Building a Walnut Pedestal with Backlit Onyx using LEDs

After installing the floating walnut vanity with live edge backsplash  the plumber came by and did his thing.  It was at this point that the client realized they didn’t like the seeing the pipes under the vanity.  We came up with a pedestal design to hide the plumbing.  The builder picked up a piece of onyx that was the same kind as the sink and I went to work incorporating it into the design.

I started out cutting all the parts to their rough length, milling them and using dominos for alignment during glue up.

As always I took care when selecting the boards so the joint between boards blends away.

I double stick tapped the sides together so when I cut them they will be an exact match.  Whenever I double stick tap boards together I first put down blue table to act as a release.  This makes it much easier to get the pieces apart, and I don’t have any tape residue to scrape off.

I use my homemade track saw to cut the angle for the front of the pedestal.  I do drink the green kool aid from time to time so I plan on investing in a Festool track saw very soon.

We needed a way to reach the shut off valves in case of a water leak, and also to pass final inspection.  I used my radial arm saw to cut a 45 degree angle across the bottom back corner so you would be able to access the shut off valves.

I used a protractor Angle Finder to find the angle for the front trim to support the onyx, and the incra miter gauge to cut it accurately

This trim will go all the way around the front to support and frame the onyx.

To match the angle on the rip cut for the bottom I used the cut off from the trim to set the angle on the table saw.

I’m sure there will be some YouTube trolls that will lose their minds because I used a domino.  I save my hand cut Joinery for the visible parts and the domino when I need to be efficient or fit a project into a customer’s budget.  Hand cut Joinery and domino joinery are two different charges.

Onyx is extremely brittle, one little bump and it could break.  It is especially fragile along a fracture line.  This one has a  big a big fracture in it going from Top right to middle bottom left.

To hold the onyx in place I used some thin strips of wood to act as stops. Just like you would use as a glass stop in an old window.

On the job site we used some strip LEDs to back light the onyx.  The transformer is screwed to the underside of the vanity and used to light both the pedestal and sink.