- Messages
- 7,984
- Location
- falcon heights, minnesota
and here i thought that i was out of the shop for the season, and i get dragged back in. a couple of weeks back, my brother, his gf, and her parents were at a craft show, and were looking at this one seller's work, and asked how much. when she heard the price of $1600 was her basic reply. the gf turned to my brother, and asked, can your brother make this? to this he replied , i'll have to ask him. well, ask me he did, and i reminded him that the shop has been shut down for the winter for oh, say, the last couple of months. he sent me a pic of this modern art masterpiece, and it looked doable. he asked me how much, and i told him that i would be more than happy to knock $600 off the price. it seems that the gf's mom wanted it for over the mantle at their home. so, i went to check my inventory, maple, check, walnut, check, redheart, check, now it was off to one of my favorite lumber suppliers for the main part. upon finding out that it was zebra wood, and that it would cost about $100, my brother decided to look for an alternative. after a few false starts, he decided on a nice bit of cherry, good grain, and lots of figuring. so, as i thought, everything was good, right until he said that the dark parts had to be black, not just walnut. after a bit of a search of the internet, and consulting with rennie, and bill, decided to go with the better woodworking through chemistry route, and ebonize the walnut. with a donated ingredient (thanks rennie!), and a bubbling batch of iron acetate (fancy schmancy name for steel wool eaten by white vinegar). now, for the disclaimer, first and foremost, this is most definitely not one of my designs (not a modern art kind of guy), doing this only as a favor for my brother (as if keeping her mom supplied with custom made turtles (sugar free caramel, and non-chocolate chocolate) weren't enough), this will be the only copy made, and the only materials used that are the same, are the maple parts. though i will think that my version looks better, that is only my opinion (and maybe i will get some real custom made turtles in the bargain). now, on to the construction....
the fun part was trying to figure out where i was going to get the good spot for the triangle from this large cherry board. after finding the sweet spot of balance between straight/wavy grain at the top, and wilder grain towards the bottom, it was marked off, and cut. then it was on to recutting the thickness of the reheart, and planing it down to the finished thickness. then it was on to the maple, cutting a part that was slightly over the finished length, and then cut to the 3/8" x 3/8" thickness. then it was on to planing the walnut part smooth, and cut to length of the longest part, and ripped to the 3/8" x 3/8" thickness. with that out of the way, marked and cut the 4 3/4" circle of red heart, and sanded the edges to the line. that was when the light rain started, and the temp dropped from the upper 50's to the mid-40's. so, i called it a day. more to come tomorrow...
the fun part was trying to figure out where i was going to get the good spot for the triangle from this large cherry board. after finding the sweet spot of balance between straight/wavy grain at the top, and wilder grain towards the bottom, it was marked off, and cut. then it was on to recutting the thickness of the reheart, and planing it down to the finished thickness. then it was on to the maple, cutting a part that was slightly over the finished length, and then cut to the 3/8" x 3/8" thickness. then it was on to planing the walnut part smooth, and cut to length of the longest part, and ripped to the 3/8" x 3/8" thickness. with that out of the way, marked and cut the 4 3/4" circle of red heart, and sanded the edges to the line. that was when the light rain started, and the temp dropped from the upper 50's to the mid-40's. so, i called it a day. more to come tomorrow...
Attachments
-
006 test layout of parts.JPG112.8 KB · Views: 51
-
005 redheart circle cut.JPG92.9 KB · Views: 48
-
001 cherry and walnut.JPG106 KB · Views: 47
-
002 maple for parts.JPG99.8 KB · Views: 46
-
003 redheart for parts.JPG124.2 KB · Views: 46
-
004 walnut maple parts cut redheart planed.JPG114.3 KB · Views: 46