Cut, flip, cut again, bookmatch and ... Wait, what? I lost you.

For the past 5 days (nights?) at school, we've been working on a veneering project. What is that? I'm too lazy to explain. Here is the definition of that term. It was a really fun project but depending on what you're doing, it could easily drive you up the walls. That nearly happened to me. Nearly. To prevent that from happening, I looked on over to the hot chick from the other group and struck a conversation before getting back into the grind. Works every time! =D

So the project we're veneering is actually a tabletop. A while back, I designed a set of legs and rails (aprons, skirts, that strip of wood that connects the legs together) during my drafting course. The tabletop was to be designed at a later time. Like ... now. With only a day's notice (and the weekend), I had to come up with a geometric design, no organic shapes allowed. To the uninitiated, that means no curves. As you all know, I'm a genius (total retard) when it comes to designs. Therefore, I asked the uber talented Pauline if I could use one of the logos she had designed before. I actually had to modify it but she gave me her permission. Or rather, I traumatized her into giving me permission. *Note to self: keep Man Faye in reserve for desperate times*

Anyway, I tried to take photos as I was going along but it's not always easy. Sometimes, you're just so absorbed in your work to even think about drinking or going to the washroom, let alone taking a photo. Or there are those times when I'm too distracted by that hot chick walking by/talking to me.


This first photo that you see is the underside of the tabletop. One of the rules of veneering is that what you do to one side must be done to the other. Why? To prevent the board from warping. What you see there is a 4-way diamond point match on a bookmatch background. Oh and it's under a thin layer of veneer tape. Those terms don't mean anything to you? That's okay. They didn't mean anything to me either until I actually sat down and stared at my veneer for a good 15 minutes. Then it hit me. Following that, I acted dumb and asked for help. From the hot chick, of course.



This one here is ... Wait ... Oh right, that's the logo that Pauline concocted, which I modified and adapted for this project. You probably don't see much since it's under layers and layers of tape. How many layers? I don't even know myself. All I know is that it took me about an hour to remove all the masking tape. Too much? Maybe but when it comes to veneering, the term "overcautious" doesn't apply because ... well, you simply -can't- be. If that logo moved so much as 1/64 of an inch while I was cutting out the shape on that layer underneath, I would have been screwed. Royally. Oh and this is actually the top of the tabletop.


This third one is taken after I finally managed to tear off all that masking tape. WOO! CELEBRATION! Actually, I can't remember if that's the back or the front. ...Now I remember. This is -after- the veneer tape has been removed. Now THAT was a royal pain in the butt. The masking tape took me an hour. This took me another hour. ...With a sponge and a freakin' paint scraper. >_< But yeah, that's what the modified logo looks like. Notice how the edges are kind of darker? That's because I burned them. ... On purpose. I was quite tempted to see if I could set them on fire but that would mean another 3 hours of painstakingly cutting out the individual shapes. In the end, I resisted the urge. Barely. Mind you, I would have rather preferred to make it as close to the actual design as possible but given the limited amount of time we had, I decided to opt for something simpler. This still took me most of Tuesday.



This next one is of the tabletop again, after I've rounded over the edges of the top. Did I mention that this is actually for my nephew? No? Well now you know. It's for my nephew, hence the rounded edges. I don't want him running around his own place and poking his eye out on the corner of the table that his uncle built for him. Boy would that leave a lasting impression. =\



Remember that first picture? The one will all the tape? This is how it looks like with the tape removed and all. Nice, eh? Of course it's nice. It's designed by yours truly. Oh fine, I got lucky and managed to get my hands on some good veneer. Sheesh, will you stop trying to burst my bubble at every turn? Give a guy some room, will you?

Anymoo, that's it for tonight.

What? You want more? I'm sorry but my awesomeness DOES have its limits. Let me get some rest and I'll amaze you some more tomorrow.

Careful you don't fall into the bowl when you get up for a midnight pee. Or whenever it is you pee in the middle of the night.