Thread: studio furniture and fine furniture

A craftsman with hand tools can produce pieces to an extremely high standard. So there is no reason why one with a Triton setup can't. After all, it is not the machine that produces the item of furniture but the person crafting it.

I am sure that Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and the like would have given their eye teeth for something half as good as a Triton. I think they could all be classed as makers of fine furniture.

The Triton like almost any saw bench is a means to an end and would at best be responsible for maybe 5% of the work that you would do on most pieces of fine furniture. Of more importance would be a planer and thicknesser, about 25% of the work and finally you and your hand tools the other 75%.

I am talking fine furniture from first rate solid timber stock. Not cut it and stick it together, triton does all the work and I don't type stuff.

Cheers - Neil.
(ex Fine Furniture maker and non Triton owner)

Couldn't agree more with Neil. Tools don't make furniture - people do.

Here's a piece that I made twelve months ago using my Triton Workcentre 2000 to "size" the pieces making up the Shaker Table.

Replies are noted and appreciated, picture of shaker table has transmitted over the 8000 miles in a superb condition.I like the piece of furniture as well.
Perhaps other members can show some more furniture photographs .

I, too, would like to see pictures of everyones efforts. Being a beginner, it is always good to see what others have achieved. Perhaps a dedicated thread or forum for forum member gallery items?

That is a beautiful table DPB!

Cheers,

Josh

Would DPB like to give us a breakdown of the construction of that lovely piece of work (shaker table).
I'm particularly interested on learning if the joints were created by hand or machinery used.
Myself I am a beginner with machinery and suffer things like 'tear out ' and sometimes hanker after returning to hand work but took up machinery to compensate for less agility and energy in older age.

If other members would post photographs of their work perhaps a short construction brief would add some more interest.

How do you get these pictures to appear on this web site?
Do you just copy and paste the photo on to this message space.

Attaching Photo's

METHOD 1: Click Browse in the attach file section below where you type your posting (above the Submit button) then find the file you want to attach on yoUr computer and open it. Simple, eh.

METHOD 2: The other option is to attach an image from a web site by clicking on the IMG button above the place where you type and enter the URL for the image. This will put the image in from either your site or someone elses.

The first method imbeds the image so it can always be seen, the second only works while the web site hosting the image is on. If it closes down at a later date or moves etc, the image(s) will be lost for ever, as Shane found out a while ago when he lost the link to all of the photo's he put on showing the progress of a restoration job.

The first method can only attach 1 photo/file - The second can attach lots.

Keep the file size and graphic size low by using a program like photo paint, photo shop or what ever came with your camera or scanner to crop away all unwanted image so we don't have to move all over the screen to view a photo. See examples HERE

Woody, the timber used is Jarrah, a beautiful Australian hardwood readily available here. The legs are tapered on all four sides. I used a shop made throwaway jig for this.

The table skirts are mortis and tenoned to the legs. The tenons were produced on the Triton Workcentre. the mortises were made on my Triton Router Table/Triton Router. The rounded ends of each mortise were square off with a chisel.

The drawers were made using a Gifkin Dovetail jig (Gifkin is another great Australian product, very simple in its concept. Just do a web search under that name.) The entire front skirt, including the drawers, were constructed from one piece of timber. If you look closely, you will see a continuity of grain running across the drawers onto the skirt.

I downloaded the plans for this table from PlansNow. (Search under that name and you will find the plans.)

The top is a departure from the plans. My research indicated that a traditional Shaker Table normally incorporates a top with "breadboard ends". The purpose of this construction is to accommodate movement - to allow for expansion and contraction that normally occurs with seasonal humidity variances - a reality here in Melbourne. The top is made up of five pieces running the length of the table which were biscuit jointed using the Triton Biscuit jointer attachment. The ends of this top were mortised and inserted into the two end pieces, which was dadoed on my router table. To secure the top to the ends a glued dowel was inserted through the centre of the end pieces, which went through the mortise and tenon, securing the top to the ends. Two more dowels, one at each end of the end piece, were inserted, but not glued. Where these dowels went through the tenon the holes were elongated to allow for the movement. Furthermore, the tenon was shorter than the mortise so that the tenon could "ride" within the mortise without causing it to buckle or split. (This is standard tabletop construction.)

Finally, the entire top was attached to three tabletop rails running from front to back, one in the middle and one at each end. Three screws attached the top from the bottom, through the centre of the rails into the top. At the end of these three rails the holes through the rails were elongated and the screws were not completely synched tight, again to allow for expansion/contraction.

The finish was French polished and waxed.

DPB. Many thanks for your very descriptive reply, just what I wanted to read. I am encouraged to continue working with machinery, and am thinking perhaps I should use the sanding plate to clean up end grain tearout after saw operations.

Router moulding has been very troublesome owing to inexperience and niggles with my router equipment.

However having seen your work I am inspired that fine furniture is obtainable using machinery.

Attaching picture of my own trivial efforts and trying out infomation supplied on how to post pictures.

Louvre door was constructed from a piece of 3 x 2" timber . The door is needed in my kitchen to cover our central heating boiler and provide air circulation.

In the background are the start of two bookcases which has thrown up a problem or two. The top rails are bare inside ( I did not put a moulding, and now the case is assembled I have not yet worked out how to rout inside moulding etc.

I'm thinking !!!!!