I have really loved this project. Since i started at the university by no fault of its own they really channel you into a path they would like you to make in. This project felt like the first real stab at life outside this place where i could write and make whatever i want to make.
I became very process oriented to start and i think this might have lead me to have a severe lack of photos of things in the real world i like. It seems i latched on to this one process and i stuck with it through out the entire project, as much as i do love it and it has given me several different avenues to go down i didn't explore much else.
The photos below show that i wasn't lazy with my experimenting and tried a number of different ways at looking at squishing the steel but that is all i did. If it wasn't going under a power hammer this project i wasn't doing it.
From the get go with squishing things i had a lot of people telling me that it had been done a hundred times over and i had to agree. It is nothing to put a piece of metal under the hammer and upsetting it down so i had to fine a unique way i went about it. I tried cutting it with the grinder, punching top tools into it even working more than one side with the hammer but all weren't really going with what i wanted to do with them. I had this idea of a really nice table in my head and i was shoehorning the squishes to suit so to speak.
The turning point for me is when i started making up the legs, two different sizes of squishes side by side was so sexy.
The photo above is the first finished sample that i got down. This is a little crude but with some refining i knew that i could get it to be what i wanted. So with more sampling on the legs going in and more with the feet i had a finished product in mind.
My finished piece was done a lot faster than other people which was a little confidence boost but then seeing the scope of some peoples work i soon had a reality check. Four legs is nothing to a full gate so maybe i was playing it a little safe this term and could have strived for another finished table.
I would have liked to have seen mine fully finished but the massive mess about which sorting a table top out here was too much. Every carpenter i rang was acting like i was the idiot for asking them to work in wood and drill some holes. First guy i phone in Yorkshire admittedly a friend of mine says fine i can do that easy so il get it done up north.
There is no finish on the steel yet either because i am uncertain on what kind of wood i will be using. Hoping for oak but it might be something a different color so don't want to rush a finish on that doesn't match. I had imagined some gun bolt blue on the legs to go with the earthy color of the tabletop but now i am thinking maybe a good beeswax finish.
Overall i am happy how the legs looked when finished. I did worry they would be too spindly but i think it suits just right for what i was after. On the much thicker table top it will feel really like the top is crushing the legs making this compression on the steel.
If there is one thing i was super happy about during this project was the squished wing nuts. They are such a cool little feature that i hope to use on a lot of different projects. As i bolt on the end of some threaded bar they are so much nicer than the alternative.
I think they are the biggest thing i will take out of this project into my career. A real stroke of genius in the eleventh hour so to speak.
I think i lacked a few things in this project but all and all i enjoyed it and made some nice stuff so isnt that what really matters on the grand scale. I am taking all this research and design choices straight into my next project where i am going bigger than i did this time. I am thinking either giant mirror or giant table either way its going to be giant.
This is a top secret post looking at the next project and the sampling i am doing.
This is one of my more radical ideas i have had for table legs. I drew it up once in my sketchbook and i thought it would look so cool i needed to make it up. They are all 30mm round back squished then bent on to themselves to make the U shape. Each one is more different than the last making a unique kind of uniform shape. I will be looking into this design next project maybe doing something much larger with it.
This is an idea i had after watching Chris doing his chisel cuts. I wondered what it would be like if i did the chisel cuts myself then squished it under the hammer, whether it would give more drastic effects than the grinder. I have no pictures with me but of the 8 i have done each one looks so different with the chisel cuts on them. I am really falling in love for this sexy cut, i want to use it out a few more times and see how it goes.
Those are the two hidden projects i am working on at the moment. See some more of this next project along.
The tiny wing nuts on the top of the table were a little thing i came up with over January. I needed a little squish on top of the table to hold the bar. Plan was to do a little squish with the bar going into the bottom but after i started squishing the longer thin sections they came out great.
They look like really drastic take on a wing nut. I really love these little guys and i spent a full day making them. I went for the four shiniest and coolest looking i could make and put them on top.
Very happy how they look on the table. I am thinking of using these as a sort of statement on my work. I will use them on all of my pieces in the future hopefully.
Hey guys going to be a long post today because i got some catching up to do. I have been one week maybe two without a post. Been real busy but today is the day i catch up.
The table is finished and all made up.
Sadly this has the shitty place holder sat on top. I am going to get a decent thick table top sorted out in Yorkshire because it is so much simpler to sort it out up there than down here. I rang a buddy back there said i got a table top needs doing, he said bring in the legs i will sort it easy. Why no wood merchants down here couldn't have that kind of service i don't know.
I was quite happy that the spirit level showed it was level as soon as it was assembled. I thought i would have to grind away the feet to get level but it sat smooth first time.
Proof it sits fairly level on the table. I am quite happy with how the legs look after i had corrected the top. Original i wanted to have the top 48 inches by 24 inches but once i had put that on top it looked so out of place i took some advice to half the size and place that on. It makes it look more like a coffee table but i like it a lot more with the thin legs.
Well this has been the update on the table. Get ready for a post today on the little nuts on the top that i feel i haven't spoke about enough and a little one on the next project.
