Lancashire Wood Studio
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I love this idea and you've done a marvelous job.
Scrabble tabble
- Thread starter JoshD
- Start date
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TBH the new tray/lid isn't totally satisfactory: first you really notice the difference betweeen the depth of finish on veneer and the solids . I think part of the problem is that the burr/burl veneer is incredibly porous and just drank up glue (epoxy) with the result that there was massive bleed through which has effectively filled the grain; second, it just isn't properly thought through from the dimensional stability point of view and it curls and uncurls as the humidity changes---not by much, but it's enough that you notice.
I've made another Scrabble Tabble, in this one the walnut is replaced with spalted elm, and the supporting undertable is octagonal with pull out letter racks. Here's the top, with 3.2mm dowels in maple and ipe holding the pieces in place on the board (maple for power squares, ipe for the rest). I've filled the voids in the spalted elm with epoxy containing graphite coloured epoxy; some of my layers were a bit thick and the epoxy got a bit hot---but I think the the convection loops actually look quite good! The spalted elm was *very* spalted---too spalted, punky really---only made manageable by allowing it to drink up vast quantities of epoxy and, at the end, Osmo Polyx. THe final result is surprisingly tough, although the areas that drank a lot of epoxy ended up going rather darker than I intended.
In the next photo you can see the offset leg, made of ipe (BTW now that I know that ipe is unsustainable I will stop using it when my current stock is used up). The leg is made by jointing 11 strips of ipe bevelled at 6 degrees (9 interior strips and 2 half-sized end strips), and scraping into a smooth curve.
THe joints between the leg and the base and undertable are triple mortice and tenon joints, giving super strength and stability. If you look carefully in the pic below you'll see that I took care that some part of all 11 strips was included in the tenons. This was a belt and braces approach as ipe doesn't glue fantastically well, so if any of the long joints separate the leg will still be held in place at both ends.
THe photo below shows the octagonal undertable: what look like white drawers are actually sycamore letter racks.
Here are two letter racks open:
This photo shows one fully open letter rack (on the left) and one that has been slid out but not yet flipped down. You can see a metal strip on the back/underside of this rack: this is to retain a neodymium magnet which engages with a second magnet embedded in the ash slide to make the rack click into place as it is flipped down.
To make the 3.2mm dowels I used the bandsaw to rough cut 4x4x300mm blanks. I then used the router table-based cutter jig pictured in an earlier post to make these into ~3.3-3.5mm dowels: the blanks are spun in a hand drill and fed past a fast-spinning router blade; these rough cut lengths are then smoothed out by repeatedly puling through an oversize die at a slight angle until they are slender enough to be hammered through a 3.2mm die. In the photo below you have just a few of the enormous number required: starting from the left you see (a) 4x4mm blanks, (b) rough cut ~3.3-3.5mm dowel made by the router jig, (c) after smoothing, and (d) after hammering through 3.2mm die (cut in half first to make hammering easier).
If you're still with me, thanks for reading!
Josh
In the next photo you can see the offset leg, made of ipe (BTW now that I know that ipe is unsustainable I will stop using it when my current stock is used up). The leg is made by jointing 11 strips of ipe bevelled at 6 degrees (9 interior strips and 2 half-sized end strips), and scraping into a smooth curve.
THe joints between the leg and the base and undertable are triple mortice and tenon joints, giving super strength and stability. If you look carefully in the pic below you'll see that I took care that some part of all 11 strips was included in the tenons. This was a belt and braces approach as ipe doesn't glue fantastically well, so if any of the long joints separate the leg will still be held in place at both ends.
THe photo below shows the octagonal undertable: what look like white drawers are actually sycamore letter racks.
Here are two letter racks open:
This photo shows one fully open letter rack (on the left) and one that has been slid out but not yet flipped down. You can see a metal strip on the back/underside of this rack: this is to retain a neodymium magnet which engages with a second magnet embedded in the ash slide to make the rack click into place as it is flipped down.
