Altar build

[duckkisser]

im planing on geting two grinders. one grinder with a regular stone another with a white stone for grinding and sharpening. the second grinderI will rewire to run backwards and I will have a honing wheel and a buffing wheel that way i can hone and buff the burr off to a razor sharp mirror edge. figure that will be the easist and cheapest way to do it and then i dont have to spend tons of money on a system or work on a sharpener that is going to burn up my steel. i want to carve alot so i need a system that is fast and easy.

was looking around on you tube and found a guy wh sharpens just iike i was thinking of doing.perhaps rob you might want to do something similar since you just got some carving tools that you used for the letters.

[Bombarde16]

Third coat of linseed oil on the top, wet sanded to 320. Looked underneath, the figure in these panels (coupled with red oak's notorious open pores) has oil actually bleeding clear through 9/16" of wood to the other side. Should be ready for wax after this dries. The fumed color is just beautiful. Red oak gets a bad rap because, unlike its cousin quercus alba, some pieces take on a greenish hue when fumed. But all the yellowish amber of linseed oil easily blows through any greenishness and brings it right back to where it should be.

My friend with a drum sander is back from vacation, so the next thing is to get time on the calendar to sand all the laminates to thickness.

[Bombarde16]

Finished the top assembly last night. Will likely deliver it to a safe, spare room in the church just to get it out of the way.

Appointment with a drum sander tonight.

[Bombarde16]

Finished thicknessing all the laminates. Time to start making a form.

[duckkisser]

hey rob how do you control how deep you cut the letters on your sighn. been playing with it and it is hard to have a nice clean cut each time.

[Bombarde16]

hey rob how do you control how deep you cut the letters on your sighn. been playing with it and it is hard to have a nice clean cut each time.

Not an expert, but I'll pretend to be: Cleanliness is a function of

• Sharpness...OK, you saw that coming. What in carving isn't a function of OCD sharpness?
  
• Reading the grain, particularly when shaving any horizontal surface that runs parallel to the length of the board
  
• Not trying to bash out too much at once. For the thick, vertical parts (e.g. the spines of the letters T, E, M, etc.) I held my chisel at around a 30 angle to get most of the waste out. Then I could come back at around 45 and deepen things while refining the surface
  
• Stock selection. This board - a nice piece of ash, I dare say - was mostly well behaved as long as I worked gently and kept things sharp. (I got a little impatient back in chopping the dovetails and crushed some end grain fibers there.) I imagine mahogany would be better...any of the conifers would have been worse.
  

The depth is variable depending on the width of the part of the letter. e.g. The horizontal parts of the E's, H's, T's, etc. are quite narrow in this font. The vertical components run deeper, perhaps as much as 1/4" for the broadest parts of the M. I wasn't too exact and will try to be more consistent on this front in my next inscription, but it's not the end of the world. If it looks right, it is right. Every now and then, step back from the work and look at the whole piece. "Oh yeah," you say, "that letter needs to be a little deeper." And so it goes.

Biggest lesson here is the importance of a good carving knife. I ended up using a utility knife and went through a dozen disposable blades as an adjunct to my bench chisels and gouges. A good chip-carving knife is definitely on my wish list now and, frankly, should have come before the gouges.

Post a picture of what you've done so far. I know there are plenty of experts on the forum who will will be more useful than me!

[duckkisser]

Not an expert, but I'll pretend to be: Cleanliness is a function of

• Sharpness...OK, you saw that coming. What in carving isn't a function of OCD sharpness?
  
• Reading the grain, particularly when shaving any horizontal surface that runs parallel to the length of the board
  
• Not trying to bash out too much at once. For the thick, vertical parts (e.g. the spines of the letters T, E, M, etc.) I held my chisel at around a 30 angle to get most of the waste out. Then I could come back at around 45 and deepen things while refining the surface
  
• Stock selection. This board - a nice piece of ash, I dare say - was mostly well behaved as long as I worked gently and kept things sharp. (I got a little impatient back in chopping the dovetails and crushed some end grain fibers there.) I imagine mahogany would be better...any of the conifers would have been worse.
  

The depth is variable depending on the width of the part of the letter. e.g. The horizontal parts of the E's, H's, T's, etc. are quite narrow in this font. The vertical components run deeper, perhaps as much as 1/4" for the broadest parts of the M. I wasn't too exact and will try to be more consistent on this front in my next inscription, but it's not the end of the world. If it looks right, it is right. Every now and then, step back from the work and look at the whole piece. "Oh yeah," you say, "that letter needs to be a little deeper." And so it goes.

Biggest lesson here is the importance of a good carving knife. I ended up using a utility knife and went through a dozen disposable blades as an adjunct to my bench chisels and gouges. A good chip-carving knife is definitely on my wish list now and, frankly, should have come before the gouges.

Post a picture of what you've done so far. I know there are plenty of experts on the forum who will will be more useful than me!

tossed them already mostly just scrap pine that i cut some letters on and worked on....thinking of just taking my flex shaft carver and geting a collar and use it like a router. dont like hand carving kinda discovered that after a spent a few hundred on my gouges but they will get worked with more and more as i maked different projects so its money well spent.

