Soliciting Design advice


Ronn W

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I would appreciate anyone's comments on an occasional table that I am designing.  The top will be 13" x 13" and the table will be 24" tall.  Mostly cherry with a top of lighter veneer on 1/2" plywood with a 1/2" thick solid cherry frame.  I think that I will glue the cherry frame to the plywood panel with T&G joint and probably a hidden spline at the corners of the frame.

Picture one:  Mitered corners using corner locking miter bit on router.  Beading around the bottom of aprons.

Picture two:  Fake corner posts that stand 1/4" proud of aprons.  Beading will butt into corner posts.  Picture 4 shows plan view of corner posts.

Picture three:  Fake corner posst that stand 1/8" proud of aprons.  Beading will butt into corner posts.  Picture 4 shows plan view of corner posts.

Legs will be inside the aprons and aprons will be attached to the legs.  The Legs shown in pics 1 thru 3 are not the way they will be. 

See Cadd drawing in Picture #4 for the legs. I am not good enough with Sketch-up to draw the curve legs. The unusual legs are why I am doing this project.  There will be a bottom shelf (picture #4). Dados in each leg to receive shelf.  One curved leg on each side of the table.

I am considering either real or fake plugs (round or square) as decoration - undecided.

I am interested in in any comments about proportions, aesthetics, joinery -----anything.

Thanks is advance.

Forum 1.JPG

Forum 3.JPG

Forum 2.JPG

Forum 4.JPG

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Well... I audibly went "ooooooo" when I saw that leg design.  I really like them.  I'm assuming all 4 legs will have that "90* twist" to them, correct?   An oblique view angle on the drawing would probably show that better. 

Are the bottom spreaders going to be square or rounded (like the legs)?

Bear with a me a second here with this train of thought....  

In 3d printing, a "twisted vase" design is usually one of the earlier things one designs and prints.  Basically one takes any polygon shape, and extrudes it into an open top box.  So a Pentagon would be a 5 sided box, a star shape would be a star shaped box, etc.    One then takes the top or bottom face and rotates it x degrees relative to the other face.   I can dig up a pic if your not following me. 

When I saw  you leg design, that's what I thought of.  That somebody had grabbed the bottom of the table and twisted it 90*.   Maybe you could designed the stretchers at the bottom to reflect that twist too?  Instead of making them perfectly square, make the angles off enough to give a hint of rotation to them.  

I dunno just brainstorming.

Then again, A perfectly flat and square bottom would contrast and highlight those curved legs beautifully. 

 

But thank you, I think I've found a design for the end tables I want to build, If you'll allow me to steal this. 

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Sounds like i need to clarify a little.  Referring to Pic #4,  All 4 legs are 3/4 ' 1 1/4".  The curved leg that goes from bottom left to top right is the near side (front) of the table.  The curved one that goes the opposite way is on the back of the table.   If I were to make separate drawings of each of the four sides of the table they would all look the same. The legs that appear narrower and straight are actually the same as the front and back. You just can't see the curve in that view. 

The plan view that shows the legs in the corners of the aprons is a view of what the legs look like only at the top of the legs where the aprons wrap around them.

What appears of be a bottom spreader is actually a shelf.  I will dado each leg to receive the shelf.

6 hours ago, Marmotjr said:

But thank you, I think I've found a design for the end tables I want to build, If you'll allow me to steal this. 

 

It's not my original idea, I saw a single picture of something similar in a magazine.

I am really sorry that I can't draw the legs it sketchup and can't find where I saw the picture.

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1 hour ago, Ronn W said:

Full 3D sketch ......................................

Table.JPG

Yup, that's what I was thinking!  I love it. 

It'd probably over complicate the build, but instead of straight 90* corners on that bottom shelf, maybe skew them 10-15* so it looks like the shelf is twisting too.    Like imagine if those legs were straight, and then somebody grabbed the table top and twisted it, how would the bottom shelf deform with that....   I'm having trouble visualizing it myself, and those joints are going to be complicated enough as is.... 

I love it how it is though, even if you don't add my brain fart into it!

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1 hour ago, Marmotjr said:

It'd probably over complicate the build, but instead of straight 90* corners on that bottom shelf, maybe skew them 10-15* so it looks like the shelf is twisting too.    Like imagine if those legs were straight, and then somebody grabbed the table top and twisted it, how would the bottom shelf deform with that....   I'm having trouble visualizing it myself, and those joints are going to be complicated enough as is.... 

Let me think about that.  I think I understand what you are saying.

I have been doing sketches of a jig that will help me dado the legs at the right angle.  Questions is, "angle to what? The legs are curved.  Probably cut the dados before cuttiing the leg curves.

30 minutes ago, wdwerker said:

A practice run in poplar might let you explore all the joinery and develop jigs if needed. It could always be painted and used elsewhere or given as a gift.

Thank God for Home Depot poplar.

Anyone have a preference for the corner treatments shown in the the first 3 pics? I am leaning toward the clean mitered corners.  Pic #1.  Looks less top heavy.

1 hour ago, treeslayer said:

thats going to be one interesting piece Ronn, looks like something M C Escher would set his drink on, i like it!  are you going to do a journal on it? I'm sure there's a bunch of us that would like to ride along and learn some new techniques

I can do a journal once I figure out a jig and buy the wood. 

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52 minutes ago, Ronn W said:

Anyone have a preference for the corner treatments shown in the the first 3 pics? I am leaning toward the clean mitered corners.  Pic #1.  Looks less top heavy.

I actually like the third, and the final one.  I think they're the same.  I think the more top heavy the table looks, the more striking the twist on the legs will be. 

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2 hours ago, K Cooper said:

Ronn, really cool design! Will each leg come from one piece of wood? Just trying to visualize the grain direction. 

Yes, one piece of wood for each leg.  I figure that I can cut each leg from a 3/4" x 4 1/2" board,  Sorry about the black pic - screen shot from my cadd program

One leg.JPG

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Now I see what you're doing. Was hard for me to picture it at first. I love it. Can't wait to see how it comes out.

If you cut the legs from a single piece, try to find boards where the grain follows the curve. Otherwise you could have a problem with the short grain in the curves. I would probably make the curves from bent laminations, because it would be stronger.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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