The other part to my wood midterm project

This project  I was actually looking at the ware-boards from the CNC machine when I was designing this piece. It was influenced by a couple different city plans and is comprised of five pieces of wood that would ideally slot together to create an entryway piece, with a drawer for keys wallets, etc.

So it took some convincing, but Ed Felton caved and bought the wood studio a compact router. It does the same work as a normal router, but is smaller and purposely under-powered for detail work. I had to set up a fancy jig and network of clamps, but 20+ hours later, I had these fancy boards. I also did a lamination glue up with them prior to doing to work with the router, so that 1/2 inch of walnut is sandwiched between two thin pieces of red oak on either side. I set the depth of the router bit to cut through the red oak and expose the walnut to create contrast and emphasis the pattern.

Then I had to take the boards to the table saw and, using a dado blade, cut slots into each board so they would fit together. Messed up the first time around and ended up starting over (that wasn't the only reason I had to start over).. but with the help of the digital calipers I was able to do it really accurately and correctly.

And this is what it looked like all slotted together!

After that I built and installed the drawer.

(Blurry picture, but you can really see the contrast in woods here, after I applied the danish oil)

And then I built a frame for a mirror with my scraps from my first effort building the piece.

This handle was replaced with a wood one, and additions of ceramics were added (there's a hole pierced through the top board all the way to the right, its not visible really in this picture, but its for a small vase. A small change bowl lives on the lower left piece.) When the work is installed, the mirror hangs up and to the left of it.

Moral of the story: the CNC router probably would have changed my life if I had been able to use it.