http://teenagewoodworker.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/sharpening/

http://teenagewoodworker.wordpress.com/

there have been a few setbacks to getting the milling lumber video up and i have to refilm half of it so i figured that i will release the bent laminations video. bent laminations are intimidating but in this video i go over all the infomation nesecary to allow you to try it yourself. Also my cousin Pat shows off his new quitar that hes been working on with a little help from me. Hope you guys enjoy it and remember to post any comments, questions, critiqeus, or suggestions.

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then also you want to keep these faces square to your table while you are chopping. a simple setup like the one in the picture below works wonderfully but i switched to a bessey because i needed more pressure.

so the dovetails in the end came out great. time consuming but they really came out nice. the face side is the most important part and that needs to fit nice. no exceptions.

the edges also need to be tight. but where the edge is not flat its not as big of a deal. there are no large gaps or anything they do need to be decent but its not as big of a deal. especially if its on the bottom of a drawer.. thats where the gap in the picture is. never gonna be seen.

and then the back is a different story. they are never going to be seen once the stops are in so its really not big deal. i just cut them right off the saw as you see them now and then after i patch them up a bit if needed after the glue up. just a personal thing but again once the stops are in they will never be seen. then you can see how i just cut them so that i can put the drawer slide in later.

so then a couple of pictures with the drawers in the desk

so all i have left to do is the drawer bottoms and reveal. the reveal is simple. i dont try and fuss around with the reveal i just make it as simple of possible… the next picture explains it

like it :)

i just use the spiral cut bit all the way around and trim where the legs are with a block plane. really really simple and goof proof. its a downcut in the picture but i prefer an upcut so the bottom edge will be crisp and the fuzzies will be on the top where they can be easily reached.

then also the hardware. simple enough just chippendale brass pulls.

i ordered ones a little bit bigger. this one is too small but again attaching them is really simple. ill go over it when i do it but again really simple. so next blog the desk will be done. finally. this one took way longer than i would have liked. vacation really got in my way!!!

first i want to address the drawer frames though. in my case the drawer frames are pretty simple. they are just a frame and panel construction out of pine with pegged tongue and groove. the groove is pegged with a little cut nail in this case but something that works really well are brad nails as well as a tooth pick. they just work really nice. then it is shaped to fit the front and glued to the front. later they will then be screwed to the back. this allows me to make sure they are flush with the drawer opening but also have room to adjust to fit the drawer in the back. simple but it makes fitting your drawers very easy.

next is the top. i took it out of the clamps and then hand planes the joint flush. the joint is perfectly tight and the wood for the top is absolutely breathtaking!!!!! you cant see it on camera but it is simply amazing. and this is where having sharp tools comes in handy. you can never really appreciate and handplane until the blade is sharp. just how it is.

now i cut the top to final width and profiled the front. it was simple just cutting it on the bandsaw and finishing it with the disc sander. but now that i think of it if i do another one i will attach the front and use a flush trim bit with a large bearing so it will follow the curve much better and be much easier. but for my first time it came out good enough. (fyi… the picture below is still rough… the picture after that is smoothed)

alright so here is a full picture of the desk!!! the drawers are only fit so far and are not made yet. tomorrow i will do a full blog on hand cutting the dovetails in the curved material. difficult but do able. then i will do a blog on the finishing and it will be all done!!!

and the desk is already getting some use for designing my next project!!!

so right now i just have the top glueing up. this is such a beautiful top!!! its bookmatched and has beautiful ribboning as well as some other figure that im not sure what to call. its kind of like a mix between a tiger stripe and birdseye figure. but theres not a lot of it so it doesnt over power the ribboning it just is kinda there and looks really nice. the top will be done tomorrow and i hope to get it finished right away to stabalize it. it should be stable enough though.

i also have all of the lumber for the drawer frames rough milled and they will be taken to final thickness and finished tomorrow.

so all thats left to do is finish the top and do the drawers and drawer frames. i will probably do some sharpening tonight and prepare for the dovetails which i am hoping to do tomorrow. so hopefully the desk will be done tomorrow. then i can finish it before i go away next week weather permiting.

the finish will be lacquer and im not sure if im going to glaze it to darken the color a little bit yet. that will be determined when i get the lacquer tomorrow tough.

i am really liking how this desk is coming out. i was able to put the pieces that are the top on it today and sit down at it and write something just for fun and it is so nice. I love it and im going to have a hard time trying to sell it because i want to keep it. but i can always make another one… of two :D

im hoping to turn some pens that i can put in the drawers too just as a buying incentive. i find that when you include little gifts and extras that it makes people open their wallets up a little more :)

Alright so first i milled up my legs. The legs are 1 3/4” square with a 1” taper and 4” mortises in each of them. i made the mortises with my router and they came out very nice.

then i started to work on the aprons. the small aprons are simple and i have them all done. nto glued yet but all fit

now the front apron is where the hard part lies. it is bowed and it is a very wierd but cool curve so i had to take a lot of precaution with it. first i milled up all of my little veneer pieces to a little under 1/8” do i had 9 of them and bent laminated them to the curve. this was a difficult glue up but im really happy with how it came out.

then once it was out i smoothed it all with a scraper and proceeded to cut the drawer fronts out of it. i used my bandsaw along with the caul that i used to glue it up. then i glued all of the pieces together to get my front apron. this was a difficult glue up also because everything need to be perfectly in line. but im satisfied with it.

i dont have any new pictures but right now it is out of the clamps and it looks great. today i am hoping to finish assembling the desk and get ready to install the drawer frames as well as dovetail the drawers. i also got my shipment from sharpeningsupplies.com and now my chisels are razor sharp

im gonna need them this way to hand cut the dovetails in the drawers. really excited about those

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So the first in this long line of projects is going to be the serpentine bow front desk. this is going to be built out of sapele. so i went to downes are reader yesterday and for a huge board for this project. i really wish i had taken a picture of it but i didnt. it was 10/4×13” wide x 9 feet long. just a huge board. so today i resawed it up. in the first picture is the legs and the piece that will be bent laminated to make the front. the second picture is of the two pieces that will be bookmatched to make the top. and the third picture is of the pieces that i resawed to make the straight sides.

Next i saw something that was really cool. one of the first things that i noticed when i got home was that this whole huge board was quartersawn. that was a surprise but a good surprise. if youve done your woodworkers homework then you know quartersaw sapele has a ribbon figure on it. i was very excited about this and it didnt dissapoint. this picture is rough sawn.

so thats it for now. i have to get a new belt for my jointer and then i hope to mill the lumber in about a week. whenever resawing like this is is crucial to let it aclemate. also the backclamping which is what i was doing in the pictures above which is putting the sawn edges out and clamping to hold it in place while it aclemates. so it will probably take about two weeks to do all the milling but once the milling is done i hope ot make it a pretty quick build. maybe three weeks in total