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It's always great to see people jump into doing something new with their hands. That said, I predict cracks and early failure for the top. The author created
by tjic 13y ago
It's always great to see people jump into doing something new with their hands.
That said, I predict cracks and early failure for the top. The author created something called "breadboard ends" (the left and the right side of the top writing surface have boards that run 90 degrees to the main boards of the top). Breadboard ends are a great technique - they keep the natural tendency of the left-to-right boards to cup (curl up in the short dimension) in check.
That said, there is one issue with breadboard ends: the long boards will shrink and grow in width with humidity changes over the seasons by 1/4" or more. Lumber only changes in width, not in length. So the breadboard ends will not accomodate the seasonal change...and something will give. Likely cracks will open up.
There are techniques to avoid this. Perhaps the author used some of them (only gluing the breadboard ends in the center, etc.), but if so I missed it.
Moral of the story:
* learning new things is great
* diving in is awesome
* sometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again.
- jlongster 13y agoYeah, I didn't think about that. There was so much research to do and eventually I just built the thing knowing I probably made mistakes. Thanks for the feedback; I didn't know it was called breadboard ends, and now I can research how to properly do that. If this ends up cracking in a few years, I'll just build another one!
- p_eter_p 13y agoThe Woodwright's Shop is one of my favorite shows for learning techniques like this. He uses all hand tools, so you get a better understanding of the theory without getting too wrapped up in what tool to use. This project has a lot of breadboard ends: http://video.pbs.org/video/2365004559/ http://video.pbs.org/video/2365004559/
- Gormo 13y agoNew Yankee Workshop is also a great show for learning woodworking with power tools.
- noir_lord 13y agoI absolutely adore this show. My grandfather was a master shipwright then carpenter and while I inherited none of his skills there is something uniquely relaxing about watching a craftsman work.
- shoover 13y agoCongrats on diving in and doing it. You made it, it's done, it works. That has to be satisfying to use every day. If it cracks, it cracks. You can always repair it, distress it further, or just live with it. It will still hold the computer up!
- doorhammer 13y agoThis is how I end up doing a lot of programming. I'll start learning a new library, concept, or approach and I'll be reading and reading, then eventually I say "man, I could read all day, but I just want to bounce my brain off some code" Course; probably a little more expensive to do that with woodworking :)
- hamburglar 13y agoOne of the most interesting aspects of these types of DIY projects to me is making (and learning from) the same mistakes that others have made. Sure, it'd be nice to get it all right the first time, but nothing really drives home the point like learning firsthand why something is done a particular way. It's like your observation about the aprons: you start out by wondering why you can't just slap four legs on a tabletop, and you proceed to find out exactly why. If someone had told you to put aprons on there in the first place, you probably wouldn't have nearly as good a feel for their impact on the sturdiness of the table. The way you learned it is more effective. More time consuming, of course, but the experience is the whole point.
- swalsh 13y agoI've been thinking about making a kind of greene and greene inspired side table for my front entry... of course arts and crafts styles in general have a lot of the breadboard ends. Do you have more information on techniques to avoid cracks?
- ejs 13y agoI enjoy arts and crafts style furniture, I only consider true breadboard ends if they are mortise and tenon jointed on. When doing this you can design for the movement of the wood. Also quartersawn white oak is most used, a wood that does not have as much expansion going on. This is how I did it for my A&C style coffee table: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejschmitt/9053576208/in/set-72157633287746623 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejschmitt/9053576208/in/set-721... Final shot of the coffee table: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejschmitt/9115541399/in/set-72157633287746623 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejschmitt/9115541399/in/set-721...
- dfc 13y agoQuartersawn oak is one of the most used woods in A&C furniture. Quartersawing any wood is the best way to produce dimensionally stable stuff (I love that stuff is actually joinery jargon albeit somewhat archaic).
- mturmon 13y agoBeautiful work, thanks for sharing.
- gknoy 13y agoPlease forgive my trouble googling this, but what is "A&C style"?
- ne8il 13y agoArts & Crafts style. Made popular in the US by Gustav Stickley's furniture design. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Stickley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Stickley
- sliverstorm 13y agosometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again. This is the thing that keeps me from building my own tables, chairs, whatever. I know with many categories of things, even if building my own is 20% cheaper, I will still require 3 revisions to get it right.
- espadagroup 13y agoI can understand that, though the excitement and feeling of accomplishment more than makes up for cost and angst of possibly having done it wrong.
- jotm 13y agonot to mention the experience! It really helps you learn a lot, and it can come in handy in the future...
- shoover 13y agoWe are so used to tailoring one-off solutions in software that we can't imagine just taking some boring old woodworking plan and using it as is to quickly gain experience and produce a solid first result without R&D headaches. But in woodworking you really can just take someone else's design and build it. Most likely the designer already made all the mistakes before, so the thing will just work. You'll learn the techniques, and by asking why often enough you will trace back to the problems solved by various design elements. You will have a better idea of what to innovate yourself next time. Besides all the learning, you'll have a functional thing that you can keep, sell, or give away. (Says the guy who had to design his own banjo, still isn't done, and could have built two or three in the same time by copying instead of analyzing every feature from the ground up.)
- sliverstorm 13y agoWhere can I get plans?
- 13y ago
- dfc 13y ago"Sometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again." Where "the trades" means any and all activities, not just blue collar occupations. I'd estimate that atleast one quarter of the stories on HN are about "semi-secret tech secrets," eg "How I do X with vim/rails/AWS/ubuntu." That being said dealing with the expansion and contraction of wood is hardly a semi-secret of joinery. Expansion and contraction of wood is a fundamental concept in joinery and cabinetmaking. Any decent introduction to joinery/cabinetmaking book will discuss this basic property of wood as early as possible. A good mental model for water and wood is inserting and removing a bunch of marbles into the business end of a broom. The broom will not get longer as marbles are inserted, but it will get wider/fatter as the marbles take up space in between the straws of the broom. It is also worth pointing out that when you arrange the boards the end-grain should create a "wavy pattern" in order to mitigate cupping; one board will cup up and the next will cup down. My ascii art is failing me but here is a best effort: Good: |\\\///| |///\\\| |\\\///| Bad: |\\\///| |\\\///| |\\\///|
- 001sky 13y agoGood: unu Good: nun Bad: uuu Bad: nnn (For those who struggled with what the above was showing.) Alternatively, buy quarter-sawn wood ! Good: III https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Cedrus_wood.jpg/250px-Cedrus_wood.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Ce...