Oh well. Maybe next time. I just finished assembling my project, which is a side table for outside at the entrance of our house. I’ll post it as a creation when it’s done.
I was inspired by Ianwater’s curve leg picnic table and decided to make curved legs using a similar method. I posted already about the form and glue up. I made the last leg last night and today I started assembly. I made the top a couple of weekends ago.
Here’s one leg in the form.
Here are the 4 legs before trimming. They’re covered in glue so I trimmed off the edges on the table saw before running it through the planer to straighten the edges and make them a uniform thickness.
Before trimming.
After.
That’s what the wedge looked like before trimming. Lots of squeeze out and paper stuck to it. I didn’t want that crap going through the planer.
To attach the legs I just glued them to the underside of the top with 2 deck screws per leg. The stretchers were an afterthought. They were retrofit into the legs. Just glued butt joints and trim screws. I filled the holes with wood filler. I’m waiting for it to dry before sanding and starting to paint. Here’s the assembled table.
I plan to paint it with oil based enamel. Red and white. Time to stir the BIN. :)
By the way, the whole thing is made out of Lowe’s tubafors. It’s getting painted anyway so the knots and such can be filled and no one is the wiser.
-- Losing fingers since 1969
Wonderful work on this Brian, a shame you missed the curves deadline, it would have been a great entry. Maybe another time. I am not trying to criticize or edit your design or suggest that you change it, but for some reason I can clearly see it with an oval top. don’t ask me why, I know nothing about design. Maybe I have seen something like that before with curved legs and the memory is superimposing that image on my small brain. I find this inspiring and I would like to try bent lamination some time.
-- Mike, an American living in Norway
It is inspiring isn’t it? What I mean by that is I was inspired by Ianwater’s bent lamination project too. It’s really easy to understand and to do and you can easily and up with really great looking results. I think if I do this again it will be with a hardwood. The edges of the lamination -and the ends as well -are really beautiful after cleaning up. Exposing the top of the leg, for example, could be a really beautiful design element. With my Douglas fir tubafor strips, somehow I accidentally ended up crossing the grain patterns so that the ends looked like a zig zag. It looked great. Some actual planning could make it appear really beautiful.
-- Losing fingers since 1969