With the base glue-up completed, I placed the staves on it see how they looked together. That thing is looking way too thick. Maybe it will look a little better with the rounded edge profile.
Even with the alignment pins used for glue-up, there was a tiny bit of misalignment between top and bottom pieces. I ran a flush trim bit on both sides to smooth it out.
My largest round-over bit has a 3/4" radius. Not as big I I needed, but it was worth using if only to remove some of the material.
That's still way too thick. The proportions are really off.
I ran the base through the planer and took off 1/4" - 5/16" off the bottom. That meant I'd need to do something about the now-shallow driver pocket. I'll work that out later.
That's better, but I need to do some more work on that profile to soften it.
While waiting for an new edge profile bit to arrive in the mail, I thought I'd see if I could use my lathe to adjust the profile. I am not a turner (yet), and I did not want to stop to build those skills just for this project. But, if I could mount the base on a faceplate, I could at least use a sander to shape that edge. So, that's what I did.
Because of the LED driver pocket on the underside, I could not mount the faceplate directly to the base. Instead, I CNC cut an mdf disc to mount the faceplate on, which I could then mount to the base. I used a vbit to mark a cross-hair on the mdf to center the faceplate.
Even with trying to get the base concentric with the faceplate, I still got some wobble. Probably a consequence of my inaccuracies in mounting it and due to the flush-cut I did earlier that would have taken the base slightly out of round.
It took a surprising amount of effort sanding with 80 grit with a ROS to soften the round-over and make the top more pillowed. It's not perfect, but I think I can live with this.
I also added a 1/8" radius round-over to the bottom edge with a trim router. Removing that sharp edge helped to improve the appearance as well.
Maybe by the time I build another floor lamp, I'll have some real lathe skills to exercise.
Just a thought… Did you consider routing a narrow groove around the base’s perimeter (say, about one-third of the way up from the bottom edge)? It won’t reduce the base’s actual thickness, but it may trick the eye and help reduce its apparent thickness.
Sorry RL, I pop in often, but comment few without playing "little miss echo"... how many times can I say great job and truelly appreciate the detailed blog(sss)...
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
I feel that fighting things that look too heavy is a fairly large part of designing. Going with the lathe surely is the way to go, dont be afraid of it. Perhaps going for a logaritmic curve from the feet and out could look good?
"The good chair is a task one is never completely done with" Hans Wegner
Thanks for the comments and suggestions, guys. I have thought about adding a chamfer to the bottom edge to lighten the look from side, and I may still do that. I want to wait until I see how stable the base is with all the hardware installed before I do anything that would reduce the diameter of the base at the floor.
Ron & Splinter - I could add some additional profiling as you've mentioned, and I think it would have the desired effect. However, I am trying not to depart too much from the original design, which had a very basic-looking base (except maybe for the circular brass plate under the staves, which I'm not doing).
Ty - No doubt, a turned base would be the way to go. Given my lack of lathe experience, I just didn't want to risk botching the job on the base and having to start it over again. The base and staves won't be glued together, so I could always turn a new base in the future if I wanted to. (Probably never happen. 😆)
Nice progress! I'd suggest just leaving set up where you can walk by and notice it from time to time. The base may be able to tell what's needed with several views over time. Including doing nothing...
I routinely defer a decision until I can't proceed any further without making it, so yes, I'm living with it as-is for now as I go about work on the other parts of the project.
Great work as usual! I tend to agree that the base looks a little "heavy" for the piece at that thickness but I really like the shape and wood character in it! And as far as the thickness goes, wonder if tapering the top side out like so would help?
Ken - that's similar to the profile of the original, and it was what I was attempting with the sander with the base on the lathe. I was quite surprised that sanding was so slow at changing the contours. I got tired after a while, but it could re-mount it and give it another go if I want.
Splinter - Adding your new word to the woodworking vernacular. 😀
