SHOP TIME.......AGAIN- AND A TRIBUTE TO A DEAR FRIEND- LONG

Karl Laustrup

Member
Messages
487
Location
Wisconsin Dells, WI
Well, I got a chance to get in the shop today for a couple of hours. I'm making a couple of table lamps for the house. One will be bubinga and the other home grown cherry.

I managed to first clean up a little, just dust and a few cob webs. I was able to cut the base and the top for the bubinga lamp, but had to go dig out some more cherry to cut the base and top for the cherry lamp. I only cut one piece twice and both times it was too short. :eek::doh:

I also pulled out another cherry board that I'm considering using to build a shadow box for a dear friend that passed away on July 28th of this year. He and I have known each other for about 18 years and we met on the golf course way back when. We became close friends and golf buddies. He passed on his birthday. He turned 67 on July 28th. He died from heart disease and heart failure. He never married, so the only family he had was three brothers, whom he was not fond of. It had to do with the way the three treated their parents. Dan retired at about 42 and moved back to Wisconsin to help his parents who had been life long farmers. His brothers very rarely visited and this bothered Dan. Dan retired because he could after 20+ years of working back east as a VP for a well known multi-national company and he wanted to come back to help his folks.

He named another friend of his, that he has known for about 30 years and my self as co-executors of his will. We are in the process of trying to take care of his wishes in his will. He was a legal resident of Nevada where he spent the winters and then returning to Wisconsin, usually in late April or early May until right after the gun deer hunt. That starts next Saturday November 23rd. He would have a big spread the Friday night before for all the people he invited up to hunt his land, usually 8-10 people. I would make him about 10 gallons of beef noodle soup and do about 15 pounds of roast beef sliced thin for sandwiches during the week. He always saved several containers of the soup and some of the beef in his freezer. He would take a few to Vegas and the rest he would keep in Wisconsin for when he returned in the spring.

We are awaiting his will to be probated in Las Vegas and then we have to have the will probated in Wisconsin as his land here [about 400 acres] will be going to friends so that the deer hunt tradition can continue.

I found my friend on the Monday morning after his birthday and it's been pretty hard, but now as we get near the gun deer hunt it is really weighing on my mind. There are so many good memories of our time together playing golf, going to various casinos and just getting together to shoot the breeze.

I am building the shadow box for him as a memorial. He had a dozen or more vintage golf clubs, most hickory shafted and I have chosen two of them to display in the shadow box along with a picture and some words denoting him as the first member of Trappers Turn Golf Club way back in 1992. I haven't firmed up the wood I will use yet, but I'm thinking it will be home grown cherry, home grown maple, walnut or I do have some Jatoba and bubinga, bloodwood and purpleheart. The finished product will be displayed at Trappers Turn for all to see, so I want it to be good enough that Dan would be proud of what I did in his honor.

While I have a preliminary drawing of the shadow box [this is when I wish I knew how Sketch Up works] any suggestions on design or choice of wood will be taken into consideration.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. It's the first I've really told anyone other than my immediate family.

Karl
 
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Karl, I think friends like you are rare and it sounds like Dan was a rare kind of guy too. I am sorry for your loss. I'll bet if you post a picture of your idea on here, someone might be able to flesh it out in SketchUp for you
 
I am no good with sketch up, but am in total agreement with Ted's words to you. Rare man, rare friend, create rare circumstances and you are stepping up to the plate to make it a home run. I too am sorry to hear of your loss. If it is any consolation, I have told my family to understand, regardless the circumstances (getting stomped, tractor rollover, etc) if I die on my farm working, I have died happy. I hope they believe me. Celebrate his life and his desires for the future. He roams the farm and knows where all the big bucks lay now.
 
Thanks for your thoughts.

