Project: Purple Heart and Figured Maple Night Stands (Finished)

[Jim Becker]

One of the things under the tree for Professor Dr. SWMBO was a picture of a nightstand that I planned on making for our new master bedroom in the addition. Needing a break from the cabinetry type projects that have been consuming all my limited shop time, I decided not to to delay in getting them started. So the day after Christmas, after fitting the doors to my tall linen cabinet (and fixing a major, umm...measuring mistake...) I got to work.

These night stands are based loosely on a picture that caught my eye in the February 2007 issue of Fine Woodworking on page 46. The article is about table edge treatments, and this piece was given as an example of a beveled underside. Nicely Shaker style to my taste, too.

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Now, I would normally build something like this in the cherry it's illustrated in. But I had been poking around in my lumber rack recently and remembered that my cabinetmaker neighbor had gifted me a whole bunch of stuff when he was cleaning out his shop...including some very nice purpleheart. Hmmm...maybe. Yes! Shaker style but "different". Purpleheart for the major structure and...hmmm....how about curly maple for the top and drawer fronts. Let's do it! And so I have.

I did a quick sketch for basic dimensions and then started to round up the materials and do the prep work necessary for the components. All of the purpleheart in the rack was 8/4 material, so I cut out the leg blanks, using the band saw to preserve some thin material for future use and resawed another piece for apron facings. Some of the leftovers from the leg blanks were just right for other structure components. I also glued up some poplar stock for secondary purposes. (I didn't document things like re-sawing, flattening and thicknessing for this as I'm working on them quickly...I want them done in a few days before I have to get back to the "grind")

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Before proceeding further with the legs, I took some thick scrap (in this case it was cherry with a lot of sap) and made a duplicate leg blank. On this, I drew out the locations for the aprons and other structure so I could ascertain where the leg tapers should start.

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Once that was done, I configured my taper jig to match the necessary cut and locked it down on the slider for "processing". (note that the blade is NOT spinning in this picture, despite looking like it. I was just putting the template blank in the jig to do my test cuts)

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[Jim Becker]

Here are the completed legs with the tapers cut. Note that I carefully oriented these to take advantage of some nice figure on the "front" faces.

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Now, I could have cut up the last remaining piece of 8/4 purple heart for this project to come up with material to make the shelves that will be below the drawers (one of my modifications at Professor Dr. SWMBO's suggestion...for books), but it would have been a crime to cut up a 6' long, 15" wide 8/4 piece of this nice wood for such utility use. So after we picked out our knobs and lock sets for the addition this morning, I ran up to Wherungs Specialty Woods to pick up some 4/4 purpleheart for the shelves and some curly maple for the tops. Ok, this place isn't the candy store that Hearne Hardwoods is, but it's also only about 10 miles rather than an hour and a half ride. (Wherungs has also supplied the majority of the building materials for our addition, so they are inclined to be nice to me right now...) I got some great material and all of it was at about $5 bd/ft. I did buy more than I needed, but with the figured maple, you really have to do that so you can choose the right mix to get what you want for a very prominent feature. (I bought 25 bd ft of the maple and only used about 8 bd/ft for this project...the rest will be consumed later)

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Once I milled the new purpleheart flat and to thickness, I glued up the blanks for the shelves. Each nightstand will get one shelf.

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And here's all the maple laid out after a quick skim on the jointer so I could choose what I wanted to use for the tops.

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And a quick view of the curl...very nice...

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[Jim Becker]

Choosing the material is what I very often say is the first step in the finishing process. For this top there are two things I needed to deal with.

1. Making the figure, color and curl relatively consistent across the table tops
2. Making each board about the same width so that the curl will "look right" as a table top that must, by definition, be obviously made from multiple boards. (Most of the time, I try to make a top look like ONE board...can't do that here)

So here are the chosen boards laid out and ready for straightening and ripping to width.

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First, one edge is straight-line ripped. Since I have a sliding table saw, I can do this with the board clamped down and totally avoid going to the jointer to prepare the edge for glue-up.

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The slider is also used for the width and once again, with the board clamped down, I am ready to go right to the glue and clamps.

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Now you can see that we have consistent widths to work with. BTW, please note that I'm doing one large blank for both tops and will cross-cut it in half after the glue-up is completed. I forgot to mention this earlier in the thread.

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At the end of today, almost all the materials are ready for final assembly, outside of making drawers, and the big blank for the top is glued up and ready for sanding and dimensioning tomorrow sometime.

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[Michael Weber]

Looking forward to rest of that Jim. Tarry Not

[Dave Malen]

Jim,
Looks like a nice project. I'm impressed with the progress you made in just one day. and what a deal on that wood. For curly maple like that I've paid as much as 8 dollars a bf.

Looking forward to seeing the completed project
Dave

[Jim Becker]

Dave...Ottsville is not a bad ride for you. Straight up 611! And I was also surprised at the price...just a hair over $5 for very nice figure. Not "instrument grade", but just right for this project.

[keith ouellette]

You really make it look like you know what your doing. I can't wait to see the finished project. I wish I could get fig. maple at $5 a board foot. I only have one place to buy wood from any where near me and I pay over $5 for just plain white hard maple and it isn't even al that good.

[Don Bullock]

Jim, as usual this is an excellent documentation of a woodworking project. I'll definately be interedted in following it along as it progresses. Thanks for your detailed posts. I find them very helpful.

I saw that same picture and thought it might be a table I'd like to make. Right now, however, I'm working on three other tables.

[RickT Harding]

Great stuff. I saw the same article on the table edge designs and it gave me some ideas for a hall table I've been working on starting. I'm working on mine with a walnut base and curly for the top. I can't wait to see how you finish it. I've been reading all sorts of "grain popping" finishing ideas for that curly top since it's really going to be the center of attention with a darker base.

[John A. Williams]

Nice maple, I don't really care for purpleheart, but maybe these tables will change my mind. You do great work.
John

[Howie French]

Jim - great project, I look forward to following this.

thanks for taking the time for posting such detailed tutorials.


Howie

[Thomas Knighton]

Looking good so far, and I can't wait to see how things progress with this project.

Tom

[Bill Wyko]

Nice job Jim. I wish we had figured Maple that nice in these parts. Is that common in your area?

[Nancy Laird]

Jim, those night tables are going to be pretty classy-looking. I'm glad that your better half decreed a shelf below the drawer box. Tables such as these look--TO ME--top-heavy and need something at the bottom to balance them. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Nancy

[Jim Becker]

Nancy, I actually prefer the "look" without the shelf, but for practical reasons, they will have them. We both are voracious readers and having a place to put a book or three other than on top of the table is a good thing.

Bill (and others), I was very taken by how nice that maple was for the price. I've paid much more! But soft maple (which most of the figured stock is) is a NE wood, just like cherry. Supply is pretty good, but figured stuff, again, typically sells for higher prices. Maybe I just got lucky. No complaints here...and I have more on the rack for a future project.