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by:
Paul Lewis
photos: Bert Klassen
illustration: Len Churchill |
PRAIRIE LANTERN |
| This
beautiful lantern features hundred-year-old reclaimed redwood
and elegant copper panels |
There’s one thing I love about wood that’s always missing from
Canadian Home Worksop. It’s something best experienced up close,
in the workshop. What’s missing from these pages is the smell
of wood. Nothing, in my mind, beats the clean resinous scent
of newly cut pine. Or the warm, slightly spicy smell of cedar.
And the wood for this project has a smell like no other.
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| This
project augments the natural beauty of its surroundings.
After a few years, the copper will acquire its trademark
green patina |
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| CLICK
ABOVE FOR BIGGER IMAGE |
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A hundred years ago, a redwood tree in California was logged
and milled, and some of its wood was made into a giant vat.
For decades after, this vat stored and aged California red wine.
When the vat was no longer usable, its boards were carefully
removed and the wood reclaimed. I saw some for sale at Timeless
Materials, an architectural salvage company in Heidelberg, Ont.
When I smelled this wood—and the wine that was steeped into
it—I knew I had to use it for something special.
So I designed an outdoor lantern,
inspired by the Prairie Style of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Prairie Style is a close cousin of Mission Style, with the same
clean lines, rectilinear forms and solid construction. But Prairie
Style-inspired furniture is lighter and more delicate than Mission,
and the biggest difference is in what their designers wanted
the world to see. Mission furniture uses construction details—such
as through tenons, protruding pegs and massive support brackets—as
visible design elements. Prairie designers kept the construction
method, especially the joints, subtly hidden from view.
Wright was a stubborn perfectionist,
and always used the best materials, so he would probably appreciate
that I used such special wood for a project he inspired. Of
course, there’s not much of this wonderfully fragrant wood to
be had, so for everyone else I recommend cedar.
Start by dressing all stock to
1" thickness. The wood I used began as 1 1/8"- to 1 1/4"-thick
material, perfect for planing down for the frame and panel parts
I needed—though I did have to glue several pieces to make stock
for the legs and the peak block.
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| Start With the Sides |
While
the laminations are drying, prepare the rails, stiles, and mullions.
The plans show how the centre rails and mullions need dados
for the half-lap joints that connect them. Scribe lines on the
mullion using the sides of the centre rail as a guide, then
make a series of crosscuts between these lines and halfway through
the mullions using a dovetail saw. Clean out the waste with
a sharp 1" chisel, then repeat the process to mark and prepare
dados in the centre rails. You could make the dados with repeated
passes across your table saw, but I find this method faster
to set up, plus it gives me the chance to use hand tools in
my woodworking.
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| Pinch
dogs always work in a pinch if you run out of clamps.
Here they work to secure a joint after the clamp
has been removed |
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After cutting all the rails, stiles and mullions to length,
dry-fit each side frame on a flat surface before gluing. Polyurethane
glue requires moisture to cure properly, so have a small spray
bottle of water on hand to dampen mating surfaces. To glue up
all four sides at the same time, you’ll need 12 clamps capable
of spanning the width of each panel. My clamp supply came up
short (there are never enough), so I enlisted the help of pinch
dogs. The picture above shows a dog keeping the curing joint
secure after the clamp has been removed. I also used small squares
of plywood to keep each assembly square. Holes in the plywood
allow clamps to pull everything into alignment. All of the perimeter
joints are just butt joints at this stage. For strength, biscuits
will be plunged into the assembled joints later, after the glue
has cured.
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| Make the Legs |
To
square up the laminated leg stock use a jointer to mill two
adjoining faces 90° to each other, then rip the stock slightly
oversized and plane it to 1 1/2" x 1 1/2". The angle on the
top of each leg can be made with a compound mitre saw or tablesaw
set to cut 18° from square in both vertical and horizontal planes.
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| Building the Roof |
Square
up the stock for the peak block as you did the legs, then cut
the bottom end square. To make the angles on the top, tilt your
compound mitre saw or tablesaw blade 30° from square, then make
repeated cuts around the end, rotating 90° for each. This will
form the point you need. The 3/8"-deep x 3/8"-wide channel around
the perimeter of the peak block is made to accept the top of
the copper panels that form the roof. Use a tablesaw (with blade
still set 30° from square) to cut a series of overlapping kerfs
starting 2 3/8" from the block’s bottom end until you have the
width you need. Cut the rafter support blocks and glue one to
each side of the peak block, bottom ends flush.
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| A
standard outdoor fixture is mounted to the roof.
Simply cut the receptacle end off an outdoor extension
cord for a power supply |
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Next come the rafters. Cut your stock to size, then prepare
a 1/2"-deep saw kerf on each edge before trimming both ends
of each rafter to a 60° bevel. Once the glue on the rafter support
blocks has cured, you can attach the rafters. Glue the end of
each rafter to the top surface of the support block and fasten
with 2" finishing nails into predrilled holes. I sat the peak
block on a 4 x 4 to hold it high enough to lift the rafter tails
above my bench. Now, find a spot for the delicate roof assembly
to dry undisturbed.
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| PART
1 | PART 2 |
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