I've moved to facebook

Hi All,

I've recently moved across to facebook to make life easier in terms of getting my products and items into galleries and being able to connect with clients.

Please have a look at http://www.facebook.com/tablefx for all of your custom/bespoke recycled and eco-friendly furniture needs.

Southport - coming soon

Watch this space. Coming soon will be a table that was recently commissioned. It will be 1m x 3m in size, made from reclaimed woods and have some rather unique lines to it.

More to come in the following weeks.

Signature Photographics

This is a quick post to let everyone know that Signature Photographics has to be the most unprofessional company I've dealt with in a long time. Whilst their services claim the be personal and suited to your specific needs they have failed to deliver a quality product and service. Their beautiful photographic packages are great on paper but when it comes to the experience during the shoot and post shoot follow up you will be left wanting.

I would not recommend anyone use Signature Photographics as a professional photographic solution. We are currently over $1,500 down after their inability to deliver a product to us post shoot.

43 cubed - june update

It's been a few months now since I've talked about the 43 cubed project. Although I've the best intentions to do things on this project I've been side tracked with a new job as Senior Digital Producer for Sapient Nitro and also with my 6month old boy.

I've been working up the 1:1 pland for a few stools and have the templates ready to cut. Before I go ahead and do that though I want to be sure of the construction methods for each stool. I'm about 2/3 the way through the construction of one stool and to be honest - I'm not all that happy with it.

A few weeks back I took delivery of a table saw which I plan on using to cut more accurate blanks with. The blanks on the first stool were all cut by hand with standard tools. The accuracy in joints isn't good enough for me, +/- 1-2mm. I would much prefer <1mm tolerance in the joints.

I was also recently blessed with some timber from a stranger, 5 unwanted pallets that comprised some very good quality marine ply and really decent planks of pine.

With this I plan on getting two more stools underway. One with solid shaped pieces and the other with steam bent laminates. I've never steam bent before so I'm not entirely sure what to expect. However I am looking forward to it.

The table saw will help me cut the laminates as well as the bridle and tennon joints with much more accuracy. Stay tuned as I've got a new camera and will be sure to take plenty of pics.

3 Axis CNC Router

Thanks to the Tax department sending me some cheques from the early 2000’s I’m now in a position to purchase parts for the 3 Axis CNC Router. It’s been a dream of mine to have one in the workshop to be able to quickly cut parts with incredible accuracy and repeatability. I am happy to advise that everything I need to build the machine has been order, aside from nuts and bolts to hold the wooden parts together. The next month or so will find my weekends filled with cutting, drilling and welding this beast into submission. I’d love to be cutting by the end of march if everything goes to plan. Again, this machine will be a massive help in the production of 43[cubed] and the Flood Relief Furniture (Drift Wood?). I’d like to thank linearmotionbearings, Mcmaster Carr, Procureit Australia, Ausxmods, Foden Designs, Lamare Wimberly and VXB for being such awesome suppliers to deal with during this process. I’d also like to thank the community at CNC Zone and Wood Work Forums for their ongoing support in getting the technical aspects of things sorted out with the construction of this machine.

Dual Router Finishing Table

A few days ago I received a lovely little package from Foden Designs that contained some super accurate parts for my dual router finishing table that I’m building. These parts will allow me to run two routers at the same time with different bits in them for completing different stages of templating components. I’m really happy with the service, price and accuracy of the things Foden Designs have made and would highly recommend them to anyone looking to have unique one off items made. The dual router table is the next step in getting the machinery setup for the production of 43[cubed] and the Flood  Relief Furniture (Drift Wood - a working title)

[yes I took pics on our FX coffee table]

Flood Relief Furniture (Drift Wood?)

So after a number of calls into local businesses about the supply of damaged wood I can report that not a single one of them was willing to come on board to help with the flood relief – despite themselves being affected. They either weren’t interested or wanted the money raised for themselves. Needless to say I'm a little disappointed with the attitudes of some people.

I’m off this weekend to a couple of local scrap yards to see if they have anything from the floods for this project. Stay tuned as things develop. I’m hoping to have a few initial sketches up by the end of the weekend.


[edit]
I'm pleased to find out through a friend that there is a scrap yard in coorparoo that has flood affected floor boards. I'll be checking them out tomorrow or next weekend to see if its going to work for this project.

