Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Christmas Mirror

The final wood shop project this year was a tall dressing mirror for KT.  She did not know I was making it for her, however suspicion was raised by the amount of time it was taking to complete the other projects.

The mirror will be hung on the wall in our bedroom.  It measures 20.5" wide and 60" tall.  The frame is made of curly maple with a walnut inlay. 





(Sidenote... interesting to see how much spherical aberration there is
in this image from the digicam's lens... the sides are actually straight.) 

Obviously, the finish remains to apply.  KT has asked for a natural finish to maintain the contrast being maple and walnut.  The maple is much curlier than I first realized when planing down the rough lumber and I'm sure the finish is going to really bring out the curl.  I'll have to post pictures once the finish is complete and the mirror is hung on the wall.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Christmas Tray

Now a post to share another Christmas project.  This one was a serving tray for KT's sister Jessica.  I did not take pictures of this piece in project but have some nice final pictures of the tray.

First, the wood used to make the serving tray has an interesting story.  A local lumber yard gave me some pieces of packing crate that had been stashed in the upper part of a barn since the early 80's.  The crates were used to ship luan plywood.  They were made of Mahogany.  Nice.  So this project is an example of wood recycling.

The tray is about 13" x 30" with a glass center.  Behind the glass is a piece of fabric.  The fabric can be changed by removing cleats on the back of the tray that hold in a piece of hardboard.  The handles are actually long drawer/door pulls.  The Mahogany was finished with 5 coats of polyurethane varnish.


 
 

 I'm sure Jessica will get some good use out of this tray while entertaining friends and family.

Monday, December 28, 2009

The Christmas Boat

Long time without an update.  I've been busy, tis' the season you know.  Christmas and the making of gifts for people has provided a good break from the bike for me these past couple years.  In the next several posts I'll show what I've been working on, now that the gifts have been given.  I didn't want to risk ruining surprises by posting anything earlier.

First off, I found a set of plans published in Wood Magazine back in 1995 for a "nautical shelf".  KT and I thought this would be a good gift for her parents, as it would look nice in the house her parents are building in White Mountains of New Hampshire.  As I worked on this project I took pictures with my cell phone, so I have a play by play for this gift.

To begin, I prepared Poplar pieces for the back, three shelves, and transom.  In this picture the back is being laid out per the plans.


The back is cut with a 15 degree bevel on its outer edges.  I tilted the base on my jigsaw to make the cuts.


The shelves were cut to width, with 15 degree angles on each end.  The shelves were glued and screwed to the back at their designated heights.


The sides of the boat shelf were laid out with a similar technique to the back.  The shape of the sides will allow it to correctly "wrap" onto the back and shelves.


Prior to attaching the sides I dyed the interior of the shelf.  I figured it would be easier to apply the dye, and sand the subsequently raised grain, while the shelf was in pieces.  The water based dye shouldn't interfere with the glue to be applied.


The sides were wrestled onto the shelf and attached with glues and wood screws driven into the back and shelves.


As can be seen in the above picture, the bow of the boat remained to be closed up after the sides were attached.  I temporarily glued a couple blocks to the outside of the boat so the bow could be pinched together with spring clamps.  An epoxy fillet was applied to the inside of the boat to adhere the sides to each other.


Next step was to fill all the screw holes and begin the sanding process.  It officially looks like a boat now.


Inner and outer gunwales, made of Red Oak, were installed by gluing them to the sides of the boat.  I now understand why you see so many clamps in pictures of boat building shops.


The foredeck, made of Ash was the last piece to be attached.  It was roughly cut to shape on the bandsaw and would be sanded flush with the outer gunwales was the glue dried.


And now the pictures jump ahead to the finishing room.  There was a great deal of sanding between the above and below pictures.  The gunwales were sanded flush with each other along the edge of the sides.  At the front of the boat the sides were sanded into a smooth, rounded bow.  I've never spent so much time with an angle grinder and 80 grit sanding disc as I did on this project.  The gunwales are masked off to apply primer to the back and outer sides of the shelf.


After two coats of primer and sanding between coats, the first coat of black enamel goes on.


Now it's time to focus on the inside.  The black sides are masked off and lacquer was sprayed on the inside and gunwales.  I ended up laying on 6 coats of gloss lacquer.


After drying overnight, I buffed on a couple coats of wax both inside and out.  Here's the finished boat shelf!


 
 

It was a good project and came together as we envisioned.  KT's parents liked the gift and we look forward to seeing it hanging on their wall.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Workin' Like an Elf

How many days until Christmas?  I've been working feverishly down in the wood shop to complete a couple Christmas gifts.  As much as I would like to post some pictures, that could ruin the surprise for a recipient of one of these items.  So, here are some pictures of gifts I made last year.


 Mahogany door mat with inlaid stone.



Turned bottle stoppers.
  

Knife and Kydex sheath.

 

Clock.
  

Box with knife inside.

The knives were a first.  Entertaining to make but a lot of work.  I'd have to make quite a few more to even think about being proficient at it.  I made two Mahogany door mats but only have a picture of the one.  Oh yeah, I made Katie a tall jewelry box too, we do not have any pictures of it.

It was a quite a few projects last year.  I'm not making nearly as many items this year, and I should probably start working on Christmas gift in February to be able to complete everything!

I can say I'm looking forward to two weeks of vacation from work over the holidays.  During this time I expect to break out of these "rest weeks" and get on the bike.  In the meantime, I'll continue making sawdust and breathing finishing fumes.