| Project by Brian Havens | posted 115 days ago | 411 views | 2 times favorited | 12 comments |  |
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I had set out to make a David Marks Bent-Laminate Shelf Stand . But one morning I awoke with an inspiration. The night before I had been browsing the internet for furniture ideas and came across some ladder shelves. At some point, my subconscious must have made the connection.
There were a few significant challenges with this project, the biggest being the bent-laminated front legs. Bent-lamination is a lot of work: building the form, cutting the laminates, etc., but adding curves to a project takes it to a whole new level.
Another challenge, a problem to solve, was reinforcing the joints between the legs and the shelves. On David Mark’s shelf, there is enough long-grain to long-grain to use just glue alone, but the grain direction on my shelves is rotated 90 degrees, giving me nothing but long-grain to end-grain. What I ended up doing is an initial assembly with glue only, followed by embedding a dowel from the leg side, using a Stanley dowel jig to drill the holes. finally, I capped the wholes with decorative Wenge’ plugs.
-- If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, who will cut it up into bowl blanks?
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12 comments so far
JohnR
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40 posts in 182 days
posted 115 days ago
Brian,
great job. i admire your creativity and your workmanship.
-- Sola Gratia, John
Harold
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287 posts in 332 days
posted 115 days ago
Brian, I like it! did you carve the asian symbols, or are they inlaid? regardless those small details are the foundation of the craft, it’s these small details that make our work not only unique, but personal as well. beautiful work.
-- If knowledge is not shared, it is forgotten.
trifern
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4051 posts in 252 days
posted 115 days ago
Very nice design. Thank you for sharing.
-- Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit.
Jason
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15 posts in 116 days
posted 115 days ago
Very nice! I really like the inlay work and the curve of the front of the shelves. Well done.
-- Jason, Kansas City
mzmac
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46 posts in 152 days
posted 115 days ago
Brilliant! Excellent project.
CharlieM1958
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4192 posts in 703 days
posted 115 days ago
Very, very creative and well constructed.
-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"
Blake
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2016 posts in 359 days
posted 115 days ago
This is a beautiful piece!
-- Check out my new website! http://www.theeasellife.com
Mark Mazzo
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293 posts in 397 days
posted 114 days ago
Brian,
Beautiful design and very nice execution on this piece. Very nice!
-- Mark, Webster New York, Visit my website at http://thecraftsmanspath.com
Brian Havens
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42 posts in 292 days
posted 114 days ago
Thanks for all the support!
To answer Harold’s question, this was done with router inlay. This pretty much pushes the limit of what can be done with router inlay, since the bit is 1/8” in diameter. One detail that I forgot to mention is that one of the reasons that I chose Wenge’ is that I think that the alternating dark and tan grain color looks a bit like paint strokes. I oriented the grain of the Wenge’ to concur with the way that paint strokes would run, deliberately overlapping the strokes in some cases. (It is somewhat visible in the last photo, that I recently added.) This meant that I had to use more than one template for 4 of the 5 inlays.
-- If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, who will cut it up into bowl blanks?
Kipster
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1069 posts in 238 days
posted 114 days ago
Very nice Brian, Thanks for sharing
-- Kip Northern Illinois ( If you don't know where your goin any road will take you there) George Harrison
jockmike2
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4136 posts in 731 days
posted 112 days ago
Absolutely beautiful, beautiful. Be proud of your accomplishment. Very nice.
-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com
dustynewt
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330 posts in 347 days
posted 110 days ago
An elegant design. A favorite.
-- http://dustynewt.webs.com/