Jay Scott has a very elaborate project finished and shares the story with us.
Infinity Table
I could write a novel for the description of this build, but I won’t. The shot version is that all of the wood turning involved, including the finishing, went perfectly to begin with. As the other materials, including reflective films, resin, mirrors and electronics let me down, I realized this project was never going to be of the quality that I would be willing to sell it. There are just far too many little errors that I know of to feel good about selling it so it now has a spot in my office where a vacancy has existed, since Kiwi passed away.
Following that realization, some meticulousness in finishing was missing and it’s unfortunately visible where the deep purple finish wore off the high spots when I applied wax. It needed additional coats of finish. Because of this the effect under black light is not quite as spectacular as I’d hoped. But, the turning was perfect with precision I’d yet to achieve, fitting glass, electronics and acrylic in the confined spaces.
I learned a lot about working with different materials and know what I would, or will, do differently next time. I tried to tell myself simply that when it was finished I would have a table, whether it illuminated and worked the way I expected or not. I exceeded that so I’ll call it a win.
The piece is 310mm x 575mm (12×23″), made of hard maple, turned in 3 pieces and then laminated together. All of it was turned and sanded to 600 grit, sealed with shellac, painted with black with a few drops of neon purple acrylic paint, which was topped with a coat of acrylic transparent medium and blue ice mica powder to provide a shimmer for the top coat. That was polished with Yorkshire Grit products. The final touch was a mixture of beeswax and carnauba wax. The top of the table was sealed with resin to create a smooth transition between the wood and transparent top.
Here is a link to a short video looking at the piece in place.
