Popular Woodworking 2007-11 № 165, страница 74
to look at wood selection. When we make a table, the "face" of the table is the top, thus it should have some visual interest to make the table stand out. Overthe years, Ihave collected wood with an eye to color and graphics. For the two end tables, I selected some quartersawn red elm with sapwood showing, and strong graphics. By trimming the planks, I was able to use a small amount of the creamy sapwood to create a point of interest in the middle of the tabletop. The strong graphics created by the annual rings support the sapwood center, and work well with the convex curves at the ends of the tabletop. Care must be taken when coordinating wood colors. In this case, the red elm tops worked very well with the black cherry I selected for the base. I added a slight curve along the sides of the top toward the end of the construction process. The edge was straight in my original model, but by adding a slight concave curve, I thought the top worked better visually with the arched aprons below. Order of Operations Order of operations is a critical step that most people overlook because they are complacent about their ability to oversee their own work without making timing errors, and/or forgetting key moves. I like to use the analogy of the chess game; it is like writing out all of the moves in a 20-move match. Another way to think of this list of ordered tasks is to think of it as a software program with a main program and subroutines. Written in your shop log, the "order of ops" has main subj ect titles in a chronological order, with plenty of space in between for you to add in things you may have overlooked. If you spend a half hour developing this before you start, and then five minutes on it once every few days, you will be much more efficient with your shop time. Instead of coming in each morning and asking, "What am I going to do today?", and then going through a process of thinking and re-thinking 20 things that don't need to be addressed today, you simply go onto the next ordered task. It simplifies your tasks by allowing your brain to focus only on the one task at hand, resulting in clear uncluttered thinking. So, essentially the order of ops is your global plan on paper, with each sub-section articulated to the degree required to allow you to use this only as crib notes once the action begins. Leave room for additions; this keeps the "program" from becoming cluttered with arrows and micro-writing when you want to insert important steps as you build. Construction Now it is time to follow your order of ops, with an eye to sawing wood for graphics and grain. Your order of ops should allow for acclimation time of the wood afteryou break it out. If you 72 ■ Popular Woodworking November 2007 |
