This is the first 'proper' bit of furniture I have made since coming here to Lomé, so I thought that I'd share with you the steps in its construction. Before I start, I’d like to acknowledge the fact that without this forum and the generous advice of many different members this project would never have come to fruition.
As some of you may remember, from a recent thread, once upon a time I worked as a design draughtsman, so you might imagine there would be a nice detailed drawing that I worked from. Well, I did try to do something in Sketch-Up but I just can’t get the hang of it. As I don’t have access to a drawing board, in the end, as I could visualise what I wanted, I did it pretty much all in my head – with the exception of a few calculations to work out a cutting list.
The first stage was to prepare the wood which I bought from a local carpenter friend. He told me that it is teak but I am pretty sure that it is actually Afrormosia, a native of Ghana where both the wood (and he) comes from. When I got the boards they were quite rough as they’d been dimensioned with a chainsaw. So the boards had to be planned and squared up before being glued up to make some panels. The method used to clamp up the panels was one that Scrit suggested and seemed to work well. I used biscuits to help with alignment.
Once the panels were glued up I moved on to making the draws. For this I used my newly acquired dovetail jig which once set up proved to be very good.
A pile of draw front and sides.
The groove for the plywood bottom was cut on the table saw which entailed having to remove the riving knife and guard.
Although not necessarily safer I thought that it was a lot simpler than doing it with a hand held router. It did take a bit of thinking about to figure out that the groove had to be inline with one of the pins so that it didn’t show when assembled.
Once the draws were assembled I then moved on to assembling the carcase. If I do it again I would not make one large (just over 2m long) unit but would do it in two pieces - something similar to the units that Lord Nibbo made for his Hi-Fi. I’d also probably go for a different construction method altogether, but it was too late to turn back by this stage. I used ratchet straps and clamps and biscuits and glue and my son to get the sides attached to the middle shelf and bottom rails.
To help with clamping I screwed on some temporary blocks on the rails and underneath the shelf.
Once the carcase was glued up I then installed the draws, using locally acquired runners. I found it fairly easy to get everything in straight doing it this way – plus any error could be hidden quite effectively as I had decided to use separate draw fronts.
I then added the feet which I cut down from some 8cm x 8cm. These were screwed on. The dividers for the open part were also screwed on from underneath. Then the top was glued in place using biscuits for location and strength. In one corner I did end up having to put in a screw as for some reason the corner lifted. Once plugged however it doesn’t really notice.
Finally the draw fronts were cut to size, screwed to the draws and then planned to get an even gap around them. The draw on the far end is actually a double depth draw as I wanted somewhere to keep my small collection of albums. I did this by just leaving the bottom out of the top draw and then fixing the two draws together. I’m not sure if this is the best way but it seems to do the job!
The final finish was 2 coats of Patina which is dead easy to apply and I think gives a nice finish. Despite appearances, the wood wasn’t stained – it seems to be a feature of Afrormosia that it changes colour significantly when a finish is applied. I’ve also found that before finishing, the wood darkens quite considerably when exposed to sunlight – even for short periods.
The cost of the wood, not that it is really relevant for most people reading this, worked out at about £40 – total cost including all the hardware, finish etc. probably about £70. Number of hours work – don’t ask!
The end result is something that I am happy with and more importantly the LOML is very happy with.
Thanks again for reading all this – any constructive comments or questions would as usual be appreciated!
Steve
As some of you may remember, from a recent thread, once upon a time I worked as a design draughtsman, so you might imagine there would be a nice detailed drawing that I worked from. Well, I did try to do something in Sketch-Up but I just can’t get the hang of it. As I don’t have access to a drawing board, in the end, as I could visualise what I wanted, I did it pretty much all in my head – with the exception of a few calculations to work out a cutting list.
The first stage was to prepare the wood which I bought from a local carpenter friend. He told me that it is teak but I am pretty sure that it is actually Afrormosia, a native of Ghana where both the wood (and he) comes from. When I got the boards they were quite rough as they’d been dimensioned with a chainsaw. So the boards had to be planned and squared up before being glued up to make some panels. The method used to clamp up the panels was one that Scrit suggested and seemed to work well. I used biscuits to help with alignment.
Once the panels were glued up I moved on to making the draws. For this I used my newly acquired dovetail jig which once set up proved to be very good.
A pile of draw front and sides.
The groove for the plywood bottom was cut on the table saw which entailed having to remove the riving knife and guard.
Although not necessarily safer I thought that it was a lot simpler than doing it with a hand held router. It did take a bit of thinking about to figure out that the groove had to be inline with one of the pins so that it didn’t show when assembled.
Once the draws were assembled I then moved on to assembling the carcase. If I do it again I would not make one large (just over 2m long) unit but would do it in two pieces - something similar to the units that Lord Nibbo made for his Hi-Fi. I’d also probably go for a different construction method altogether, but it was too late to turn back by this stage. I used ratchet straps and clamps and biscuits and glue and my son to get the sides attached to the middle shelf and bottom rails.
To help with clamping I screwed on some temporary blocks on the rails and underneath the shelf.
Once the carcase was glued up I then installed the draws, using locally acquired runners. I found it fairly easy to get everything in straight doing it this way – plus any error could be hidden quite effectively as I had decided to use separate draw fronts.
I then added the feet which I cut down from some 8cm x 8cm. These were screwed on. The dividers for the open part were also screwed on from underneath. Then the top was glued in place using biscuits for location and strength. In one corner I did end up having to put in a screw as for some reason the corner lifted. Once plugged however it doesn’t really notice.
Finally the draw fronts were cut to size, screwed to the draws and then planned to get an even gap around them. The draw on the far end is actually a double depth draw as I wanted somewhere to keep my small collection of albums. I did this by just leaving the bottom out of the top draw and then fixing the two draws together. I’m not sure if this is the best way but it seems to do the job!
The final finish was 2 coats of Patina which is dead easy to apply and I think gives a nice finish. Despite appearances, the wood wasn’t stained – it seems to be a feature of Afrormosia that it changes colour significantly when a finish is applied. I’ve also found that before finishing, the wood darkens quite considerably when exposed to sunlight – even for short periods.
The cost of the wood, not that it is really relevant for most people reading this, worked out at about £40 – total cost including all the hardware, finish etc. probably about £70. Number of hours work – don’t ask!
The end result is something that I am happy with and more importantly the LOML is very happy with.
Thanks again for reading all this – any constructive comments or questions would as usual be appreciated!
Steve
