I was offered a commission to build a small fire place mantle. The millwork in the room had been done by another woodworker so I was limited to the style and material. Fortunately the furniture was all done in walnut in a simple style with nice clean lines.
After the initial sight survey I found some material that would match the rest of the furniture. I decided to secure the mantle to the wall using threaded rod so I cut a strip of MDF to mark the holes in the wall and then duplicate those holes in the back of the mantle.
The mantle after gluing up. The MDF strip is shown behind.
I found a nice design to carve into the front edge of the mantle. I wanted to add some decoration to the mantle without clashing with the other furniture pieces. I excavated around the carving with a router.
The completed piece resting on two of the three threaded rods which would eventually tie the mantle to the wall. I used this set-up to allow me to finish all of the unit at one time. The underside of the mantle was eventually lined with a heat resistant material.
Here is a closer look at the finished carving.
The inspiration for the chest came from an image of a 16th century Italian coffer in a book of furniture pieces. I wanted to make a small chest that you could store important remembrances from a person’s life. The design would be different for every person. A design for this chest soon evolved and early sketches led to a full-size drawing of each panel and a half view of the bottom assembly.
Click the photo or the images below to see each step of the process. You can also use your arrow keys if you are on your computer.
The material, 8/4 Butternut, was broken out and glued up into panels.
The boards were originally flat-cut so I ripped them on the table saw and then re-oriented the pieces giving me rift-sawn panels for carving.
The corner figures were carved at the same time to keep them similar.
The design was transferred to the front and side panels. The carving was completed in stages, sometimes horizontally and sometimes vertically, just to keep my perspective fresh.
The box was glued together as soon as the dovetails were cut
The bottom assembly glued up. The assembly closely followed a full-scale drawing. Edge details were run on the shaper before assembly.
A change of benches for one final cleanup of the panels.
The box being glued to the bottom assembly using biscuits for alignment.
I used strips of rubber to secure the corner figures in place.
The top moulding was run on the shaper before being mitred and glued in place. The moulding itself rested on the upper backs of the corner pieces as though the figures were bearing the weight of the top panel
The top was cut to size and then the edge detail run on the shaper. The hinges were also morticed at this point.
The finish was carefully applied using a brush.
The early diluted coats of finish were able to soak into the end grain of the carving stabilizing the material and slowly building a film thickness.
I couldn’t resist an early look at the assembled chest once the Butternut began to change color because of the finish.
An interesting project that doesn’t come along very often. It combined solid limber construction, veneering and also turning. The cabinet itself stores antique zinc records 27 inches in diameter from the 1900’s. A “record player” sits above the cabinet.
Everything starts with an accurate drawing. I had photographs of the cabinet I was reproducing and basic dimensions.
The rough walnut when it first arrived at the shop. I needed nice grain for this job.
A few of the samples I created trying to match the mouldings on the cabinet. The cutters used on some of these old cabinets are no longer available. I didn’t want to grind cutters for one cabinet so I used portions of the cutters I had available and laminated to create the shapes.
The initial glue ups. Some of the panels were to be veneered afterwards.
Using a portion of a cope and stick cutter to get part of the shape I was matching.
Stacking the moulding to build up the base pieces. A nice clean seam.
Cutting and fitting the mitres on the base.
Checking the base against the drawing.
Fitting the center panel in the base.
The glue-up had to be done upside down because of the shape of the edge. I needed the flat towards the bottom to apply clamping pressure.
Time for veneering. I laid out the panels to decide where the seams should be and how the panels would relate to one another across the carcass.
The four panels ready for vacuum pressing. One panel for each gable and two for the door.
After the panels were pressed they were fielded on the shaper.
The gables all glued up. The edges and backs of the panels were pre-stained so they wouldn’t show bare wood as the panels moved due to moisture.
Cutting and fitting the front door parts. The door was thicker than the gables so I couldn’t use the same cutters as on the gables. I had to enlarge the groove and move it farther towards the back surface than my cutters would allow.
Everything fit well for the dry run.
But for whatever reason the pieces needed a little persuasion from a couple of clamps to stay flat during the real glue-up. Such is life.
All the panels cleaned up and cut to size ready to form the carcass.
Time for the turnings. I had only one piece of 8/4 in the shop that would do. Careful cutting to get nice clean blanks.
Happy with my prototype I hung it above my lathe and began cutting the real posts.
The details were fairly crowded and went from small to large dimeters quickly. The worst was the square shoulder at the top with a groove and then a bead only 1/8” away.
Wouldn’t you know it the post had ten flutes and my lathe has an indexing jig with 48 holes. I had to make an MDF disc drilled with ten holes and mount it externally on a faceplate.
I used a router to cut the flutes because the post was of uniform diameter.
The four posts cut and routed.
Laying out the cabinet pieces.
I cut a piece of MDF to use as a reference for cutting biscuits in the bottom to attach the gables.
Everything worked out nice and clean. I added screws from the bottom later.
Gluing up in sub-assemblies. First the gables to the back.
Now the sub-assembly to the bottom.
Next I cut and fitted the inner panel. This was at an angle inside the carcass. A post was attached later in the center to hang the metal records on.
I made up a web frame for the top.
