how could i make this?

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bennyG19

Joined
Sep 22, 2007
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my wife (an interior designer) saw me playing in the yard working on some walking sticks and told me she had an idea for me. she told me about some little piece of furniture she saw that costs like $5,000.

http://www.hudsonfurnitureinc.com/pdf/single/Endtables_Birch_Pedestal.pdf

it should be easy enough to find some sticks, but how in the crap is this thing held together?

sorry if this is the wrong forum, but i figured this is the best place to ask.
 
My guess is siliconed together,then wire around the main mass.The outside sticks could be glued on afterwards..
 
ok, i'm going to be blunt here. They want $5000 for that? dude, all theyve done is cut sticks to length, and bonded them with thick epoxy resin, then ground the top and bottom flat and smooth. MAYBE 2 hours tops to make it.
 
Easiest way would be to glue sticks around a circular cardboard concrete form. You need a solid top, and you can glue ~1" tall sticks to the top. Probably want to varnish the sticks to keep the bark from peeling. Finish by sanding the top level.

Slightly more difficult would be to make it all sticks, and bind it together with some sort of epoxy resin. That would make for a very solid, and very heavy, table. There would be some skill in making sure the resin didn't leak out or show on the outside.
 
Stick all the sticks in a 5 gallon pail. Lay the pail on its side and glue the sticks together. Heck that is what they did and then trimmed them off even, and sand them.

I would be very careful with the first row against the pail as that is where the glue could leak through, but if you apply a little common sense with the glue, you will be fine. As someone else stated, maybe a fast drying epoxy for the first row would be in order.
 
Bushman5 said:
ok, i'm going to be blunt here. They want $5000 for that? dude, all theyve done is cut sticks to length, and bonded them with thick epoxy resin, then ground the top and bottom flat and smooth. MAYBE 2 hours tops to make it.
Click to expand...

they may want $5,000, but i'm not giving it to them. my wife even knows that's ridiculous. i'm not the craftiest fella in the world, but i figure this will give me something to do when i'm bored.
 
bennyG19 said:
it should be easy enough to find some sticks, but how in the crap is this thing held together?
Click to expand...

Looks to me like each exterior stick has a nail in it, top and bottom. Getting all those nails to line up to something sturdy w/o splitting the wood would be tricky and labor intensive.

If I were going to do it, I'd use some of the other approaches suggested here (glue, resin, inner core concealed by veneer layer top, bottom and side). In fact, that may be how the manufacturer did it. For 5 grand, they better have done it the hard way.
 
What if you cut all your sticks to length and treated them in some way. Then line them all up and attach them together with wire or something. Basically make something you could just roll up. Then you wouldn't have to mess with glue and such. You might have to attach the outer sticks using some other method.

You'd sort of weave them together like a bamboo curtain. Probably a hell of a lot easier than attaching each individual stick. This might require the sticks to somewhat uniform in size, but maybe not.
 
They're nailed. Look closely. You can see the nails. I would guess its a facad. The outside ring is nailed to a round form. Then the top is filled with sticks, glue poured in and sanded.
 
You can see the filled nail holes in the outer layer so I'm guessing that the inner sticks are haphazardly nailed and glued together and then a nice even layer of sticks attached to the final outside. I wouldn't mess with epoxy or resin as you'd want a nice open end to the thing. The "trick" is getting your core nice and evenly round, if you had a bucket to arrange them in that'd be a good way to go.

You'd need to gather winter sticks and gently age/dry them for a year or so to prevent splitting and de-barking and then find a system for truing/squaring up the final table. $5000 is obtuse, but $500 wouldn't be out of line IMHO. I'm guessing actual labor time closer to 5 hours, more like eight or ten the first time.

J-
 
City slickers with money to burn buy crap like that, I laugh every time I go in someone's house and see their' designer' furniture, (insert jerkit smilie here).

They could just resin the main lot, and then glue on the outers to finish. Spent enough time in a woodshop before respirators were recommended, cough, hack.....
 
Held together with the same thing that it is finished with - most likely a poly acrylic resin, aka super glue. Probably an industrial type that is cured with a 'kicker' which is a chemical that starts/speeds the curing process.

That way you can dip all the sticks, bind them together, then spray on the kicker and have it all set up in no time. Then you remove the binding, trim and sand the ends, and touch up the finish at the ends. Presto.
 
After looking at that thing again, I think your biggest problem is not building it, but cutting the top and bottom square. I mean there is no reference point of square or true that you can line up and say this is my bench mark to make it true and square to the world on both ends. I have a feeling it will sit at a slant on the floor or even rock back and forth.

I went and looked at a 5 gallon pail and there is no way that will work either as they are tappered.

I think if you went and got a section of SONOTUBE that would be perfect. Now you can fill the tube with sticks and glue and since the tube can be laid on its side, a band saw and cut the tube and sticks in one shot and now you have two surfaces that are true to your floor and the world.

Once you have the two surfaces square, and sanded, remove the tube, and you can then nail or add onto the outside anything you want. You have he main surface on both ends already established so making the new pieces you nailed on flush with the main surface should be easy to do.

SONOTUBE is very strong stuff and is used to make concrete pillars up to 36'' in diameter, and 20 feet long. To hold that much concrete, they have to be strong. I believe you would be able stuff that form full and tight with sticks and maintain the round form you are looking for.

http://www.sonotube.com
 
My Mum has a small table like that, its a bit more "rustic" looking but pretty much the same. I made it for her out of some young cherry trees i removed from an estate that was being renovated after years of neglect, any hoo !

I bound the inner bundle together with wire then notched the sticks for the outer layer and hooked them on to the wire i used to binde the inner bundle. It also has a bit of wicker wrap right at the bottom to help keep it all together, its held up quite well, although the wood did warp a bit since it was uncured at the time of use.

It was in the garage for about 6 months before being brought into the house but it clearly wasnt long enough.
 
It may be nailed or it may have dowels running thru it, but definitely a lot of epoxy and a little sanding, wow 5000 bucks --- crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Gee an old oatmeal container, glue and clamp it all together with some ratchet straps. Kind of a summer camp project only they didn't use popcicle sticks. maybe you could trim it in a big bandsaw or large chopsawand the other end trim paralelle to the other end not the side. Pat
 
I woud use some barrel rings or cut rings from a five gallon bucket, then leave the rings on. It would look a little different but would still be unique.
 
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