Here starts something I always wanted to make. A pie crust table. This picture will give you an idea of what it will look like.
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Now mine will have a top that looks like this one, but I plan on doing something different for the legs. I will be unique. It's something that just came to me.
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Lets start with the top. I had the perfect piece of 6/4 mahogany that I have been saving for this. The problem is that it was a little too short for the diameter top I wanted to make.
Here is a way to get more from your lumber.
Suppose you are using one piece of lumber to make a round table top, and you want as big a diameter as you can get.
Lets take 3 pieces my example. You could divide the length by 3 and make your cuts. That would work but you are wasting wood. I wanted a 34" diameter top but my lumber was only 97". About 5" short if I were to cut 3 equal pieces
Look at the following example:
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Notice that the center piece is longer than the side pieces. What I did was to mark the center of the piece of lumber and draw a 34" circle. Cutting the pieces apart following the diameter of the circle allows the lenght to overlap making my effective length longer.
Look at how much wood I would have wasted making a straight cut:
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Now look how much extra lenght I gain. More than the 5" I needed.
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Here they are glued up. I just use my bench for a flat surface with pieces of wax paper to keep the glue off the bench. I let the squeezed out glue dry completely and scrape it off.
In the background you can see part of my collection of PC routers.
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I am finally getting the picture of how all of this is coming together, I think I'v looked through this blog about 3 times. Thanks so much for these posts. I am seing and ubderstanding how you've broken this baby down.
I guess I used this step as a lesson to myself on how to remove a lot of material fast. Having never done anything like this before I thought I would try different methods.
The first method was route channels leaving some uncut material to support the router and then use my flush cut saw to remove them. Then I thought of all the dust that would make so I tried to make a bunch of saw cuts and beat them out with a hammer. This worked very well at limiting the amount of chips.
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But when I used the router I was scared to death of slipping near the and ruining the entire thing.
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Then I tried to use a stationary router in moving jig. This is the jig that I used to flatten my work bench.
But once again I was afraid when I got to the ends because I was cutting blind.
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This is the method I ended up using. A stationary jig with moving router. It was very effective and relatively fast.
I made it with hardwood sides the keep it from drooping in the middle and melamine to reduce friction. Another thing I did for safety was to install stops. One on each end to limit the travel of the router and in the lower picture to keep the jig in position.
I just lined it up in the center and made a cut and then rotated the jig around the center point looking through the slot to position it. I also used an old candle to wax the bottom and edges or the router to make it slide very easily.
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The slot was about 2" wide allowing me to make two passes, with the 1 1/2" bottoming bit I used, before re-positioning the jig. One half a rotation of the jig and I was done with the first pass. I took about 1/4" of material off at a time.
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It ended up taking me about 1/2 an hour of cutting to complete it.
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After a little sanding with 40 grit
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And Last but not least 1/2 of the pile of wood removed with router. That's an 18" scale.
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Next time I will start with the stand. Like I said in the beginning it will be something different.
This is just a quick blog to show my progress so far on the base. Since very few have Legacy Mills I have forgone the process on using it for this.
This is the first part where you will see that I am not making a traditional Pie Crust Table. Like I said in my previous blogs this will be different.
I guess you can say that I am going for a Jacobean/Medieval look. Google some images on Jacobean to see what I mean. The Jacobean style was big into spirals.
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This started out at a big piece of 16/4 mahogany. After machining it I almost ended up with the same amount of chips as I did for the top.
The base is a 6 sided polygon for the 3 legs. The narrow cut you see in the middle was required due to the router bit I used to cut the spiral. I will be adding some wood there for the transition. I'm still thinking about what will look good.
Well, here is the big difference from a traditional pie crust table.
I like to incorporate architecture into some of my woodwork and this is an example. These legs are taken from the 12th - 13th century flying buttresses used to support the walls on old Gothic cathedrals.
Here is an example from Westminster Abbey in England.
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I figured if they were good enough to hold up tons of stone, they would work here.
Here is my interpretation in wood.
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It may look a little bulky and crude now but won't (hopefully) when I get done with them. I plan a lot of embellishments and other things. I also made the column long so that I can cut it to the correct length once I determine the proper geometry for the top. I don't want it to hit anything on the legs do I.
I want things to look heavy but not too heavy. I am trying for a balance here. Gothic/Medieval things were a balance
of lightness and bulk/strength. We shall see how it works out.
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Here are a couple pictures showing the joinery. Nice big mortise and tenons instead of the traditional dovetailed slots.
I think that they will be more than strong enough.
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Hey Gary
Very interesting input on design. I think it should be a most unique finished Pie crust. That's how winning designs come about with plenty of forethought before your build . And your great at both design and the great workmanship
Well, this is what I came up with for embellishing the legs. Once again taking the lead from the Westminster Abbey for the finials on the legs.
I chamfered the top edges of the "struts" and radiused the bottom of the curved edge.
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The finials are cut from drawer pulls I found at Lowes and drilled and tapped for mounting.
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I beaded the posts on all sides except where the struts attach and used a classical plunge bitin the center along the length. Again this is in the medieval style.
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Here you can see the stepped radius on the bottom of the struts and a large classical plunge bit down the center of the column in between the legs.
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I know already that I am going to hate sanding this thing. Next is the embellishment for the column. I figured that that is going to take a while since I have 6 sides to do and fit something around that narrowed spot in the middle.
I am kind of thinking of making it in 1 piece and then breaking it in 2 to mount it. The mating edges should match perfectly.
Just a quick update to show you I came up with for the column. You remember where I left off:
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Joe made some suggestions I had already thought about, where I cut the column just below the narrow part and use that as a round tenon and create a round mortise and glue them together. Well, I really wanted to leave it as a solid piece so I came up with this:
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The yellow piece is just there to hold up the base piece I made for the column. I may add a drop final there but I haven't decided yet.
Here are the two "collars" I made to fit around the narrow part of the column. They fit nice and snug to it should end up stronger than before.
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Next will be the ribs and pivoting part to mount the top on.
Well, It's taken me 2 weeks to finally finish this table. It didn't take me nearly as long as I thought it would working on it about 2-4 hours a day. About 40-45 hours total.
Not a lot of commentary here since all I did was to make and attach the pivot parts.
The rails under the table have slots where it touches the table top to allow for expansion . I used a solid brass 5/16" rod for the actual pivot. The pivot position worked out perfectly. When the top is "folded up" it doesn't touch the column.
Right now it's 33 inches tall. That might end up being a little tall, but it gives me the option to shorten it later.
The next time you see it it will have it's finish and posted as a project.
Now comes the part I hate. Sanding and finishing! Oh, well.
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Below you can see how much I shortened the column by.
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Very nice job Gary well designed and built thanks for sharing the journey.
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