Hello, Bill.
That table is awesome. I like it, specially the curved drawers. Can you give some details about their construction? Thanks for sharing.
Hello Alexis...
Thank you for the kind words...
As for the drawer construction, I'll be happy to "TRY" and explain. *L* first and foremost, Research-reseach-research...and then some more research. The options I had were to:
1: cut from a solid piece of wood.
This option just didn't seem very practical as well as concerns over the wood
not maintaining its shape over time. At just over 3 1/2" wide, wood movement
was not much of a concern, but something to consider none the less.
2: using a glue-up
I could have easily glued up a piece thick enough to work with, band sawed the
radius's and sanded down. That just didn't sound like much fun considering some
of the other options. I just enjoy the hell out of trying new techniques.
3: steam bending.
This was the front runner for the longest time. It would have required building a
steam box big enough, acquiring the necessary equipment to supply the steam
and the necessary hardware to manage the process. Choices were across
the board, everything from DIY to professional grade kits. Honestly, you can
make a steam bending box from a couple pieces of plywood, a tea kettle and a
couple pieces of hose. *L* perhaps a bit more to it than that, but you get the
idea.
4: heat bending.
While surfing YouTube for "bending wood". I came across the idea of using a
heat gun. This is ultimately what I choose to do. I liked the idea, I had most
of what was needed already on hand. Would not take up much space at all.
Fabrication would be straight forward.
Construction of the heat gun:
Needed a heat gun! Already had a coupe of these:
Craftsman Professional 27801 1500 watt Corded Heavy-Duty Heat Gun - Tools - Corded Handheld Power Tools - All Corded Power Tools
Went to a local hardware store and picked up the galvanized pipe and fitting
I needed. See the pic below. Thats just what I ended up with. Plenty of ways
to skin this cat! One of the things I considered was the diameter of the pipe.
Being able to change out one size for another would give me more options down
the road. Tighter radius's etc. Swap out the adapters with what you need and
there ya go. During the first couple of tests, I found that I was getting way too
much heat coming back at the gun nozzle. I drilled a small hole in the end of the
endcap and this took care of that problem. Allowing for some air flow thru the
pipe, while still allowing it to build up and maintain heat. I also noticed that heat
transfer from the "T" down to the platform was a problem. Drilling a few holes in
the upright helped, Raising the mounting flange up off of the platform helped
alot. I stuffed the bottom of the pipe with aluminum foil to prevent the heat
from blowing thru. At over 1000 degree's, you want to make sure that nothing
ignites. In fact, after every use, I made it a point to spritz down the entire
contraption with water until everything was just warm to the touch!!!!! The
platform just mounts to my workbench vise while in use.
thanks pretty much a general overview of the heat gun rig. If you got any
questions, I'll be more than happy to try and help you out.
The wood I choose to use for the bending was quartersawn white oak. I picked this wood for its wood bending characteristics. Cherry can be bent, but I felt the oak a better choice. Also, since I planned on putting a figured cherry veneer overtop of everthing I figured it didn't matter. Well, it did matter. When you open the drawer, the drawer front does not look like one solid piece of cherry. Honestly, If you didn't know what you were looking at, you'd probably not pay much mind to it. I guess its as big a deal as one might want to make of it. so....
I milled up the white oak to 3 1/2" wide, by just over 1/8" thick by half of the circumference of the intended ring. The glue-ups were done in two halves. Each half would make up one side and one drawer front. I wanted the body of the table to have a 1" lip all around. So, with a 24" top, I needed to have a 22" body. I used a online calculator to figure out the circumference of a 22" body and came up with 69.11". Half of that was just a little over 34 1/2"s. I added an extra inch on each end and cut the white oak to 36 1/2" lengths. Once rough cut to size, I ran each piece through my drum sander, with a finished thickness of 3/32".
Using the same math, I made up a jig to form the curved sides out of MDF. Screwed the pieces up and mounted to a platform. Drilled out the holes that glue up
clamps would be placed into. See the pics below. I do have a few pics of the actuall glue up somewhere, I think on my phone. If I figure out how to get em into my laptop Ill include them later on.
Bending the wood took a little practice and patience. I cut several extra pieces to experiment with and to just get the hang of bending. Once the heatgun rig was mounted to the bench, I turned it on and let it come up to temp. I determined it was hot enough to use by spritzing it with water. As soon as it got hot enough that the moment the water hit the pipe, it sizzled and evaporated, it was good to go.
I began by spritzing the side of the wood that would be against the pipe during bending. This was done repeatedly during the process. As soon as it looked like the water had evaporated, I'd hit it with some more. How the wood actually loosens up and begins to bend with this process is very much like using a steam box.
You just got to take your time, working the wood over the pipe. spritzing often. Slowly the bend begins to take shape. Since I already had my jig made for the glue-up I used it as a guide. Pretty much bending the wood to fit the jig ahead of time. My thinking was/is that by bending the wood to fit prior to glueing it would be more prone to maintain its shape with a very minimal amount of springback. As it turned out, this is exactly what happened. Once glue up was complete and clamps removed, there was less than 1/8" spring back. If you look at the pics, you'll see a cutoff I still had around. And you'll see just how little springback there is.
For the glue up, I used a "Pre-catalyzed Powered UP Resin". (see pic) This stuff worked just great! This product is mixed with water. Based on recommendations by the gentlemen who uses it professionally (has a veneer shop) I mixed things up by weight and not by volume. I went to a local Kmart and picked up a scale for 20 bucks or so. A good investment in my opinion considering the results. Application was done with a 3" foam roller. Not messy at all, minimal expansion and no nasty smells. Open time was around 45 min's as i recall. But I still recommend that you move quickly. Take your time during clamping, but move with intent. Making sure that the pieces remain in position. They did have a tendency to want and slip upwards. Use of cauls is a must to evenly distribute clamping pressure.
All thats left is to clean up and wait for things to dry. I gave it a couple days to thoroughly dry. When I pulled the clamps off, I was amazed just how tight everything stayed to the form. I even gave it a few more days to see if it would creep outwards, but it didn't. :sold:
This all may have been a bit long winded, but I think I covered everything. If I missed something, or you have questions, just ask away....
bill
