The draft is just about complete. I've taken aspects of various French serpentine bombe' cases and applied what I like to my piece. It will be a two drawer, fully veneered case on legs. In replacement of the intricate brass decorations commonly found on the corners and toes I will be mitering a piece of molded hardwood into each corner.
This is a sample made by my instructor, Lance Patterson. It served as a great reference in the design of my piece. The contruction methods wil be nearly identical; laminated vertical strips with hardwood mitered corners and a veneered parquetry outer layer.
Basswood will be used as the sub-structure of the case. The material for the sides are finish milled and the mill marks are being planed off. The rough milled drawer fronts and back panel are below.
From each wide board I ripped two thinner boards and flipped them 90* on edge. You can see the two sides of the cabinet start to form.
The front view vertical template is used to trace a line onto each board.
One side has been bandsawn. Each inside corner is now a "shape-to" point for when I shape the sides.
I'm using a diluted cut of hide glue to size the strips.
One side glued and clamped. I'll wait overnight to unclamp.
Now the sides are glued together and the clamps are off I can start to shape. First the insides must be flattened.
The profile is drawn on the top edge. This tells me how much waste must be removed throughout the length of each laminate.
First a wide & flat gouge is used to hog off the corners.
I made a special spoke shave for this project. It was a flat-bottomed shave, but I ground it convex in both front and side view. I also ground off a little of the handles so it could fit into the curves.
One side is all rough-shaped. Time for the next.
It makes quite the mess.
With both sides rough shaped I'm now getting ready to apply a layer of veneer to the inside of each side. This will equalize the amount of moisture that is let into the basswood core (because the outside will eventually be covered in decorative veneer.) Just like the vertical laminations, I am sizing the inside with diluted hide glue. You can see the Poplar veneer in the background.
Using the sides as cauls to clamp up the Poplar veneer backs.
The Poplar is on! BUT I've realized that there is a serious design flaw. I didn't take into account the relationship of the two curves coming together. When I go to miter the sides the curves will interact and the resulting curve will be way too shapely. This wil also make for a thin leg that will be structurally unsound. Up to now these sides have been a serious lesson in design and won't work for the cabinet. To cope I'll switch over to making banding and doing the parquetry.
The Basswood core of the lumbercore top. I will glue these up, hammer veneer a 1/16th poplar veneer to each side, and then apply the decorative veneer.
Here I'm making finished samples of all the veneer I have in stock so I can later decide what I'll use where.
From left to right; Walnut burl, Rosewood, Zebrawood, Eucalyptus burl...
...Quartersawn Eucalyptus, Quartersawn Satinwood, Mappa burl.
Here's a very rough "Louie Cube". On the real thing I'll need to back it up with glued-on newspaper so that the edges don't chip off when sawn. I will also make each diamond a little bit smaller.
I've backed it up with newspaper, cut each type into strips and taped them consecuatively together.
I've chosen the Walnut burl, Mappa burl and Quartersawn Eucalyptus because of their contrast in color and figure.
I'm using a cross-cut sled on the tablesawn with a thin-kerf blad installed. I've nailed down a fence at 1 1/8" from the blade lengthwise to rip the strips. I've added a second fence at 30 degrees from the 90 degree fence to make the diamonds.
An MDF board is placed over the veneer to keep it all from shattering apart. The blade enters the MDF but does not cut all the way through.
Now I am removing the veneer tape and separating the diamonds.
Here's a big piece all taped together. The side showing will be the side glued to the piece. The back will have to be scraped to get through all the tape and newspaper.
Now on to bandings. I'll make two different bandings that will be a simple cross-grain pattern 3/16" thick sandwiched by a black and white line (Castello and Holly). The top piece is rosewood and the bottom zebrawood.
The veneer press is used to glue everything together.
The "log" is made and now I am ripping off thin strips which will then be inlaid into the piece.
The bounty!
In order to solve the issue with the compund curves I would have had to re-draft the piece and make another trip to the lumber yard to get more wood. To get around this and still learn what I wanted to learn I've designed a French Louis XIV inspired bombe' corner cabinet. I will have enough lumber left over to make it and it will give me a lot of space to test out different veneering techniques.
The posts have been mortised and the grooves are cut.
I've made a v-block so that I can cut the post shapes in the planer.
The rest of the material is waiting for it's finish milling.
The parquetry is glued onto the lumbercore top.
Gluing on the diagonal Satinwood border...
Switching over to the door... I've drawn the finish line on the edge and using a dado set on the tablesaw I've hoged out the waste.
Here I've gone in with planes to come closer to the line.
Once everything is fair horizontally the same procedure is applied to the door vertically.
Back to the top... The Satinwood border is on and I've cut and routed out a groove for the banding I made earlier. I decided to use the Zebrawood banding.
Each corner is mitered using a marking knife and a chisel.
Gluing the banding to the top.
Back to the door... I've drilled holes on the back side as shape-to guides. In the end the door will be 3/4" thick with each side veneered.
The finished inside.
