Sanding and Glass

I hope you and yours had a great Holiday season. 

Mine was great, but I still found time to jump into the wood shop. 

 

After gluing some of the layers together, I work through various grits of sandpaper smoothing everything out. Power tools are a great help. 

And it's our first look at......GLASS!

This is a 9.5" x 43" x 3/8" custom cut glass. I have mocked it up with the layers. I am grateful to see the measurements are right on.

Profile of the mock up

Seeing the 2 materials come together really gets me excited and I can't wait to see it when its done, but I still have a few more steps to accomplish.

I'll be working through the end of the year so more posts to come.

Sanding and clamping

I have been doing a lot of sanding which is not visually interesting especially on a blog, but trust me, its looking good.

There are some very small natural spots in the wood that my OCD is going to make them blend into the grains, so I was checking a few putty colors. Like the directions say, "check on a sample piece to make sure it turns out right."

Next is gluing the similar sections together before I go back and sand them all over again.

Yes there are 2 pieces of wood in there. 

More to come...

Sanding, the beginning.

A quick update. Started the rough sanding. 

 

I used the dowels through the two matching pieces and clamps to make sure the curves matched.

After 80 grit on the belt sander, the curves match, but I have a lot more sanding to go. 

I quick dry fit to see how the pieces will look. Not bad. This also lets me double check my glass size. 

More sanding to come.

Nice Curves

I thought the old blog design was a bit heavy, so I tweaked the color a bit. On to the sculpture:

Using the curve template, I marked all 12 secondary pieces with the same curve.

In the warm 40 degree weather, I decided to use the big band saw for the curves.

And the nice curves are done. There's less coffee in the mug too. 

 Next we move over to the drill press for an important step that wont even be seen after the piece is done.

Little notes do help with so many pieces. "No Hole"

In each of the secondary pieces, there are two holes that will be drilled. This will help for two reasons:

1. A temporary dowel will be placed while I sand the curve to make sure the two pieces that will be laminated together will have the same curve.

2. Longer dowels will be used when I glue to make sure everything matches up and doesn't slide on me.

The very top will have 5 pieces of wood whose curve needs to line up perfectly and this help to make that happen. 

Next up is A LOT of sanding. I will also order the glass. I have had a couple questions about the symbolism behind the glass design. I will go through each one when I start cutting and blasting the design in place. 

 

Thanks for following.

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.