My Flood Relief Effort - Another Stool Project

On the way home today I got to thinking how I can help out with the flood relief efforts. I can't be there during the day to clean up as I have a full time job that needs me right now. So, during some quiet time I began to recall the "Three T's" from some bible reading I was doing recently. It's all about sowing into other people's lives - we are blessed to bless etc. The three t's are Time, Talent and Treasure. Now time is something I have but not when the cleanups are happening. Treasure, yup got that too but what I have wouldn't get very far with such an enormous task as cleaning up and rebuilding Queensland. That leaves me with Talent left and I've been told that I've got a little bit of talent when it comes to making things.

I tossed a few ideas around about what I could make and how I could then generate money from that in order to give the entire lot to the Premiere's Flood Relief Appeal. I have, for the past number of months, been working on 43[cubed], a unique stool project that will feature some collaboration with local textiles designers but had to put that on hold with everything else going on right now. During the process of researching natural connections I had begun drawing some rather organic shaped stools - also under the same design confines as 43[cubed] - that I'd planned on realising late 2011.

I've now decided to swap the projects around and bring the late 2011 project to reality in the next couple of months, if not sooner (provided I can get things sorted)

So, here's the low down:

- I will make 3 to 5 stools that commemorate the 2011 flood disaster in brisbane. Each capturing the natural landscape and spirit of South East Queensland

- I want to use recycled materials from the flood affected areas. If you know of anyone with hardwood they are throwing out or see some, please let me know. Floorboards would be a perfect stock material to use for this project. I see using materials from the flood as a perfect way of taking the massive destruction and turning it into something useful and beautiful.

- I am seeking textiles designers to collaborate with for the seat cushioning

- I am seeking individuals and business to help promote the fund raising side of things

- I will be having an online auction (1 each for each stool)

- 100% of the proceeds will go the the Premiere's Flood Relief Appeal.

If you are out there and you can help with any of the items above or you would like to get on board with the collaborative aspect please contact me. I did see 'Drift Cafe' ripping up their flooring the other day and today I saw a massive pile of flooring stacked outside. If you are connected with David Moore or the Drift Cafe please let them know about this project. I'd love for them to be a part of it. Equally, if you know of any other businesses in a similar situation that would like to come on board I'd greatly appreciate the information being passed on.

Stay tuned for more information as I get things sorted out. I will be uploading sketches of some potential stools in the coming days/week.

2011 Brisbane Floods

Hi everyone, over the past weeks Brisbane has seen flooding similar to that of the 1974 floods. Many parts of Brisbane have been completely inundated and there is a massive cleanup underway. I will be putting all projects on hold for the near future so that I can spend my available free time trying to help with the cleanup and restoration processes.

Thanks for your continued support in my journey into woodworking and furniture making.

Router Surfacer / Planer

I’m in the process of making some finger jointed boxes but to do so I needed to rip some planks in half to get the thickness I needed. The challenge I had was ripping 1500mm long planks that were 19mm thick and 110mm wide. My circular saw only cuts to a max depth of 65mm and I don’t have a table saw. My only option was to make some bench buddies to hold the planks up and against the side of my work table and then make two passes on the plank with the hand held circular saw. It’s very ghetto and was never going to produce a nice cut but I had no other option. So I proceeded to rip down the middle of the 19mm plank, flip it over and rip down the other side. Very early on I noticed that the wood wanted to fold in on itself behind the blade as I made the first and second cuts. To overcome this I cut some 3mm shims from hardwood post I had laying about and as I cut along I slipped a shim in behind the blade every 100mm or so. This was quite effective in preventing the cut wood from clamping on the back side of the blade which was causing the timber to burn.

With the planks cut in half I was left with a lovely set of saw/tool marks, burning and a groove where the wood had shifted during the process of flipping it over for the second cut. It was never going to be perfect but I’d hoped for a nicer initial result than what I got. So, I jumped online and began looking for thicknessers and was astounded at the cost of the machine and the cost of the replacement blades and parts. I am not in a position to be spending that kind of money on something that is going to only be used every so often. This presented me with challenge two for this project – how to surface the material and get it to a uniform thickness using what I had laying around in the man cave (aka workshop).

I got thinking, rather dreaming, about how far away my CNC is from being started and had an idea to make a manual sled to move the router around. What followed were some sketches for a 2 axis manually controlled router sled system. The idea being that the X axis was long enough to do a whole plank in one pass and wide enough in the Y axis so that it could do a few planks at the same time. Using the sketch I began looking at what I had available in the scraps pile to see if I could get it to work. It turns out that I did have all the materials to make the basic sled (minus the bearings to make the linear carriages slide nicely).

