This was my first project posted on a different site. This was done in the fall of 2009.
This is a lazy susan with a story. My parents were visiting this spring. My dad has been making a few different project using these diamonds. I told him I could use a lazy susan. It needed to be fairly large. I told him 30 inches across, maybe only 28 would work. He went home and got to work. More than 400 diamonds later, he sent me the result. It was a very pretty design, but only 24 inches across (he ran out of wood and was sure it was big enough). We used it for a while, but it needed to be bigger.
I cut off the rounded edges of the mahogany and put a relief on the back side. Then I added an MDF backer to extend about 3 inches on each side.
The existing border made a nice transition from the center pattern, so I came up with a diamond border to add. I used mahogany salvaged from the lazy susan and a couple pieces of oak and walnut from the wood pile. My contribution added another 100+ diamonds.
The diamond border trimmed to width and accent strips added to each side. The accent strips are oak, walnut and salvaged mahogany. I had managed to use every bit of mahogany that I trimmed off the original.
The walnut was resawn to ¼” thickness and covers the rest of the MDF.
We now have a 30" lazy susan, but the part I like is that my dad and I got to build it "together" - even though we live 2000 miles apart! My dad has since passed and this is one of my favorite pieces in the house.
Great story. Your dad did a great job with the original, and you finished it off nicely. It looks like it was designed like that from the start. Nice piece to keep the memory of your dad fresh every time you use it. Thanks for sharing.
Figuring out how to do something you have never done is what makes a good challenge.
A true treasure. Have some of my Dad's projects and all are treasures. Yours is better as you and he did it together. Wonderful pattern and looks really great.
Thanks guys. My dad made several of these - all around 12" in size. He wasn't sure that a 30" lazy susan made sense until he saw it. He has a good eye for laying out the patterns.
Thanks everyone! My parents would winter over in southern Texas (McAllen/Pharr area). My dad had a print out of the project posting and would share the story with his friends.
This 30" size is a good match for our 54" round table. Wouldn't want it any bigger but it allows a fair amount of real estate for passing things around. Over the years we have learned a bit about Lazy Susan Etiquette. Mainly to not rotate until every one is done using the dish in front of them!
