Thanks for the photo update. The mahogany looks great.

I'm guessing the underside of the top piece got veneered as well? And the inside of the sides will get painted black... right?

Nah, the underside of the top piece will be black. If you look at the last pic you'll see that I didn't veneer the whole top of the top piece either. After the upper cabinet is assembled only the 3/4" or so around the outside of the riser can be seen. It's just too much work to finish all that area that will never be visible again, so I did a 3" area around the edge. I wasn't worried about the panel cupping, so the bottom will be flat black.

A LOT of this work wouldn't be necessary at all if I was working with Walnut or Cherry or whatever plywood. But if a guy wants something a little different, like Mahogany or Zebrawood or Teak or something that's not commonly available in plywood then he's gotta roll his own, so to speak. Works for me, I'll probably have the only Mahogany Belle on the planet.

busy,busy. got some time to work today, good. start with bassbin, now with stain but no finish. The blue masking tape is to keep the finish off the area where I'm going to glue down the top riser. Some of the other pieces I had to sand the finish carefully so glue could get a good bite.

another view

oops, this is the one I wanted to post.

After getting a couple coats of wipe-on poly on it I set it around on the sidewalk to get some afternoon sun, went back in the garage. After a bit I went back out, late afternoon sunshining in Phx, saw this:

from the porch, quite a looker. a couple walking by enjoying the weather saw it stopped to ask me about it. Their comment:"I thought mahogany was red and real dark."

moving right along, starting on the top riser. These are just 1" strips of the same 3/4" birch plywood. I wanted to do the grain vertical, so the veneer strips are lying there along with the plywood strips. The wood and the veneer are already glued, ready to go. You can barely see the iron at top right.

another view, the veneer is taped together, it's all ready to go.

a little closer. that table saw makes a real nice work table.

riser pieces venerred and trimmed. I left the veneer about 1/2" wide to give a little room for error, trimmed about a quarter inch off each side.

remember that nice neat little workspace I had set in the previous pics? the remains:

oops, bad pic. see next.

right pic---

that's all for now....

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On 10/26/2004 10:42:22 PM Tom Mobley wrote:

oops, this is the one I wanted to post.
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Hmmm... I recognize those taillights but just can't put my finger on it... GM 1970 to 72 range?

BTW... mahogany looks great with that outdoor sun.