Team Savoy

Since I am using maple for the edge of the curved desk, I have to curve the wood - something it doesn’t really want to do. I chose to use a steam box to actually bend the wood. It’s not the easiest way, but it will look awesome when it’s done. To accomplish this, I had to first build the steam box and start filling it with steam:

Then, I suspended the piece of maple inside the steam box to let steam circulate all around it.

Then, I just let it steep (cool, huh?)

at about 212 degrees…

After an hour or so, I took it out of the box:

and started bending it around the desk:

I added lots of clamps and used curved blocks to hold the banding in place:

Then, I just let it cool down overnight.

The next day I took the clamps off and voila! A curved piece of wood:

As with most bending processes, there was a little bit of “springback.” Springback is like wood memory. Since it doesn’t really want to curve, it tries to retaliate by bending back a little. I was a little dissapointed at how much springback there was. Oh, well. I guess it doesn’t matter too much in this case since I’m just going to reclamp this to the desk. Next step: glue this piece on…

After finishing the inlay, I focused my attention on the curve of the desk. The desk couldn’t be a simple rectangle unless it was 24 inches wide. I want the desk to be 30 inches wide, but because of the layout of my office, I would run the risk of stabbing myself in the leg every time I walked into the room. So, I decided to make the right side of the desk only 24 inches wide and then curve the rest out to the full 30 inches. This will make more sense when you see it installed. So, how did I make said curve? I’m glad you asked.

I drew a curve on some MDF and rough cut it. And I mean really rough. Then, I used a file and my sander to smooth things out. Once I was satisfied, I traced the curve onto the desk and rough-cut it there. Then, using the template as a guide, I flushed the desk curve with the aid of a flush-trim router bit. At this point, I was left with a solid slab of plywood with a curve cut on one end. Unfortunately, a plywood edge is ugly and so it needs to be banded.

Sometimes it’s enough to just get the heat-activated edging material and iron it onto the edge of your plywood. That isn’t going to work in this case because I want the underside of the desk to have a bevel, mostly for asthetic purposes. So, I’ve got a 5/8″ x 1.5″ piece of maple hardwood that I’m going to edge the desk with. This is easier said than done.

I started out by clamping the piece of hardwood to see if it would even bend around the curve. And for the most part, it did. However, I can’t settle for “mostly” right. Plus, I’m concerned about the wood ripping itself apart once I take the clamps off. Luckily, I have some tricks up my woodworker’s sleeve. Stay Tuned!

 I took a week off of woodworking because I felt I was getting too obsessed with it and not giving other things I like (cooking, my wife) as much attention as I’d like. Last Saturday marked the end of that woodworking hiatus (ok I cheated once) and we drove off to Bloomington to pick up some wood. I needed some 2 inch thick birch or maple to band the edges of my desk (since it’s made of plywood).

After a frantic glue up (thanks for the help K), I’ve got two sheets of plywood laminated together to make a 1.5″ thick desk. Since the plywood was 8 feet long and the desk span is more like 10 feet, I had to “extend” the plywood by gluing some additional material to the end. If it were a perfect world, that’d be the end, but it’s not. Since the plywood butt-joint created a seam where they met, I routed out a slot and inlayed it with some solid birch. After planing this inlay down, it’s as smooth as it gets. I’m hoping a dark stain will cover the fact that none of the grain matches. Here’s what it looks like.

The wintertime is traditionally woodworking season for those of us not lucky enough to live in a warm climate that supports outdoor activities year round. Like any other hobbyist woodworker worth his salt, I have way too many projects going on at once. For the past two months, I’ve been working on an outfeed/assembly table for my shop. It looks pretty much like this one. Once I finish attaching the doors, it’ll be almost completely done and I will finally have a good place to put a lot of my tools. Hopefully my efficiency in the shop will improve. You wouldn’t believe how long I used spend walking around looking for different tools.  I bet my dad would believe it.

In addition to that, I’ve got a desk that I’m building for the home office. It’s been in pieces for awhile now and with the new assembly table, I’ve got a good shot at getting it done. We’ve also been in the planning stages for a new dining room table in time for Thanksgiving. But, as a rule of woodworking, I’m pretty sure I’m going to need some new tools before I can get that one cranked out. I’m really looking forward to eating on a proper dining room table. So is K since the only thing occupying the dining room when she moved in was a poker table.