Recently, John Dunkley gave an excellent demonstration on making a table
lamp stand. I believed this was within my skill level, and after talking to
him about it, he kindly gave me some Banksia timber cut to size for the stand
and base, as well as lending me the demonstration model as a guide.
My wife
admired John's finished product and declared she needed two lamp stands for
the bedroom. This presented a challenge as clearly, accurate measurement and
some kind of template/guide would be necessary if my first effort was to be
duplicated.
The material selected for a template should be steel, aluminum,
hard plastic, or something similar, if it is to be durable. However, I chose
a piece of MDF 520mm, by 110mm, and 3mm thick, with a machined straight edge.
I measured the height of the stand from where it entered the base, to the top, ( 340 mm ), and transferred this measurement to the straight edge of the MDF. Using a steel ruler, I then measured the vertical distance from the base, to each high and low point (beads and coves) and marked this progressively along the straight edge, 12mm, 20mm, 28mm, 36mm etc. - 18 marks in all. Bob Morrison suggested I mark each of these points with a small V groove, using a three cornered file. When the straight edge of the template is placed on a tool rest, the point of a thin marking awl or pencil can be held accurately and pushed gently against the rotating wood, leaving a scribed line or pencil mark on the timber. At each V groove, I used a steel square placed along the straight edge to draw a horizontal pencil line. A vernier caliper was used on the model to measure the diameter of each of the 18 high and low points. The eighteen measurements were each halved, measured and marked from the straight edge at each appropriate horizontal point.
It was further suggested that parting through to each high and low point could be achieved accurately and quickly by making a series of bridges, cut out of the same MDF, representing the six different high and low points. Moving from smallest to largest and numbered 1 to 6, these numbers were transferred to the relevant locations on the template, representing distances of 30mm, 34mm, 38mm, 46mm, 52mm and 62mm respectively, from the straight edge (half the diameter at each point) The inside corners of each bridge at the opening, were filed to a sharp edge so they would fit into a narrow cut at each high and low point. This made gauging the correct depth very easy.
The outside marks on each horizontal line were then joined with a smooth flowing pencil line to give a pleasing silhouette or outline of the lamp stand. Had I been making many of these lamp stands, I would have cut an outline of the two main curves on a smaller piece of MDF. Instead I relied on reasonable judgement.
The round, five-tiered base, was marked in a similar way on the bottom of the template. Half the diameter at the top was 41mm and at the bottom 80mm, with an overall height of 43mm.
Having given the original model back to John before starting the project, I was forced to work entirely from my template and marking guide. I was pleased with the first lamp stand and the duplicate is shaping up well against the original.
