I’ve decided to try my hand at something different ( for me anyway). I’ve had good success building a bed, buffet, several entertainment centers and a kitchen full of cabinets. My wife would like a new coffee table and she showed me a picture of how she wants it to look. The attached picture tells the story. I have never done anything with curves and am wondering how to go about making the top. Initially I thought about a solid lumber top and cutting the curve on my bandsaw. But wont the end grain disrupt the finish? I could always resaw thin strips and bend them around a ply tabletop. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have not decided on the wood yet so if a species would lend itself to good finishing for the curves, I’m all ears.
Thanks,
Ryan
Replies
Here's the picture...
Bueller.... Bueller... Anyone
Hi Norm,
It looks like a band around the top? Maybe a veneer job?
You may get more response with a new subject line? I thought you were moving..:o)
Bill/Reading,PA.
Thanks
Ryan
Looks like a piece from Crate & Barrel. My wife wants one of those as well. I suspect it is edge banded, but not to worry. If you use a good hardwood with tight grain (e.g., cherry, maple, etc.) showing endgrain is not a problem at all. If you want a dark piece use dark wood (like walnut). Keep it pure. Most problems with such projects arise from trying to make light wood darker. To me, staining wood is a crime (hence the term "stain")...the finish should do nothing more than enhance the character of the wood.
My ex-wife could not accept any piece of furniture I made unless it matched one of our many Hinkel Harris pieces. Some of my best woodworking is thus hidden under dark stains and heavy varnishes.
These days, the only color my pieces get (mostly cherry) are from the sun. I prefer it that way.
Go ahead and make a prototype with inexpensive wood, then proceed to the good stuff when you're happy with the proportions of your prototype(s).
Good luck, and have fun!
Most problems with such projects arise from trying to make light wood darker. To me, staining wood is a crime (hence the term "stain")...the finish should do nothing more than enhance the character of the wood.
Absolutely right. It baffles me why people stain wood. Why don't they simply use a wood that is already the right colour. Especially in the States where there are so many different woods and colours to choose from
John
"To me, staining wood is a crime (hence the term "stain")...the finish should do nothing more than enhance the character of the wood. "
Amen!
A shop I worked in for a while did a lot of work for a major motor yacht manufacturer. Most of the boats were done in cherry with an occasional project in walnut. The walnut was finished with only enough stain to make the color a bit more even, but you could still tell it was walnut. However, specifications for the cherry was a very dark stain that turned it very dark brown -- almost black. For both the cherry and walnut, the finish was a full-fill poly that was sanded flat and top-coated with a semi-gloss clearcoat. When they were completed, all of the furniture and moldings looked like plastic.
Being new to the "shop world", I made the mistake of asking a logical question, "If the customer wants it to look like plastic and it's going into a marine environment, why don't they get everything made from plastic to start with???" All of us hated to create a nice piece of furniture and then have it turned nearly black because of the customer's specifications. But, then, the customer is always the customer -- and they pay the bills.
One of the worst examples of waste was an armoire that was cherry with carpathian elm burl panels in the doors. It had to be real cherry trim, real carpathian elm burl veneer for the panels and real cherry veneer for the side panels. By the time the finish was completed to customer specifications, it was so dark you had to hold a light at just the right angle in order to see the desigh in the burl panels.
If someone wants a piece (like an oval table) that is basic black when finished, why not cut the oval out of MDF, route a groove around the edge for an accent, then prime and spray the sucker?
Just a personal opinion, of course. Add $5 to that and you might be able to buy a cup of coffee.Bill Arnold - Custom Woodcrafting
Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
Guess you live in a depressed area if you can still get a cup of coffee for $5.
I've made oval table tops. Edge banding is significantly more challenging than on tables with straight edges.
* Narrow banding... You can bend the banding conform to whatever curve you cut on the center panel, but the challenge is clamping it while the glue cures. First, you need closely-spaced clamps to bend the banding tightly to the table. Second, if you attempt to put clamps directly on the banding, they all need to go past the middle of the table, and collide with each other. It is possible to make curved cauls to get away from the collision problem, but then you're making high-accuracy cauls with templates and routers and such.
* Wide banding... You must machine the inside curve of the banding to match the outside curve of the center panel, and the curves must fit to a glue-quality joint. I do this, but it takes several coordinated templates, and is a process that would take a long article and lots of pix to explain.
* Piecewise-linear... You can put multiple staight edges on the center panel, and fit matching straight-edged pieces lumber to them. Then you cut the curve on the lumber. While this is easier, IMHO it looks kinda dumb. The straight lines on the inside edge of the lumber clash with the curve on the outside lumber, and shout "shortcut!"
All in all, I'd suggest you go with a solid-lumber top, and cut the oval directly. Me, I'd leave the end-grain visible as end-grain instead of trying to obscure it. It is wood. It has grain. If you don't like grain, use plastic.
That finish shown is one of the most popular finishes in furniture at the Pottery Barn, Crate & Barell, Pier One, etc stores. The finish is so dark that it lets almost NO grain show, so if your wife wants that finish the end grain issue really wouldn't matter. In order to get that finish in the pic, you will need to seal the table first with a 1lb cut of Shellac and then spray some TransTint dye over the shellac to get it that dark. Jeff Jewitt at Homestead Finishing can give you the exact procedure, but that is basically it.
Cheers!
Dark Magneto
The reason potty barn and the rest of the crappy furniture places use that finish is so that they can use whatever cheap wood they find, mix it with plywood and chipboard and turn out crap that people will buy.
Rather than people pushing style, the factories are pushing it and people don't know any better. This is the suburban equivelent of baggy pants and unlaced shoes.
thats been edgebanded.
Just a note, almost all commercial furniture uses dyes and then colored (toned) finishes to get a consistant color. Most of the commerical furniture is varying woods from America, China and South America.
If youre really interested in finishes, taunton's new book finishing by jeff jewitt or taunton's other books by jeff will show you how to use dyes and toners to get even out colors. Also how to deal with end grain etc.
Several people have suggested in this thread and in your other one that you use solid wood for the top and then edgeband it. I don't recall any of those posters suggesting how to deal with the dynamics of the wood with that arrangement. As a solid wood top expands and contracts with seasonal or environmental changes, the edgebanding will most likely separate, creating gaps.
Veneer over plywood or mdf will give you a stable top which can be edgebanded either with thin strips of solid wood or with edgebanding tape. If the thought of thin commercial veneers bothers you, then you could re-saw and clean up solid wood to 1/8" or even 1/16" thickness and apply it to the substrate as with commercial veneer.
As to specific material, I'm partial to cherry and walnut. I like working with them and I like the results with 'natural' finishes. If you decide on a solid top with no edgbanding, either of these should work fine if you sand the end grain to higher grit and apply a seal coat prior to any stain. I don't like using stains on either of these since the wood itself should be part of the 'decoration', if you will.
Bill Arnold - Custom Woodcrafting
Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
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