Portable podium for Holy Spirit church – part 1

I have another interesting project for Holy Spirit Church. This project is for their school. They want three portable podiums with internal shelving and a laptop shelf on the side. This is the design that I proposed: HSC podium.pdf.

I picked up a load of 8′ long kiln dried 4/4 red oak, and got started milling it down to 3/4″ thick for this project. These boards are 10″ wide and larger.

The boards are pretty flat already so I can just start running them through the planer to get them down to size. If they were twisted, I would have to cut them roughly to length and joint one face first.

I planed down nine boards to start with and clamped them flat until I was ready to start working with them.

The front panel is over 18″ wide. I was a bit concerned about expansion and contraction of the panel and I don’t want it to warp or crack over time. I decided to keep it stable, this piece would have to be plywood. I picked up some 1/2″ thick red oak plywood and cut it down to size.

I will be laser engraving the school logo on the front of each of these panels so I laid out the center point of the engraving on each.

The engraving is sized to fit within the laser’s capacity, unfortunately, the board does not. I had to remove a front foot from the laser and slide the board in from the side. Since the top of the laser weighs over 200 lbs., this can be a bit of a challenge…

Once the board was set in place and the right speed and power settings were determined, I started engraving the first one.

I had to set the power to maximum and slow the laser down to burn deep enough to get through the veneer and first glue layer. This leaves me with a good, dark engraving. Each one took about 2-1/2 hours,

While those were engraving, I started working on the sides of the podiums. I need to join two boards to get a piece wide enough to cut out one side. To make the boards more manageable, I cut them roughly to size. So that the grain and color matched for each side, both pieces came from the same board. I paired them and marked them so that the grain ran in the same direction.

The edges are still rough from the saw mill so I ran one side along the jointer, then cut the opposite side parallel on the table saw. I ran the sawn edge along the jointer as well so that both edges were perfectly smooth for joining.

I used my planer sled to make sure both ends were cut 90° perpendicular to the sides.

Then it was time to start gluing… I ran a thin bead of glue along the joint edge and used a silicone brush to spread it thin and evenly.

All of the sides were glued up and left to dry for about an hour before I pulled the clamps and left them to continue to cure.

I was careful to keep the faces as flush as possible. I still needed to sand the joint to make sure they were all smooth. I used 100 grit paper and sanded the entire surface. I will come back later at a higher grit before finishing.

On each panel, I marked out the least desirable corner. This will be the area that gets cut off later.

As the laser engravings are finished, I also sand their surfaces. This removes the slight smoke haze that accumulates around the engraved lines.

The panels are done after a long day.

To get the sides to their final shape, I have to lay out the first one. Once cut out, it will become the pattern to lay out the other five. I can easily lay out the straight lines, but I have to get creative to lay out the curved section.

For the angled cut, along the top, I use my track saw.

For the long straight line, I do a stopped cut on the table saw.

The curve, once again, is a bit tricky.

I have to cut half of the curve from one side, then turn the board and cut the other half from the opposite end. This could also be done with a jigsaw, but I find the bandsaw more reliable, even if it is a bit awkward.