Timber and cast aluminium combination.

**artful bodger** · 10th May 2014, 09:02 PM

Was interested to use a combination of timber and cast aluminium for some furniture pieces using the aluminium for legs.
Since coffee tables and bench seats are pretty close to the same height I decided to make some legs that would do both.
cal.jpg So here is a picture of the pattern, corebox, and a casting that's made from the 2 components. The corebox enables the leg to have the cast hollow in the end of it.
cal1.jpg Here is a coffee table from Huon pine using the castings. It's got solid blackwood inlays glued in with black sikkaflex that are roughly based on thylacine (tassie tiger stripes). The castings are fixed to the underside with roofing type screws and epoxy glue.
cal2.jpg Next piece went a step further, it had 2 toddler sized chairs to match. Legs and backrest supports are made from turned Tasmanian "Horizontal Scrub". The aluminium legs have been polished to a shiny finish.
cal3.jpgAnother coffee table. This bit of huon pine had a hole in it. To deal with that a burl myrtle bowl was turned and used to eliminate the hole. Could come in handy for remote control device storage etc.
cal4.jpg The plank of huon pine this double bench seat was made from was riddled with bark inclusions. Thought it'd make a suitable outdoor bench seat as water would not pool up in the bum holes (okay bum holes is a rather unsavoury term, but you know what I mean) as it had a means of escape through the bark inclusions. Did not bother going to town with the finish on the top of the plank in fact left most of the saw marks there. Did however sand the bum holes and edges. On all of the above pieces I have painted the hollows on the end of the legs a bright red to accentuate them.
Have made lots of other pieces using the same cast legs. To briefly summarise the pros and cons of using castings in furniture work...........
Cons...
* You do have to make the pattern and corebox (if you need one) first, however the time spent doing this is divisible by the amount of castings you will be getting made and you should be able to get hundreds out of the pattern.
* Castings don't generally come from the foundry ready to use, there is quite a bit of filing, sanding, polishing etc and its pretty dirty work doing it.
* Getting a foundry to cast your castings is not overly cheap. I think these legs were about $80 each.
Pros..
* You can get a lot of castings out of the initial pattern.
* You can make some pretty unique stuff.
* Cast metal and timber is a striking contrast and for some reason bits like this seem to sell really well.

**clear out** · 10th May 2014, 10:34 PM

Nice work on the patterns and core box.
Was the core box really worth the effort for the amount of material saved?
I guess you used a commercial foundry.
Al is not "that" hard to cast yourself.
But if you want to get something finished its best to do what your good at and that's obviously the wood bit
Been meeting to do something like this myself for years but a bit slack and busy.
See my efforts in the foundry posts.
H.

**artful bodger** · 10th May 2014, 11:54 PM

[QUOTE=clear out;1773378]Nice work on the patterns and core box.
Was the core box really worth the effort for the amount of material saved?
I guess you used a commercial foundry.Quote]

Didn't make the corebox to save material. Made it because I wanted the end of the leg to have a hollow shape like a smokers pipe,end of a trumpet, alpenhorn etc rather than just a solid face.
Yes, used a commercial foundry.

**cava** · 11th May 2014, 12:49 AM

Originally Posted by artful bodger

cal4.jpg

Love the bench.

What thickness is it? And will it support two (2) normal adults?

**artful bodger** · 11th May 2014, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by cava

Love the bench.

What thickness is it? And will it support two (2) normal adults?

Hi cava, the thickness of the bench was approx 60mm and yes it will support 2 normal adults easily.Would even support 2 hefty adults. In these litigious times it's not a good idea to make furniture that would break during usage.

**Robson Valley** · 11th May 2014, 02:22 PM

I like the thylacine design incorporation.
Means a lot to us on the outside, looking in.
Experienced craftsmanship written all over those pieces.

**cava** · 11th May 2014, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by artful bodger

Hi cava, the thickness of the bench was approx 60mm and yes it will support 2 normal adults easily.Would even support 2 hefty adults. In these litigious times it's not a good idea to make furniture that would break during usage.

Forgive me for the clarification. But it is testimony to your work that I want to copy it, or similar, later on down the track. Love the seat imprints.

Was the 60 mm the minimum finished thickness, or the starting thickness? I can imagine that if the finished thickness was circa 60 mm, the initial slab must have been circa 100 mm - that is heavy.

**artful bodger** · 11th May 2014, 08:34 PM

Originally Posted by cava

Forgive me for the clarification. But it is testimony to your work that I want to copy it, or similar, later on down the track. Love the seat imprints.

Was the 60 mm the minimum finished thickness, or the starting thickness? I can imagine that if the finished thickness was circa 60 mm, the initial slab must have been circa 100 mm - that is heavy.

Cava. The 60mm was the original thickness of the slab of timber. The edges that you can see now are about 20mm. The "seat imprints" (that's a much nicer term than "bum holes") are reasonably straightforward to make. Just sit on the slab and with a pencil held vertically trace around your legs and backside. Then using either a gouge, an arbortech carver or whatever you have and start carving out the hollow. Every now and then sit in the hollow and kind of wriggle around a bit. You can feel where more material needs to be removed. Keep doing this until it's as comfortable as you can get it. then it's ready for sanding. You can get them to be surprisingly comfortable. Think of the old style cast iron tractor seats. Sure cast iron does not instantly conjure up ideas of a comfortable seat base but the fact that they were made with such a nice deep, bottom supporting shape meant that they were indeed remarkably comfortable.

**cava** · 12th May 2014, 12:11 AM

Thank you.

**aldav** · 12th May 2014, 08:56 PM

What can I say? Beautifully bodged!

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