bubinga table in progress

**drumpriest** · 01-08-2007, 08:31 PM

Onedash, I thought I mentioned the need to balance the veneer when you were discussing it under "project discussions" before you glued it up. You do in general want to balance any veneering project, for the very reasons that Ken mentioned. You could still do so, and the backside veneer doesn't have to be bubinga, just a wood with similar properties.

**Jeffrey Schronce** · 01-08-2007, 10:13 PM

Looks great thus far. That is going to be a beautiful desk. Are you working from plans?

I have the exact same Freud set and it is a wonderful set!

**drumpriest** · 01-09-2007, 02:28 AM

Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot to mention that it looks fantastic. Love Bubinga.

**onedash** · 01-09-2007, 04:53 AM

Originally posted by drumpriest

Onedash, I thought I mentioned the need to balance the veneer when you were discussing it under "project discussions" before you glued it up. You do in general want to balance any veneering project, for the very reasons that Ken mentioned. You could still do so, and the backside veneer doesn't have to be bubinga, just a wood with similar properties.

I dont get it. Isnt the plywood nothing but a bunch of veneers?
Its to expensive to put it on the bottom and I dont know what would have similar properties. Wouldnt two layers compound any problem? (twice as much wood pulling on the plywood?)

**onedash** · 01-09-2007, 04:54 AM

Originally posted by Jeffrey Schronce

Looks great thus far. That is going to be a beautiful desk. Are you working from plans?

I have the exact same Freud set and it is a wonderful set!

I wish....So far I only calculated the side panels. I think I will start working on the pedastal frames so I can attach the panels.

**kwgeorge** · 01-09-2007, 04:24 PM

Originally posted by onedash

I dont get it. Isnt the plywood nothing but a bunch of veneers?
Its to expensive to put it on the bottom and I dont know what would have similar properties. Wouldnt two layers compound any problem? (twice as much wood pulling on the plywood?)

Well see here�s the deal, plywood comes pre-balanced. You ever notice how plywood comes in odd number of plies like 5, 7, 11, 15 etc. This reduces the chance of the plywood warping and the alternating of grain direction on the plies increases its strength and adds more dimensional stability.

So if we examine what you have done. You have laminated a piece of wood onto one face of a rather large piece of plywood. By its very nature wood moves so when the top you made moves with seasonal changes it will it will apply a lot of stress to the plywood substrate as it will not move the same percentage being more stable. This will cause your top to warp. On the plus side you used a wood that does not move that much and you also say you used quarter sawn wood which typically reduces the percentage of movement by half. If you can not adjust this by balancing the wood then I suggest you take some steps to deal with that impending movement. Like using figure 8�s to secure the top. Edge banding with very thin strips of wood the plywood edges and so on. I do wish you luck on this and really just wanted to bring this potential problem to your attention.

Ken

**onedash** · 01-21-2007, 09:35 AM

Making some progress.

Here are some drawers. I need one more for one side but one of the side rails came out an inch to short and I didnt notice. So when I go back to make a few for the other side I will fix that one too.
I also have one of the flat panels done for the inside side. I need one more of those and two single panel fronts. I will probably make them flat too since they most likely will always be against the wall and its cheaper and lighter. I checked lowes and the cheap drawer slides were about gone. No small ones at all. I will either do sliding dovetails or put dadoes in the side to ride on a rail. Once I glue up all the drawers I will attack bubinga to the front but I want to build my frame first. I dont know if it will look right if I leave a gap between the drawers so I dont want to cut up to much wood yet. I was thinking about a half inch gap between each drawer. I will probably dress up the sides like the raised panel but not the full length since the drawers wont be to big.

There was quite a bit of chip out on the soft maple and I left it a full 3/4".
If I ran it through the planer I imagine it could tear up the ends now.
I had two corners break off when I was making my dovetails. I should have made it 3 1/4" instead of 3". I grabbed my book after I cut all the wood. Oh well...

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**onedash** · 01-27-2007, 08:10 PM

im getting there.

This piece should be done (minus sanding and finishing)by tomorrow. Had a major problem today. I was using pocket hole screws to connect the sides to the back and the screws kept stripping or breaking. Had to go buy some vice grips to get em out. Then after all that mess had me flustered I ended up putting the raised panels on the wrong side so now my drawers will be on the left. I wanted this one to be on the right side of the desk. Oh well, Guess I will have to live with it now. And since all my drawers didnt come out exactly the same I had to fit everything one piece at a time. I guess if I ever need to make a lot of drawers I might not use dovetails.

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