Curved-Leg End Table Plan

7/30/2019 Curved-Leg End Table Plan

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CURVED LEGEND TABLE

2007 August Home Publishing Co.


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HeirloomProject

curved-legendtableCreate the gracefully curved legs for this table using an easy,

bent-lamination technique.

1 www.Woodsmith.com 2007 August Home Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.

here are a couple o things about

this table that catch your eye

right away the sweeping curve o

the legs and the decorative, circular

inlay in the round top. But i you take

a closer look at these details, youll

discover that theres more here than

meets the eye.

Laminated Legs. For example, each

o the legs looks like its cut roma single piece o wood. But theyre

actually made up o thin layers,

bent in a curve and glued together.

The good news is, the laminating

technique is pretty easy to master.

epoxy inLay. You might also assume

that the decorative inlay is wood. In

act, its colored epoxy. This creates

a great eect without the hassle o it-

ting inlay pieces. Its just poured into

a shallow, routed groove.

This project is a great opportunity

to try both techniques. And the end

result is an attractive table.

{ The key to bent-lamination is a solid bending form. Thedouble layers of MDF on this form provide plenty of strength

and lots of places to add clamps. The form also detachesfrom the base so it can be used with a miter gauge to trim theends of the legs to their finished length at the table saw.

T


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CUTTING THIN STRIPS

2 www.Woodsmith.com 2007 August Home Publishing Co. All Rights Reserve

Like most tables, this project can

be divided into two parts the

base and the top. The base consistso our identical legs made using a

bent-lamination technique. Since

each leg needs to remain in a bend-

ing orm or a ull day, I began by

making the legs rst. This way, you

can work on the top in between glu-

ing up the legs.

make a tempLate. To get started on

the base, the irst step is to lay out

the shape o the legs on a piece o14"

hardboard, like the one you see on

the ar right. This way, youll have a

ull-sized pattern. And later youll useit to lay out the shape o the bending

orms. For now, just cut out the tem-

plate and sand it smooth.

Cutting the Laminates. Now youre

ready to cut the thin strips or the

laminations. For a curve o this

radius, the thickness o each strip

should not exceed 18". I did this by

cutting some 34"-thick stock into

112"-wide blanks and then resaw-

ing them into thin strips, as shown

below. Youll want to stack and mark

the pieces in the order they were

.

. .

To cut the thin strips needed or the

laminated legs, rst install a good

rip blade on your table saw. Then

just set your ence a hair wider than18" and rip the strips. Make sure to

b.

Start with the Legs

use a push block with a small heel to

saely hold the thin pieces.

Now you can remove the saw

marks by using a sanding drum on

your drill press and a support block

attached to the ence. With a 100-

grit sleeve on the drum, all you need

to do is pull each strip through the

drum to leave a smooth, lat surace

ready or glue-up.

cut to keep them in place or the

glue-up. Keeping them in order will

help you get a seamless glue line

when you assemble the pieces.

At this point, you can eel how the

strips will bend. Dont be concerned

i it seems like they wont bend ar

enough without cracking. Theyll

become more lexible as they absorb

some moisture rom the glue.


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BUILD THE BENDING FORM

Gluing Up the Legs


Add a Second Layer.Cut out a second piece oMDFand

attach it to the irst layer with glue and screws. Then, with

a lush-trim bit in the router, trim the pieces to match.

With the strips or the legs cut and

the template shaped and sanded,

youre ready to build the bending

orms. The box at the bottom o the

page shows you how thats done.

Ater youve completed the orm,

its a good idea to give it a coat o in-ish and thoroughly wax the suraces

that will come in contact with glue.

This way, youll have a much easier

time removing the pieces.

gLue the Laminations. Once the orm

is built, youre ready to start gluing

up the legs. One thing to keep in

mind here is that youll be covering

.

Dowels temporarily hold thestrips in place during glue-up

.

a lot o surace and it can be time-

consuming. So its important to use

a glue that gives you plenty o open

time beore it sets up. I used Titebond

Extend, a strong PVAglue that pro-

vides extra open time.

How you apply the glue is also

important. You can roll or brush iton, but youll need to make sure to

ully cover every surace to prevent

voids in the lamination (Fig. 1).