So I set about using:

-          1x old laminated chipboard cupboard door
-          3x 25x22x1.8mm aluminium extrusions (that I had first used for the proposal to my whifey)
-          Some 6mm (1/4”) polycarbonate/plexiglass
-          A handful of screws

I did place an ebay order for the bearings and my father in-law was kind enough to get me some M8 bolts from Bunnings while he was there. The total cost of all of that is well below $50.

Initially the sled was made to slide on wooden pads so that I could get a piece of plank surfaced nicely. Since then I’d received my order from ebay and I set about drilling and tapping the bearing carriages. BAM! I’d made a boo boo here by not considering the additional height the bearings would add to the whole assembly. It effectively put another 2” distance between the cutter and the material hold downs. As a result I had to modify the Y axis carriage so that the router base sat inside and at the bottom of the Y axis rails – where as it was on top of the rails initially. I’ve also had to modify the X axis carriages so that Y carriage sits closer to the X axis rails. Not a huge problem but it has since limited the movement of the Y axis – something I’m hoping to overcome with a few more modifications to the Y carriage and rail assembly.

With it now complete I can surface anything, including horribly uneven and figured timber, that is 1900mm x 430mm x 35mm. The best thing about the design of this unit is that I could easily increase the Z distance/clearance by adding a series of spacers to the bottom of the existing X rails. I’m thinking some pre-cut and pre drilled mdf strips will work really well for this and having them ready to go will make it easy to lift the X rails in increments of 9mm and 12mm (depending on which pre-cut strips I combine).

I am eager to see if I can use a template with this jig to do some nice engraving work on my finished pieces. More to come on that should I be successful (or if it fails).

My next mission is to create a circle cutting jig for cutting circles that are smaller than 300mm OD. My current sketches suggest I can cut a circle that is 1mm OD – provided I could get a cut work piece that small to stay put and not be shredded by the spinning router bit. In reality something as small as 5mm should be easily cut with my 3.17mm (1/8”) carbide end mills.

The original setup with wooden slides. This was upgraded once the bearings turned up from ebay.

The original piece including burns, tool makes and grooves.

The surfacing half way through the process

The finished work piece. nice n smooth

The whole assembly and finished work piece

A comparison (original on top, finished workpiece below)

The upgraded bearing rail assemblies

a short video of the diy router  surfacer / planer

MDF Name Plaques / Door Plaques

Not much to say about these other than I quickly made these MDF name/door plaques a few minutes prior to making the hardwood soap holders.

Hardwood Soap Holders

The baby still hasn't arrived so I made use of the available time and spent the day playing with my diy router table. Darn I love this piece of kit, so versatile.

In our house we don't buy other family members presents, rather we make presents instead. With the family being so large it is way to costly to buy stuff for everyone. I made a number of other things today including a few shelves (with sliding dovetail supports) and some simple MDF plaques for kids doors (the wife is going to paint and put their names on them). However, the things I wanted to share are some hardwood soap holders.

I can't for the life if me remember what type of wood it is, maybe someone can help ID it? I took one length of hardwood floor board and made 9.5 soap holders. I'll do it all over again tomorrow and I should be done with some of the gifts for the family - for this year.

I'm also not sure what kind of sealer/finish to give them - if any at all.

Enjoy the pics.

Log Rocker - 8 hour experimental project

With Christmas coming up fast and having 3 nieces under the age of 4 and our first baby on the way I've decided to put my hands to a few kids pieces. the first being a Paul Frank inspired Log Rocker.

It'll function like a see-saw once its done with handles at either end so up to two kids can be using it at the same time.

I made some headway today with preparing the panel and kerf cutting in preparation for tomorrows steaming and torturing session. All done with hand power tools, other than the router table for the round over edges.

I'll post more pics as things progress, but here's a few for now.

ps. I love my DIY router table, I don't know what I'd do with out it now.

[FIRST DAY - 3 hours of work]

hand cut template:

round over edges:

circular saw cut kerfs:



Prepped Panel:



kerfing experiment (failure):

kerfing experiment (win):

kerfing experiment (win), and I love the ribbing effect:

I've created a form to wrap the final piece around and once I steam it I'm expecting the ribbing effect to be less than the dry hand bend I did in the pictures above. even if I end up with the ribbing in the final piece I'll be happy as I kinda love the odd look it gives the wood.


This week I will spend some time laminating to smaller sheets together which will form the handles at each end. I've just got to decide how I will connect the handles to the the top panel. I'm leaning towards mortise and slotted tenon style interface with wedges on the underside to spread the tenon and lock it into place. I don't want to use any metal hardware if possible.



