BY

JOHN A. FRY

CUSTOM CRAFTED FURNITURE

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This genuine Honduras mahogany table started as ideas and sketches. It needed enough substance to have a 60 inch x 1/2 inch piece of plate glass set on top to seat six people when needed. The pedestal is solid mahogany and ranges from twelve inches to six inches in diameter. The veneered sunburst pattern on the top is made up of sixteen book matched wedges cut from the same piece of wood, and it measures 48 inches in diameter   This is the glue up of the pedestal. The pieces were cut from a three inch thick slab of mahogany and glued up to insure that edge grain would be visible at every diameter of the turning. I was a bit concerned after seeing the size of this rough core. It weighed 83 pounds and was to big to go on my 14 X 40 inch lathe. I cut all the corners down with a hand plane until it finally fit. The coffee mug shows the perspective. I had to turn it on and then quickly turn it off, and then rough cut until it stopped to get it round and balanced enough to spin safely. At that point, I could start the turning of the pedestal's design. Note the two 1/2 scale practice turnings in the window. I did these to figure the best cutting sequence. A close-up of the primary shape coming together. After the turning was done, I parted off the excess, remounted it on the lathe, and stained and finished it. I sighed a big sigh of relief and got it out of my shop to a safe location while I finished the rest of the table's parts. After I re-sawed and drum sanded the table top pieces to thickness, I built a sled for the table saw that would cut the wedges to the perfect angle. This is a dry fit of the book matched wedge pairs. I shuffled everything around until I found the right combination and light refraction. I labeled and numbered every segment, then did some final trimming to perfect the grain match. These are the pairs of wedges being glued and clamped in special fixtures I built to hold everything perfectly in line and flat. The pairs after glue up. They were then glued into fours, and then eights for the half circles. After the top has been veneered and cut round, this router jig cuts the perfect inside diameter to mate with the tables outside diameter to make a seamless joint for the table's 2 1/2 inch wide profiled edging. These are the floor plate and upper pedestal mounting plate. Each is made of three solid mahogany glued up panels, and they were cut round and profiled with a router trammel. Each stack of three was glued together in the vacuum press. The plates were drilled and lag bolted to the pedestal and the holes filled with mahogany plugs. The upper plate assembly was drilled for 18 screws that go up into the underside of the table top. These were also filled with mahogany plugs. Finished and ready to ship. Delivered and in the clients home. They were ecstatic!

Chisel And Bit Custom Crafted Furniture

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