To make the 3.2mm dowels I used the bandsaw to rough cut 4x4x300mm blanks. I then used the router table-based cutter jig pictured in an earlier post to make these into ~3.3-3.5mm dowels: the blanks are spun in a hand drill and fed past a fast-spinning router blade; these rough cut lengths are then smoothed out by repeatedly puling through an oversize die at a slight angle until they are slender enough to be hammered through a 3.2mm die. In the photo below you have just a few of the enormous number required: starting from the left you see (a) 4x4mm blanks, (b) rough cut ~3.3-3.5mm dowel made by the router jig, (c) after smoothing, and (d) after hammering through 3.2mm die (cut in half first to make hammering easier).
If you're still with me, thanks for reading!
Josh
Sporky McGuffin
Light entertainer
That is proper astounding. Lovely work.
Jester129
Established Member
Love the thought/work that has gone into the letter racks.
One beautiful achievement.
One beautiful achievement.
thebruiser
Established Member
wow repetitive holes I get lost after doing just a few. Eyes all over the place.
I too would be scared to use.
It would be a show piece only in our house
We honestly use the first Scrabble tabble (the walnut one) every day, sometimes more than once! It's really pretty tough! But the power squares in that one were done by lightly hand staining sycamore and they've changed colour as they've faded. V2 has coloured tulip wood veneers which will hopefully maintain their colour.
As regards ipe, yes, it's a difficult wood and cutting the triple tenons on both ends of the curved leg by hand required chisels sharpened say every 15- 20 min! And it was a poor choice for the 3mm dowels, much more prone to splintering than the hard maple I used for the light coloured dowels. I think fumed oak next time ....
As regards ipe, yes, it's a difficult wood and cutting the triple tenons on both ends of the curved leg by hand required chisels sharpened say every 15- 20 min! And it was a poor choice for the 3mm dowels, much more prone to splintering than the hard maple I used for the light coloured dowels. I think fumed oak next time ....
gregmcateer
Established Member
Wow, wow, wow.
That is STUNNING!
That is STUNNING!
OK, OK, I am a *bit* of a scrabble nut, and scrabble boards are rather a recurring theme. Unfortunately after a third major back operation, two of them in the last 2y, my surgeon has forbidden me from woodwork; but has eventually agreed that leatherwork is ok (easier to avoid stooping, no handplaning, lighter weight workpieces). So I'm now playing around with 3mm+ aniline dyed vegetable tanned hides, and of course my first project had to be a variation on my Scrabble Tabbles .... I'm calling it a Travel Tabble! I'm probably an interloper now though on this forum, so this may be my last post ....
Photos below.
1) I hope it's obvious, but in case not, the "handbag" in the first photo is actually the board wrapped around the cylindrical bag (for tiles and racks).
2) The dowels are 3.2mm shank flathead solid rivets, copper and aluminium.
3) Some of the dowels are slightly longer than others; the idea was that these in particular would engage with holes in the cylindrical bag so it was locked in place in handbag mode; but it's actually quite fiddly, more thought required.....
4) The red/navy/pink/light blue circles are 1mm calf, glued with PVA into recesses skived out of the leather with a router; this is a very woodwork-ish way of proceeding, I have some more "leathery" ideas for next time ...
5) The red and navy calf I bought, along with some undyed; I then used dilute dye for the pink and light blue circles
6) I've incorporated 5mm hemp rope into the handles (just locked in place inside by stitching)
7) Stitching the two sheets of hide (front and back) together was done by hand with an rhombus awl and sailmakers needles. I put a lot of effort into ensuring that when open the main board is flat, with the handles slightly raised, but it has the flex to wrap round in handbag mode. This is partly about how the handles are stitched, partly by varying the tension a little bit on the big circular line of stitching (which was done in 4 sections).
