Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Sculpted Mahogany Vanity - Stock Preparation and Top Segment

And we're off!  In this episode, we'll sort through the rough stock (ahem, in my neighborhood, 'rough' stock is regrettably S2S) then use a Festool TS-75 to straight-line the boards before using the table saw for the parallel cut.  The upper segment of the vanity's structural insides will be Dominoed (I love how in English you can verb anything).  We'll talk about a couple different Domino techniques that come up in this segment.

The underside of this top segment is in three sections.  The two outer sections will have drawers so we'll make part of the structure into drawer runners and resaw some Mahogany for two panels on the underside. You'll see a quickie tour of the KM-1 being used to exactly size the panel groove.  I'll be doing a video user's guide to the KM-1 soon.

While not on the video, the next step is to sand or scrape the panels and put finish on them before gluing up the upper segment.

In the next episode, we'll make the lower segment, the drawer webbing, and glue up the panels that will wrap this wireframe structure.  Then we'll get in touch with our inner-Rodin and sculpt! ...but hopefully it won't look like the Gates of Hell.   :)

11 comments:

  • Anonymous said...
     

    PM: (I love how in English you can verb anything)

    That was awesome - using "verb", a noun, as a verb!

    You've got a well-equipped shop, no doubt. I think my shop is pretty well-equipped, but I don't have a popcorn-maker.

  • Anonymous said...
     

    con you tell us little more about the domino offset marker?

  • HalfInchShy said...
     

    The offsets are available for the pin Domino. I blogged about it ages ago. Here's the link:
    http://www.halfinchshy.com/2009/09/domino-offset-pins.html
    If you have the pin-style Domino, you will love those offsets. If you read the comments of that posting, I mentioned building my miter saw table without a singel pencil line from first mortise to glued-up in 27 minutes. Yeah, I was trying, but still they make an already unreasonably fast tool faster.
    If you have more questions about them, comment over there or over here :)

  • Brian said...
     

    Oh how exciting! It's always nice to see the wood flying, not kickback though... it's always nice to see the wood chips flying... actually I love dust collection... it's always nice to see wood being dimensioned! Great music added and action shots. I've seem that KM-1 thingy before and didn't know much about it. Excited to see that video too! I think if it did end up looking like the Gates of Hell you might scare away a few guests although the real thing is quite stunning. (Just from pictures in art history)

  • HalfInchShy said...
     

    You'll need to visit the Rodin museum in Paris to see the real deal; it is very impressive in person. The whole museum is impressive with a walk-through garden with his statues and those of Camille Claudel everywhere (she was his hottie apprentice with daddy issues :)

    Before I lock these panels into the upper segment, I'll roll a video on the KM-1. Super easy to use, but the instructions, well...

  • john said...
     

    I think the mahogany you are using is "african" mahogany. I'v used it to carve ball and claw feet for several end tables. I purchased it because it was about half the price of Honduran mahog. I have relearned the lesson of you get what you pay for many times and I am sure that I will learn it again. Once the african is finished it looks pretty good. I haven't found it to get the nice deep oxidation that Honduran gets over time, but it looks nice. The big disadvantage of using it for carving is the fibrous nature of it as demonstrated by your shavings. It doesn't cut as clean with the carving tools. True Honduran mahogany is a dream to carve. I will be interested how it power carves with you low grit sandpaper. John

  • HalfInchShy said...
     

    Great... now I want to try on some scrap first! It is not supposed to be African Mahogany. I have a huge piece of 16/4 African Mahogany for a future project; it was going to be my first use of it for Cambriol legs.

    Well, we'll see and work around it if necessary... "and next, we screw together the plywood carcass before installing the vanity..." :)

  • Anonymous said...
     

    PM, Tell me about the rear extension table for Sawstop; I have the rockler version and need to upgrade. Thanks Scott

  • HalfInchShy said...
     

    The table in the back is just something I made. If you go to the tour of my SawStop, you'll be able to see the underside of that outfeed table; it is to the right of the SawStop leaning against a big box. Blog entry is here:
    http://www.halfinchshy.com/2011/02/guided-tour-of-my-pimped-sawstop.html
    You're seeing the underside. I basically put some bracing that screwed in from the top. There's a set of legs that hinge down in an H-section. Bottom of the legs have levelers.
    If you look at the back of the saw's fence rail, I put a board with a big lip. The lip on the front edge of the outfeed table sits in the gap. Very very fast to setup. Only when I move the saw do I have to sometimes adjust the levelers. It was originally 4-5" longer, but I trimmed it back so now I can use it with the garage door closed without having to move the saw back.
    Get a scrap of MCP (Melamine Coated Particleboard) for the top; I used some pressed paper product used for artists that an ex-girlfriend left behind. Memories put to good use :)

  • Against The Grain Custom Woodworking said...
     

    OK. This may be a dumb question but were you joking when you said or wrote that the resawn boards "were soaked and left tented". And if you weren't, what are you talking about?

  • HalfInchShy said...
     

    Ah, not a dumb question. In fact, it came up more in the sculpting episode's comments. So, I discussed it at the end of the most recent video: Part Sevensky. That episode is pretty light and you wouldn't be missing anything if you jumped ahead to watch it then went back to the series.

    This trick works very well for me here in Arizona where stock dries very quickly once off the bandsaw, planer, sander, or even hand planes. Some readers in the Pacific Northwest, though, even think it will be helpful there, too.