I wanted to show how I use the lathe in other projects and this was a good example except I forgot
to start taking pictures at the beginning. At this point I had already
cut the frame from 30mm square stock and machined the Domino mortises so
it could be dry assembled. Then each piece was mounted between centers
on the lathe and turned down following a template to get uniform tapers,
leaving the joins square at this stage. Note the connecting sections have
not been turned yet.
The Domino is a fantastic tool for projects like this but you could just as
easily get the same end result by turning a tenon on each end of the
pieces and drilling a suitable hole where it connects. The beauty of the
Domino for this is that they also stop the pieces from spinning as you
assemble it and keep everything perfectly square.
All sections have now been turned
and the excess on the outside of the square sections was removed while they
were mounted on the lathe for convenience.
Glue-up was a breeze with the dominoes keeping everything aligned.
Final shaping was done with a variety of gadgets, particularly my Foredom
rotary tool with small sanding drums attached. The tops of the posts were
angled simply by sanding them off on a face-plate sander - the Bloodwood
responds really well to sanding with no clogging or burning. All that was
left to do was pre-drill the cross pieces where the turned spacers would sit
to support the cabinet and a lot of hand sanding and finishing with Kunos
Oil.
The door and drawer handles were turned from Norfolk Island Hibiscus and
shaped the same way as the leg-tops.
