two things down, ten million to go...

i finished the sofa last night, and it feels pretty good. the glue ups went together very well with no obvious problem, except for one. i don't know how i'm going to take pictures of this beast. i usually just hang a king sized sheet up in the shop, but i fear that this is slightly larger then a king. it's going to be photoshop madness to get this thing onto a grey background. and then i'll need some more photos once the cushions are all done. i'll be hitting the road this week to deliver both this and the stereo cabinet. and while the glue was drying, i dug out my drill press.

i picked this up in gibsons while i was at IP, i paid 85$ for it with no motor. i spent my spare time from school fixing it up. a fresh coat of paint and some bearings, and all i needed was a motor. well, time ran out in roberts creek, and still no motor. so i drug it home and there it sat for a while. when i got it, it had a weird chain drive setup, so i hunted down a pulley for it. the chain drive was setup for a really slow speed, and i wanted to be able to choose different speeds. i got the pulley in the mail, and it didn't quite work. it had the correct splines for the quill setup, but it was for a bigger walker-turner machine, so i had to cut off the bigger part of the pulley. oh well. so now i have a three step pulley, but i can only get the belt on the upper two. two speeds are better then one. my pops had a motor for me, so i slapped that on and gave it a try. to my surprise, it had next to no runout. that made me a happy camper. so now, i just got to find a pulley for the motor and i'm off to the races.

and if i really want to add more speed options, i can always add a third pulley in between. i got all the parts for that with the chain drive setup. it's a pretty nice press. it's got a quill lock, no runout, and it weights a ton. now all i need is a shop.

next up is getting the arbor flange on the table saw trued up, and finishing the cabinet i started at klager's house.

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.

moving along, one conundrum at a time

after a good holiday break, i got back to work on monday. the side assemblies are all done as of today. i saw the pattern for the cutouts in kitchen cabinets in the fisher household from hbo's six feet under. i liked the pattern, so i thought i would use it here. i checked out other options, but this one still came out on top. it was a fun little detail to do. didn't take long, but it adds a lot of character to the sides. i'm going to have a panel in between the front rails, and i'm going to have the same detail on the horizontal up front. i've yet to decide if it's going to be a whole piece or if i'm going to break it up into three, to further echo the sides.

now here's the conundrum, how do i support the back... i'm going to have four vertical supports topped off with a long horizontal rail running along the top of all four verticals. the two verticals on the ends are no problem, i'm going to have a bird's mouth style joint at the bottom with a dowel running into the top of the rail, and a horizontal pin through the bird's mouth. i'm not worried about the end ones because i'm going to notch the arm rest to accept the back support, and i can also pin into the leg. those two won't move, but i'm worried about the other two. most members of my family are of the large sort (this is going to an uncle's house), and i'm thinking that this is not going to be enough to support three of me. so, what's the solution? i was thinking of adding a metal plate on the front of the vertical that would go from that piece into the rail. a kind of strap. i think this would hold even me. what do you folks think?

the sofa has begun

i've been working on an elongated morris chair for the last little bit. it's been interesting to work on something that is to be sat in. it's definitely a different ball game then what i'm used to. the lady i'm making it for is a seamstress, and is going to be taking care of the cushions, to be made out of leather and four inch foam. i laminated the arm out of five plies, and they have a nice grain graphic on the top of them. they appear to be hugging the sitter. all of the mortises have been punched for the frame of the sofa, except for the top curved rails. i'm going to fit the arm onto the legs and use that as the template for fitting the top rail. i'm still scratching my head as to how the back is going to be supported, but i guess i'll figure that out later, when i get closer to that part of the project.