Creating Chunky Effect Hollow Furniture

[Chems]

A while ago someone asked about making a very chunky coffee table, and we advised to make it hollow.

I've got to make a chunky item and am planning to make the legs similar to how IronBalls did his Morris chair, mitre the long edges and glue up.

I can either table saw them or use a 45 degree router bit then domino the joints and glue up.

I want to do the top in a similar fashion, aiming for about 5 inches thickness, but again not going to be wanting to do it with solid wood I could do similar to the legs but how would I cap the ends to look like end grain?


Just looking for some general advice and tips from all of you. TIA!

 

[xy mosian]

Hi Chems,
At first sight I have no idea just how you could achieve a 5" end grain end. Sorry.
But as a thought, how about a long mitred tube, for the bulk, with a 'slab' end clasp? End clasp looking like a skinny breadboard end. The piece that would have been mitred all around, but merely placed over the end of the rectangular section tube. A rebate round the edge could help with glueing up etc.. Gets around a very tricky mitring job too.

HTH
xy

 

[jasonB]

I doubt you will get teh end to look like one piece of timber.

But you could cut some endgrain veneers and stick these to a board and then treat in the same way. This would however give cross grain issues.

Maybe just a load of 1" long slices from the end of a board all glued up and again mitre the 4 edges at least its all going to move in the same direction.

Jason

 

[ondablade]

You may be aware of it Chems, but another option for doing glued up hollow legs used by guys wanting quarter grain on all four sides on hollow oak legs is to use router or shaper cutter that gives a 45deg chamfer, but includes a full length key or spline in the profile which engages in an opposing groove in the mating chamfer.

The advantage is that the whole lot becomes self locating when you glue and clamp it up - the chamfers can't slide on each other because the splines do a similar job to what you propose for the Dominos. Here's the technique in a Fine Woodworking article: http://www.finewoodworking.com/SkillsAn ... px?id=2435

There's a good article here (also at FWW) on working with end grain: http://www.finewoodworking.com/SkillsAn ... x?id=32308

Both need a sub paid to access, but come back if that's a problem.

While i can imagine gluing up thickish 'butcher block' end grain end panels for use as ends on a 'solid' top, they are going to move to varying degrees in both dimensions.

Two possible options:

(1) Maybe you could mitre two end grain ends (they might need a strengthening batten at the back which should also allow movement) to two lengthwise grain side skirts, having machined a groove all round the inside for a frame and panel like inset top that would leave it free to move. If the splines at the edges of the centre panel were routed at 90 deg you get away with a pretty narrow gap all round. Maybe even pack this gap with something elastic that would pass as an inset trim line so that bits wouldn't get stuck in the groove. (might bulge or move out over time though)

You wouldn't even need to mill the groove or the edges of the top panel if you fixed a supporting batten to the inner face of the side and end skirts.

Not quite solid i know.

(2) Other than that I don't think i've ever seen anything made up to look solid that wasn't long grain veneer over a more stable substrate like MDF base made up into a hollow box.

Wonder if you could cut some end grain veneer and bond it to an MDF backer - maybe machine the veneer back thin when dry to minimise the risk of its splitting. (would it be stable?)

All the other facets could use long grain veneer, all 12 corners/joint lines would have to be accurately mitred at 45 deg - maybe using one of the above keyed mitre cutters.. ..

 

[Ironballs]

Ian makes a good point, if you google the original Stickley way of making quartered legs they essentially mould a locking key down the long length. You can buy these and I think Wealden tool did them, you might get away with putting them in a 1/2 inch router but would probably be better in a spindle moulder.

Glueing up plain 45 degree legs was a nightmare

 

[Chems]

Trend do a Mitre lock for about £60, looks good. Would definatly make it easier.

Thinking about not mitring it at all, a good glue line would be hidden on a long grain to long grain.

 

[ondablade]

I'm just quoting what i read on this :roll: , but this guy gets four sides of a leg the same by laminating cut veneers over a flat sawn core: https://www.finewoodworking.com/Project ... x?id=32301 ...

 

[Chems]

I can't read that I'm afraid I'm not a member.

 

[Chris Knight]

As has been discussed here and elsewhere in the past, mitre-lock bits aren't easy to use. Personally I have never had luck with them.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Thinking about not mitring it at all, a good glue line would be hidden on a long grain to long grain.

Not necessarily. Apart from any colour issues, if the boards are all cut the same, the face is very likely to have a different grain from the edge. So the risk is that you end up with flat-sawn grain up against quartersawn grain. I've just done a fire surround and came up against exactly this problem.

I think Mitre-Lock bits are theoretically the ideal solution. But I've never used one and if Chris says they are a pain to use, I suspect they are a pain to use.

The simple pact is that mitres are not easy.

S

 

[OPJ]

You could always bevel all the edges to 45° on your saw and then run a groove to take biscuits or splines to hold it all together - I think Ironballs did something similar to this, recently?

Your biggest problem is going to be selecting and orienting the grain, I feel. That depends on whether you want something that looks 'nice' or does it look realistic - do these hollow legs look as if they are actually solid)? In that case, each leg would need two faces of through-sawn wood and two that were quarter sawn...

Are you thinking of buying a load of 1in boards for this or using thicker wood to get a better grain match on the legs? In which case, you may just be better off making the legs from solid 3in stock...

 

[TrimTheKing]

It might have been posted already but I haven't read all the posts, I saw a way to do this by effectively using veneers. I will try and explain how it works. For this example all stock is 1" thick. Assume veneer thickness to be 1/8".

You want a 5" diameter leg, so you cut two boards at 5" wide, take a 1/8" veneer off one face of each of the wider boards then rip them down to 4 3/4" wide.

Next cut 2 boards at 3 1/4" wide.

Butt joint all the stock together and this will give you 2 sides at 5" and 2 sides and 4 3/4.

Take your 1/8" thick veneers and stick one to each of the faces where the joins are and you effectively have solid (looking) stock.

An 1/8" chamfer down each long arris will hide the glue line.

Hope that makes sense. Apologies if someone has already posted this method.

Cheers

Mark

 

[Chems]

The good news is the design calls for character oak so potentially I could use laminated solid oak, but its going to be very costly still to do that to create 100mm square legs.

I sort of hope my very expensive table saw will be able to do a good mitre but I'll have to do a few tests.

A side question, anyone know of a good supplier of character oak veneered boards that would deliver to my area?

 

[jasonB]

SLH do a pippy oak on MR MDF thats quite nice but not cheap but they will post it to you.

http://www.slhardwoods.co.uk/SheetMater ... aspx?ID=19

If you are thinking the veneer route then why not just make a MDF box and veneer tha, used the mothod on tese table legs

 

[Chems]

Jason (Oracle) that looks like a good method, did you make the veneer yourself?

 

[jasonB]

No that was flexiveneer but cant see any reason why you should not be able to cut your own if you have the machines.

J

 

[Chems]

No I don't have a big bandsaw.

The piece needs to roughly match this:

So I have I suggest character oak as it will be knotty and hopefully blend in with this piece.

I think making the top will be most tricky, the legs less so.

 

[jasonB]

Why not just buy large section oak if thats the look you are after, did this with a few offcuts of 8x8 post, bit of a job lifting them onto the planer though. You will never get the cracks & splits to follow through if you make from thiner section or veneer.

 

[The Weegie]

As usual Jason b, Lovely pieces of work.

How do you attach the glass to the legs.

 

[ondablade]

Guess the issue with large section solid oak is that it'll be hard to stop it cracking and splitting over time..