[Ssonerai]

NYS has a mandate for "maker spaces" in libraries.
I never used the local facility, but know the guy who runs it, and have often donated small amounts of plywood & materials. He has been over to the shop to use my larger machines to break down larger pieces of material so they will fit on the high end/ hobby level/size machines in the library.

Ran into him at a rally at the local drive in theatre and he asked how the wife's pool table was coming along. I said i had got the veneer sorted & stacked for conventional sawing but my jigsaw kept breaking parts (not the blades). So he convinced me to do a drawing and bring the veneers into the library.

He loaded up the drawing and made me fix it on the computer (I have no CAD experience of any kind) so that actually took a couple hours before we even cut a test piece. Besides cleaning up the drawing on the screen, i had to load dimentions and check critical points against what the final product should be. After that, he kind of cued me along and we got all the veneers cut out individually. (Instead of stacked, like conventional inlay).

Back at my shop i cleaned up the parts, glued and taped them up, then 2-plied them onto poplar crossband, just like the originals. The banding blanks were made over a year ago, but only just sawed up for use. There's some errors in this that will jump out at anyone looking, but it's going on the table anyway.

[Ssonerai]

Here's the 2-ply cleaned up.
It's obvious i got one of the satinwood veneers inverted when gluing it up (before cutting it out at the library). Didn't notice until everything was done. It's going on the table that way anyhow.

The other error was in cleaning up and copying the table end that must have been facing a window, and got bleached out in the sun. Did a fairly faithful copy of that end, but that is not how the table started life. More on that another day.

smt

[trentfromtoledo]

Much respect sir! That is a serious amount of effort you are putting in.
Cant wait to see the end product! Good Luck to you!

TFT

Originally Posted by Ssonerai

Here's the 2-ply cleaned up.
It's obvious i got one of the satinwood veneers inverted when gluing it up (before cutting it out at the library). Didn't notice until everything was done. It's going on the table that way anyhow.

The other error was in cleaning up and copying the table end that must have been facing a window, and got bleached out in the sun. Did a fairly faithful copy of that end, but that is not how the table started life. More on that another day.

smt

[Ssonerai]

Thanks, Trent!
As you are no doubt aware, many could do it, but it would take a special customer to afford it & does not make sense "economically". I've done woodwork for others all my life, though; time to make some things for myself. :^)

First pass around the table was to consolidate all the loose veneer, by reworking with hot hide glue, and "hammering" (ironing it down). (Not shown).

Next was to go around and patch in missing pieces, & cut out bad material and fit in new. This is just an example of a couple places on 2 sides of a leg. Too Often, even the cross band layer has to be replaced or repaired. I used hot hide glue, but also a lot of Titebond, and some epoxy, "depending".

[Ssonerai]

Another example is where all the sharp edges are eaten off.
First, to minimize the amount of solid un-banded wood, small areas of veneer are patched in. This maintains the integrity of the original cross bands over a wider area. Then a solid edge is let in, as i would say should have been done originally.

As the components start to clean up, though, as mentioned in previous post, a color issue with the decorative banding appears.... more on that another time.

[iusedtoberich]

Nice work!

What are the holes for in the side of the hand plane?

[Ssonerai]

Thank you!

What are the holes for in the side of the hand plane?

Bolt holes.
(flat head socket screws, aka "allen heads" )

A few years ago i started working more with veneers in my regular work and needed a plane that would not rip them up when planing solid wood adjacent to veneers or even thick patches inlaid as here. Something between a scraper and a well tuned block plane, that would actually remove a shaving from really dense "exotics" almost without regard for grain direction. Of course with really gnarly stuff, it has to be a scraper or sanding block.

Anyway, this plane was designed with adjustable pitch, & included an adjustable throat & an effective chip breaker. Being a prototype, i wanted to be able to take it apart to modify the structure as it evolved & better ideas occurred to me. It has to come apart to get the tilting frog out, or to work on it. Fortunately, things came out pretty close and that has not been necessary, though other areas have included some gradual refinements.

Sides and sole are stainless steel, throat plate is hardened stainless & sharp.

Thanks for noticing
smt

[Sheldon]

Really nice craftsmanship, thank you for sharing this.

[Ssonerai]

Thanks for the kind words

Right now it's just grunt work - pushing, scraping, sanding off the finish.
First photo - "There's got to be a magic solution with one of these?!?

Actually, almost any commercial furniture/woodwork before WW2 or at least the mid '30's was finished with shellac. Which is a truly outstanding finish, easy to repair, and not the worst to remove.

