Curvy veneered table

[Philly]

Howdy Folks
Finally finished my "competition entry" project, a sidetable in Cherry. It features laminated and veneered sides and shelves with a solid cherry top and drawer front. It has a dovetailed drawer with a hand carved walnut handle.
It was sprayed (using my cheapo B+Q HVLP spraygun!) with 6 coats of lacquer and after a good rubbing out came out quite nicely.
This was my first attempt at veneering and being something of a fool decided I'd trying laminating at the same time. So the sides and shelves are made from laminated layers of 6mm MDF veneered with cherry (all nicely cooked in my vacuum bag). Came out quite well, although all those curves made finding reference surfaces a little tough :roll:

The drawer was made from poplar, dovetailed on my Littlerat (because I'm lazy and it's really good!)

All in all, it came out well for my first go at these new techniques. I have step-by-step photo's on my website here.

I'll post more pics soon,
Cheers
Philly

 

[Chris Knight]

Philly,
Congratulations, that is really well done and it looks great. A pretty challenging piece I think.

How did you veneer the edges of your curved pieces and deal with the arrises?

How did you fix the lower shelf to the sides - is it housed?
(Edit just looked at your site on this one)

I love the drawer handle too!

 

[Paul Chapman]

That looks fabulous, Philly. Congratulations =D> =D> =D>

Paul

 

[Philly]

Chris
I veneered the faces first, then after a few weeks (to check there was no creeping) I just glued veneer onto the face (after planing the edge flush first) Some MDF cauls and clamps with pva. Pretty low tech. I was amazed how well the edges came out. I applied plenty of lacquer to build up the edges and it seems to of paid off. (so far :roll: )
Drawer handle was the most fun-as un-planned and basic as it comes! Almost krenov-like in spririt. Alright, basic then. :lol:
Paul
Thanks for the kind words!
Cheers
Philly

 

[dedee]

Another very nice looking piece Philly. I am sure it would have done well in the competition

Andy

 

[Colin C]

Philly that is first class, very very nice.
You did very well with your first time veneering, it is a shame it was not in the comp too =D> =D>

 

[Noel]

Very cool Philly, looks great. Photography is good too.


Noel

 

[Gill]

It's a smashing piece of work and I'm sure it would have won the competition if only it had been entered. After all, the forum would have surely agreed that you need new planes more than anyone else to straighten out all that bendy wood you've had to use. Your current planes can't be much cop if that's how they perform :twisted: .

Gill

 

[Philly]

Gill
You've certainly put your finger on it-I'm thumbing through the "Classic Hand Tools" catalogue as we speak! :wink:
Noel
I took the pics in the conservatory with a dust sheet hanging behind. I then "smudged" the dust sheet in Photoshop. They look almost professional. :wink: managed to sort the rest of the woodworking mistakes out in Photoshop too-NOT! :lol:
Thanks for the positive comments everyone,
Philly

 

[Johnboy]

Beautiful Philly. I think a certain shoulder plane that is sitting in my workshop would have gone to you if you had finished in time.

John

 

[Waka]

Philly

Another nice piece and bendy with it

Going to share any mistakes and pitfalls with us, or are you going to keep everyone innsupence?

 

[Woody Alan]

Phil

A very attractive piece of work, I like it a lot. You mentioned PVA for the facing veneer, did you use PVA for the sides when laminating up? I have heard several mentions of "creep" when using PVA and this was a point of concern for me if and when I get around to having a go at a similar type of thing.

Cheers Alan

 

[Philly]

Alan
I have been trying out Wudfil's 5 minute PVA, a pva especially for laminating and veneer work. It does not creep like regular pva glues and sets rock hard. I left everything in the vacuum bag for 20 minutes and it never moved once brought out. I'm very impressed as I didn't fancy the pump buzzing away for 24 hours waiting for the Extramite to go off..... :lol:
Here the link for the glue
Cheers
Philly

 

[MikeW]

And here I have been looking at the Philly-blog for the final photos...

Really nice, Philly. Nicely shaped and finished.

Take care, Mike

 

[Chris Knight]

Philly,
I have now tried that glue and find it no faster - indeed a bit slower than the original Titebond. I see from the link you provided that the 5 minutes bit refers to the shortest tack time. It is a lot softer in the cured state at 24 and 48 hours than Titebond too. I really don't know if this says anything about creep resistance or not.

I find it interesting and encouraging that you were able to get away with only 20 minutes in the bag, I am overly cautious on laminating I know but I tend to leave stuff for a minimum of three hours and often 5 hours.

When laminating large surfaces, I look for a glue that spreads easily and evenly - how did you find Wudcare in this respect? So far, the best I have found for that is a specialist laminating PVA. I don't use a lot of glues that one might use for joinery because of the spreadability characteristics.


Wudcare says:-

QUOTE
Type - PVA
• Suitable for Wood, Cloth and Leather
• Interior and Exterior use
• Setting time 5-48 hours
• Initial Tack time 5-10 minutes
• Setting time 4 hour firm bond, 24 hour full cure
UNQUOTE

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Philly

Well done, it looks really good.

Cheers
Neil

 

[Philly]

Mike
Apologies-my Blog host has been really slow the last couple of days and I keep giving up. Glad you like it!

Chris
Wudfil are a new(ish) company-their website leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to info. I made quite a few trial runs to check it out and it worked really well for me. It certainly sets up pretty quick and pretty hard-I didn't try Titebond as most sources on the Internet said not to (at least for laminating) I had minimal springback, so take that as being a success for the adhesive.
It was applied with a roller, putting on a single medium film (not too thin, not dripping everywhere).
I use Titebond I exclusively for my woodworking so for me this was an excursion-but it worked!
Hope this helps
Philly

 

[Neomorph]

Philly that's a lovely piece of work and I honestly wouldn't have known who to vote for between you and Jonboy as both are beautiful.

One thing the photo doesn't actually portray very well is scale... for some really strange reason it looks like it could be 12 inches high. :shock: How big is it really?

 

[Philly]

N
It is 30 inches high, 19 wide and 12 deep.
I have more pics coming soon.
Cheers
Philly