Summer '10 Furniture Building

Unfortunately, last summer was probably not the best time to take a furniture design/build class as the college of architecture was renovating a large industrial building on campus to house the college's new model and wood shop so access to our shop machines was quite limited.

It was still a great class but I wasn't able to finish building my bench (choosing a bent-wood-lamination process didn't help much either). I didn't have access to a working planer or drum sander so I had to strip down 3/32" thick plys of poplar (up to 7 ft long) and try to sand and even them out to a consistent thickness of 1/16". Needless to say, a lot of wood was sacrificed in the process.

After some practice and experimentation I was able to get fairly consistent results cutting, laminating, and molding the forms. I completed at least one form for each of the different components of the bench, although I haven't seen how it all comes together yet.

This summer I am planning on making some adjustments to the design and process from things I've learned and hope to use a full wood shop to make a finished bench. I have a feeling that the planar will make my life a lot eaiser.