I saturate a face with acetone and try to keep it wet. In a few minutes just before it dries again, the heavy stuff can be pushed off with a putty knife. Then the scrapers. Then scotch brite, all with regular squirts of acetone. As soon as the acetone evaporates, it's hard as stone again. Hook scrapers are really effective, but honestly, more time is spent sharpening and re-burring them than actually using. Still more effective than sandpaper, though.

As the other end legs were cleaned up, it became apparent that the folded ribbon design originally had a blue center stripe. I had wondered when making the replacement why they made it a 3-layer edge. Too late smart, etc, etc. The blue stripe is really pretty, wish the other end had been the one chosen at random to compare, but at this point I'm not changing it.

2nd,3rd,4th photos are the end i copied and the replacement inlay face on the left leg.
Last photo show a close up of the other end, with the blue stripe in the ribbon.

[Ssonerai]

one of my gripes is that veneered work with exposed edges really ought to have solid wood at the corners. So it can be rounded ("nicer") and so it takes wear and can be repaired more easily without looking ratty.

It seems that while my camera was in the shop the whole time, i neglected to get photos of routing and inletting the corners. But here is what it looked like the next morning.

WEST epoxy was used both for strength, but mostly for the super-long assembly time to get everything in place and clamped.

smt

[trentfromtoledo]

you sir are a true artist! So cool!


TFT

[Lawnboy77]

Awesome job! Thanks for sharing!

[Ssonerai]

You guys are such a great crowd!

This is pretty crude compared to say cue-making. With furniture you can cheat a lot more, because only other woodwhackers look at it close up.

Typical BBC construction was to make all the major parts out of big glued up solid pieces of (mostly) poplar. Then cross band both sides, and put a feature veneer on the face. If the case never experiences a prolonged period of exposure to extreme damp, this is a relatively straight forward method to make stable parts that won't shrink and expand much. IOW the integrity of the parts depends on the integrity of the crossbands.

Unfortunately going corner-to-corner leaves sharp, wear prone corners and ends. After a period of time in service, they often erode right down into the solid wood. Leaving nothing to repair or even add veneer back onto. My plan was to let in the narrowest solid edge bands that would clean up most of the 16 corners, and then add a curved pattern "foot" at the bottom of each string to cover the splayed wear at the end of every corner. Photo with router was a test cut/set up on scrap wood. The solid parts can then be rounded to resist further wears.

Been steaming & scrubbing all the divots, too, in between times. Not all will ever come out, steaming hard and long enough to raise the worst dents might just pop the veneer back off. A little bit of progress is being made, though.

[bradsh98]

DANG!

You are a wild man!

When you finish up with that one, I've got a Medalist that you can do. HA!

Nice work, buddy.

I can't wait to see it in person.

[Ssonerai]

Geoff -

The Medalist is probably my favorite of the old BBC designs.
Either that or the Conquerer. But Medalist is a little more subdued/elegant.

Can't wait to get you down here, hoping to get further along with the table so as not to waste your time. There's still the table base rails, blinds, slate repair, and then....rebuild or new cushion rails. You know you're always welcome if you get a spare day, though.

Had eye surgery yesterday so that cut into things a little (Hee, hee). But did some more work on finish. These photos are from a couple days ago, though.

After steaming the snot out of the dents as far as possible, some were filled. The filler won't really take stain or finish color like the old wood, so they were selectively tinted with toner, and then sanded. first 3 photos show progression. An older piece like this is usually going to show some scars, it is not worth a lot of time to make everything disappear. The idea is just find a balance that makes them the least incongruous. Generally on old furniture, a darker stain is a little less distracting than a bright, light stain.

Unfortunately, in photo 3, old repair is discovered - see sharp end of chisel. In the past, apparently veneer was knocked out and someone did a very good job of patching it back in over top of some wood filler to level it, then sanding and tinting to match. However it was so thin, a tiny area of filler peeked out. I thought it was some i missed from my own filling when going over the piece and gave it a few swipes with 320 grit. That was all it took to essentially wipe it out.
At this point, it makes more sense to continue with starting the first finish coats to stabilize the wood, then fix it when the finish supplies a bit of temporary protection to the surrounding wood. Repairs later.

Last photo - starting with the first coats of de-waxed garnet shellac. The old wood has enough defects that the darker color will tend to blend and soften the visual discrepancies. But it won't make the wood as dark and splotchy as stain would. (Just to be clear, that is a different squirt bottle with shellac in it, not the toner bottle in the previous photo)

smt