Tongue n Groove bits

[Swingman]

Those lamps are gorgeous ...

[Swingman]

"Stiles" ...

I originally drew it up that way as an idea (this was pre-Sketchup days), with the deliberate intent to mimic the "arch and flats" ("feet") on the very bottom rail the cabinet sits on, which it does.

It did cross my mind at the time that the fact that the bottom doors don't have that detail is not unusual, where bottom cabinet doors and drawer fronts don't always match an "eyebrow" detail in the doors of upper cabinets.

It became a non issue when Linda loved it, and, since I made the cabinet for her for an anniversary present, it stayed that way.

FWIW, Just mentioned the discussion to Linda, particularly the "sad" look. Her immediate remark, without hesitation:

"For Christ's sake, that's the biggest thing that makes me happy when I look at it!!".

... only she didn't say "Christ" ... but it was plural. ;)

Nuff said ... we're all outvoted. LOL

[Swingman]

Great for curved router patterns as it is much easier to "fair" a curve in MDF.

If MDF patterns are going to kept for future projects, I'll take the time to spray them with shellac to keep moisture absorption and fraying of the edges to a minimum.

[Leon]

I really like the basket weave table top. I might have to steal that idea. The 8 3D boxes that I made a few months ago were so labor intensive that I began designing a basket weave pattern very similar to your table top. But it appears your top might be glued up similar to a cutting board with a fancy pattern.

[OFWW]

Great idea, thanks!

[Brewster]

Thanks! My fingers still hurt from the sanding and fitting.

-BR

[Brewster]

I've made some of the 3D cube cutting boards (in my LumberJocks project file), The fitting is critical and requires some technique for jiggery and clampitude.

The basket weave top was made originally as a cutting board, but got re-purposed when I couldn't find a nice piece of white oak for a pair of table tops. If I go to the trouble of cutting up 10 thousand tiny blocks of wood, I'm going to do it all at once and make a boat load....

Your boxes are the ideal place for this kind of parquetry, some place they'll be appreciated.

-BR

[Brewster]

+1

-BR

[Leon]

3D blocks cutting boards would seem to certainly be a challenge to glue up and clamp.

Oddly the 3D 1/4" thick diamonds and triangles in my boxes were relatively simple to cut accurately. The plans called for diamonds and what appeared to be diamonds for the sides of the boxes. The 3D box sides were actually parallelograms, only the tops of the 3D box sides were actually diamond shaped. I changed all of that so that all pieces were or originated from diamonds, all sides equal length.

The rounding over of all sides of the 272 pieces was time consuming as was sanding those round overs. And then there was the 3 coats of finish on those pieces and rebuffing after that.

When you consider some of those pieces are slightly bigger than your thumb nail you can understand the intensity involved.

I thought so. ;~) Looks great and that was the look I was going for except I was going to round over all those pieces instead of using a darker contrasting wood to mimic shadows.

[Brewster]

I found a big part of doing these kind of thing is figuring out the base shape or sub-unit piece. My 3D used trapezoids formed into triangles.

Fun stuff to make and I can tell you were thinking at least a little bit about "what the heck am I doing?" since you counted the pieces 8^)

People who do all that fancy inlay and parquetry have the ultimate in patience.

-BR

[Leon]

I built "1" box 5~6 years ago and had forgotten about all of the steps. The first time, using the incorrect information, I spent a lot of time sneaking up on the cuts so it would all fit together.

Absolutely!

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