Hi all,
It has been a while, but I do have a project to show off. This one is a Camphor Laurel coffee table. It is roughly 400 x 500 (16" x 18") and 400 (16") high. I say roughly because the slab is an irregular shape. I had the idea for a sail boat inlay in the back of my mind for quite some time, and when I found this slab at a wood show I knew exactly what to do with it. the Camphor Laurel comes from Northern Rivers, NSW. The inlay is Queen Ebony from The Solomon Islands. It was an interesting mix as the Camphor Laurel is fairly soft, and the Queen Ebony quite hard. I basically worked each timber separately and only brought them together for trial fitting etc.
The first image is of the original slab, and the second shows some tie down wire going straight through the cracks in the slab from one side to the other. There were a few like this, but the finished product will show that they actually add to the scene. I stabilised these cracks with epoxy, and then left the slab for a while.
Image 3 shows the components of the boat cut out from the Queen Ebony, and the 4th is where I have marked up the slab for routing to hold the inlay. The whole routing exercise was a lot more interesting than it should have been, and ended up with a burnt out router being thrown in the bin. If you know where to look, you can see the issues, but you probably won't see them in the photos.
The Queen Ebony is a dark brown, rather than black like traditional ebony, and has a distinct grain to it. It's too hard for hand sanding, particularly in the initial stages, however I found that 0000 steel wool brought up a really nice smooth finish to it. This caused problems in the final sanding, as the Camphor Laurel responded best to 240 grit sandpaper, which scratched the Queen Ebony. Likewise, the steel wool scratched the Camphor Laurel. There was some very careful sanding going on there at the end.
I chose to use floating legs attached to cross braces that slotted tongue and groove style into the table top. Images 5, 6, and 7 show the process of setting this up and then gluing it all into place. All the joints are either tongue and groove, or mortise and tenon.
The last three images are of the finished product from various positions. In them you can also see a bracing plate glued over the top of the bottom pair of braces.
It is finished first with a single coat of Carnauba wax, mainly to bring out the golden grain in the Camphor Laurel. Then over the top of that is 2-3 coats of clear flooring polyurethane (CFP). Why CFP? Partly because I already had some, but mainly to give some hardness to the Camphor Laurel.
Well that's the job finished. I am not far off finishing a King size bed for our daughter. I am at the staining and varnishing stage, so hopefully pictures will be up soon.
Enjoy,
Darryl
It has been a while, but I do have a project to show off. This one is a Camphor Laurel coffee table. It is roughly 400 x 500 (16" x 18") and 400 (16") high. I say roughly because the slab is an irregular shape. I had the idea for a sail boat inlay in the back of my mind for quite some time, and when I found this slab at a wood show I knew exactly what to do with it. the Camphor Laurel comes from Northern Rivers, NSW. The inlay is Queen Ebony from The Solomon Islands. It was an interesting mix as the Camphor Laurel is fairly soft, and the Queen Ebony quite hard. I basically worked each timber separately and only brought them together for trial fitting etc.
The first image is of the original slab, and the second shows some tie down wire going straight through the cracks in the slab from one side to the other. There were a few like this, but the finished product will show that they actually add to the scene. I stabilised these cracks with epoxy, and then left the slab for a while.
Image 3 shows the components of the boat cut out from the Queen Ebony, and the 4th is where I have marked up the slab for routing to hold the inlay. The whole routing exercise was a lot more interesting than it should have been, and ended up with a burnt out router being thrown in the bin. If you know where to look, you can see the issues, but you probably won't see them in the photos.
The Queen Ebony is a dark brown, rather than black like traditional ebony, and has a distinct grain to it. It's too hard for hand sanding, particularly in the initial stages, however I found that 0000 steel wool brought up a really nice smooth finish to it. This caused problems in the final sanding, as the Camphor Laurel responded best to 240 grit sandpaper, which scratched the Queen Ebony. Likewise, the steel wool scratched the Camphor Laurel. There was some very careful sanding going on there at the end.
I chose to use floating legs attached to cross braces that slotted tongue and groove style into the table top. Images 5, 6, and 7 show the process of setting this up and then gluing it all into place. All the joints are either tongue and groove, or mortise and tenon.
The last three images are of the finished product from various positions. In them you can also see a bracing plate glued over the top of the bottom pair of braces.
It is finished first with a single coat of Carnauba wax, mainly to bring out the golden grain in the Camphor Laurel. Then over the top of that is 2-3 coats of clear flooring polyurethane (CFP). Why CFP? Partly because I already had some, but mainly to give some hardness to the Camphor Laurel.
Well that's the job finished. I am not far off finishing a King size bed for our daughter. I am at the staining and varnishing stage, so hopefully pictures will be up soon.
Enjoy,
Darryl
