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This is a project I've been working on for several months. Not that it took me that long, just that I had trouble deciding on some to the details. Once I made up my mind things went pretty smoothly. My goal is to have them in place for our Christmas Eve candlelight service.
Like the altar, font, and pulpit before, the wood is Lyptus with rosewood accents. The style is kinda Greene and Greene. The details I was having trouble deciding on were how to best attach the base and cross arm to the post.
The base was attached with a 1" square M&T. Then the corbels were attached to the base from below with pan head screws and then to the post. Dowel plugs seal the holes below, rosewood plugs on the corbels.
The floor that these will stand on is not exactly flat, so I provided for countersunk adjustable feet to help get everything sitting up straight.
The cross arm was a bit more involved. I finally decided to epoxy a nut into the post and then bolt the arm in place. Then I thought about how these might be abused and did not want to think about the arms being twisted out of square, so I put in a couple of biscuits and glued the assembly together. The bolt made an excellent clamp that never has to be removed!
Finally, and the one thing that took more time to decide upon that anything else, was how to mare the cross arm not look like it was just plopped on top. I came up with these small trim pieces that, once the get three square plugs each, will mimics straps that hold the arm in place. They're simply glued in place and got 1/4" square plugs just after the pictures were taken.
Last night I put on the first coat of finish. The finishing process is pretty straight forward. I ROS everything down to 220 then hand sand with 220 with the grain and soften the edges. Then I apply a coat of 2lb cut dewaxed shellac. I'll sand this with 320 and follow with 8 to 12 coats of Minwax wipe-on satin poly. The first few coats will get the 320. Once I get past the 4th coat I switch to 0000 steel wool.
I'll post finished pics in a couple of weeks!
Like the altar, font, and pulpit before, the wood is Lyptus with rosewood accents. The style is kinda Greene and Greene. The details I was having trouble deciding on were how to best attach the base and cross arm to the post.
The base was attached with a 1" square M&T. Then the corbels were attached to the base from below with pan head screws and then to the post. Dowel plugs seal the holes below, rosewood plugs on the corbels.
The floor that these will stand on is not exactly flat, so I provided for countersunk adjustable feet to help get everything sitting up straight.
The cross arm was a bit more involved. I finally decided to epoxy a nut into the post and then bolt the arm in place. Then I thought about how these might be abused and did not want to think about the arms being twisted out of square, so I put in a couple of biscuits and glued the assembly together. The bolt made an excellent clamp that never has to be removed!
Finally, and the one thing that took more time to decide upon that anything else, was how to mare the cross arm not look like it was just plopped on top. I came up with these small trim pieces that, once the get three square plugs each, will mimics straps that hold the arm in place. They're simply glued in place and got 1/4" square plugs just after the pictures were taken.
Last night I put on the first coat of finish. The finishing process is pretty straight forward. I ROS everything down to 220 then hand sand with 220 with the grain and soften the edges. Then I apply a coat of 2lb cut dewaxed shellac. I'll sand this with 320 and follow with 8 to 12 coats of Minwax wipe-on satin poly. The first few coats will get the 320. Once I get past the 4th coat I switch to 0000 steel wool.
I'll post finished pics in a couple of weeks!
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