8) The cylindrical bag is lined with blue pigskin(the closing tab though is lined with brown morocco, I thought pigskin would be too fragile ....
Photos below.
1) I hope it's obvious, but in case not, the "handbag" in the first photo is actually the board wrapped around the cylindrical bag (for tiles and racks).
2) The dowels are 3.2mm shank flathead solid rivets, copper and aluminium.
3) Some of the dowels are slightly longer than others; the idea was that these in particular would engage with holes in the cylindrical bag so it was locked in place in handbag mode; but it's actually quite fiddly, more thought required.....
4) The red/navy/pink/light blue circles are 1mm calf, glued with PVA into recesses skived out of the leather with a router; this is a very woodwork-ish way of proceeding, I have some more "leathery" ideas for next time ...
5) The red and navy calf I bought, along with some undyed; I then used dilute dye for the pink and light blue circles
6) I've incorporated 5mm hemp rope into the handles (just locked in place inside by stitching)
7) Stitching the two sheets of hide (front and back) together was done by hand with an rhombus awl and sailmakers needles. I put a lot of effort into ensuring that when open the main board is flat, with the handles slightly raised, but it has the flex to wrap round in handbag mode. This is partly about how the handles are stitched, partly by varying the tension a little bit on the big circular line of stitching (which was done in 4 sections).
8) The cylindrical bag is lined with blue pigskin(the closing tab though is lined with brown morocco, I thought pigskin would be too fragile ....
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Jester129
Established Member
Well I have to say that some of the stitching is absolutely carp! LOL!
You are a very clever and ingenious man, with great ideas and artistry.
The leather Travel Tabble ought to be sold as a design, you would definitely make money - how about Dragons Den? You'd easily get the backing to have them professionally made with a worldwide market. You could be a very rich man.
Well done, some magnificent work. Wish I had half your talent and a tenth of you idea skills!
You are a very clever and ingenious man, with great ideas and artistry.
The leather Travel Tabble ought to be sold as a design, you would definitely make money - how about Dragons Den? You'd easily get the backing to have them professionally made with a worldwide market. You could be a very rich man.
Well done, some magnificent work. Wish I had half your talent and a tenth of you idea skills!
Thanks for kind words! Yes, leather stuff is commercially viable (in a way that wood work isn't), I'm thinking about it .......
Jester129
Established Member
Go for it! Show it to one of the niche stores in London. Make another one/two/three with straight rows of holes for the stitching though and quote a ridiculously high price! HTH.
Don't vanish - the work you share is stunning and aspirational - I come on here partly to see work like this in the hope that one day I might do something similar! This is also UK Workshop - I see no reason why it shouldn't cover anything workshop related and you are demonstrating that in spades - absolutely love it...
Beautiful work and craftsmanship
AES
Established Member
Somehow or another, I've only just seen this whole thread,
I have to agree with all the previous posts, this is all simply excellent Josh - design, execution, finish.
And I sympathise with you being also a back sufferer (3 ops - hope the 3rd is/was the last! - plus ever-worsening balance). So I'm also slowly packing up the little wood and metal bashing I currently manage.
BUT if I may suggest, don't leave this Forum. Even if you end up "only" reading others' posts (plus perhaps adding advice when your obvious various skills apply) is in itself (I find) something of a "release" from bloody back pain and nearly falling over every time I look up/loose the horizon.
Thanks for posting, best of luck mate.
I have to agree with all the previous posts, this is all simply excellent Josh - design, execution, finish.
And I sympathise with you being also a back sufferer (3 ops - hope the 3rd is/was the last! - plus ever-worsening balance). So I'm also slowly packing up the little wood and metal bashing I currently manage.
BUT if I may suggest, don't leave this Forum. Even if you end up "only" reading others' posts (plus perhaps adding advice when your obvious various skills apply) is in itself (I find) something of a "release" from bloody back pain and nearly falling over every time I look up/loose the horizon.
Thanks for posting, best of luck mate.
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