Time to Cut

Ok, I measured so now, its just cutting time. 

The board was a couple inches wider than I needed so first a quick strip off the edge.

(Thanks to Joyce for the action shot)

Then I took the short board and cut it into the segments that will hold and cover the glass

Some assembly required

To make sure all the curves match I made a template.

I will rough out the curves and start pegging all the segments together so I can sand them together before gluing. 

It's starting to get fun. I just need to make sure each piece is put together in order or the wood grains will look weird. 

More coming soon. I'm working through the Holiday weekend. Thanks for following.

measure 5 times

I took the test planks from the edge of the board and finished a "Minion" to get a look and an idea of it's look. The wood darkened nicely with a couple coats of oil and should darken more with more coats. I also have a couple ideas to help bring the red out too. The Minion:

The old adage is "Measure twice, cut once." Well, the bigger the piece, the more I measure. I also wanted to make sure everything would line up and the grains would match up on the outside.

Luckily, you can't see my erase marks on the white board.

A little math transferred over digitally. This is how you take 10 feet of wood and squeeze it into 4 feet. 

Now, it's time to cut!

Got Wood

I was able to find a great piece of cherry wood from my supplier. I showed up right after the pallet was delivered and I was allowed to dig to the bottom of the wood stack for the perfect piece. It is 14 inches wide and 10 feet long. But my car wasn't 10 feet so it came home as a 6 and 4 foot lengths.

When I start using a wood that I don't have a lot of experience, I cut up some tester planks and go through a few tests to see how the wood is going to react. This cherry cuts and routes really well. A little sanding and we will see how it looks with some oil.

More to come this week.