Mod of the Month - September 2007

Canary Mesa

by Pfaffen
Worklog

Ah, the canary. What a lovely little ----. For those of you who are, like me, really wanting to complete that sentence with "bird", think again... the answer is really "wood." Hey, they both end in D, right?

Canary Wood is a lovely yellow wood with a lot of very rich grains and splashes of red colour. Rather than stained, it's often just given a coat of sealant (poly or an oil, generally) - this helps to show off the myriad of colours in the brilliant veining. It really is a beautiful wood, which is probably why Pfaffen has chosen it for his next table.

I say "table," of course, because that's exactly what it is - a table with a computer built into it. Bored with "traditional" tower-like structure, he's decided to create a table-top PC that's as much attractive furniture as it is a useful computer. How well does he pull it off? Well, let's take a look!


Everyone who's a frequent reader of our Mod of the Month knows what I'm about to say - Plan your mod! Pfaffen has done just that with his project, proving that you don't need to be a master of 3D programs (or even use Sketchup) to have a decent plan.


The project will be created out of two woods - Ebony and Canary. Though it looks like there are three woods in the picture at left, the middle one is freshly cut canary wood and the right is more oxidised with age. The table's pieces would be cut from some longer planks, which got marked up on the right.


With the general cuts done, it was easy to visualise the dimensions that the table will eventually have. A few well-placed mitre cuts later, and the pieces were fitting together perfectly. Well, almost - Pfaffen had to come back with his hand saw a little to clean up the angles due to a slightly unhelpful mitre saw.


The inside edge of each completed piece has been given a rabbet joint (rabbet not rabbit, there are no bunnies here - Ed.) that is designed to hold the glass. The outside edge has been carefully bevelled with help of Pfaffen's table saw, giving the tabletop a feeling of finer furniture.

Overall, this case is shaping up to be another example of fine woodworking in our forums. Of course, there's a lot more where this came from - so you'd best check out Pfaffen's worklog to see what he's up to next.

Of course, if you've seen enough already to know it's as golden as the wood he's using, then vote for it here! Voting closes on October 9th 2007.