Laminations to get contrasting designs

Ken Close

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I almost don't know how to phrase my question: it has to do with a jewelery box I saw that had a dark wood cover but had a contrasting wood crossing the face...it was a narrow and non-constant width; the majority of the surface was the dark wood (walnut?--not sure).

So my question is how does one go about creating a solid (not veneer) piece (say 3/8 to 1/2 thick) which has a "line" or "wedge" or "other design" across the surface. I assume some sort of lamination is involved but it is hard to visualize the dimensions of the lamination that would yield the kind of "plank" or "board" I want.

Does anyone get the idea I am trying to convey and ask about? Can anyone point to some resources or share your experience in doing something like this?

By the way,I tried searching here and other places for making a chess or checker board (or a backgammon board) but so far have not turned up anything except various references to veneers.

Help. Please.

Thanks,
Ken
 
Ken, do you have any pictures of something similar to what you want to make? I'm not sure I'm understanding what you're trying to do.

As far as the chess or checker board, maybe this tutorial for making a 3-D cutting board will give you some ideas. A chess board would be the same concept, just with 90º cuts instead of 60º.
 
Charlie brings up a good point. Here's a similar take on the idea:

Cherry%20Wave%203%20600.jpg


It was made in much the same manner as Charlie described.
 
I appreciate the replies and ideas. I went ahead and tried to illustrate the idea(s) that I am trying to create. I want to do something to the top of a box to make it more attractive by having a contrasting wood "embedded" in the top. The picture illustrates two possible concepts. I do not want to do an inlay but rather some lamination or glue up.

The idea of glue up of shaped wood seems easy to fit into the wedge shape illustrated below. But how to I create a "border" of the constrasting wood shown next to it?

I know this must be pretty basic to most of you guys, but pretty new territory for me.

Thanks.
 

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Misc help request...how do I embed a photo WITHIN the message (as Vaughn did) rather than an "attachment"?

Ken
 
Misc help request...how do I embed a photo WITHIN the message (as Vaughn did) rather than an "attachment"?

Assuming that the photo file is somewhere on the Internet (meaning, it can be reached with an http://[blah blah blah]-style link), you embed it in your post by surrounding the link with IMG tags, thus:

HTML:
[img]http://familywoodworking.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14558&d=1195050382[/img]

Here's the result:

attachment.php


I don't know the FW policy on linking directly to FW-hosted images. Showing the smaller thumbnail images by default saves FW some bandwidth, because the larger images only get transmitted if the reader clicks on the thumbnail. If your full-sized images are hosted elsewhere, then it costs FW "nothing" to reference them ... but it still means that every person viewing the thread "gets" to download the images (from your hosting site) whether they're interested in them or not.

Hopefully we don't have TOO many modem-bound members.... :dunno:
 
Not 100% certain here, but I'm thinking one of those inlay router kits may be what you want even though you're not going to inlay. You need some method of making a mating pair of male/female templates for each joint line. If the collar setup on one of those inlay kits isn't right, then a pattern router bit and additional double diameter bearing. Either way, I think it's a case of making a template to make a template to get each pair, then using those to route the wood and glue it up.
 
Ken, there are two ways I can think of right off to get what you want. One would be to "inlay" a thinner piece into the section desired. I would use a router and guide template to cut the inlay and insert the corresponding contrasting piece to fit. If I didn't care that the contrasting piece went all the way through, I'd simply cut the (for argument's sake let's say we're talking about a top like you picture) top on the TS. A tapering jig would work, but I'd be mindful of the angles so I wouldn't end up with the grain running slightly off kilter. Cut the contrasting piece to fit between the two halves and glue them up. Then finish cut the top to size and mill the edges to shape. Rather easy, really. Make sense?
 
For the top with the "slash" of contrasting wood, you can do as Billy suggest with a taper jig.

For the other which is a "border" of contrasting wood, you would be much better off to inlay it. The reason is that you won't have any glue lines from gluing pieces together. Also, the grain will flow normally which you won't get if you piece things together.

Mike
 
The process is called, among other things, complimentary template routing. For a detailed explanation of the process with pictures, please see my book, Router Joinery Workshop.

Sorry for the shameless plug. But it was the easiest answer.
 
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