Sculpted Bar Stools

[mat60]

Really like the stools Paul.

[pkinneb]

23 hours ago, shaneymack said:

Looking amazing, Paul !! I love the idea lf the 12" drill bits. I will get some of those next time. I also love the use of the systainers. Another example of how awesome systainers are LOL

Thanks Shane! Yeah that was totally a cost savings measure that turned into a benefit as well. Regarding the systainers imagine that LOL

2 hours ago, Alan G said:

This has been a great thread so far! Those stools are looking sweet!

Thanks Alan!

[pkinneb]

2 hours ago, mat60 said:

Really like the stools Paul.

Thanks Mat60!!

Made some more progress tonight got one of the backs sculpted on the front side. I start by marking out some guide lines

on all sides

First I use a grinder with Kutzall wheel to thin the upper inside of the legs then switch to the RAS115 to rough out the larger diameter round overs like the inside on the back here

I finish up with rasps and sand paper. For the outside I just use the rasps since its a small round over

Now for the other side

...now I have to match it on the other two stools. On a side note the rasps and a RO sander with a thick pad made quick work of the inside of the seat joints. I used the Rotex 90 for the outside of the joints as it can make quick work of material removal.

Hope to get the other two caught up this week. By the looks of the last pic I need to get that curve a bit more symmetrical on the left side as well  

 

[bradpotts]

These are turning out so awesome!

[gee-dub]

The final form starts to emerge.  Moving right along.

[pkinneb]

On 7/11/2017 at 7:51 AM, bradpotts said:

These are turning out so awesome!

Thanks Brad!

 

On 7/11/2017 at 8:31 AM, gee-dub said:

The final form starts to emerge.  Moving right along.

Thanks gee-dub...making progress but definitely a lot of work

 

No new pics tonight but I have been making progress. I think I can put the Kutzall wheel and grinder away next up I need to round over a bunch of edges. I had purchased a battery powered die grinder (Makita) for this but found out real quick the batteries don't last long enough eventhough I have 3 and worse it is just to big for this work so I went out and bought a $70 IR pneumatic die grinder it works much better.  The Makita was put on CL today

I also ordered a mid size rasp (9") to add to the collection. I had never used, or owned, a rasp prior to this project and I purchased Auriou 12", Flat, and 7" modelers rasps and can't tell you how impressed I am with these. I am blown away by how quickly and accurately you can sculpt with these things and its really fun and satisfying activity as well. 

Next up round overs and then sanding through the grits. I also need to decide how I am going to finish off those front corners and decide If I am going to add more curvature to the inside of the backs. I would really like to but after hitting a domino in one of my first seats I am a bit paranoid about the screws in the back, even though i know i would still be at least a 1/2" from them and probably much more  

[pkinneb]

I have been working on sculpting the last couple of days...hoping to get all three done but only got one done.

Only a woodworker would spend so much time on something no one is ever going to see  

I found a flat rasp worked well for cleaning up the epoxy on joints that don't get rounded over

I little sanding will clean the rest up

This one is pretty much sculpted other then the front seat corners, still trying to decide how to do those...I will do the other two after vacation and then look for issues before running through the sanding grits on all three.

some shots of the joints

Probably my last post on this one until next month after I get back from Michigan.

[Chet]

These are looking great Paul.  Sculpting looks real well done.  I am pretty sure I don't want to be you when the sanding starts. 

[Coop]

Those joints just melted together! Beautiful work

[shaneymack]

Those joints look so ridiculously amazing its making me excited to sculpt my bubinga. Ok, not really but maaaaan those joints are Re- Dikkkk !!

 

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

 

 

[..Kev]

Super nice job!  I really like those!

[wtnhighlander]

Smoooooooth! I like it!

[pkinneb]

On 7/16/2017 at 6:31 PM, Chet said:

These are looking great Paul.  Sculpting looks real well done.  I am pretty sure I don't want to be you when the sanding starts. 

LOL i'm not sure I want to be me either  

Having said that it is sanded to 80 grit now so once all three are to that point I will go over them to make sure everything is clean and fair and then hand sand through the grits it shouldn't be terrible...I hope.

23 hours ago, K Cooper said:

Those joints just melted together! Beautiful work

Thanks!!

23 hours ago, shaneymack said:

Those joints look so ridiculously amazing its making me excited to sculpt my bubinga. Ok, not really but maaaaan those joints are Re- Dikkkk !!

Thanks Shane I appreciate the feedback! Those bubinga chars are going to rock but they will take some elbow grease that's for sure...and the red dust  

22 hours ago, TIODS said:

Super nice job!  I really like those!

Thanks! You inspire me with your videos great work!!

21 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

Smoooooooth! I like it!

Thanks! There is a few spots i need to touch up but overall pretty pleased so far.

[Brendon_t]

Wonderful job on the chairs so far. 

Now comes the task of "how to make these other two things look like this thing".

Good luck.

[pkinneb]

14 hours ago, Brendon_t said:

Wonderful job on the chairs so far. 

Now comes the task of "how to make these other two things look like this thing".

Good luck.

Thanks! I hear you on the duplication  

[pkinneb]

Back from my vacation and got some shop time today. I finally worked on the front seat detail and settled on this...

Then I reshaped the back increasing the curve by about 3/8"

Not only does it look better but I was a little surprised it actually felt better too.

One done

Next one under way

Next up more grinding, rasp work, sanding, etc

 

[pkinneb]

Two down one to go  

Next up finish the last stool then I have a couple tiny defects I need to fill with epoxy. I left them till now because I wasn't sure if I would end up sculpting them away or not. Then final sand for finish and apply the finish (which I need to choose) and this will be a wrap. Once complete I plan on getting back to my kayak build which also needs final sand and finish. It would be nice to get it in the water this year  

[..Kev]

Those came out great!  Very nice work!

