A sculpted, stack laminated table set, with a hint of yin & yang (PIX)

[John Fry]

First I want to thank everyone who visited and responded to my last project post;

A very large walnut and walnut burl credenza (PIX)

and, as always, I welcome your comments AND critiques on this latest project.


This commissioned project is a coffee table ensemble that is designed to sit in a seating alcove created by a very large “L” shaped couch on two sides and a large chair on the third. It is made from selected white maple solids and veneers on Baltic birch plywood substrates and it is definitely on the artsy side.

The pedestal bases are created by segmenting and stack laminating. The smaller pedestals are turned while the larger base is hand sculpted.



It stands 18” tall and with any of the two round tables nested in the “tilde”, it fills a zone of 26” by 52”. The round tables can slide over closer to someone sitting in the corner of the couch, or closer to the large leather chair. The third little round table roams to any other seating in the room.



This end view shows how the main table base is sculpted to match the profiles of the turned pedestals, but is “stretched” and curved, to follow the shape of the tilde top.



The three “roundies” all have a different top. They are all veneered, 16 segment, radial starburst, patterns. One is Asian ebony, one is maple, and the last is done on a bowl shaped substrate with three leaf inlays. This was not an easy task!



The pedestal construction would be made by creating twelve layers of hexagon glue ups. Doing six sides kept visible end grain to a minimum at the final shape. I started by making a special 30/60 degree miter sled.



The miters had to be cut perfectly and clamp up perfectly or I risk gaps when the shaping gets deeper into the center. Each of the smaller tables had 72 pieces. I cut enough to be able to glue up the ends of the larger base too.



Before gluing up the disks, I cut rabbets on the inside edges so I could lay in these hexagon plates. I need to be able drill center holes to keep everything aligned during the pedestal glue up.



This is a dry stack of the parts for all three small tables. As you can see, I made the disks as close to the correct size to save on wood and cutting.



After “finding centers” and drilling all the holes, I made this clamping fixture to keep everything in line. I laid out, and marked the glue lines on each layer so I could stagger them as I worked up the stack.

[John Fry]

The top and bottom plates of the clamping fixture were made with a double thickness of 3/4” MDF for additional rigidity. I used medium colored Unibond 800 and wrapped this up in an electric blanket for the night.



I made a template from my full sized drawings and turned the three roundies on the lathe with a Duplicator.



And it made easy work of the three pedestals.



For the tops, I made torsion box type substrates out of BB ply.



The finished diameter will be 14”, so I rough trimmed them first. Then using a trammel and router, I trimmed them to 13-5/8”. This permits the laminating of the 1/8” bending ply on the edges, followed by the 1/16” thick, vertical grained maple veneer edging.



The edge banding was selected from the outer edge of wide boards to get the tight straight grained pattern I was looking for. After resawing and sanding, the pieces were edge glued together to make a strip long enough to completely wrap around the top.



The 1/8” bending ply was glued on the edge first as the substrate. I used plain old Pony band clamps. The finish veneer was done the same way after the bending ply had dried. I do the edges first on these tables so the top’s veneer covers the side veneers. I think this gives a much better appearance to the top. Actually I veneer the bottom first, then the sides, so the edge of the bottom veneer is not visible at all.



Next, I start making up the starburst veneer sets for the tops. I cut the wedges to perfect size and angle, them edge glue them together. Then I put them in the vacuum press.



This is the start of the larger tilde top’s torsion box, the top and bottom plates were cut from BB ply using a full sized MDF template.

[John Fry]

The top plate is put on, aligned and then clamped.



The 1/8” bending ply was attached and glued using my friend “blue tape” as a clamping method. The final veneers were all applied using the same methods as the round tables.



I started gluing up the stack lam for the large base. I used the extra hexagon wedges that I had cut previously to form the ends and them segmented and glued up the “stretchers in between them. This thing is not only heavy but very crude at this point.



