Another Kitchen table

[Chris Knight]

Moving rather slowly on this but progress has been made:-

The undercarriage is supposed to look something like this

I used a jig I made up for routing ellipses to cut out a master template for building the laminating jig

And after gluing and screwing 5 layers of these together, adding some screw clamps - I have this robot hedgehog - to be seen in the next episode of Dr. Who perhaps?

 

[woodbloke]

Chris - I saw this method of using threaded bar to laminate in an early edition of F&C, looks a useful way of pulling stuff round a former without needing a huge amount of cramps - Rob

 

[Chris Knight]

Rob,
I have not used the threaded bar approach before -I am copying it from Tage Frid's book. I have used clamps before on this sort of thing but the legs are 3 inches wide and I am concerned that I won't get enough pressure across the laminations if I rely on a single clamp pressing in the middle. I could use two clamps (one from each side but then I would need thirty of them and the time to apply them becomes excessive - as it does I think, if I fiddled around with a simple pressure pad under each clamp - as it is I rather rely on SWMBO lending a hand (not for nothing do I call her Gluegirl - heck I even bought her a special long apron for the purpose :wink:

 

[wizer]

looks good Chris. Do you need to steam the wood before bending? Or am I missing the point?

PS if you need a hand with anything just shout, I can nip over most afternoons or weekends.

 

[Chris Knight]

Tom,
Many thanks - I might just give you a shout. I won't need to steam anything as I am using thin (basically veneer) strips that will individually bend easily. I probably wont be able to do a leg all at once as I am making them 1 3/4 inches thick but I should be able to do it in two goes.

 

[Paul Chapman]

That threaded rod cramping idea is great, Chris, and a lot cheaper (and probably more effective) than buying 30 cramps.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[dedee]

Chris,
what glue will you use?

I used Extramite on 3 of my chair back rests and apart form guessing how much was required ( I wasted and awful lot) I found it easy to mix and spread although I also needed a new glue brush after each application.
On the last one I used Titebond Original, which I found messy to apply with much more squeeze out to clear up, and the result, in terms of springback, was no different to the other 3.

Andy

 

[spadge]

Chris,

I used cascamite (extramite) on a similar but smaller project and a mate used it on smiliar sized table legs and it worked well. Good gluelines and little springback.

When it comes to clamping up I would use either a sacrificial piece of veneer (or some hardboard) on the outside of the stack of laminations to avoid (or at least minimise) the risk of local depressions/bumps under each clamp. Particularly if you are glueing up in stages because dips would spoil the glueline on the additional laminations.

Cheers

Grahame

 

[tim]

Looks good Chris

How are you planning on joining the legs to the cross frame? I imagine that that will be the point of much aggro - maybe some form of temporary collar around the closest points of approach of each leg will help?


Re the former clamps - would it not be much less bothersome to use shorter rods - lots of nut spinning time there!


Cheers

Tim

 

[Chris Knight]

Andy, Grahame,
I am thinking of trying Extramite - I used it once and had a failure so I am a bit nervous about it but Andy's recent experience and similar exerience of others has persuaded me to have another go,

I shall make a thin caul of a few laminations (sufficiently flexible to accommodate itsulf to two curvatures since I expect to make the leg up in two goes) I think this will avert the indentation problem Grahame.

Tim,
I reckon to use a mortise and tenon - with a tenon on top of the legs as in this picture. I'll have enough room for a couple of dowels too where the "ramp" of the tenon meets the cross piece

I may shorten the rods if experience shows I can do so but I'd rather err on the long side first. I spin them with my impact driver and they actually close up pretty fast as they are.