Audio-visual adventure.

Sam Blasco

Member
Messages
359
Location
Smithville, TX
Been awhile since I posted anything new... 'Course, working part time at this, it has been awhile since I've been able to finish anything. Got lots of stuff started, though, and they all reside in the "Museum of Unfinished Projects." Neat place. If you get a chance, definitely check it out.

This one started as a trade show goof-off, made a walnut and cocobolo arch using only -- you guessed it -- a bandsaw. It was basically two posts of walnut, interlocked with a crossing piece that used wedge keys to hold the joints in place. The keys were left proud and notched to receive and hold the cocobolo arch. My donated chunk of cocobolo was stolen overnite and that's all that remains of it. You can see it here in the background on a table with some more trade show goof offs.

TradeShowGoofs02.jpg


Like I said, that was just a jumping off point. Since we don't have cable or watch much TV I wanted something that would prove a meditative presence without having to hide the TV or components, but rather make them part of the design, not just in the design. I chose lumber which was harvested locally by a mill near Austin. They weren't sure anyone would want that much in the way of spalted planks from the same tree for furniture parts and they made me a very reasonable deal to take them off their hands. That was the pecan. The mesquite on the other hand was not what I would call reasonable (about the cost of good cherry,) except that any planks over 6' long are apparently rare. "Well then, let me have them, too," I said.

Even though it was kiln dried, I let the timbers acclimate for three months before I so much as looked at them again. I wanted the many flaws to finish going where they were going. As for the spalting... I did my best to deal with it, and more than a few times pieces would just fall apart in my hands or break in half while cutting. These incidences were all forks in the road that I kept choosing and following merrily along. And keeping in form, like most of my sketches, the project took on a life of its own and ended up designing itself and allowing the cheap laborer to figure out how to put it all together.

Adhesive of choice was epoxy, exept for the background bookmatch (good old Titebond III for that one.) I also used epoxy with tint and wood flour to fill flaws and voids, and thinned epoxy to soak into the most vunerable and punky spots in an attempt to stabilize certain areas. The finish was some streaky staining to enhance the existing flaws, mineral bands and evidence of bugs. Top coat was sprayed conversion varnish, sanded to satin.

One other bizarre fact -- my mesquite tree bottoms (used for the TV base, and two others for another project yet to come) needed to be tented to get rid of the termites who decided to poke their loving heads thru after cutting into their homes. I put the pieces in a sealed plastic bag with a cup of chlorine for a week. Haven't seen them since, so hopefully it worked.

For those who decide it is worth looking at the slideshow you will see the lock miter involved in putting the posts together, some long slider work with my parallel jig, some shaper work, extension tables on my already big jointer, and as always, some tantalizing bandsaw work.

http://s115.photobucket.com/albums/n313/postcromag/TV Shrine/

If not here's some pics of the completed piece, daylight and nightlight versions.


AVCenterDay.jpg

AVCenterNite.jpg

Questions, comments encouraged...

:wave:
 
Hi Sam.

Absolutely stunning! it honours its name, and it does convey the idea.
( Although I do not worship TV:D)

There is only one thing that disturbs me a bit. the small square piece below the TV support.

BTW I've tried to watch the slideshow and can only see the thumbnails, any clue what is wrong with my PC?

I want to look closely and learn more,m then I'll come back with more comments, if I'm able to watch it.

Thanks for posting
 
Excellent work as always, Sam. Absolutely beautiful. :bow:

Ya know, I'd think with all the nice tools you've got, you wouldn't have such a hard time keeping things square. Tod Evans seems to have the same problem. :rofl:

Toni, are you clicking on the view as slideshow link on Sam's Photobucket page?
 
Excellent work as always, Sam. Absolutely beautiful. :bow:

Toni, are you clicking on the view as slideshow link on Sam's Photobucket page?