CLamp the forms. Ater youve com-

pleted the glue sandwich, just tip

it on its side, as shown in Fig. 2,

bend it around the orm, and use a

couple dowels to hold the lamination

secure. Then move the outside orm

into position and add a single clamp

(Fig. 3) in the center to hold things in

place. Now you can add more clamps

to the orm, alternating between theright and let side o center, slowly

bringing the pieces together. Use a

piece o scrap and a mallet (detail a)

to tap the strips lat against the bot-

tom o the orm.

1

2 3

Start with the Template. Trace the shape o the template onto a piece

o#/4" MDF. Cut out both pieces o the orm, staying on the waste side o

the cut. Then sand the edges smooth.


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BUILD THE BENDING FORM


CLeaning up. Youll need to give the

glue a ull day to cure beore remov-

ing the leg rom the bending orm.

Ater gluing up the remaining three

legs, you can break out a scraper and

remove the squeeze-out. I also like

to ollow up with a good sanding to

remove as much o the hardened glue

as possible. Then just latten one edgeo each leg at the jointer and run the

other side through your planer. Plane

the leg to a inal width o 118".

square the ends. Now youre ready to

trim the ends o the legs parallel. This

way, theyll sit lat on the loor and

also create a lat surace or the top

o the table. The bending orm comes

in handy or making these cuts. Just

remove the inside orm and attach

it to an auxiliary ence on your miter

gauge, as shown in Fig. 6. Then you

can clamp the leg in position on theorm and make the squaring cuts on

each end.

fLatten one faCe. With the legs cut to

length, the next step is to create a lat

spot on the inside ace o each leg

or a center block that will be added

later. This will allow you to assemble

the legs into a solid base.

To do this, remove the orm rom

the miter gauge and place the lat

edge against the rip ence (Fig. 7).

Hold the leg in position with spring

clamps, well out o the way o the

table saw blade. For this cut, I care-

ully adjusted the rip ence to just

Attach bending jig to auxiliaryfence on miter gauge to

cut leg blank to final length.

.

.

barely shave o the outside edge o

the curve on each leg (Fig. 7a).

finishing touChes. To complete the

legs, I moved to the router table and

sotened the edges using a18" roun-

dover bit. I rounded both the inside

and outside edges, avoiding the lat-

tened ace. Then I sanded the outside

tip o the bottom o each leg to match

the round proile. Now, just give the

pieces a inal sanding and theyre

ready to assemble.

4 5

6

7

Add a Base. Mount the inside orm to the base using screws. Then drill

a series o 1!/2"-dia. holes or clamps. Also add two #/4"-dia. holes or

the dowels. Trim the corners to make it easier to tighten the clamps.

Complete the Form. Cut the outside part o the

a uniorm width to provide even clamping pressure

spray on a coat o fnish and wax both parts o the


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BASE ASSEMBLY DETAILS


The key to successully assembling

the base is to glue up the irst two

pieces lat and square. You can do

this by laying two legs on your work-

bench and clamping a straightedge

to the bench top to use as a lat

reerence or the ends o the legs.

Then its just a matter o gluing the

center block in place and clamping

the assembly. Ater its dry, drill and

counterbore holes in the ends, as

shown in detail a. Then attach the

assembly with screws and use the

tabletop to keep things square as

you add the remaining legs.

With the legs complete, the next

step is making the top. Youll need

to have it ready beore joining

the legs so you can use it to

keep the assembly square.a round tabLetop. As you can

see in the illustration at right, the top

is glued up rom narrower boards.

Its a pretty straightorward assem-

bly, but youll want to take the time

to align your stock or the best grain

match. You may also want to use

cauls to keep the boards lat.

Ater youve smoothed and sanded

the blank, youre ready to cut the top

to size. To do this, I used a router and

trammel. This allowed me to cut the

circle and add a shallow groove orthe inlay using the same setup just by

adjusting the radius o the cut. You can

see how I did this on the next page.

The last step is to glue the legs

together to orm the base. The box

at the bottom o the page shows an

easy way to assemble the base and

keep it aligned and square.

Now just add a inish and the table

is sure to ind a good home next to

your avorite chair.

.

.

b.

