Bespoke Dining Table - IV - Shaping the Pedestal Base

This is a short series following the creation of a bespoke dining table all the way through the making process, from selecting the timber to delivery to the client.

To create the desired ripple effect, each stave was CNCed on both sides.  This presents challenges for work holding and indexing to ensure both carved faces meet as desired.  From the CAD model I created for the initial design for the client, we CNC machined some mating jigs out of MDF.  Once the first side was carved, the carving blanks could be flipped onto their mating MDF jig.  MDF being quite air porous, the vacuum table of the CNC can hold the part firmly down without the need for screws, meaning that the whole surface can be carved without obstruction.

Once fully carved, the staves were glued up in pairs to make the process manageable.  The initial pairs were relatively simple as the centre of the glue line coincided with the outer edges where clamping pressure could be applied.  Each subsequent glue became more and more complicated as the centre of the glued faces moved further and further away from the centre line of the overall shape where clamping pressure could be applied.

CNC machines are fantastic for fast and accurate milling of timber.  However, they have two significant shortcomings when it comes to machining components for high-end bespoke furniture.  First, the machines have no concept of the grain of timber.  The machines were initially created to machine homogenous materials - steel, aluminium, polymers.  Timber is quite different in that the direction of machining (for example across the grain or along the grain) will have a large impact on the quality of finish achieved.  Secondly, when machining rolling curves like the components shown here, the stepover of the cutter head leaves small ridges in the finished surface that need to be removed.  For these parts its not practical to get a sander into all the nooks and crannies, so a well tuned card scraper (actually, several in different shapes) is perfect for the job.