Hi Vaughn, yes I am, and the slideshow starts but images don't show up, only the small icon with the red "X". I've tried to right click on them and choose the "show image" option but it doesn't work, most problably it has to do with some configuration problem but I do not know which.

Any clue from any of the PC gurus around??
 
Sam, that is really an amazing piece, and then the WIP pics really show the craftsmanship.

My lovely wife just had a look at it, and she said "WOW!!!" :D

Thanks for sharing that!

Toni, check and see if the "Java Scripts" are enabled on your browser........ :dunno:

Rob Durfos, Welcome to the Family!

Now tell us a story about that BIG log and dog in you avatar! :D :wave:
 
Sam


Fantastic design and work! Thanks for taking the time to take all the pics, the slide show is great.

Jay
 
the log is deodar cedar that we used for wall peneling and chest lining.as for shadow, she's one of my four 'log dogs'
 
Best looking entertainment center I've seen. I like the Asian look (Japanese flair to me) and you used my two favorite woods... Pecan and Mesquite.:thumb: Very nice, quite a handsome piece that would... or should... be cherished in any home.:thumb:

In fact, should you tire of it, let me know. One of my kids might be interested (my current television is too big for it). :D
 
Thanks for the comments all. One thing I forgot to mention, I needed to build something that got the major electronics out of reach. Hence the upper shelf for them. Got a new todler running around. Someday I'll be able to put them on the lower shelf and have room up top for more attractive items.

Vaughn, the thing with square, at least as I have found it... It is so much easier to build things out of square than to try and get them dead nuts. :D
 
sam, that is amazing. i love everything about it. and i also enjoyed seeing how you went about getting it all done.

i am interested in how long it took you to design it?

chris
 
i am interested in how long it took you to design it? chris

It's hard to say. That little prototype, if you could call it that, sat on that table for maybe a year, and the fungus sat in my head idle, slowing spreading. Once I actually started, I drew 5 sketches, started to make components and the piece itself took over and went off the reservation. Something would fall apart, ran out of a certain amount of material, live bugs, etc. All this would force things to change in midstream and I would just try to keep from hitting rocks (literally found some imbedded quartz when resawing with a Trimaster blade - :( ) I wanted a more formal piece, so to speak, for instance a geometric inlay for the background, not the asymmetrical, dirty hold off with back lighting (which I epoxied to my workbench by mistake! :eek: insert swear word here, which didn't help with my symmetry issues when I pryed it off.) The TV base was only going to be a nice oval of mesquite with a clean bevel, is another example. I planned on using a poplar base for the pecan parts, posts and arches, and only use the spalted stuff for veneers, so I could have bookmatched the faces for more symmetry. It goes against my nature to not have perfect symmetry, but the wood protested and each pattern demanded attention and shouted, "Show me!", "No, show me!". Nature, that delightful mistress, made me do it. I guess that is about the best I can describe the process. Over all, though I didn't keep track, it took about 150-200 hours.

When I am working on a more conventional piece, or with students, things are much more structured -- detailed drawings and well thought out cut lists, everything planned for ahead of time, as close to machinist's precision as possible. But every now and again it is freeing to just let something happen without trying to impose too many rules and preconceived notions. Good for the soul. Alot of times when I do this, though, a piece gets out of control and ends up as lumber for something else or worse, gets tossed, or resides in the "Museum of Unfinished Projects." But even with the failures I never consider it a waste of zentime.
 
Wow Sam - Thanks for taking the time to document everything so thoroughly! That slideshow was very inspirational. The style is appealing, and the lighting for evening is dynamite - reminded me of a rising sun with clouds. The materials worked out well, despite the difficulties in working with them.

If I were to make something similar for myself, I might try to hide the outlines of the bottom corners of the TV itself. Maybe put a horizon at the bottom of the TV, with TV stand trunk section a distorted reflection of the sun almost over the horizon. But I don't think that I could come up with such an organic design on my own.

Kudos!

-JR
 
Top