Mark Dunning describes building his Corona Cabinet
After years working as a landscaper, tree surgeon and telecoms engineer, I finally decided to take my passion for woodwork to the next level and enrol on a fine furniture making course. After visiting a few studios I settled on Waters & Acland in the Lake District and on completion of their set piece exercises, I set about designing a piece of furniture that had been playing on my mind for years. The space it would occupy was the entrance hall in our family home and it needed to fulfil a very particular brief; striking but not overpowering, and also functional. I like the clean lines of Shaker style and the timeless appeal of quality materials paired with good craftsmanship.
With more than a little guidance from Will Acland (head designer at W&A) I started to develop drawings that enabled me to discount as many unsatisfactory ideas as it revealed better ones, before finally settling on a sunburst pattern to cover the entire front elevation. This design is often seen on small objects such as jewellery boxes or on interior surfaces to create impact, so to have it on such a large scale would make for an eye-catching piece.
Design dilema
With any piece of furniture designed for a specific purpose there will be a range of compromises where aesthetics compete with functionality. My dilemma was to decide on whether the drawers formed part of the façade or were better off located behind doors. I opted for the latter. The next stage of the design process and part of my training, was to begin work transferring my sketches into CAD drawings; an invaluable exercise to generate and become familiar with the overall dimensions. The final step was to produce a series of full size cardboard shapes to gauge how the finished piece would sit in the space it was intended to occupy.
I already had an idea of the timber I wanted to use for each part of the piece and spent hours picking out the finest boards I could find at the timber yard. Consistency in the character of the grain and colour were all qualities that I felt would help to achieve the look I was after. And with the boards chalked up and rough cut
they were set aside to adjust to the conditions of the workshop.
Legs to stand on
From the outset, head tutor Graham Loveridge encouraged me to work to tenths of a millimetre when preparing stock, which resulted in plenty of tweaking along the way before arriving at a complete set of components.
Starting out with this degree of accuracy makes the steps that follow that much easier. I started by making the legs. These are 40mm in diameter and I produced them on a router table using a 20mm roundover bit. I left a 100mm of square stock on each end to use as a point of reference for the next stage. The router cutter generates a lot of machine marks so the legs were placed on a lathe afterwards to be sanded smooth. I then made a jig to use on the spindle moulder to cut a 6mm-wide groove that would accommodate the sides and back. After that, a 90° flat surface was machined on the back legs and an angle surface on the front legs to match the shape of the bow. The back, sides and base were selected from pre-veneered sheets of walnut-faced MDF. The exposed edges were then lipped with solid walnut.
The top and doors
The top was made from boards of 22mm-thick pre-veneered walnut MDF. The lower part was smaller in size than the top and designed as a frame fastened with Dominos. The lippings were also attached with Dominos, including the mitred corners. Although the joints were clean I decided to use this line to place a 6mm-wide maple inlay. The groove was cut with a hand-held router before the edge profile was applied to ensure the router had the maximum amount of support possible. Levelling off the inlay was a tense moment as the veneer was only 0.6mm thick. Nothing that a well-tuned block plane can’t handle though. The final stage in making the tops was to add the profile to the edge. This was carried out on the router table.
The doors were made by laminating four sheets of flexi ply over a former in a vacuum bag press. The edges were again lipped with solid timber before shooting to an exact fit within their respective carcass openings.
Working the curves
The best thing about generating CAD drawings is that you have the ability to produce full-size templates and rods for use in the making process; things that would otherwise take hours to make and perhaps even be less than accurate. I called on the services of a local CNC operator to produce a series of male and female templates that would allow me to use a bearing guided router to cut all the curved components, including those used to make a former for laminating. This technique is particularly useful to produce lippings for a curved edge.
Sunburst style
The sunburst is a design that’s been used for hundreds if not thousands of years to depict the sun, either symbolically or simply for decoration. It consists of lines radiating perpendicularly from a central point. Sometimes the whole circle is shown, sometimes a half circle. Earlier forms are likely to be more literal in their construction as the lines get narrower as they extend away from the centre. Later interpretations often show the rays getting wider.
Creating the corona
For consistency of grain and colour I provided the veneer supplier with a sample of the solid timber I had been using for the lippings. They were able to provide a good choice of sequentially matched veneer. It worked out I needed 24 wedges in order to create the full circle of the corona and from there I made another jig to sandwich a few leaves at a time to cut with a flush cutting bit in the router. To prepare the leaves for pressing onto the doors the individual leaves were glued along their edge before taping together. Running the tape in a zigzag pattern across the joins helps to even out the tension and keep the shape flat. I chose SOSS concealed hinges to hang the doors which allowed me to get an almost seamless gap around them. They’re not the easiest hinges to fit especially on a curved door but well worth the effort. The final stage was to make the single handle on the lathe before splitting it in two and fastening one half on each of the doors.
The finish line
Four coats of Danish oil were then applied to the cabinet with vigorous buffing in-between each coat. More were applied to the doors to create extra shine and depth to the finish. The internal parts received fewer coats and the drawer linings were given a coat of clear wax.
I learned a tremendous amount from this process and not just the skills to build a fine piece of furniture. The cabinet now sits in my hallway and to see it every day fills me with pride. It’s my first real piece and gives me the inspiration to move on to bigger and better things.
