New customer project

[dlcw]

This is one of four nightstands made for a customer. Two had this hummingbird scene while two had a rose applique on the top. Made from cherry and finished with black-cherry stain and lacquer.


1963


1964

Don
www.diamondlakewoodworks.com (http://www.diamondlakewoodworks.com)

[myxpykalix]

Simple design but really elegant looking. The staining looks very nice good job

[dlcw]

Thank you Jack.

These started out as an eCabinets design and then went through ShopBot Link to the ShopBot for cutting. All the parts were cut and ready to assemble in about 6 minutes.

Don

[gene]

Don,
On the top of the night stand is that a onlay or carved into the top? Did you make that as well? Looks good . Isnt that cherry?

[dlcw]

Gene,

The carving on the top of the nightstand is on onlay. I carved it on the Shopbot then used the wide belt sander to sand the back of the blank it was carved into. That wasted most of the wood away so the carving was just about freed up. I then used a combination of exacto knives, and the dremel to clean it up and make it ready for mounting. It took about 20 minutes to do the hand work on each applique. The customers loves them.

Don

[mikeacg]

Don,

What I do with pieces like that is to plane the materials to the desired thickness and then carve, leaving an onionskin (.02 or .03) to hold it in place. Bandsaw off the excess and then use a veneer trimming bit in my shaper. Set the bearing just above the excess and it is gone in a flash with almost no sanding. Saves me a lot of time on clean up...

Mike

[dlcw]

Thank you Mike.

Since this was my first go around at this type of onlay and I know I made some poor decisions on how to do it. As I got futher into the process a lightbulb went off with the idea of doing the carving exactly as you mention. Carve it down leaving the 1/64" skin and then trim it. Makes a lot more sense and will save a LOT of time.

Thanks for confirming that this is a much better way to do it.

Don

[mikeacg]

Don,

Great minds? Ha ha ha! I'm doing lots of small pieces and it keeps me from chasing them around the room. I tried using tabs but they slow the machine down too much so I don't usually cut through. Plus, I am too cheap to replace the spoilboard any more often than I have to!!!
Have a good weekend and keep sharing your projects! I love to see what everyone else is doing!
Mike

[ron brown]

If you have not 'paper parting' you should. Two pieces of wood are glued together with watered down 'carpenter's glue' and allowed to dry. The part is carved/turned/processed and then 'parted' by splitting the paper.

Ron

[mikeacg]

Ron,

Sounds great! How do you split the paper? Is there a formula for how much water to use?

Mike

[dlcw]

Ron,

I've heard of this process but never used it. After seeing your post it makes perfect sense to use it for these onlay types of carvings. I think that will be traveled path for the next onlay project.

Thanks for the memory jog.

Don

[ron brown]

I'd guess I used over 1 part water to glue - maybe 2 parts water, is can be very 'soupy'. It can even be 'in stripes' where not all of the paper is glued to the wood.

DO NOT use urethane glue (Gorilla Glue) or, as I started calling the generics 'monkey glue'. It bonds well and strengthens the paper to beyond wood strength. (A Monkey told me this).

Ron

[mikeacg]

I'll try it Ron! Sounds good to me!

Mike