Wood Working Update

I have been remiss on writing about Gary's wood working projects. So I am going to play catch-up.

We last left Gary a happy camper - making sawdust, assembling, cutting - all that wood working stuff. But inside the house when he was not high on sawdust - he would stew and fret that, aside from a couple of small tables he was going to make for me, this was IT. We have no room for anything else unless we work at it a bit.

This makes Gary very anxious. Since wood working is his therapy - I guess he has a right to be a little worried about the situation.

Gary finished the CUTEST LITTLE NIGHTSTAND IN THE WORLD for Ryan and his new bed:

He finished them before Ryan came home for Labor Day weekend / early Birthday 'celebration' so Ryan was able to take it back with him.

The very next day - Gary headed to a store that sells all various types of wood and showed up with mahogany for my tables. The boards were pretty - nice color, nice grain, etc...

The tables are for my entry - which has been using a strange little IKEA thing for the past 5 years. Our front door is mahogany, so we went with that. On either side of the door about 2 - 3 feet over, the wall bends and then 2 1/2 feet after that it bends again - I believe each bend is 45 degrees since at the end, we have a wall that is 90 degrees different than the wall the door is on. Clear as mud? Don't worry - pictures to follow and no pop quizzes ...

The plan was to build two matching tables that would go in those little 2 1/2 feet walls that were angled. We saw a design for a small table that was a half oval. It had simple legs - that looked almost like the legs on the end tables in the room just off the entry. All in all - it was beautiful.

Since it was circular, wood for the skirt under the table top needed to be rounded - so Gary built a 'helper' to bend the wood that actually, after doing its duty as 'helper' is the bottom of the table - so no wasted wood.

Here is the set up that Gary ended up with to bend the front piece:

The clamps go through holes in the half oval piece and clamp down to hold (along with the glue) the wood in place:

Top view and wood:

This is the piece that is used to bend the wood. Then, as I said, it becomes part of the table - a piece that is under the table top. Here he has stained it. It is not mahogany and won't look the same when we just use deft oil on it, so Gary stained it now instead of when it was part of the table so that he would not smear any stain on the other parts of the table. Smart man ... I would have thought of that AFTER I had already assembled the thing!

Here is the end result - the piece of bent wood that will be the skirt under the table top (I think the proper term is 'skirt' but maybe not ...

I went out in the garage one time and Gary was working on recovering from an accident. I am always so worried he is going to get hurt doing all this stuff with really nasty tools. He was cutting the table top of one of the tables and the guide that he was using to make the cut exact became disconnected somehow (I forget what he told me) and went zooming off like a very dangerous Frisbee. It flew away from him, thank goodness, but I know that it could have headed towards him also - so I was happy to see no blood.

So here is his poor damaged table top:

Closeup:

The offending Deadly Flying Frisbee:

So - the legs have been made, and the bottom is on (not we now are using the bottom piece that so graciously helped bend the wood:

Here is the table with the skirt sitting on top of the table instead of down beneath the table top where it belongs ... soon ....

Both tables with their tops on:

And a look from the top at the beautiful wood:

Last night, Gary moved one of them in to see if it would fit ... I guess. He had measured the wall multiple times and checked and double checked his calculations before cutting anything, but yet ... here he was seeing if it fit ...

It does not have finish on it, but still - lovely!

I don't really know what this wall is going to look like after we get the tables set up, but I guess these puppies (the shelves) can stay (the photos, on the other hand, have to go! They are some of my photos that I printed out years and years ago and I am tired of them - so I need to pick a new set and move on ...).

Here is a shot of the entry - the tables will be where the one is now, and where the strange, squatty, lace covered table holding a lovely flower arrangement is:

Got a little carried away and tried some stuff on for fun:

And a final close up ...

They are going to be wonderful!

Oh! And that panic / funk / depression that he was in? He had a "Eureka!" moment and figured out what is next, and what is after that and he couldn't be happier!

He is planning on building some big pieces for his shop. A table for the chop saw, some other things that I forget now, but he estimated it should take him a year or two to complete!

So, I can breathe easy for now ...