Thread: Two Rietveld inspired zigzag side-tables

First rate job Zenwood, gets a greenie from me.

Have you thought of scalloping the seat part, e.g. with a compass plane or such?, and did you conduct any load-bearing tests?

Cheers!

Originally Posted by Auld Bassoon

Have you thought of scalloping the seat part, e.g. with a compass plane or such?, and did you conduct any load-bearing tests?

No seat: they're tables.

Load bearing tests: I sat on one without mishap. Given that a Rocker double-spline with pin has been tested to support four men the 10 splines used here should hold up 20 men. Not going to test that though!

[quote=zenwood]No seat: they're tables.
quote]

That'll teach me to read the thread title

FANTASTIC effort Zenwood!!!!!

Out of curiosity, what glue did you use?

Great job mate. It is first class material.

zenwood

When I saw the title of this thread I thought: I'm not going to like the look of these tables. The aesthetics of the Rietveld chair don't appeal to me at all.

However, against my initial instincts, I find your tables very impressive aesthetically. This surprised me. Having given the matter some thought, I reckon that it comes down to two factors

1) The simple clean lines - even though very different from a conventional table. Somehow the zed-shaped chairs don't achieve simplicity. They look too contrived and too consciously "clever". Your tables don't.

2) Very important: you've made a really excellent job of converting the concept into reality. The splines stand out as design features: form following function. Well done!

A question: exactly how did you apply the finish? It looks really good.

Congratulations on an excellent piece of work. Have a greenie!

Col

Geez, you got a nice finish on those. Lovely colour.

How'd you clamp the mitres ?

Thinking, maybe for a mitre you did it by making 2 glue blocks with angled ends...clamping one block to each part of the joint, then clamping the two angled bits together (possible cause the angled bits are now parallel to each other)...... Yes ? make sense ?. ..like clampinging picture frames

Maybe in each block have ruff grooves cut to let the fingers of the joint stick out for latter planing flush ?

However you did them, they look good Zenwood

p.s.....whats that in the sand.....in your avatar ?

I just hope I can get half as good as some of the artisans here. Fine, fine work Zen.
Cheers and happy new year.

Very, cool Zen.... and beautiful craftmanship

May even inspire me to make something with this style!

I would really love to see some progress pic's if you have any?


............purely out of interest of course

Zenwood,

They turned out beautifully. I am curious as to how you cut the kerfs for the mitre keys. It looks as though you would have had to make a specialized table-saw jig for the job, since it would not have been possible to use the tenoning jig to do it. And how did you clamp the mitres during the glue-up?

Rocker

Nice work Zen'one, give ya a greeny but gave you one yesterday!

Can we have a few pictures with them put next to each other to form one table... sorta have a triangle in the middle?
I reckon it would look quite spectacular if you made a single table with that style while having two "z"s????

Major: the glue was Techniglue epoxy from Carbatec.

Driver: I appreciate those thoughtful comments. I didn't make any effort to make the splines stand out. I used the jarrah stock from one of the tables to make the splines. The second table is different jarrah stock (in fact from two different trees by the difference in colour of the two boards): and so the splines contrast in one table, but blend in perfectly in the other table. Best of both worlds.

The finish was the easiest thing in the world: slop it on with an old brush and let it dry (two hours). I bought the Bona Mega to do my floor recently and decided to give it a try on a real project. I'm very happy with the result. There's no mixing involved, just pour it out of the bottle (no messy tins), and clean up in water. I put on a coat of primer, sanded at 150, then a coat of Mega, sand at 320, then a final coat of Mega. The one thing is the mixture is quite runny, so I only applied it to horizontal surfaces. Rotating the table every hour between applications made fast work of it. Bona Mega could well become my finish of choice in future.

Apricot, Martrix and Rocker: progress pics attached, and a diagram of how I did the slot cutting. Luckily, the tables just fit in my crosscut sled.

Harry: great idea. How's this?

Originally Posted by apricotripper

p.s.....whats that in the sand.....in your avatar ?

PS Believe it or not, my avatar is actually animated. It just has a very slow frame rate. It's evolving...