Pangapanga sideboard #2: Starting in the middle

I’m already a bit into this project and I’ll be nibbling at it for several months. Here’s a recap of what’s happened so far:

This is what it will ultimately look like. We’re not particularly big wine drinkers, so a small bay will just about hold our entire stock of booze. I haven’t decided what to do with the doors, but this got me far enough for a cut list on the carcase and veneers. The point of this project is a.) to showcase some Pangapanga that the local yard was liquidating, b.) to test my resawing and veneering skill and c.) to use up some material that I’ve been accumulating.

My wife had asked for a new set of built-in cabinets in the basement. No sooner do I get home with two sheets of birch and a cut list than does she change her mind. Rather than horsing them back to the borg for a refund, I held on to them. Of course, one rogue 8×4 sheet will prevent access to everything in the garage, to say nothing of two sheets conspiring in tandem. So we definitely needed a project that would put them to good use.

Botanically related to Wenge, the local hardwood dealer was letting this stuff go for 50% off.

Resawn on the table saw using an itsy bitsy circular saw blade. Very thin, very fast and very easy on the motor when pushing through stuff that’s as dense as concrete.

Fun with compasses and 1/4” MDF laying out curves for the patterns to make the template to make the…

Triple thicknesses of scrap wafer board to create a bending form for the inlays. My bandsaw still needs a new blade, so these were roughed with a jigsaw.

Even though I’ve watched it done on TV, this is actually the first time I’ve ever laminated a curve. Just to be totally off the wall, it’s not even wood: Flat aluminum (1/8”) and white exterior vinyl trim resawn down to 1/8”. Does Gorilla Glue really grab on non-wood materials? We’ll see how it turns out tomorrow morning.