Popular Woodworking 2002-08 № 129, страница 64

For years I'd been hearing stories about the wonders of Frank Lloyd Wright's house built for the Kaufmann family in western Pennsylvania. Fallingwater was a name mentioned in reverence, so when my travels took me into that area I knew I had to make time to visit and see what the fuss was about. Built in the 1930s and combining International and Usonian architecture, the house was built on top of a waterfall, providing spectacular views for the residents and challenging construction issues for the builders. The house itself has the feel of a space designed for entertaining (as it was), with large common areas and a well-appointed guest house. While impressed with the setting, I walked away from my visit with a different image stuck in my mind: A simple table lamp of walnut with a black metal base that threw a soft, warm, indirect glow against the home's walls.

After examining some pictures, I headed for the drawing board and adapted the concept to a working design that replaced the metal base with a painted

Some simple store-bought hardware and some black spray paint turn shop scraps into a dramatic table lamp.

maple base. The scale is a bit different from the originals, but the effect and beauty is still the same. I was shocked at how simple the construction was, and I quickly headed for the workshop. After only a few hours I was ready to add a finish and plug in the lamp.

Picking the Walnut

Probably the most important part of this project is selecting the best walnut for the shade. It doesn't take a lot of wood (in fact, you might be able to build this project from your scrap pile), and I resawed the pieces to get a book-matched shade. If you're a beginning woodworker, this is the trickiest part of the project. First,

select a nice piece of ³/4" -thick walnut with a figure that you find pleasing. For some, that might include sap streaks or small knot holes. Cut the piece oversized (4" x 21"). Next, set up your band saw with a /2" blade (38" will work in a pinch). Check the guide blocks and thrust bearings to make sure they hold the blade tight and don't allow too much side-to-side wandering. If you don't have a rip fence on your band saw, you can make a simple one by screwing two pieces of wood together to form an "L." Make sure the fence is square, about 4" high and long enough to easily clamp to the band saw's table. Clamp the fence to the table from the

band saw blade. This should cut the piece of walnut evenly down the center and leave plenty of wood to clean up the rough band-sawn edge with a planer.

Start the saw and slowly feed the piece into the blade. Let the blade cut as slow as it wants to. If you force the piece, it's more likely to cause the blade to wander off center and give you two uneven finished pieces.

Once the piece is resawn, head for your planer and run the two halves down to the V4" thickness. Mark the long edges that will be joined together and head to the saw. Crosscut the two pieces to the 16" length, but hang on to the falloff pieces. One will become the bottom of the shade. With the edges that will be joined against the rip fence, cut the two pieces to just over 3V2" wide. Then swing the blade to a 45° bevel and bevel the two center edges. If you're using a good-quality rip blade in your saw and make the cut carefully, you should be able to use the chamfered edge as a glue joint without any further edge preparation.

Cut the shade bottom from

Stopped Holes in the Base

After finding the center of the lower base piece by drawing a line connecting the opposite corners, I set up the drill press to make a 1"-diameter hole, ³/s^M deep with a Forstner bit (left).A fence and stop block clamped in place held the block just where I needed it. I then replaced the Forstner bit with a ¹³/b2 " brad point bit (to allow a little clearance for the ³/8" threaded tube) and used the same setting to drill the rest of the way through the center of the block (right). I then reset the fence and stop block and drilled through-holes in the upper base block as well.

www.popwood.com

63