Dan was a special kind of person. We agreed on many things and when we disagreed it was with respect for each other. The last couple of years he quit hunting and just enjoyed the company of his friends and the pleasure when they got a good buck. Dan had rules for shooting, such as the minimum number of points, on his property and if you didn't follow those rules it would be the last time you hunted on his property. He had several trail cameras and would send pictures to all the hunters of the deer they might see when they came to hunt. He enjoyed watching the deer with the trail cameras and his massive binoculars and spotting scope. His home was custom built with Canadian cedar logs and the interior would be much like you would imagine a bachelors pad would be. He had mounts all over the living room including elk, deer, wolf, fox, turkey and I know I'm forgetting a couple of others.

Anyway, I'll try and get the drawing I have made scanned and up here and maybe someone could do it in Sketch Up.

Jonathan, I know exactly how you feel except mine would be on the golf course or in my shop.
 
Well, I've been trying to get my pencil drawing loaded into the computer to no avail, so I thought maybe one of you Sketch Up wizards could help if I were to give you the dimensions that I have come up with for this shadow box.

In my drawing I have the box being displayed vertically or in picture parlance, portrait, although, it could work horizontally as in landscape. In either case the dimensions would be about the same.

44" Long X 22" Wide X 4" Deep. These dimensions would be inside dimensions and I think 1/2" stock would be sufficient so outside dimensions would 45" X 23" X 5". Are there any reasons the stock should be thicker than 1/2"? The back would be 1/8" or 1/4" ply or similar and I'm thinking the inside backing would be covered in green felt to simulate grass. The front will have trim going around and the trim would be 1/2" thick and maybe 3/4" wide.

There will be non-glare glass which I haven't quite figured out how to contain on the box. I can see at least a couple of ways to mount the glass, but am not sure which would be the best.
I also have to figure out a way to mount the box once completed. The box will contain the two golf clubs, which I haven't decided how to display, as well as a picture and a short paper telling how Dan was the first member and how he was very proud of being a member of Trappers Turn Golf Club.

I hope I have given enough info for one of you that knows Sketch Up to help with some drawings and help with means of assembly also. Not quite sure what might be the best way to put this box together. As I said before I really want this to be a tribute to my friend so I want it to be perfect.

Thanks in advance for any help any of you can give.

Karl



I envision the
 
Karl, I'll let some of the other guys help with the drawing and the construction details. But I can help you with the mounting question. When I was installing artwork in LA, I mounted a lot of different shadow boxes. (Including a pair of Mohammad Ali's boxing gloves and a Van Halen guitar).

A simple French cleat will work for something like this, but it can be a bit tricky getting the shadow box perfectly level once it's installed. (And sometimes you don't want it exactly level, like in cases where it's next to a window or door jamb that's not plumb.)

What I'd use if it was me are called security hangers:

SC01.jpg


http://www.picturehardware.com/T-Screw-Security-Hangers/Wood-Security-Hanger-Polybag/prod_5.html

In a nutshell, the pieces with the two holes and the oval slot - we called them plates - are mounted on the frame of the shadow box...two on top and optionally one on the bottom. Next, the two pieces with the single oval slot are mounted on the wall. (This pic shows them sideways...they are actually hooks and would mount rotated 90º clockwise from how they're shown above.) When the shadow box is put on the wall, plates connect to the hooks. The oval holes in the hooks allow you to tweak one or the both sides up or down to get things level. We hung a lot of stuff on just two plates and hooks.

If you want it even more secure, you can lock the bottom to the wall using the t-bolt that comes with the kit. Once the shadow box is level, you mark where the lower (single) plate on the frame hits the wall. Then you install the t-bolt so that it engages with the slot in the lower plate then the "T" part is horizontal. Once the lower plate has been engaged, you turn the t-bolt a quarter turn to point it vertically, thus locking the bottom of the shadow box to the wall.

Here's a video explanation of what I mean...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtAqR1F4fng
 
Also, for the inside background, how about artificial turf instead of green felt? There's some pretty good looking fake grass on the market these days. If you could find a company that installs it, chances are you could get a scrap for not much money (or free, if it was going into the trash).
 
