Sunday, January 25, 2009

almost there


so here's the compete structure, almost. there is a second front rail with a panel in between the two that is missing from the photo. that panel has the cutouts as well. since this picture i've done the shaping and i started sanding today. it's moving along at a good rate, thanks in part to a 1/8" roundover bit. i feel like skywaker, slowly being pulled over to the dark side. i must say, it's nice on that side of things, but sometimes it's a little dusty. 



i found some brass machine screws at the local hardware store, and bought them all. those buggers are pricey. i was looking for some steel slotted head screws, but those are probably impossible to find nowadays, so i bought these instead. i'm going to use them to attach the slats to the frame work. the slats have some bow in them that i intentionally left there to add some give to the seat. i drilled some oversized holes through the slats, and i'll have to tap the adjoining hole. i just happened to have the right tap for the screw as well, must be a common size.

i wasn't crazy about the yellow brass with the oak, which is going to get some water based stain, so i did a quick search about patination. i found a pretty good blog conversation in a sword makers forum, and the guy suggested gun blueing as an option. we had some, i gave it a try, and it worked great. it gave a nice dark brown which will go quite nicely with the stained oak.

20 comments:

Nick Brygidyr said...

"...it's moving along at a good rate, thanks in part to a 1/8" roundover bit...."

Dark side indeed!!!

Nick Brygidyr said...

By the way, thats an interesting patina, how did you go about doing that?

jbreau said...

the patina is just gun blueing mixed with water. it's the easiest patina ever. fast and efficient.

Nick Brygidyr said...

Aw i thought gun blueing was a technique or something hah

jbreau said...

gun blueing is something that they use to color the barrels of their guns. should find it at any hardware store. i don't know what's in it, but it works.

Nicholas Nelson said...

Fight it! Fight the dark side!!! Round over bits lead to doubt, doubt leads to anger, and anger leads to portable belt sanders!!!
But yeah that sofa has a LOT of edges on it!!! you'd probably spend a whole day just doing edge treatment. I guess sometimes one has to pick what to spend time on and what not to if working with contained budget from a client... Is it worth spending an extra $300+ on edges? To me, I think so. To someone else?

Cody said...

As a wise dude (who looks sorta like Kid Rock) told me one time, as he looked over his shoulder and lowered his voice to a whisper, 'there's no art to waste removal'. There's a place for every time saving device and technique. Don't get hung up on the ridiculous idealistic nonsense of 'hand-made'. It'll only paralyze you.

My two bits anyhow...

jbreau said...

i have to agree with that kid rock fellow about waste removal. and the thing with budgets is that we agreed on a price before hand, and then i decide within that price what i'm going to do or not. this being said, on spec pieces where it's all about my soul, give me a file and some headphones, a comfy stool, and i'm there. but this piece has loads of edges, and it's big, so the 1/8" bit actually looks quite good.

Nicholas Nelson said...

Kiiiiiiiiidddd Godfrey
For waste removal, I agree, if the time-savings are justifiable and the end goal is met, awesome!
Doing something by hand just because it's "by hand" usually isn't what I think of as the goal. Agreed, what's the point of making a perfectly rounded over edge by hand if you could do it 10 times as quick with the router. Pretty much none except personal satisfaction. It's the variation (not meaning slop) in the planed, or filed edge that might be the goal.
I'm not saying all "shape determining systems" are bad, not at all. It's the end goal that will dictate the method.

I'm sure this ground has been covered plenty before. Lo siento!

Cody said...

Ha! Yeah, it keeps getting covered. I think it's probably something that most prospective furniture makers struggle with. Finding that balance between the speed necessary for production work and the satisfaction of hand-tooled surfaces is a precarious matter. I think, like Jacques says, there's the 'make money' jobs and the speculative pieces, and a balance has to exist between the two.

LORD GODFREY said...

Hey Jacques, that looks great! What a huge piece of furniture! That's as big as they come next to a a giant conference table. Your client is going to be impressed for sho.

Nice call on the hardware too. It'll look way better.

What upholstery are you going for? Oh yeah the client is an upholsterer isn't she?

Without my long hair I'm looking more like John Goodman these days. But I've been a good hair farmer and my crop will be ready to harvest by this fall.

Rane said...

OK OK, I'll buy the waste removal route you are taking but whats this I hear anout stain? Stain!! I have a hard time getting my head around that one. Machines are kinda inevitable, they save time, but stain is adding a step and taking away from the wood that you spent all that time surfacing. Help me understand...

jbreau said...

yeah ian, the lady is a seamstress at the craft college in nb. she's going to do six cushions out of 4" foam and leather to match the stain.
stain, yeah, stain. you see this is an arts and crafts 'reproduction'. and specific to what the lady wants is the typical color from those pieces. the light chocolate brown that is the norm is usually acheived by fuming the wood with amonia. i've opted for a water based dye that is way easier to apply and much less dangerous. with this stuff you acutally have to spend more time preping the surface because your drenching it with water to get the color.
i was also quite opposed to stain about a year ago. there are plenty of woods with beautiful naturally occuring colors. and you can imagine that i would rather use brown oak. hell, it's the right color. but i would've spent the whole price, and more, on lumber.
i have not come across many comissions where the client says 'do exactly what you want with all the money you can spend'. i've had a handful of these, but barring screaming hoards beating down my door, and with some loans to pay, i can put aside my morals and apply a nice even coat of stain so that i can get paid for the work i'm doing, and the client can get what they want.
hey ian, isn't john goodman really quite huge? are you pregnant?

Cody said...

Now that you look like John Goodman do you ever get the urge to smash a complete strangers corvette while you scream 'This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!!' over and over again?

LORD GODFREY said...

You want a toe? I'll get you a toe.

jbreau said...

i'm glad there's finally something useful being said in the comment section. don't get no better then walter.

LORD GODFREY said...

Hurry Jacques.

jbreau said...

i may be done tomorrow. both sides are together, and so is the back. now i just need to make a side sandwich.

Cody said...

Ya' ever here that story about the high school woodshop that built the boat only to find out that it didn't fit through the door when it was complete? That's gonna make a sweet shop couch!

jbreau said...

just what i need. a comfy place inside the shop to sit on and take a brake... i'm pretty sure she'll fit through here, i'm just hoping it fits inside the clients house!
the final glue up is drying, now all i need to do is to finish pegging the joints, and delivery next week.