[Project 34] Cherry & Sapele Coffee Table

[mattbyington]

Well, I got the Shaper Origin recently. It is an absolute blast so far.

To celebrate, I wanted to make my first piece of furniture that incorporates a curve. It is crazy to think that I have not made anything with a single curve yet!

I designed a coffee table in Fusion 360 ... and off to the races we go.

Matt

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[mattbyington]

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[ear3]

Nice. Shaper makes adding curved elements relatively trivial. I tend to prefer cutting a plywood template with the shaper, then using a flush trim bit to cut the wood. I find the cut quality us better than cutting directly with the shaper bit. For those sorts of atretchers/frame members, whether im cutting directly with the shaper or with the template, I also like making a final trimming cut with the miter saw so I get a perfectly straight registration surface for dominoing. Using stops to make the cuts ensures you're still getting identical lengths.

 

[tallgrass]

I love the shaper. I had mine since the beginning. It has come a long way and is a great tool. The station they now sell is also a great piece of kit. Keep up the great work.

 

[ear3]

Just looking a bit closer at the design -- have you thought about thickening up those legs?  They are very thin for this sort of piece.  Could still be done by laminating a few boards together, though you would have some sanding to do to get the curves to line up after the glue up.  Or, as mentioned in my previous post, you could switch to the shaper-made template method and pattern rout them from some 6/4 or 8/4 stock.

 

[mattbyington]

[member=37411]ear3[/member] thanks so much man! I do wish I made the legs thicker...I wanted something I could cut out with the shaper without much extra sculpting. Oh well.

[member=2242]tallgrass[/member] yeah it has been so much fun!! Station on the way for me ... ETA October, they say.

More progress on this thing.

Matt

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[rmhinden]

[member=37411]ear3[/member] thanks so much man! I do wish I made the legs thicker...I wanted something I could cut out with the shaper without much extra sculpting. Oh well.

Curious, how deep a cut can it make? 

Bob

 

[tallgrass]

the depth of cut varies. Material and cutter and so on. The Shaper is not for hogging material. You are better removing less material per pass.

 

[tallgrass]

Matt, I recieved one of the first batch. Which was lucky. I actually love it. Making a station for it. This way I can have all the Shaper components in one roller cart. I am going to use Festool systainers and drawers. I am an organizational freak.

 

[ear3]

[member=66813]rmhinden[/member]  1" is technically the max.  There are ways of tricking it into making a slightly deeper cut by artificially zeroing out the cutter to a different starting plane.  But yeah, if you want to work on thicker material, you have to go the template route.

[member=37411]ear3[/member] thanks so much man! I do wish I made the legs thicker...I wanted something I could cut out with the shaper without much extra sculpting. Oh well.

Curious, how deep a cut can it make? 

Bob

 

[Svar]

It seems straight and simple curve cuts like these are faster and easier to do with traditional tools. Less waste too.

 

[mattbyington]

[member=2242]tallgrass[/member] post pictures of that when you're done, I am curious to see it!

[member=66813]rmhinden[/member] sounds like this was already answered. I think the *total* depth of travel is 1.75" on the Shaper but as already mentioned, that doesn't mean you can cut 1.75" deep unless your cutter is long enough that it is touching the material when the shaper is fully retracted, which is not really how it's designed.

In my opinion

 

[mattbyington]

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[cpw]

[member=66813]rmhinden[/member]  1" is technically the max.  There are ways of tricking it into making a slightly deeper cut by artificially zeroing out the cutter to a different starting plane.  But yeah, if you want to work on thicker material, you have to go the template route.

[member=37411]ear3[/member] thanks so much man! I do wish I made the legs thicker...I wanted something I could cut out with the shaper without much extra sculpting. Oh well.

Curious, how deep a cut can it make? 

Bob

I don't have a shaper (I'm quite on the fence), but having watched some of their videos.  For making these pieces, I think the better strategy would be to use the shaper to cut a 1/4" or so groove to define your curve.  Then cut the piece out with a bandsaw and use a flush trim bit to get the rest of it.  The shaper define the final curve for you, and you can use a faster tool for hogging out the bulk of the material.

 

[mattbyington]

[member=63643]cpw[/member] that's exactly what I did on every part of this project!

Matt