I am using an Arbortech cutter, and a carbide shaping disc, on my 4-1/2 angle grinder to rough this thing out. I made a template standing on blocks to check and guide me around the base to make sure I don’t over cut anyplace



Well, I’m gaining on it. I’ve added a grinding disc on a third grinder now. The Arbortech is very aggressive and it worries me about cutting too deep. I sure don’t want to accidentally trash this glue up now!.......I’m not too sure it isn’t better suited to carving grizzly bears out of tree stumps. …………...Man this is not easy!!……..What have I gotten myself into this time??



Yep! It’s coming together now and I’m feeling much better. After a lot of time and hard work, two grades of carbide wheels, and finishing out with flap sanders in an electric drill, I’m down to final sculpting with a curved card scraper.



The next hard element is how to veneer a 16 segment radial starburst on a bowl shaped top. I started by gluing up five layers of plywood to cut the 16 wedges for the substrate.



I built a fixture to hold each wedge at the proper angle to get a perpendicular cut and then cut out the bowl shape from the top of each wedge.



I’ve dry fit the bowl wedges together to insure I have a perfect fit, and now I am going to veneer each wedge BEFORE they are glued together.

[John Fry]

I used a piece of the cut-off from the band saw as a clamping form. The BS kerf is about the same as the 1/16” thickness of the shop sawn veneers, so with the addition of the 1/4“ hardboard as a backer, this should work to bend the veneer. I let the wedge of veneer overhang the substrate wedge by about 1/16” on all sides and I used epoxy as my adhesive in case of any gaps.



I built one more jig to hold two wedges at a time and I used a 2-1/2” long flush trimming bit on the router table to trim the veneer overhang flush to the edges of the wedges. Theoretically this will let me put the 16 veneered wedges back together with no gaps. It worked very well!



My client is an artist who happens to collect fossils, shells, stones and other collectables. She wanted the bowl top to display these items at different times, or fill it with candy when her grandchildren visit. She also drew three bay leaves to adorn the bowled top as inlays.



Hmmmm! This wasn’t very easy either. I used verawood for the green leaves and I cut and glued them into a 1/6” sheet of waste veneer using marquetry techniques. Then, I cutout the individual marquetry leaves from the backer, and inlayed them into the top using a Dremel to rout the recesses.



Here is a close up of one of the leaves.



Here is a close up of the 16 segment, maple top.



I sure do love this Striped Asian Ebony. It is absolutely beautiful!



And of course, my “Maker’s Mark” to prove that I didn’t buy these at a Levitz sale!

Once again this had some good learning procedures for me, and I got a great physical workout to boot.

I want to thank my friend Earl Kelly for his guidance and advice on the grinder sculpting. He helped me a lot with a process I had never done.

Thanks for looking.

[Bruce Volden]

All I can say is WOW!!! Beautiful! How long did it take to plan and execute this project??

Bruce

[Michael Wildt]

Hi John,

Same here WOW!!!! That is some impressive woodwork. I also checked your other project, and that is awesome work as well.

Michael
Wish I would get that good.

[Kent Parker]

John,

Thanks for posting the details to such a great project. The leaves just knocked me out!!!

Cheers,

KP

[Rick Gifford]

You're crazy good, that's all I can say. I clicked through your projects you have posted here at the creek. I am impressed with your workmanship. Beautiful stuff!

Not cookie cutter furniture either, no, you take on the complicated stuff.

Very nice work John. Thank you for sharing!

[Craig D Peltier]

Holy cow, Thats very impressive. I wish I felt confident enough to tackle that. Theres alot of advanced skills applied there.

Thanks for sharing. I wasnt sure how the segments worked so the pics told the story.

[Mark Singer]

John,
You are doing great work! I love it!

[John Fry]

Thanks for the kind words, everybody!

[Jim Becker]

Very interesting work, John! Thanks for keeping us abreast of what you are creating.

[Roy Wall]

John -

Thanks again for sharing another terrific project! You have tremendous talent and skill........a benchmark for us to dream about.

Awesome!

[Mike Golka]

Absolutely amazing work!!! thanks for sharing.

[Danny Thompson]

Looks like someone stole David Marks's crosscut sled.

Beautiful.