{"id":8032,"date":"2024-09-10T08:26:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T12:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/?p=8032"},"modified":"2024-10-24T07:51:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T11:51:51","slug":"compass-rose-table-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/woodworking\/compass-rose-table-top\/","title":{"rendered":"Compass Rose table top"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Celebrating ten years back home at 28\u00b0<\/kbd> 19′ N by 80\u00b0 36′ W!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year marks my tenth anniversary of returning home. It’s mind-boggling, really, that it’s been that long, but then again, it’s pretty hard to believe that next year will mark my seventh year of existence here on Mother Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Teak End Table circa 1991<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As noted elsewhere, I developed a passion for woodworking<\/a> early. In my first ‘garage\/shop’ in Washington, I proudly displayed a hand-lettered sign that said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He With The Most Toys Wins!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I moved to Germany in 1987, I closed shop until my return three years later. I had moved back to Colorado and was living the dream, traveling around the world and working at Hewlett-Packard’s corporate machine. I outfitted my basement as my first dedicated woodworking shop with new stationary tools. There was an excellent lumber store in Fort Collins. I used our most excellent 2D CAD system\u2014ME 10\u2014and started designing and building the furniture for my new home in the Rockies.<\/p>\n\n\n

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CAD drawing for Teak Stereo Cabinet circa 1993<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For a while, I thought Colorado might be my new home. I liked it there. Unfortunately, the job was changing fast, and I found myself on the outside looking in. In a stunning display of madness, I made a sharp right turn and ended up in Atlanta for nearly 19 years. The last 15 years were spent as a different version of myself, constantly at odds with the part I left on the left coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I finally escaped the madness, I ended up back where it started: Cocoa Beach. I was home and have now lived here longer than anywhere else. I had envisioned this day for decades, which was one reason I moved to the Southeast in the mid-1990s. After I retired in 2020, I built a dedicated shop in my backyard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I escaped, I had to refinish that first piece of furniture that I built for myself (and still owned). I screwed up and sanded through the teak veneer while refinishing it. After moving back, I had an idea to replace the top with a compass rose with the position of Cocoa Beach on it. It was on my list for over ten years before I acted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first saw the Shaper Origin router demonstrated several years ago, it showed a craftsman using it to inlay a compass rose on a hardwood floor. That is precisely what I was looking for! My comments concerning this incredible tool are elsewhere<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Build<\/h2>\n\n\n
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AutoCAD design sans lettering. I used this for the individual segments.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I created the base layout using AutoCAD, imported it into Shaper Studio, and added the lettering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My idea was to use walnut and maple for the rose pieces and zebrawood for the ring segments. The background would be quarter-sawn mahogany, and the lettering would be maple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lettering capabilities had recently been upgraded, and I found a simple letter font that worked well for inlay. There is no lettering on a curve capability yet, but manually rotating the letters worked well enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shaper Studio.<\/strong> The base design was imported as a DXF. The lettering was added using the Text feature. The interior parts of the rose (not shown here) were cut out separately.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I quickly learned that paying attention to the jig used to lay out the optical tape for the router pays off. I try to keep everything coplanar and provide surfaces for moving the tape smoothly. Once a good set of markers is established, I am always stunned at the router’s accuracy and repeatability.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Routing layout.<\/strong> The mahogany veneer is glued to 1\/8 inch baltic birch and is held securely with screws and double-sided tape. The additional panels on top and bottom have been adjusted to be approximately co-planer with the work. Everything is screwed or taped onto the 1\/2-inch MDF underlayment. Optical tape is applied every three inches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The first step is to cut the main layout, which is cut precisely as designed. Offset is added when cutting the ‘puzzle’ pieces to facilitate assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Cutting the main layout.<\/strong> The display is zoomed out <\/span>to show the entire work area. Everything was aligned visually against reference points on the veneer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Completed cutout.<\/strong> The only adjustments needed are to cut the ‘points’ when the inlaid pieces are added.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Double-sided tape keeps the pieces in place, and the through cuts are made. The cut pieces are easily removed by gently lifting them with a small, smooth pry bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next step was to cut out the interior pieces. I used the Shaper Workstation to do this. I learned that adding about 0.005″ inch offset to make these pieces undersized made for easy placement with no sacrifice in appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interior pieces<\/strong> are cut out quickly using the Shaper Workstation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Final Layout.<\/strong> I cut out 12 Zebrawood ring segments so the grain ran roughly parallel to the radial lines. The final result was exquisite. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The next step was new for me and involved cutting the letters directly out of 0.030″ wood veneer with a paper backing. The letters were small, too, especially some of the symbols. I held the veneer with double-sided tape and cut the letters to size. I was impressed at how resilient the cut letters were when removing them from the tape and cleaning the edges. It was much easier than I anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Inlaying the lettering. <\/strong>I used the Shaper Plate to cut a slightly oversized pocket to glue the cut letters. A 0.008-inch offset was about correct for the thinner veneer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The final step was to add the coordinates. I used the original larger design to facilitate cutting the pockets for the individual letters. I was impressed with how accurately I could set up the tool paths using visual references.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adding the coordinates<\/strong>:<\/strong>\u00a0I returned to the larger cutter layout to apply the smaller coordinate letters. I used the N letter to visually align the layout of the work<\/span>. Again, I was impressed at the tool’s accuracy, as the letters aligned perfectly with the original design.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Inlaying work done.<\/strong> Coordinates were added to the ring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Cutting the slightly smaller letters, including the small degree and minute symbol, was no problem. I glued each one in as I cut them. This was, again, much easier than I anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Final with Paduak frame and finished with Monocoat pure and Sheen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The final step was to cut to size and add the outer edge. I used Paduak for this, which I thought made the piece pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celebrating ten years back home at 28\u00b0 19′ N by 80\u00b0 36′ W! This year marks my tenth anniversary of returning home. It’s mind-boggling, really, that it’s been that long, but then again, it’s pretty hard to believe that next year will mark my seventh year of existence here on Mother Earth. As noted elsewhere, … Continue reading “Compass Rose table top”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-8032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-woodworking","tag-woodworking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Compass-Rose.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8032"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8225,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8032\/revisions\/8225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}