Thread: Mystery Project for Mum's 60th

I made some good progress lately. Attached the back, set the floor, (re)fitted the front panel, smoothed the flared transitions for the shelf, and cut out the insert for the back.
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A few "amateur hour" moments along the way:
Drilled the holes for the screws and then realised I'd need the joints all clamped tight to get the right dimensions.....so I redrilled the holes. Second one was cutting the insert out back-to-front. Idiot! I guess the solution will be to apply more veneer and make the back the front, and the new back gets to be fancy-looking and hand-selected (la de da).

To show me how cold it's getting here, I took the first photo and realised there was some dust on the camera's lens, so I blew on it to get the dust off... IMG_2765.jpgIMG_2767.jpg...and the camera stayed fogged up until I went upstairs and borrowed my wfe's hair dryer.

After losing momentum, my wife finally helped me get things back going with this project...
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Getting there.

I must admit that I too had forgotten about this project.

Thank your wife for putting you back on track.

I probably should have done something simpler for my foray into veneering. But that's not how I roll.

Glued up the last 2 layers of veneer. Not I just need to sand and scrape it flat, before applying a finish.

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Nice marquetry there, especially the shading on the petals. What are the timbers?

I did pick up many of the veneers as a bulk lot - someone selling off their Dad's collection.

the yellow petals are (I think) poplar which has been dyed with tumeric.
the frill on the flower is huon pine, as is the contrast just below the flower
the striped timber below the flower is unknown (?maybe zebrano)
the other veneers are mystery, except for the dark colour on the outside and tip of the tallest leaf - that's queens ebony.
It all sits on a backing of jarrah.

Sorry I couldn't be more specific.

The marquetry panel is nearly finished. Managed to crack to mirror in the final installation, so got another.... and broke that thinking :how hard can it be to cut this myself?".... so got a third mirror and took it to the guys who cut the first one!
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The Dremel help speed up the rough cutting out of the mirror section (although it was unnecessarily noisy compared to the coping saw). I've begun the shaping of the final internal borders.
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And the next stage is underway. Building the box to house the drawers. Finally may be figuring our how to use Black Japan.
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Made a little more progress this afternoon. Waxed up the back plate for the box to contain the drawers. Then applied the epoxy between the lines, assembled and nailed. Turned it over and really didn't like leaving the back "nude", so I gave it a quick staining with the Black Japan.

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While that was all drying, I got back to sanding the inside curve on the main carcass. Very slow going with this part.

I got back into the garage over the past weekend.
Here are a few more pics as I started on the base. Thanks to those who offered advice and a sounding-board re: the mysteries of the cabriole leg.

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While my rip (hand)saw was able to handle the tasmanian myrtle, my coping saw let me down hugely on the curves. Now the next puzzle is how to use the existing saws I have to cut out so many curves. Oh how I dream of a bandsaw!

While I ponder the curved sawing question, I got on with some rippin' and planing.
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turns out Queen Ebony won't allow traditional planing angles - it's low angle, bevel up, or nothing!IMG_3072.jpgIMG_3085.jpg

Also ripped a bit more myrtle. The colours together are very nice to see side-by-side.
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