[NEXT DAY - 5 hours of work]
Doing everything by the book, soaking with hot wet towels, steaming, and continued heat application while bending - I got about 90% of the bend done when I heard a SNAP. much disappointment.

I had to modify the design buy cutting the panel into three sections to complete the project. The good news is that the rocker can take the weight of an adult (90kg) and a child (15kg) at the same time, while giving it a red hot crack at trying to break it.

I've got another piece of 840x840x12mm ply that I'll attempt to do the bend again next weekend (if the baby hasn't arrived by then). This one will be soaked for 24hrs prior to steaming/heat application.

It's only scrap wood so I don't really care to much if it fails again. Ideally I'd be using thinner laminates for bending but its fun trying something new.

Anywho, here's some pics of it after the failure of the bend. not a complete loss but no where near as nice as I'd hoped for. I am still toying with the idea of cutting thin strips and chamfering the edges of each to fill the gap. Then sand to the final shape and fill the gaps with sawdust/glue mixture. Here it is in its current form, together and rough sanded with 80 grit.

It kind of reminds me of Noah's Ark, or as I would imagine the Ark to loosely look like. As you can on I still need to shape the insides a little bit. I'll refine the design with the next one I Keeping my fingers crossed for a better result from the kerf bending. I may make a jig to help with the bending process if time permits.

Moses Rocker

This is going to be a short and sweet posting about a recent item I've made in preparation of our upcoming baby. Tonight's post is about what I'm calling the 'Moses Rocker'. Most people have heard of Moses before, even if they aren't Christian, and some are familiar with the story of moses being found in a basket. The basket has continued to be used and has somewhat become of popular item with many being sold across varying stores all over the world.

However, I didn't make the basket in this instance - I chose to purchase one. The rocker though was an item that I had considered buying but after seeing the boring designs available and the stupidly high prices; I elected to make one from scrap plywood I had in the man-shed.

The resulting Moses Rocker can be seen in the following eye candy, enjoy.

ps: stay tuned for some more items to be published in the coming couple of weeks as I prepare gifts for the family for Christmas.

A new place for my ideas (sketches mostly)

I recently had a birthday and a lovely friend of mine gave me this awesome paper book to store all of my ideas. I've been very nervous to use it though as it's paper based and I didn't want to trash it in my bag as I cycle to and from work each day. Last night my lovely wife was kind enough to give me a hand made leather book that her aunty made many years ago. This is now the home to my ideas center and is keeping it nice and safe as I travel around with it. With my ideas center close to me I am sure to capture everything as it comes to mind, no more forgotten ideas.

Designers - who's your inspiration?

This morning I became so very excited when I found out that my favourite architect has also designed some rather unique and interesting furniture items. I have no idea why I'd not come across it before and it shows that I need to be doing more and more research. The only problem is that I'm a hands on person rather than a research and reading kind of person. I'd much prefer to build but I realise that without knowledge anything I do make could and most likely will be fundamentally flawed. Fruthermore, I do beleive that in order to take something to a new level you first need to know where it's come from and how it got to be what it is now to truly appreciate what ever it is. This is a process that i've applied (and continue to apply) to my swing dance teaching and exploration of european ballrooming and traditional american blues dancing. It is important to me that something isn't merely misappropriated for the short term gain of a misinformed and uneducated individual and/or group (which has happened unfortuantely in the Australian dancing scene). As such, I vow to do the appropriate research and educate myself as much as possible in order to be a positive contributor to the furniture making industry.

Potential Fibres

In my quest to ensure that every aspect of this next project is sustainable and environmentally friendly I set about searching for solutions to padding/cushions for the stools. Initially I thought I could use Wool Felt but after investigating sources for it here in Australia I'm going to be flagging it as an alternative due to the cost and processing. I don't realistically see it being a cost effective way of going despite how easy it would be to work with. However, I'm remaining open to the idea on the off chance that I come across someone local that can help me with the specifications I need.

The next on my list of potential, and very high on that list, is Kapok. This fibre is currently being organically, ethically and sustainably farmed in Java Indonesia with one supplier claiming that a second plantation is in the works for Sumatra. Being an overseas source I would be going against one of my greatest desires of using locally produced materials. BUT! After looking at the properties of Kapok, I am very interested in how I could use it for this project and future projects. Perhaps I can look at the supply chain and see how good that is to better determine the viability of such a material for use in my projects.
Once I sort out the padding situation I'll need to sort out the coverings for the padding, something I'm hoping to approach a textiles designer by the name of KT Doyle about. The work that KT does is nothing short of inspirational - be sure to check out her blog.

