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Thursday, November 4, 2010

It's all about good form

I just finished forming the curved drawer fronts on the project, and ended up shooting quite a bit of video during the process.  I realized in order to keep the level of detail I wanted, I would have to split the process into two separate episodes.  So this one focuses on how I transfered the profile from the curved drawer rails directly to custom left and right bending forms.  I also cover the selection and slicing of the show-face book-matched veneer for the fronts.  I'll follow up shortly with the actual forming of the final drawer fronts in a separate post.



Windows Media Version (Right click to download)
QuickTime Version (Right click to download)

4 comments:

Pickering Mike said...

That's going to be one sweet table when done. Can't wait to see it done.

Love the idea of the curved drawers and your explanation on how to build the forms seem to be pretty easy to follow.

Rob Bois said...

Thanks Mike. As you'll see in the coming episodes, the drawer joinery really becomes the most challenging part of the project. As for creating bent laminations, I think the process is quite a bit easier than most people think. One thing I did find in joining the drawer fronts is there is a slight bulge in the front of the drawers, presumably because my bending form was a frame, rather than solid hardwood all the way across. It doesn't impact the project, but shows how much force a set of clamps has on a bending form.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rob,

How did you cut at the specific part from the whole board? Did you use the bandsaw for that or?

Thanks in advance

Rob Bois said...

Good question. I used my sliding compound miter saw to cut off the end I sourced the drawer fronts from, then used the band saw to rough out one side, ran that over my jointer, and then cut the parallel side on the table saw. I then trimmed both ends with the miter saw once again to get them squared up to the new edges. I could have just as easily used a jigsaw instead of the band saw.