Genkan Bench

That Tansu hardware looks very good to me Stu, is it from a japanese catalog?
I've seen some US hardware dealer that sells Tansu hardware at a rather high prices IMHO, but that it looks as if made out of tin, I wonder if the one that sells those ones ship overseas. Could you pass me the link to their web if any?


As per the Genkan bench, I like the approach you've made to it. My only comment would be adding a bit of overhang of the sit on the front, about 60-70mm or 6 inches.
The reason is that as you mentioned that it is used to sit and take off the shoes to get in the house and put them in to leave, it makes that action quite uncomfortable if you are sitting on a place where you can't put your heels a bit beyond the vertical projection of your knee. To avoid that people tend to sit at the edge which helps to put the shoes on and off but it is uncomfortable for your bottom.

Besides it will prevent a bit hitting the doors of the bench with you heels and end having black marks all along its lower line

Obviously is no big deal, but IMHO those little details, specially in an action that you will perform at least 4 times each day can become a real nuissance, at least they do to me.

My two cents:)

Good input Toni, thanks!

Oh, those pics are from the Lee Valley site, I'm sure that there are dealers here too, I'll just have to find them.
 
I got the pieces sorted, and thickness planed, as well as resawn and I cut the pieces that will make the rails and stiles of the box...........

SN3D2766.jpg
....... you can see the panels that were resawn and then thickness planed, up front, and the pieces, top right, that will make up the frame of the unit.

As usual for me, things worked out OK, but not great, I wish things were a bit thicker, but they should be OK, and I was getting a fair bit of tear out, can't be helped I guess :dunno:

SN3D2767.jpg SN3D2768.jpg SN3D2769.jpg SN3D2770.jpg
Some shots of the "Book Matching" I was able to do, nothing to spectacular, but the grain has some character to it.

Cheers!
 
The panels look great the way you have them laid out, Stu. Just beautiful wood. I know I am getting ahead of the game here, but do you know how you will finish it?
 
I can imagine something really simple, I do not want to color the wood at all. This is Blue Keyaki, which is quite white in color (why it is not called "White" Keyaki is beyond me :huh:) the usual is Red, which is fairly orange/brown :rolleyes: :D I want to make sure that it does not end up looking like the much more common Red Keyaki.

Cheers!
 
I got the rest of the parts thickness planed and cut........

parts_cut.jpg
......... the flat panels on the back of the bench are yet to be glued up or cut, but the frame parts are cut. The short stuff on the left front, are for me to relearn how to do mortise and tenon work.

new_design.jpg
A revised plan, the design committee decided to make it simple, as one day it may not be in the same place, and could be used around the house easier if it is more like a blanket chest. Hey simpler is good for me :D

I decided on four panels up front as I'll be able to make them all book matched panels if there are four, if three, I'd have to do glue ups that are not book matched.

Cheers!
 
Sorry fellas, I've been a bit stalled, other things have come up :doh:

I've been fighting with an internet connection problem and a wireless router problem at the Aparto. Here in Japan, net connections are not cheap, and most everywhere has gone Fibre to the home or FTTH which is NOT cheap, near $100 a month, well more like $90, with the exchange rate. To try and help out my three non-Japanese tenants, and to cause less problems, I put the net connection in my name, and then ran LAN cables to each aparto, this makes their connection fast and cheap. You see each time someone leaves, we have to go through the cancel the connection and reup it dance, it is a pain, and as most of the tenants are only staying for a year or two max, it became a real hassle. Most of them also don't speak much Japanese. We have fixed the problem it was a number of things that we finally worked out.

I've also been gluing up the panels for the sides, sorry, no pics.

Thanks for watching!

Stu
 
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