The Box That Shouldn’t Be

welcome to the shop i'm nick and this week's incredibly costly build has some really cool techniques that i'm excited to share with you including veneer bent lamination vacuum form curves some really sweet router jigs oh and stay tuned for a look at my first attempt at metalwork that may have left me with a few less fingers thanks for joining and let's get dusty so i've been super excited to share this project with you because it's really really close to my heart but you need to know some backstory to understand the inspiration so while we get these laminations unfurled allow me a minute to explain this isn't the first build any father expects to build with his son today has been almost 64 days since my wife had her first child we named him saber after a lunar phenomenon that's reminiscent of a solar eclipse which happens to be exactly where i proposed the perfectly unique and dopest name inspiration can be the hardest part of creating custom pieces the inspiration on this moon box was easy you see it's been 64 days since we went to bed for the first night as a family 64 days since the start of the most surreal week of our lives because two of the longest shortest days of our lives after that 64 days ago we say goodbye to this perfect little boy who changed our lives forever some might call this an urn i hate that word it's where dead relatives live this needs another name a reminder of love reminder of him and us and our family a reminder of all the love that came from our brief time with him at times grief feels more like shock than anything else i can relate it's a wave that ebbs and flows over you in intense drowning moments gasping for air with calms between the swells for water so calm vacancies within are toppable you wonder if you might be a serial killer because you should be feeling something anything it's a weird thing to go from nine months of preparing for i wonder how it'll bees to wondering and wishing what did it be like if if only okay i think you understand the why so let's get to the how this was built [Music] so in those opening scenes you saw me cut out the starburst or radial matched pattern for the top of the box and the backer veneer out of poplars just to balance out the panel the complexity of the radial match sunburst or starburst pattern in the top has a tendency you'll want to scoot over time so i'm using a an epoxy to adhere the panels together this waffle on top is simply to spread out the air in the vacuum pressing system this one's by vacuum press it's my first time veneering and i am super impressed with the quality of the bag at the pump everything just works as it should there's uh really no learning curve at all which i love about new tools um i did reach out to daryl for full disclosure and asked him if we could work together so he provided some of the costs of that in exchange for a little bit of promotion on my channel so decided to ebonize the panel before pressing and that was really just to get all of the low spots and any parts that i was afraid would be covered by the epoxy because that vacuum press applies something like a honda civic evenly spaced over the top of that small disk so now that the top panel is done it's time to start constructing the case and there's a few ways to do this the technique that i chose to go is cooperating so if you think of a drum or a barrel it simply consists of a few segments and then you take the circular shape out of this polygon so let's see how that comes [Music] together [Music] wow [Music] now the polygon is formed and the bridge is made for the drawer that will later be installed it's time to rough out the outside circumference of the circle and using the band saw and then bringing everything down to the line with one of many many patterns used on this project and the router leaves some tooling marks so i'm just bringing everything in by hand and if you followed me for any time at all you know that's kind of my ammo rough it in with the power tools and hone it down to the layout by hand now one part of the cooperating technique that i really didn't care for is the vertical grain around the outside the drawers have a horizontal grain to them the fronts and that makes up the moon so by using that fancy router jig i'm able to groove out a segment in which to inlay a veneer around the outside perimeter of the box so now that the case is pretty much done it is time to get on to the drawer fronts so there's two bent lamination drawer fronts and this is just building an mdf form that will go in the vacuum press and it's what will create the shape of the two drawer fronts [Music] so so i haven't had a lot of experience with this vacuum press yet but it is so cool when it sucks down and that sound that sound is amazing so there's one half and rinse and repeat we'll get two at the end um and now it's just cleaning up out of the form and you can see there we're starting to see that crescent shape start to form uh just a little bit of finessing to get those two pieces together to fit to one another and then to the box and the inset for the moon i was originally going to do in a lighter colored wood for that contrast of the glow of the moon but [Music] aluminum just seemed like a good idea well i've never worked with metal and it was sketchy as hell so don't do anything you see here the router was too grabby the grinder wanted to melt it could have seen that coming um and what ended up being the the answer was just to put an mdf backer behind there work support is always always key and since i just turned 30 you should do as i say not as i do now the outside dado or groove was pretty easy to route but this inside groove in which the aluminum panel sits took some time trying to get through all that grain and the laminations eventually honed down and got it fit there's a lot of fitment not pictured in this video so i had to spare you the boring stuff one nice thing about aluminum which is why i chose it is that it tools really nicely with hand tools so now it's time for a one first coat of the iron acetate ebonizing solution we'll do about four all together working up the grits uses a chemical reaction to turn the tannins in the wood black so not stain but a chemical blackening system well we've got a case we've got drawer fronts i think all that's missing is a drawer and the tricky part here is the curved drawer front so i'll shut up and let you enjoy the dovetailing process [Music] so using this pedal hooked up to the vacuum pump it releases it uses little actuators in these pads vacuum clamping system very cool accessory and i am super pleased that i got that it makes finishing sanding and everything really just so much easier so for the finishing process i've sanded it to 400 grit with touch-ups to the ebonizing solution between grits using a two-pound cut of platina shellac everyone always gets a kick out of the fact that that is derived from a bug it's a very classic finish i'm building up a base coat to seal and fill the pores a little bit and then the last 12 coats are sprayed using a mini hvlp then the finish is cut with 600 grit or steel wool to bring out that shine and it's time to fill the box [Music] erase our sun saber john sawyer we love you more mom and dad a piece titled sabre's moon handmade by his dad in 2021 with love signed nick sawyer [Music] thank you for watching i hope you enjoyed the build and stay tuned to the end to see a little update on us and saber and if you aren't already get subscribed if you like the video hit like if you disliked it hit that dislike button two times [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Sawyer Design

Views: 134,361

Keywords: fine furniture, custom furniture, furniture construction, modern design, furniture design, unique furniture, heirloom furniture, furniture making, artisan videos, bent lamination, Woodworking, Urn

Id: i3j9Xy33s_s

Length: 14min 21sec (861 seconds)

Published: Sun May 23 2021