I'm gluing on a maple frame so when you open the door and look at the edge the basswood does not show. Since the glue surface is poor on the end grain I will make wooden nails to drive into the thinner top and bottom frame sections.
I've chosen a straight-grained piece of maple for the nails.
Here's my home-made dowel making plate. I found the steel is my Dad's collection of stuff, drilled holes, and labeled each hole. I will be using the smallest, 3/32", for the nails.
Once you tablesaw the wood square you must chamfer the corners and turn it into an octagon.
The wood will peel away as you drive the nail through. When you are at the very end of the hammering process put a block of wood inbetween the plate and the hammer as not to ruin the plate.
Homemade!
Another bounty.
I've drilled the holes into the door, applied a little glue on the nails and sent them home.
Getting closer to it's finish shape...
The feet will sweep out a bit, so I've glued on brackets which I will saw and spokeshave into.
A transition piece is also applied to the inside corner of the feet.
And again the top... I made up a maple edge-molding and ripped it off into 3/16" thick strips. I then mitered them and here I am gluing it to the top.
Details.
A shaped French foot.
Ready for veneer!
You can see the door front's bulge in this shot. It is hard to visualize straight on, so to help it out I will make a parquetry pattern that looks like it is bulging.
I drilled a 15/16" hole in the rear post, filled it with lead shot and capped it off with a piece of turned Basswood. This will add some needed weight to the piece since the Basswood is so light.
The inside of the door will be veneered with one large sheet of Mappa burl. Since the inside has an inverse bulge I need to pre-shape the veneer. I've clamped the sheet taught, wet the middle with hot water, and placed (over a piece of wax paper) a canvas bag filled with lead shot. I will let this dry overnight and then be able to properly veneer the sheet to the door.
The burl is flexible.
I will be installing a double hinged hidden shelf in the piece. To do this I will first remove waste from the inside top corner.
Here is part of the hinging action on the shelf.
The shelf is all installed! The seam is near invisible.
A bent screw acts as a positive stop to keep the shelf from falling. Mahogany blocks were inlaid where the screws went into the Basswood panel to give them gripping strength. The shelf is made of Hard Maple.
A piece of Hard Maple has been glued to the post to act as a stop for the shelf. Above you can see a Mahogany block inlaid into the post where the hinge will be. This will keep the screws from pulling out.
Now back to the door... This is the inside of the door. I have hammer veneered the piece of Mappa Burl that I had pre-stretched earlier. I then cut it to size using a marking gauge.
I have inlaid rare earth magents into the door and onto the case.
Starting to work on the design of the door front...
Here is the inside of the door. I still need to flush up the banding, but aside from that it is all done!
So now this is happening... Milk paint all around.
The back(s).
Beginning to install the hinges.
I've hammer veneered satinwood to the inside of the foot because you can see this face when you are standing in front of the cabinet.
I taped two Holly veneer sheets together, traced the cubes on the Holly, knifed to my lines, then taped the two together.
The only thing left for the front veneer decoration is to inlay the three missing cubes "falling" into place in the big pile of cubes.
I'm trying to pre-stretch the sheet like I had done with the burl on the inside of the door. I didn't wet the sheet too much because if it became saturated the veneer tape holding everything together would come apart and there would be chaos.
It's cold in the bench room so I'm heating prior to the hammer veneering. Usually this process would be done in the warmest room possible.
The hammering went well. There are some big ridges in the holly at the top, but with a bit of ironing they should settle down flat.
I'm going around tapping the veneer and listening to the sound it makes. If there is an air pocket underneath I'll apply the iron with pressure and then hold my palm on the veneer till it cools.
The veneer is all set and now the fun part, scraping off the tape.
The veneer tape is all scraped off! There were some trouble spots that needed to be heated with the iron and pressed down, but they're all under control now.
I've glued on the satinwood border and now I'm installing the banding I made earlier. I've knifed the lines using a marking gauge.
Now using a chisel that is slightly under the width of the banding I've removed the waste veneer.
Back to the case... I'm about to hammer veneer the satinwood on the feet.
I free-handed the knife cuts for the curved section of banding and removed the waste.
It is easy to bend banding, and especially easy to hide it with the very stripey banding I've chosen. First you must separate the stringing from the outside curve.
Next you knife from the backside every 1/8" or so along the length of the curve.
Then you install! The slit marks are so small that they almost swell up when glued. You can put some sawdust and glue in the cracks if they show.
Sanding Satinwood...
I used a thin-kerf blade on the table saw to cut the door(s) in half. The height of the cut is limited and didn't go all the way through, so I have to bust out the handsaw. On the backside of the veneer I've put a line of veneer tape followed by a six strips of blue tape to prevent the veener from breaking apart when the saw blade exits it's cut. The top side is relatively safe because the saw blade is cutting into the veneer against the door.
The door bottom.
Ohhhhhh curvyy... Time to install the hinges.
I've mortised the space for the hinge into the mahogany I previously set into the case.
...and the same for the doors.
In the finishing room! Pre oil...
...post oil!
The inside.
FIN.
Again, FIN.
