More two tone or is it Ska?

[tim]

Well if two tone is the new black.... here we go. Side table in maple and english walnut. Design shamelessly borrowed from Garrett Hack in FWW - minus the cock beads round the apron which I thought too fussy.

My first attempt at tapered and splayed legs - focussed the mind by doing it straight in the walnut; I can never get serious if I use a mock up! :lol:

Anyway - love to know what you think. Apparently its being rehomed :shock: Perfect for a wedding present for my wife's friend and 'anyway its at clearing height for labrador tails so we could never use it.....................'

Clearly I also need to improve my photography skills!

Thanks again for the pic space Chris

Cheers

T

 

[Bean]

Tim I like the contrast, in fact I like the Table Nice one

Bean

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent work Tim

I'm not familiar with the piece on which you based this and whether the two tone was your own idea but it is a very clever design. This style could so easily have looked too 50's retro but every elements design is just spot on and it looks fresh and modern and in no way derivative.

Well Done

Roy

 

[tx2man]

Good work Tim

The long, tapered legs make it look light as a feather 8)

TX

 

[Philly]

Nice work Tim!
Did you find the compound angles a nightmare?
regards
Philly

 

[Johnboy]

Great table Tim. What joint did you use for the legs to rails?

John

 

[tim]

Did you find the compound angles a nightmare?

Surprisingly not! I had to walk away a couple of times to get it clear in my head and I did a full size drawing which helped enormously.

What joint did you use for the legs to rails?

M&T but looking at the size of the finished joints I think that I could have easily used No.20 biscuits. The only downside to that option would be the possible amount of sliding play when clamping up since the tops of the legs are only leveled after glue up so it can't be turned upside down to use the bench as a flat reference surface.

I made a cunning levelling device for the legs though. I shimmed and levelled a large piece of MDF on the bench to act as a totally level 'floor' then shimmed under the legs to replicate the level in the table top. I then cut a 'shoe' in 6mm MDF - basically drilled two interstecting 35mm holes which also broke the edge of the board. I then slid this around the edge of each levelled leg and used it as a reference surface for a marking knife and cut with a fine saw with no set - no wobble at all. I could have probably cut the legs in situ but I couldn't think of a good way of holding it still. This may be a recognised way of doing this but since I'm self taught I get really pleased when I find a solution to a difficult problem!

Cheers

T

 

[SimonA]

That looks pretty excellent to me fella....nice work....

SimonA

 

[gidon]

Tim
Very nice indeed!
Cheers
Gidon

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Tim

Your table looks really good.

Do you have any wip photos or did I miss them?

Cheers
Neil

 

[Alf]

Dammit, Tim, you might put a warning. TPTBs came within an iota of spotting this and starting a "Why can't you make...?" conversation.

Very nice.

Cheers, Alf

 

[tim]

Okay Alf how about this as a future headline for anyone posting images of stuff:

Warning: this post may contain images of items that your spouses/ partners etc may pester you to make.

Methinks that it will only serve as an invitation to snoop more :lol:

Cheers

T

BTW 'TPTB'? I'm not familiar with the male ones - what does it mean?

 

[Woodythepecker]

Very nice work Tim, do you want a job? You made me cringe when you said "Looking at the size of the finished joints i think i could have easily used No20 biscuits" Number 20 biscuits on a lovely piece of work like that? "Never"

Alright, alright, before someone rips my head off, there is nothing wrong with using biscuits, or any other mechanical joint I just think that there is a time and a place for them. Such as when you are using veneered ply for kitchen cabinets and other carcass work, or when you are edge jointing two or more pieces of wood together for say a table top, etc, etc, etc. But not when you can use a M&T or dovetail joint.
Maybe i am just old fashion, and some may even say stupid but when i am making a piece of furniture for a client and i have put a lot of time and passion (as it is plane see you have done) into a commission it just doesn't feel the same if i use biscuits instead of one of these joints.
I know that unless it falls apart the customer will never know how i have put it together, but i will.

Who knows maybe one day if the business goes belly up i will regret not knocking the commissions out quicker.

I just know that i am going to regret penning this post.

Once again Tim very nice work.

Woody

 

[Philly]

Woody
I know what you mean about the biscuits-BUT-if it takes forever to finish a job, maybe biscuits are the answer. It's not like you can see a M+T, is it?
I was looking at a small side table I built three years ago-that had the legs biscuited on and is as strong as is necessary.
Are we "technique" snobs, as well as tools snobs? :lol:
Maybe.......
Philly
(The Hypocrite of the hand planed surfaces, mortise and tenon joints and hand cut dovetailed projects!)

 

[Adam]

BTW 'TPTB'? I'm not familiar with the male ones - what does it mean?

Not male, just a generic "The Powers That Be".

Adam

 

[tim]

Woody,

I don't think you should regret the post - its an interesting debate point. It totally depends on the customer and the budget.

I had a really enlightening conversation with a friend of mine the other day who is my age - mid 30s, married with a couple of small kids doing well for himself but not overly flush but wants nice things and is prepared to pay for them.

We were talking about higher end mass produced furniture - New Heights, some of Heal's things etc and I was saying that I would struggle to match their prices because of my construction techniques etc. His response was that what he wanted was nice looking furniture made from great materials but as long as it didn't fall apart actually couldn't give a stuff if the legs were held on with demountable metal plates or M&T joints. He said the time and place for caring 'how' it was made was when the mortgage was paid off, the kids were grown up and they were looking to buy beautiful things that they could leave as heirlooms.

If the biscuits work, the price makes sense, the customer doesn't mind and it doesn't fall apart then whose to quibble. No point not getting the job on a point of principle (at this level) - you aren't actually compromising the quality (IMO) just tailoring it to the needs and pockets of the customer. I think if you are saying that its M&T and actually using biscuits then thats a different matter entirely!

I think this might run and run........

 

[tim]

Woody,

just been out walking the dogs and thinking about your comments and the debate in general. I wonder what your reaction would have been if I'd said I was going to use (or had used) loose or floating tenons? On this scale, they would have been about the size of biscuits. If I had been reading the thread rather than writing it I know that I would have responded to 'floating tenon' much more positively than 'biscuits'.

Interesting semantics or not - please discuss!! :?

 

[Johnboy]

I have been thinking about this since I made my small table for the Trend T5 competition where I used different joints for each rail, dowels, biscuits, loose tenon and traditional tenon. As Tim says biscuits are essentially the same as loose tenons anyway. I guess it just boils down to whatever turns you on!! I can see the satisfaction in making something using traditional methods and hand tools but think that if you are going to use power tool and jigs to produce the joints you may as well use the fastest and simplest method. For any more small tables I make it will definitely be biscuits. Different if the joint is going to be visible like in drawers where I like to see dovetails irrespective of how they are produced.

John