Design by Committee - Gadget Station Update

July 17, 2008 by thewoodwhisperer
Filed under: Blog 

Design is discussed quite a bit in our woodworking community. Afterall, without a design we just have a pile of wood (or worse yet, a pile of sawdust). And over time, I hope that we can discuss and learn about all types of design theories and practices. But here’s one I never thought I would utilize: design by committee??? Read on.

While I am giving the wood for the Gadget Station some time to acclimate, I decided to jump into the design of the legs. Like with most of my shapely wood creations, I decided to start with a template. Since I wasn’t able to fully explore the curves that I had in my head using Sketchup, I decided to draw out several profiles as potential patterns for the legs. Each one contained subtle differences. So subtle that at first glance they all looked the same. But upon closer inspection, some just look more “right” than others. As I was pondering several of these variations, it occurred to me that I have an incredible resource at my disposal: my chatroom! I had the live shop cam on all day so they were already up to speed on what I was trying to accomplish. So I sat down with my top three choices and solicited everyone’s opinion. Of course, we all know what too many cooks can do to the broth, and I kind of expected that to be the case. But much to my delight, we all agreed unanimously on one particular leg profile. How cool is that?

So I quickly set off to cut the template out of a sheet of 1/4″ birch ply. With template in hand, I began tracing the profile onto the prototype leg blank (a piece of 8/4 alder). Since these legs have a curve cut into two sides (referred to as a compound curve), I had to trace the shape onto two sides. I filled in the cut off area with a marker so you can visualize the two cuts that need to be made.

At the bandsaw, the first cut is the easier one. The second cut, however, requires us to tape the cutoff back onto the blank. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the first cut removed our cut line for the second cut. So after a nice helping of blue tape, I was ready to roll for the second cut. Everything went as planned. As you pull the pieces apart, the compound curved leg reveals itself.

Right off the bandsaw, things don’t look so hot. But with a little sanding, the elegance of the leg becomes much more apparent as does the fact that my design committee made a great choice. Now the prototype leg is a little thinner than the final legs will be, so you can expect them to have a little more heft in the final version. I also have a few other things I want to do accomplish with these legs, but I havn’t gotten that far yet. All will be reveled in the videos. And speaking of video, the second part will be out very soon, and will cover laying out the cabinet pieces in the rough lumber, as well as the creation of the leg template and the prototype leg.

I’d like to thank the folks in the chat room for lending a hand with this (you know who you are). And if you haven’t been to the chat room in a while, it has been buzzing with activity lately so be sure to stop in.



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Comments

11 Comments on Design by Committee - Gadget Station Update

  1. Mark Mazzo on Fri, 18th Jul 2008 7:02 am

    2. Hey Marc,

    The leg is looking nice.

    I presume that in the final versions of the legs you will be cutting your joinery while it is still square and then cutting the profiles?

    I also wanted to touch on the technique for cutting the compound curves. I have also used the method of taping on the first offcut to allow the second cut to be made more accurately and safely. However, on the recent Queen Anne Side Table that I built with cabriole legs, I used a simple technique where you leave a small bridge in the first cut and then cut through completely on the second cut. Then all that is left is to go back and cut through the bridge. No need for messing with the offcut!

    Looking forward to seeing the rest of the Gadget Station unfold!

    –Mark
    The Craftsman’s Path

  2. Steve Carter on Fri, 18th Jul 2008 9:06 am

    3. Nice!

  3. Damien Pollet on Fri, 18th Jul 2008 9:55 am

    4. Disclaimer: my only experience in woodworking is building a small end tablet out of pine blockboard. It’s all creaky because it holds with screw jointery :)

    Now I didn’t get why you didn’t trace the curve for the second cut on the opposite face, untouched by the first cut, so that you don’t need to reattach the piece to see the cut curve ?

  4. thewoodwhisperer on Fri, 18th Jul 2008 10:39 am

    5. I thought of that too Damien, but the reason I didnt do that is because of the first curve would create some issues for us as we cut it. If I had a wider table surface, the down-facing curve wouldn’t be an issue since the ends of the legs are uncut. But because the leg is longer than the table, the leg would be unstable as we pass it through the blade for the second cut. Even with that, you might be able to pull it off, but I didnt want to take any chances. So the easiest thing to do was tape the cutoff back on, and put the most stable side down. There are a lot of cases where this technique is absolutely necessary, but this one is definitely borderline.

  5. Damien Pollet on Fri, 18th Jul 2008 10:48 am

    6. Ehh indeed, I didn’t think of the table size :)

  6. James Ryan on Fri, 18th Jul 2008 11:37 am

    7. Hi Mark
    Can you give me an idea of the Width, Length and thickness?
    Sorry I am trying to visualize the size.
    Ryan

  7. thewoodwhisperer on Fri, 18th Jul 2008 11:39 am

    8. No problem James. The leg is approximately 2″x 2″ x 26″

  8. Vic on Fri, 18th Jul 2008 8:56 pm

    9. No fair! I don’t get to hop in the chat room at work. Well, maybe I can get lucky at lunchtime.

  9. James in Tempe on Fri, 18th Jul 2008 10:08 pm

    10. Please let us know what happens to those nice boards once they dry out to our low humidity. Any checking, twisting, cupping, bowing etc?

  10. David on Sun, 20th Jul 2008 12:59 pm

    11. Mark -

    I have always enjoyed your blog The Craftsman’s Path. Your Queen Anne Table was a very interesting project to follow! I especially enjoyed the drawer dovetailing episode (http://thecraftsmanspath.com/2008/02/16/queen-anne-side-table-dovetailing-the-drawer/). Excellnet work!

    You present a very interesting alternative to cutting curved leg shapes on the bandsaw . . . I like the idea of leaving a supporting bridge and not having to deal with the first off cut. Very simple and clean. A great alternative to blue tape! Perhaps Marc will consider utilizing that technique when he cuts his final version of the legs for his Gadget Station project.

    Marc -
    This is a very interesting project! I am looking forward to the final version, as well as, versions from the forum guys.

    David
    The Folding Rule
    http://foldingrule.blogspot.com/

  11. thewoodwhisperer on Sun, 20th Jul 2008 1:09 pm

    12. I also like Mark’s idea. I think I will give it a shot on the final run.

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