Karl, I'll let some of the other guys help with the drawing and the construction details. But I can help you with the mounting question. When I was installing artwork in LA, I mounted a lot of different shadow boxes. (Including a pair of Mohammad Ali's boxing gloves and a Van Halen guitar).

A simple French cleat will work for something like this, but it can be a bit tricky getting the shadow box perfectly level once it's installed. (And sometimes you don't want it exactly level, like in cases where it's next to a window or door jamb that's not plumb.)

What I'd use if it was me are called security hangers:

SC01.jpg


http://www.picturehardware.com/T-Screw-Security-Hangers/Wood-Security-Hanger-Polybag/prod_5.html

In a nutshell, the pieces with the two holes and the oval slot - we called them plates - are mounted on the frame of the shadow box...two on top and optionally one on the bottom. Next, the two pieces with the single oval slot are mounted on the wall. (This pic shows them sideways...they are actually hooks and would mount rotated 90º clockwise from how they're shown above.) When the shadow box is put on the wall, plates connect to the hooks. The oval holes in the hooks allow you to tweak one or the both sides up or down to get things level. We hung a lot of stuff on just two plates and hooks.

If you want it even more secure, you can lock the bottom to the wall using the t-bolt that comes with the kit. Once the shadow box is level, you mark where the lower (single) plate on the frame hits the wall. Then you install the t-bolt so that it engages with the slot in the lower plate then the "T" part is horizontal. Once the lower plate has been engaged, you turn the t-bolt a quarter turn to point it vertically, thus locking the bottom of the shadow box to the wall.

Here's a video explanation of what I mean...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtAqR1F4fng

Thanks for the hanging tips. That looks simple enough that even I shouldn't have too much trouble. I also like the idea of artificial turf. I'll have to see what's available in this area. Might have to go to the big city of Madison to find some but we go there every month or so anyway, so I'll do a little research ahead of time.

Thanks again Vaughn. :thumb:
 
Thanks for the hanging tips. That looks simple enough that even I shouldn't have too much trouble...

In the video, the guy uses his little shop-made pointy things to mark the hole locations. Personally, I wouldn't use them because of the potential to scratch the walls while positioning the piece. Instead, I'd just use a pencil to mark the two holes on the wall for the upper hooks. (The screws need to be 1" below where you want the the top of the plates to end up.) Then to mark the location for the t-bolt on the bottom, we used to reach under the piece and draw a pencil line along the bottom edge of the lower plate, eyeball the center point on that line, then install the anchor for the t-bolt 3/16" above the line. :thumb:
 
Real sorry to hear about your friend Karl. I'm sure you'll do him proud on the shadow box. My condolences.

Thanks Don. I am hoping that by being extremely cautious in my planning and then in the execution I'll make one of my best pieces to date.

On that note I've started planning out my cut list and the non wood items to make this box. At first I was planning on making the box with the access in the back. I was thinking I'd make the back a sliding panel. :doh: How would I mount the golf clubs and then slide the back into the box. Thinking about this I realized that I would have to make a door for the front that the glass would attach to and be hinged. That sounds a lot more sane.

Now I need some help as to whether to use regular hinges or perhaps a piano hinge, keeping in mind that this door will be fairly heavy with the glass I'm guessing. I need to check with a local glass company to determine what type of glass I should use to span the area? 42" L X 22" W is a pretty good sized piece of glass so I need to see if it needs to be supported with vertical and horizontal wood, although I hope not. With what I think the weight will be of the finished door, I'm leaning more toward a piano type hinge, but I was also wondering if there were/are some hidden type hinges that would work and if so would three hinges be sufficient? I guess I need to find out about the glass first.

I've also been wondering what I can use to mount the golf clubs to the back panel. I'd like them to seem like they are floating and not really touching the back panel. Any ideas?

Thanks for any ideas.

Karl
 
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