Furniture Design: Week 11/13/11

This week I conquered the miter saw!!!! It took about two weeks of finagling with the table saw and fence but I was able to get the angle near perfect! I cut my wood down to finished length, mitered one side and used a stop block to miter the other side. Below is the cut wood taped up to do a quick mock up. This week I will use the domino cutter to complete the joinery and glue everything up.

the 2 complete pieces

side view, isn't it cute!!

It looks like such simple construction but it took so many days of labor!

That seam is gorgeous!

perfecto!

I have also decided that I no longer want the table to be stationary. I would for it to swivel and Jonah suggested instead of using a pin, add a grove to the top of the bottom box that way it has a track to swivel upon. I will start that after the holidays.

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Furniture Design: week of 11/07/2011

This week I didn't even touch my own wood! I spent the entire week practicing mitered cuts at 45 degrees on the table saw. A miter cut is about finesse; I have to be precise and take into account all the various angles that need to be correct. I am using a makeshift fence that includes the miter gauge and a block of wood nailed to it. This allows me to control the angle that the wood I am cutting is hitting the blade. So far my makeshift fence is not sturdy enough and the more a manipulate the gauge the more crooked my wood was getting. This coming week my professor is going to help me make another fence that will hopefully pan out better. I also experimented with a German machine that makes a special type of tenon joint. It is a hand tool that allows you to bore a hole at very depths into a piece of wood that you glue a pre-made tenon into. It creates this symmetrical mortise and tenon joint that can even be done at an angle! So instead of doing the full-blind spline joint hopefully I this tool will make my life easier and it creates a much stronger joint than the full-blind spline. So this week I need to finesse the table saw until it is cutting near perfect 45 degree miter cuts, make and adjust my fence, and finally cut my wood! Wish me luck :)

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