I still need to do a lot more research in to the possible fibres that would be suitable for stool padding/cushions and am hoping I come across something that is fairly easily sourced, not to expensive but more importantly is friendly to the environment. If any of you out there know of materials or suppliers that might be able to assist please let me know by posting a comment to this post. Sorry, no eye candy in this blog post but I will be posting more as it comes to hand.

[edit]
Why I didn't mention this earlier but Bamboo is also on the cards as a potential fabric/wadding. There are a number of options out there for bamboo fabrics and waddings. The material excites me, Big Kev style!

Rocker Stool - inital concept

The other morning I finished some initial concepts for some rocker stools (which I've been playing with for about 3 months now) and decided to do a quick render of them - the lighting is bad and textures aren't right but you'll get the idea. This particular stool will be made primarily from Marine Ply or Bamboo and have a number of 10mm dowel rods running through them for both strength and aesthetic. While Marine Ply and Bamboo are the desired materials, I've come across some nice work by Ryan Frank that makes use of recycled ply, particle board and other materials. His work is challenging my idea of the optimum materials to use, something that I will need to sort out in the coming months.What isn't showing in the render is some of the finer detail which I've intentionally left off, I don't want to give everything away. :)

The purpose of a rocker stool is to overcome what appears to be an inate desire almost every person has - which is to rock on any stool from the moment they site down. Through my observation and conversation it has become fairly clear that people have a tendancy to sit down and throw their pelvis back, thus lifting the front legs of a stool. Worst yet is I see people sit down and throw their hips from side to side which creates a harsh rocking motion from one side of legs to the other. Why people do it I don't know, but I do know that it quickly reduces the life expectancy of stool legs and places a load in a direction that most stools are not designed to. The rocker stool will attempt to address these load issues and user desires in a somewhat aesthetic manner (see note above about deliberately leaving detail out of the render).

The rocker stool can be flipped over to be a stationery stool should the user not wish to have the rocking motion. I see this stool's working life to be mostly in cafe's and funky little coffee joints around the world yet being an accessible and viable piece in anyone's home. Whilst I am showing a bare wood stool below, there will be a felt padding that can be attached to either side of the chair via magnets. When not in use the magnets will hold this felt to the underside of the seat area. Both seat areas have a a small lip on the underside to allow for magazines and newspapers to be placed into the base without the sliding out while rocking.


As always here's your eye candy:

Slotted Design as a construction method

Today I spent a little more time researching the use of slotted panels as a construction technique and stumbled across an example that further confirms my early tests. The following example is an illustration of just how solid, sturdy and reliable the structure is while under force. I'm almost convinced that this could be an avenue to explore further with some of the current designs I'm playing with. The comfort level 'looks' to be ok but without actually making some prototypes it will be hard to determine the correct spacing for the grid. Too far apart and it will be mighty uncomfortable, too close together and excessive materials / construction time become a limiting factor.

Food for thought and something I'm definitely going to be exploring further. For now though enjoy the eye candy from the Chick 'n' Egg chair by Manuel Kretzer. Hard to believe that it is 100% cardboard.

The designer suggests that the form was completely modelled in Rhino with further support coming from Grasshopper. Having already experimented in this kind of construction in a 3D environment I can confirm that it wouldn't have been an easy task setting the cutting templates up for this project.

Someone has already made a piece of software that makes this kind of construction easier with a low cost entry barrier and low learning curve. However, the software is limited in its functions, based on Processing and only runs on one operating system. While it shows promises of being something great it will require substantial development. Something that I hope the software developers are working on now. I shall post more about this radical software in the coming days.

Exploration of Shape Intersection

So, as I alluded to in my last post, one of the stools I've been tinkering with has taken a slightly different direction to the original sketches. Below is an experiment in shape intersection and a combination of slotting for ease of construction, which incidentally provides an enormous amount of natural rigidity and strength, and steam bending.

I have a fascination for organic shapes and these experiments will be a good lead into the final work pieces. Steam bent wood brings a whole other level of natural movement and shape. Something that I will be exploring further in the coming months.

enjoy the eye candy of what would be, if i built it now, a plywood stool with steam bent dowel. I have another seat that I've been tinkering with that really pushes the idea of slotting as a valid construction method.