| Project by emptyjay | posted 552 days ago | 1037 views | 0 times favorited | 7 comments |  |
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I had a couple of boards of heavily spalted oak lying around, so I made this barley twist nightstand over the past week. It took nine days—four full weekend days and a couple of hours each weekday evening…I figure somewhere in the 40 hour range, including finishing.
The spalted oak is beautiful, but I had to lay out my cuts carefully to avoid the punky areas. It took me a long time to decide on how to glue up the boards for contiguity and grain match, but I think that what I finally landed on works well.
I turned the legs on a Craftsman Routercrafter. No lathe work at all. Lots of hand sanding involved. I think I spent in excess of an hour per leg sanding.
The front apron is cut from a single piece of wood, and drawer is dovetailed with applied cock beading. I accidentally cut my dovetails too deep (the stop on the dovetail jig wasn’t secured tightly), so there are a couple of “character flaws” on the inside front corners of the drawers, just barely noticeable if you look.
My only regret is that I made the top too small (or rather, I made the base too wide). I would have strongly preferred to use a traditional thumbnail edge treatment for the top. However, the top was not large enough for this profile because the reveal over the base is not sufficient. I had to settle for a cove edge treatment for the table top, which works but isn’t ideal.
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7 comments so far
CharlieM1958
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14857 posts in 2387 days
#1 posted 552 days ago
Very cool little nightstand!
-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"
Kent Shepherd
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#2 posted 552 days ago
Nice job on the table. I really like the legs. My dad bought the Routercrafter years ago, but we never used it much.
It seemed like a good idea, but like most Crafstman products, not well made enough for me. You obviously learned how to use it though.
Thanks for sharing
-- She thought I hung the moon--now she just thinks I did it wrong
emptyjay
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16 posts in 557 days
#3 posted 552 days ago
The Routercrafter works a lot better than appearances would suggest. It’s not really built that well, but there are some techniques to overcome its inherent weaknesses. It’s one of the only products out there that can turn twist designs, the other I’m aware of being the Legacy Ornamental Mill (which is very pricey but also more versatile). If I ever get a lathe I’ll relegate the Routercrafter solely to turning twists, but for now it suffices for basic “turning” work.
cabmaker
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1029 posts in 978 days
#4 posted 552 days ago
Nice, glad to see you took the time and effort to mill a left and right twistl. I ve run into a couplle of router crafter owners that did not know it had that capability. What bits are you having the best success with ?
emptyjay
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16 posts in 557 days
#5 posted 552 days ago
Yep—I made a special effort to mill left and right twists, but I’m not sure if I got the sides reversed. In any case, I use a barley twist bit from Magnate, which works like a charm. The website says that it is made for the Legacy Mill, but it works fine in my PC890. I’ve tried other bits in the past but this bit simulates the traditional look the best that I have seen.
doncutlip
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#6 posted 552 days ago
Great table, lots of character
-- Don, Royersford, PA
Kevin_WestCO
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53 posts in 716 days
#7 posted 552 days ago
Beautiful, Great job!
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