Nn

Norminn

19/05/2006 2:32 PM

Building Small Scale Furniture (not dollhouse)

This is a project I have wanted to try for many years. Have done lots
of furniture refinishing, but no building. Fairly familiar with woods
and small, hobby tools. So, first question: If one builds about half
scale, can I use plans for full-scale funiture and halve all the dimensions?

Then, tools: limited budget and space. Is there a table rotary saw that
isn't a monster and can do fine work? Or is a jig saw more suitable?

Anyone know of a source for scaled down router bits?

If anyone knows of good books for the work, I would love to know.
Thanks, and please bear with my amateurish questions :o)


This topic has 7 replies

tt

"tom"

in reply to Norminn on 19/05/2006 2:32 PM

19/05/2006 8:28 AM

Norminn wrote:
> Anyone know of a source for scaled down router bits?
Rockler and Woodcraft have some, too. Tom

Ll

Leuf

in reply to Norminn on 19/05/2006 2:32 PM

19/05/2006 12:39 PM

On Fri, 19 May 2006 14:32:18 GMT, Norminn <[email protected]>
wrote:

>This is a project I have wanted to try for many years. Have done lots
>of furniture refinishing, but no building. Fairly familiar with woods
>and small, hobby tools. So, first question: If one builds about half
>scale, can I use plans for full-scale funiture and halve all the dimensions?

In theory yes, but you may have problems with the joints. Most
furniture is based around 3/4" thick boards. If you half scale that
you have 3/8" boards. The plans might call for a 1/4" tenon, that
would be 1/3 of the thickness. In your scale version that would be
1/8" which is pretty flimsy, and would require a 1/8" mortise,
depending how you do your mortises that might be more difficult to do
than 1/4". So you'd probably want to keep the tenon at 1/4". There
might be other issues like the plans calling for veneered 1/4"
plywood, you may not be able to find 1/8".

So overall yes you can just cut dimensions in half, but then you
should look over everything and apply common sense. There may be
times where technically it should now be 3/8", but you can sneak in
1/2" without screwing up the proportions and makes life easier in
other respects.

>Then, tools: limited budget and space. Is there a table rotary saw that
>isn't a monster and can do fine work? Or is a jig saw more suitable?

A good normal table saw is fine for this type of work. You aren't
likely to be able to find 3/8" lumber. You are either going to have
to plane down 3/4 or 1/2", or resaw 1" lumber. That would require
either a table saw or band saw to do the resawing and a planer.


-Leuf

Gw

Guess who

in reply to Norminn on 19/05/2006 2:32 PM

19/05/2006 11:24 AM

On Fri, 19 May 2006 14:32:18 GMT, Norminn <[email protected]>
wrote:

>This is a project I have wanted to try for many years. Have done lots
>of furniture refinishing, but no building. Fairly familiar with woods
>and small, hobby tools. So, first question: If one builds about half
>scale, can I use plans for full-scale funiture and halve all the dimensions?
>

In a word, yes. Does that not make sense to you? Linear scaling is
proportional; a 2 x 4 will be a 1 x 2.

>Then, tools: limited budget and space. Is there a table rotary saw that
>isn't a monster and can do fine work? Or is a jig saw more suitable?

Half scale isn't that bad. Your ordinary tools would work well for
the most part.

>Anyone know of a source for scaled down router bits?

That's a good question. Use smaller round bits for such where you'd
use a larger. Use only part of the bit, rather than full length.
There is more that can be done by hand rather than by machine with
much smaller parts.

>If anyone knows of good books for the work, I would love to know.
>Thanks, and please bear with my amateurish questions :o)

Library, Lee Valley, ....any usual source: Any books with furniture
dimension, then scale down as in your first question [and answer].

Google [scaled down furniture]. Add [hardware] to the search if
necessary.

Nn

Norminn

in reply to Norminn on 19/05/2006 2:32 PM

19/05/2006 3:52 PM

Guess who wrote:

> On Fri, 19 May 2006 14:32:18 GMT, Norminn <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>>This is a project I have wanted to try for many years. Have done lots
>>of furniture refinishing, but no building. Fairly familiar with woods
>>and small, hobby tools. So, first question: If one builds about half
>>scale, can I use plans for full-scale funiture and halve all the dimensions?
>>
>
>
> In a word, yes. Does that not make sense to you? Linear scaling is
> proportional; a 2 x 4 will be a 1 x 2.
>
That is what MY logic told me, but I've been wrong before :o)

>
>>Then, tools: limited budget and space. Is there a table rotary saw that
>>isn't a monster and can do fine work? Or is a jig saw more suitable?
>
>
> Half scale isn't that bad. Your ordinary tools would work well for
> the most part.
>
My ordinary tools are Dremel rotary, router attachment (new, not tried).
Had a nice Dremel jig saw years ago, but no time for this project.
>
>>Anyone know of a source for scaled down router bits?
>
>
> That's a good question. Use smaller round bits for such where you'd
> use a larger. Use only part of the bit, rather than full length.
> There is more that can be done by hand rather than by machine with
> much smaller parts.
>
>
>>If anyone knows of good books for the work, I would love to know.
>>Thanks, and please bear with my amateurish questions :o)
>
>
> Library, Lee Valley, ....any usual source: Any books with furniture
> dimension, then scale down as in your first question [and answer].
>
> Google [scaled down furniture]. Add [hardware] to the search if
> necessary.
>
Hadn't thought about the hardware yet, glad you mentioned it. Where
there is a will, there is a way :o)

JK

Jim K

in reply to Norminn on 19/05/2006 2:32 PM

21/05/2006 11:37 PM

I don't know how small you want, but Micromark (micromark.com) has a
range of small tools - including a tablesaw that uses 2" blades.


http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Department&ID=62



On Fri, 19 May 2006 14:32:18 GMT, Norminn <[email protected]>
wrote:

>This is a project I have wanted to try for many years. Have done lots
>of furniture refinishing, but no building. Fairly familiar with woods
>and small, hobby tools. So, first question: If one builds about half
>scale, can I use plans for full-scale funiture and halve all the dimensions?
>
>Then, tools: limited budget and space. Is there a table rotary saw that
>isn't a monster and can do fine work? Or is a jig saw more suitable?

dd

"dadiOH"

in reply to Norminn on 19/05/2006 2:32 PM

19/05/2006 3:15 PM

Norminn wrote:

> Anyone know of a source for scaled down router bits?

Dremel Tools has a few.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
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Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico


HS

"Hambone Slim"

in reply to Norminn on 19/05/2006 2:32 PM

19/05/2006 5:22 PM


"Norminn" wrote...
> This is a project I have wanted to try for many years. Have done lots
> of furniture refinishing, but no building. Fairly familiar with woods
> and small, hobby tools.

FWW or some wood rag had an article, IIRC, a few years back about a guy
making scale furniture reproductions. Might have been on the inside back
cover or something like that. I also have a vague recollection of an
article from somewhere about someone who found some salesmans kits from a
furniture manufacturer that had scale samples in it. Might be useful
information in those articles, or leads to people with experience with this.
A dollhouse shop would be an excellent place to stop and shop for leads,
too.

A simple tool I would earnestly recommend to your consideration is a
proportional divider. It's a divider with points on both ends, and a
sliding adjustable pivot point. With these any good photograph with one
given dimension is as good as a measured drawing.

Those little router bits they sell through Woodworkers, rockler etc. are
nifty - I've got a tiny classical bit and it's real nice -

gotta go, my niece says I have to get back to work.





--
Timothy Juvenal
www.rude-tone.com/work.htm


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