
 
Passed the first test with flying colors!

I think I'm just going to use 1/8" Baltic Birch plywood for the legs. It worked out fine and I can get enough for two complete sets of legs out of one 5x5 sheet for only $12.95. That's a LOT cheaper than if I tried to use just veneer. I popped it out of the form this morning and hit the first side with my power planer and a little sandpaper and it looked good. Then on to the table saw to cut it to the finished 1-1/4" width. A little sanding and a quick coat of natural stain and it looks great. This thing is as sturdy as can be!

leg.jpg
 
No, actually it's one down and two to go. ;)

This was just a test. It's a tad short. The cut list calls for 1-3/8x50" strips of veneer for the legs. I had a good size piece of 1/8 BB but it was only about 43" long. The 43" length is fine for the inner radius, but each side on the outer radius was just under an inch short. I think 48" pieces will be fine and work OK. It was a pain but I wrapped the lamination in wax paper before I clamped it but it didn't hold up well. I'm lucky it didn't stick to the form! I thought about putting a good heavy coat of wax all over the form and hope that would work. But I just read the directions in the magazine and it says to use shipping tape on the form. I think I'll do that. I might do a test with spreading some wax on some wood and see if glue will stick to it. I used a head gun and melted some wax into a scrap piece of MDF and then put some glue on a scrap piece of wood and lightly clamped it. The glue stuck! Maybe not melting it but just rubbing a good heavy layer rubbed on the wood form cold would work.
 
...I just read the directions in the magazine and it says to use shipping tape on the form. I think I'll do that...

I use the packing tape, and it works quite well. The tape stays stuck to the form, and doesn't slide around (like waxed paper) and the laminating glues don't stick to the tape.

BTW, I've had Titebond glues both 'creep' and also seem to swell up and make the joints show. My preference is either Weldwood or unibond glue. They're powders that mix with water, but are waterproof when cured. Very strong, and no creep.
 
I think I'm going to go the packing tape route. It's cleaner and easier. I like the idea of the powdered glue. It's been a lot of years, but I've worked with it before and it works very well. I might pick up some of that and use it for the rest of the project. I've already got some ideas in my head for some other furniture utilizing this basic layout for the legs. This is gonna be fun! :)
 
Making progress!

I built a cross-cut sled for my TS today so that I could miter the plywood for the box portion of the console. It worked OK but I might want to do a better one. It allowed me to get some nice miters on each of the pieces and it made final assembly of the box a piece of cake. I should be able to pick up the material for bending the legs on Wednesday. Then I need to pick up some solid birch to trim the raw edges of the ply and for the drawer front. While I'm waiting for the legs to dry after I laminate them, I'll build the drawer. I think this is going to be a really nice piece!

box.jpg
 

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It just needs to dry overnight, then two or three coats of satin clear coat and it's finished!
I think two of them would make a nice pair of end tables or even night stands. I'm already designing a modification to the basic design to make a matching coffee table. I think that would be really nice.

Finished console 1.jpgfinished console2.jpg
 
Very cool, John. :thumb: Thanks for taking us along for the ride. And here's hoping the idea goes well in your friend's store. ;)
 
Looks nice John, but where are the close up of those dovetails, especially considering you devoted a whole thread to getting them to work?:)
 
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