[mat60]

Like the stools.  Be cool to see your kayak with a finish on it.

[pkinneb]

On 7/30/2017 at 6:21 PM, TIODS said:

Those came out great!  Very nice work!

Thanks TIODS!

On 7/30/2017 at 6:57 PM, mat60 said:

Like the stools.  Be cool to see your kayak with a finish on it.

Thanks! I agree it would be nice to get it in the water yet this year. Although I have enjoyed this bar stool project I way under estimated the time it would take me to make these, Like 170 hours and counting  

So tonight I was able to fill a couple small imperfections with epoxy.

Mixed up a small amount and added a couple drops of trans tint to darken it up

Hoping to have the third stool done tomorrow so that I can prepare to start applying the finish in the next week or so. I really need to decide what I want to use.

[Chet]

Keeps looking very cool Paul.  Is the white paint still on you short list of finishes? 

[wdwerker]

I like the small flaws, knots etc in natural wood pieces. It really completes the appearance of sculptured functional art.

[pkinneb]

On 8/3/2017 at 9:33 PM, Chet said:

Keeps looking very cool Paul.  Is the white paint still on you short list of finishes? 

Ahh no  

...but I will be using white paint on the bottom of my kayak when I finish it in the next few weeks, now that these are done and ready for finish.

On 8/4/2017 at 11:29 AM, wdwerker said:

I like the small flaws, knots etc in natural wood pieces. It really completes the appearance of sculptured functional art.

Thanks Steve! I agree and since these are for our kitchen, that has all hickory cabinets, they will fit right in.

 

Just a heads up this is going to be a bit of a long winded post  

I ended up adding epoxy to the imperfections as it soaked in a bit overnight then sanded them

With finish they will all but disappear into the wood.

And then there were three! All done ready for final sanding and finish.

Now that they are complete I would like to share some thoughts on mistakes I made, tools I used, and tools I bought but didn't use. As mentioned earlier these took way longer then I predicted but there were a lot of new techniques and processes learned and since that is one of the things I like about working with wood I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, well except for the next few issues LOL

First mistake couldn't be fixed, although not for a lack of trying

Know where your dominoes are!!

Sanded into one while sculpting the seat. This will be used for my finish trial piece and then become firewood.

The second mistake that could have had a catastrophic outcome was reshaping one of the back rests after they were on the stools. I should have shaped them on the bandsaw prior to installation which would have made this mistake much less likely to occur.

I was sanding when I notice what I thought was a black speck on the wood, then I realized that was no speck I had just sanded into the screw pocket!!!

So I grabbed a glue needle and shot some yellow glue in it (lucked out that the screw did not go in that far)

Then sanded it to get some saw dust mixed in and stool saved

As always I made more mistakes then this but these were ones that I either couldn't fix or were worth pointing out.

Now on to some tool talk. When I started this I knew I would also be building a sculpted rocker at some point and I imagine the tools and techniques will carry over. I bought a lot of tools to do these nothing really expensive I suppose but since I really didn't know what I would need I errored on the side of getting everything it seemed.

First what I think one needs to do this project (my opinion only)

A modelers rasp - I went with Auriou

Cabinet makers rasp - Again I went with Auriou

Festool RO90 - I really view this sander as a must have it is small so you can get into all the tight spaces and the rotex mode really helps you sculpt. I highly recommend the interface pad (thick foam) as well.

Die grinder - I started with a cordless Makita but quickly realized it was way to big to be of much use so I went with the IR 308B air tool $70 and it worked great its small size really lets you get into tight spots.

Angle grinder. Again I went with the Makita cordless but the battery life was just to short. Although I use Makita for a lot of cordless tools and have 4 batteries it really felt under powered and its short battery life had it on CL quickly. I then tried my Dewalt that I use for metal work but holding the paddle switch gets old when you are doing this much carving. I settled on the Fein with a on switch and loved it. This was another tool that I felt was a good bargin at $100 

For burrs although I bought four I really only used the one - BN-12-112 Kutzall 1/2" diameter

For carving wheels again I purchased two but really only used the Kutzall Extreme Dish medium.

Here are a couple nice to have tools:

A flat rasp - I went Auriou - This rasp was very helpful on the seat bottom transitions near the joints. Again not absolutely a must have but nice to have.

12" Rasp - Auriou - I liked this rasp for longer fairing on the legs not necessary but I used it extensively.

Festool 150/3 - Really any random orbit sander will work

Festool RAS 115 - if your working inside some of the sculpting can be done with this and it has dust collection. Dust still gets everywhere but I like the addl control this tool provides over a grinder with Kutzall wheel and it seems to catch most of the fine dust.

Tools I bought but did not use much or at all:

Most have been spoken to above above so I won't go into further other than to add the rat tail rasp which I never used. I also was not a fan of teh original Kutzall wheel I found it to be much to aggressive for me just starting out, if you go this route hold on this thing will remove wood really quick.

I also purchased a couple of microplanes which actually worked ok but I think you would still need a rasp to get rid of the scalloped cuts they leave.

 

Oh and gloves are a good idea for long sculpting sessions with a rasp.

Next up finishing.

[Chet]

They do look great.  Thanks for the information on the tool choices.

[pkinneb]

On 8/6/2017 at 5:22 PM, Chet said:

They do look great.  Thanks for the information on the tool choices.

Thanks Chet!

After leveling the legs a bit and final sanding I was able to get the first coat of finish on the stools today. Following Scott Morrison's process of a coat of oil followed by 2 coats of Sam Maloof  Poly/oil and then 4 coats of Sam Maloof oil/wax. 

I will put the remaining coats on over the next several days and then post my last photo's before moving back to the Kayak for finishing touches and then on to a new out feed table for my table saw.