Life's a Birch ... with a Cherry top.

[Kerry Drake]

Monday my beautiful wife and I went to Goose Bay Lumber to pick out lumber for the top of the built in. I wanted something a little thicker than you find at a big box store, so we were looking for 6/4 material (that's 1 1/2" thick to you lay folk).

We ended up with 3 nice pieces of Cherry all 10 feet long, 2 pieces about 7 inches wide and one 4" (25 board feet). Here is it stacked up on the work bench:

Here's a nice shot of some the grain showing on one of the pieces:

While were there I also wanted to find some wood for a shaker table project I am doing for the Woodworkers Fighting Cancer march build-along. For everyone who signs up and completes the project, money will be raised for the American Cancer Society.

Here is a sketch-up of the table:

I had originally thought to make this out of white birch (the New Hampshire state tree), but found white birch to unsuitable for such a thing (or so the guy at goose bay told me), and ended up buying 13 Board Feet of Yellow Birch instead.

The large piece is going to make up the top, back and sides of the table and it has a "flame" pattern in it (costing me another 1.05 per board foot of that particular piece):

Now in my minds eye I see an inlay in the top of the table. Nothing too fancy, really just a square frame of darker wood to give the piece a little extra pop. To that end I did buy a nice piece of Ebony, 2 1/4" wide and 24" long (another $10):

Hopefully I have the guts and talent to pull the inlay off. I know HOW to do it, but the chances of screwing up my nice "Flame" top are not insignificant!

[Russ Scheer]

Great cause Kerry and thanks. Now you've got me looking into the wood wisperer guild. Go for it, it sounds like you just need a nudge. When I did my first bit of inlay, I learned from an old shipwright. He suggested "start heavy, go fine". What he meant was if you can make the cuts then use trimming and face sanding to fine tune the surface. As you be come more confident you will be able to use finer and finer materials, which translates into less waste and cost. Be prepared to do some chisel work for fitting. Doing the inlay is a simple skill what can be lacking in the confidence to proceed. Might I suggest practicing on some plywood to get a feel for the needs of when your trying to "push one piece of wood into another"haha. One warning, ebony does not "move" very much as does other woods like your cherry, I would think keeping your inlay as thick as possible would help prevent any cracking , splitting or seperation as the woods dry or expnad/contract during the seasons. But someone with more experience may have a suggestion. And again try a test and go for it.

[KregRep]

Kerry, I want to thank you personally for sharing this project on the Kreg Jig Owners' Community. This is a great project, for an amazing cause, and I hope this story spreads far through the woodworking world! I will be promoting this through our Facebook/Twitter pages accordingly... Thanks again.