Adding the Top & Center Bloc


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ROUT CIRCLES WITH A TRAMMEL


When I need to cut a circle, like the top

or a table, I reach or my router and

a trammel. There are a couple good

reasons why I like this method. First,

its quick and easy to set up and makethe cut. But, more importantly, it cuts a

perect circle and leaves a smooth edge

that requires very little sanding.

the trammeL. The shop-built tram-

mel I use is pretty simple to make.

You can ind the plans or it on page

9. Its very stable and accurate. And

unlike most other trammels, this one

doesnt require you to drill a hole in

the workpiece or its pivot pin. The

pin its into a base thats held in place

with carpet tape.

setting up the Cut. To get started,youll need to elevate the workpiece

o the bench so you can make a

through cut. I used carpet tape and a

couple pieces o scrap on the bench.

Then I taped the workpiece to them

(Fig 1.) Make sure to place the tape

so it will hold both the top and the

waste in place. This way, they cant

move as you cut through.

Now you need to ind the center

. b.

o the workpiece. An easy

way to do this is to draw

intersecting lines rom

the corners, as shown in

Fig. 1. Then line up thosemarks with the corners o

the base, tape it in position,

and youll be assured o a

centered cut.

routing the CirCLe. With

the base in position, the next step is

to install a12"-dia. straight bit in the

router. Then, adjust the trammel to

establish the diameter o the circle.

Remember that you need to measure

rom the center o the pivot point to

the inside edge o the router bit to

get the right diameter. Then you justtighten the lock on the arm.

For a cut this deep, I always make

multiple passes. This way I know the

router wont bog down. In this case, I

made three passes, lowering the bit14" ater each pass.

inLay ChanneL. To cut the groove or

the epoxy inlay, all you need to do

is move the adjustable arm 114" in

toward the center and install a18"-dia.

straight bit. The epoxy will adhere

to the channel very well, so you only

need to rout a116"-deep groove. You

can rout this groove in a single pass.

See the next page or details o how

to add the epoxy inlay.

1

2

Materials

A LegStrips(32) !/8x1!/8-32

B Top(1) #/4x21!/2-21!/2

C CenterBlock(1) 1!/8x1!/8-2!/4

(4)No.8x3/4"Fhwoodscrews

Epoxy

CUttiNG DiaGraM


8/107 www.Woodsmith.com 2007 August Home Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.

Traditional wood inlays are a great

way to dress up the appearance o

a project. The problem is cutting

and tting small, oddly shaped in-

lay pieces can be both dicult and

time-consuming. An easy alternative

is to use colored epoxy instead

o wood. Epoxy will fow

into just about any

addinganePoxy inlayGive your projects an eye-catching inlay in minutes, not hours.

WoodWorkingtecHnique

{ Test the colormixes on a sample

board to find theshade you want

for your project.

shape, saving a lot o time and eort

over conventional wood inlays.

For example, the table on page

1 eatures a round top with an inlay

near the edge, shown above. Hand

tting small, curved pieces o wood

into the circular channel would be a

pretty tough task.

But you can get a similar eect by

simply mixing up a batch o epoxy

and adding a little color. Then you

just apply the mixture into a shal-

low recess cut in the shape o your

choice. With this technique, I wasable to add a great-looking design

detail without a lot o trouble.

getting started. Like any inlay, the

place to begin is by creating a re-

cess. For the round tabletop, I used

a trammel and a router with a 18"

straight bit to cut the groove. And

because epoxy adheres so well, the

groove only needs to be 116" deep.

preparing the wood. Ater you cut the

recess or the inlay, theres just one

more step beore mixing the epoxy.

To prevent the epoxy rom bleeding

into the grain, its a good idea to seal

the wood rst by spraying on a coat

o lacquer. And to make it easier to

remove any excess epoxy, rub a coat

o wax on the surace o the wood.

mix epoxy and CoLor. With the sur-

ace prepared, the next step is to

choose an epoxy. Ive ound most

brands work ne, but its best to use

a slow-setting epoxy. This way, youll

have plenty o time to get it in placebeore it starts to harden.

You can use just about any kind o

coloring in epoxy, rom aniline dyes

to the black urniture powder I used

on the table top. Youll just want to

avoid colors that are soluble in the

type o nish youll be adding to the

piece. For instance, i youre plan-

ning to use a water-based nish, stay

away rom water-soluble colors or


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WORkING WITH EPOxYthey will bleed when you apply thenish, even ater the epoxy cures.

