Here are a couple of photos of Leggie's completed 'fruit monster' table -- four legs, fruity feet, and one big eye staring up out of the top... Kinda whimsical, I guess -- and fun -- I think she'll like it. But I'm gonna have to make her a set of chairs to go around it now, too...
Leggie's table walks out of the studio...
...and into our home awaiting her arrival Wednesday before Thanksgiving!
-- Mike
Labels: woodworking
¶ 8:22 AM 1 comments links to this post
-- Mike
¶ 12:25 PM 4 comments links to this post
Several months ago, I promised my daughter, Allegra (Leggie, Legs, Lulu), I'd make a dining table for her apartment in Boulder... As she's coming home for Thanksgiving, my wife has insisted that I postpone additional work on the big press to complete Leggie's table...
Mark Sfirri and I were roommates while we were teaching at Anderson Ranch Arts Center 18 month or so ago, and I dropped into his workshop to see what he was teaching -- turned out to be 'eccentric spindle turning' in the lathe shop... COOL STUFF! Been meaning to give that a try, so I cut some whimsical table legs from a large cedar beam I've had sitting in the shop a few years and... Here are the turnings for the legs:
The bottom form of each leg has a 'fruit' motif -- an apple, pear, orange, and stawberry ice-cream cone -- well, supposed to be, anyway! I gessoed the parts and painted with acrylics and finished with a couple coats of polyurethane. Here's the assembled base:
I'd intended to make a 40" circular table top, but it didn't seem to coordinate with the fancy legs, so I made a somewhat bulging square top, gessoed it, and mounted it to my lathe for painting... Painted with acrylics again, and then used marker to make some dark circle accents, then heavily spray-lacquered the marker, causing it to dissolve and run like crazy -- I LOVE this effect!
detail of the table top showing 'runny' lacquer and marker
The entire table top still lathe-mounted and ready for urethane and attachment to the legs!
-- Mike
Labels: woodworking
¶ 12:02 PM 2 comments links to this post
close-up of press drive
back-side assembly
drive side bottom view
top roller bearing guides test fitted OK
my very messy installation this morning
But one serious problem has now become apparent -- I originally conceived the press with the 1/8 inch bed held (like a drawer-bottom) by the inside slots of the main rails all around. Somehow I managed to under-dimension the press bed by about 3/8 inch, so it is able to slide around quite sloppily, and there's sufficient deflection side-to-side in the main rails to allow the bed to slip out of its track in the center. I've got 1/2 inch between the ends of the rollers and the side rails, though (to make it easier to keep the press bed swept free of wood chips and other debris), so I'll repair the problem when I attach some lengths of 1/4" x 2-1/4" plate to the inside of each top rail and then screw the bed down tight to those, using some flat-head machine screws countersunk into the bed very close to the rails. That should serve to stabilize both bed and side rails without too much work and without interfering with the smooth passage of the rollers across the bed.
-- Mike
-- Mike
¶ 6:57 AM 1 comments links to this post
Mike Lyon takes a quick breath after assembling the press onto its legs.
See previous description of this project
¶ 4:36 PM 2 comments links to this post