I had an image of the carving my customer wanted to match. I after scaling I used dividers and a cardboard template to layout the pattern.
There was another layer of moulding before the actual top so I glued it all up to have a look.
Laying out one detail at a time in sequence so they all look the same. I was concerned about the corner detail because I didn’t have a clear picture of what was done on the original. Carving moulding is tough repetitive work. The people who did it for a living had to be so fast to make any money.
Once the carving was done I was ready for the final assembly. The posts were turned with a tenon at the bottom so I glued them into the base first using spacer blocks at the top to align the square sections.
Next the top section was added. The posts were screwed and glued to the underside.
With the clamps removed the cabinet is almost done.
The top panel is secured in place.
The front door was morticed for the lock and the hinges were also cut in. Next the hinges were cut into a mounting strip running along the bottom front edge of the cabinet.
Lastly, a thin moulding strip was added to the top of the door. An escusteon plate will be added later. Once the cabinet was completed it was off to the finisher where it will be colored and given a hand applied finish. A nice period piece that doesn’t come around too often.
The stylized bird carvings was a commission which would sit atop the front edge of a reception desk. The carving was to be done in red Oak matching the desk. Durability was an important consideration because it would be placed front and center, allowing people to touch the carving.
After the design of the desk was approved, the scale of the carvings was determined. I outlined the birds on two pieces of material to determine the overall scale against the front panels.
The shapes were then bandsawn and checked again against the panels.
The shaping and carving is done in steps in order to maintain continuity across the pairs of birds. The carvings themselves came from a bird used on a previous cabinet. There was discussion on how many feathers and how “stylized” the bird should be. The intention was not to carve “realistically”. The birds were to appear a little angry as though they were fighting over the ribbon held in their beaks. This was done primarily with the angle of the eyes.
I used a router to define the straight areas of the ribbons.
The ends of the ribbons flowed up the curve and into the beak.
There was quite a distance between birds so I broke up the span by including a knot in the ribbon.
Here you can see the excavation and blending around the knot.
Beginning to shape the birds themselves and excavate to expose the ribbon.
The birds are roughed out but fairly similar.
Both pieces are complete.
I don’t like to sand carvings but it made sense for this application because people would be “handling “the carvings.
The desk was still being built but we couldn’t resist trying the birds in place.
Here is the front of the desk ready for shipping and installation. The drawer and storage components for the inside of the desk can be seen in the background.
An interesting commission. The original table was designed by architect Joseph N Campitelli. It was originally built from plywood, metal and laminate. The challenge was to build the table in solid walnut for a residential application and allow for wood movement while still being structurally sound.
I decided to make an interior plywood box to sit in the metal table base similar to the construction of the original table, I would then cover the box with a sleeve of solid walnut, secured at the top, but free to move up and down over the box like an accordion to accommodate the natural movement of the wood.
The plywood pieces had to be pre-cut to accommodate the gussets and also allow for anchoring bolts to fit inside the metal base.
A view inside the metal base.
The side pieces cut and fitted.
The interior support pieces of the box were located to anchor the metal brackets which supported the top.
The box glue up.
Both boxes sitting nicely in the base.
Metal plates were screwed to the outside of each box. The steel plates accept the pressure of retaining bolts tying the boxes into the metal bases.
The lumber arrives.
Gluing up the base cover in three sections.
The sections are cleaned and thicknessed ready to be glued together.
The three sections are glued together.
The clamps come off and the box is cleaned up.
The inside of the box is scraped clean.
The walnut cover fit perfectly over the plywood box.
A simple jig guides a router for cutting the grooves to accept the metal top supports.
Testing the fit of the first metal top support. The rest of the cuts were made and then the base was put aside until later for clean-up and finishing.
Time to start working on the top. The Initial breakout of material for the almost eleven foot top.
The pieces were trimmed to length and marked for width.
The customer came to the shop to choose the sequence of the boards.
A careful process of first jointing and then thicknessing the boards. No mean feat on a small 16 inch combination machine.
The boards are edge jointed and ripped to uniform width.
The boards were glued up in pairs. They were still oversized in thickness so they could be planed to final size after the initial glue-up.
The top laid out without clamps. I remember the largest gap being only 1/16”.
A single clamp easily pulls the top together. A big relief!
The outside boards are mitred for a return under the top.
Biscuiting the mitres.
The glue-up involved clamps and packing tape.
The mitres turned out great.
Gluing up the top. I used floating tenons to align the surfaces.
The table is flipped over and the returns glued on.
The table is cleaned up and ready for the end sections to be filled in.
A tough glue-up. The pieces were eight inches long to match the side returns, They were of varying width and had to be pre-fitted carefully.
Both ends filled in ready for cleanup and trimming.
The ends are trimmed with a track saw from both sides. The top was four inches thick.
I had to use a handsaw inherited from my grandfather to finish off the cut.
The ends look pretty good.
I cleaned the inside with a router using the longest bit I had.
Next the filler pieces for the metal top supports were located. These could only be screwed in place to allow the top to move. The top was 40 inches wide so I anticipated a fair bit of movement.
The top all cleaned up and sanded.
Wrapped and ready to go to the finisher.