Its a good idea to mix up a ew

batches and test them on scrap

pieces rst. Then youll get a eel

or how well the epoxy works into

the grooves. You can also experi-

ment with dierent coloring agents

to nd the right mixture or the in-lay. Note: I used a slow-set, two-part

epoxy mixed with some Behlens

urniture powder or color.

appLying epoxy. When youve ound

the shade you like, youre ready

to start lling in the inlay. You can

see the step-by-step process in the

box at right. I the epoxy mixture is

thin enough, you can draw it into a

syringe and then simply squeeze it

into the recess. I like this method

because it gives me better control.

And it also makes cleaning up theexcess a lot less hassle.

I the mixture is too thick or a

syringe, you can press it into the

recess using a thin piece o scrap

wood or plastic. Just be sure to

add enough so the epoxy remains

slightly proud o the surace.

CLeaning up. Since you waxed the

surace, the overfow will come o

pretty easily with a sharp chisel. The

bottom two photos at right show you

how to clean up the epoxy and ll in

any exposed air bubbles. You can

remove the wax with mineral spirits.

Then, ater a nal sanding to remove

the sealer coat o lacquer, youre

ready to add a nish. Using this sim-

ple technique, youll nd even the

most intricate inlays are possible.

There are a couple things to keep in mind

when working with epoxy. First, it will

bond to just about anything, including your

skin. So I always wear rubber gloves when

mixing and applying epoxy. Second, the

resins not only smell bad, but can cause


{ To make removing the excess epoxyeasier, first apply a coat of lacquer

to seal the grain and then rub on acoat of wax.

allergic reactions in some people. So its a

good idea to work in a well-ventilated area.

The same rule applies or sanding the

hardened epoxy. The dust can be a real ir-

ritant, so use a good dust collector on your

sander and wear a mask.

Start by mixing the epoxy

according to the manu-

facturers instructions (usually,

equal amounts of resin and

hardener). Then mix in the

color. Stir the epoxy gently to

minimize air bubbles.

A disposable plastic

syringe makes it easy to

apply the epoxy. You can cut

the plastic tip to fit the size

of the groove. Make sure to

overfill the groove a little bit to

allow for some shrinkage.

After about an hour, use

a chisel to remove most

of the overflow. At this point,

the epoxy is rubbery. After its

cured (usually 8 hours) move

on to a hand scraper, then sand

the inlay smooth.

Holes caused by air bub-

bles in the inlay are almost

unavoidable. But you can fill

them using a drop of epoxy on

a paperclip or toothpick. Then

just sand again after the repairs

are dry.

1

2

3

4


10/10

.

c.

d.

b.

routertrammel jig

tiPs Fromour sHoP

Cutting the round top or the table

is an ideal job or a router and atrammel jig. It not only cuts a per-

ect circle but allows you to rout the

groove or the inlay. The problem is,

most trammels require a hole in the

center o the workpiece or the pivot

point. The design o this trammel

solves that problem.

I you look at the photo, youll see

that the trammel is made up o a

slotted adjustable arm that its over

a base. The base is secured to the

workpiece with carpet tape. A pivot

pin in the base allows the adjust-able arm to rotate (see the drawings

below).

I started by

making the

adjustable arm.

A dado blade

in the table

saw orms the

.

groove on the bottom o the arm. I

drilled the hole at the end o the slot

and then cut out the waste with a jig

saw (detail b).

The base comes next. Theres

nothing tricky about it. Its a square

piece o plywood with a center hole

or the pivot pin.

The T-shaped index block com

next. The goal is to make it it in th

grooved slot in the adjustable ar

(detail a). A small piece o hardwoo

acts as the clamping block whe

adjusting the radius o the jig. Th

star knob and threaded insert com

plete the adjustment assembly.

Finally, add an acrylic baseplate

your router. I used my routers a

tory baseplate as a pattern or th

screw holes. Fasten a spacer to th

adjustable arm, then you can attac

the baseplate to the spacer. All tha

let is to attach your router.

Documents

Curved-Leg End Table Plan