[Bombarde16]

tossed them already mostly just scrap pine that i cut

Well there's your problem. Conifers are actually quite difficult to carve well because the early wood crushes so easily. Same thing for dovetailing...it's tempting to practice on cheap wood but it's a recipe for frustration. Pick something that had leaves, not needles, and give it another try.

[duckkisser]

got a deal on some basswood. i want to get like 80 dollers worth perhaps ill take a foot of it and spend my time practicing on it. still thinking i would be happier routering out my letters. ill try it both ways and figure it out from there. half the problem is that the chip knives are sharp enough but i dont have enough control so i end up cuting over my leters half a inch at most but its rare that it i stop perfectly at my line. need to work on my control. still thinking that a power carver will end up beign the ticket ill just have to play with both untill i figure out my method.

wish i could just play with other people tools untill im satisfied with a techneque that is right for me. thanks rob keep up the alter cant wait to see it finished.

[Bombarde16]

Printed out a 1:1 template for the leg arches.

Assembled and spray mounted said template onto a sheet of plywood...looks like this was once the back of a particleboard bookcase.

Tomorrow's an overscheduled wash, so it'll be Thursday afternoon's task to get this cut out, fared, and then pattern routed onto a few sheets of ACX to make the form.

In other news, I've concluded that it's impossible to walk past a pile of thin, springy stock without bending a few just for grins. A gallon of Unibond 800 is on order; this is going to be fun.

[Bombarde16]

Top signs you're a woodworker: You see nothing wrong with building something that helps you build something that helps you build what it is you wanted to build in the first place.

[Bombarde16]

When the church vestry was considering this proposal, one of the questions that came up was, "How are you going to get that old wood to bend?" Here's the answer:

Gallon of Unibond arrived today. The form still needs a layer of cork and I need to make a caul for the outside. (Just a long strip of plywood with kerfs cut across every .5" or so) But, I celebrated the day's achievements by dry clamping some of the rejects. Works like a charm.

Might end up asking Santa for a few more F-clamps for this build. Those C-clamps aren't ideal for such things.

[Dave H]

You can never have enough clamps(as Norm would say), nice bending form it's getting interesting now. Good luck

[Bombarde16]

Made a bending caul. Started sanding those laminates deemed pretty enough to go on the outside of each curve. Slow, tedious, and yes I really want to get to gluing these curves as quick as can be, but it's infinitely easier to get through a few grits while the wood is still flat.

[Bombarde16]

I christened the form with some reject strips in a practice glue-up. For reference, a 4:1 mix of Unibond using discarded K-cups as the unit of measure produced more than enough glue to do this lamination (approximately3 square feet of gluing surface.) Had a brain wave to measure the glue into a zip top bag. Simplified mixing and then I cut the corner off to apply like cake frosting.

This'll come out of the clamps on Friday night and, barring any screw-ups that aren't apparent now, we then start with the for-real pieces.

[Guillaume Breton]

nice setup ! gj

[Bombarde16]

nice setup !

Thanks. Came out of the clamps this morning with only a 1/4" or so of springback. I forgot to mask off the show faces, so the inside of the curve had some smeared glue that would be a pain to clean out. (Good thing this one was just practice.) Other than that, the proof of concept is in and we can start laminating in earnest. Twelve curves to go.

[Bombarde16]

Merry Christmas everyone. Third arc (of twelve...assuming I don't botch any) went into the clamps tonight.

[Guillaume Breton]

Merry Christmas everyone. Third arc (of twelve...assuming I don't botch any) went into the clamps tonight.

you too !

[Bombarde16]

Fifth arc came out of the clamps this morning. Number six went in and I'm off on vacation tomorrow morning. This will bring to a close any progress on this build until after the new year.

Lessons learned so far:

• Dried Unibond is indeed as brittle and sharp as glass.
  
• Bent laminations are a fantastically time-consuming and messy process.
  
• Packing tape and disposable gloves are your best friends.
  
• My collection of clamps is miniscule.
  

...and the most important part: Curves are awesome.

[Dave H]

Looks good Rob they look like the spring back was very consistent on every glue up. Have a good new year.

[chicks82]

Looks great Rob! As you know there is no such thing as to many clamps especially when doing bent lamination Have a great new year and have a relaxing vacation

[duckkisser]

rob since your loving the lamination so much i got inspired to do some research and this is what i found on a few projects some i might try on my own like the headbands out of veneer.

http://www.hometone.com/entry/beautifully-folk-las-marias-table/ thought some bent laminated bowls would be cool looking thats what this inspired me to someday try.

http://acc-southeast.com/wood3.htm at the very bottom is a end table that reminds me of your alter but with a twist.

http://thedesigninspiration.com/articles/nature-boardwalk-at-chicago%E2%80%99s-lincoln-park-zoo/ after the alter can you see about geting around to building the entire church out of bent wood something like this arch.

http://www.hotelmanagement.net/lighting/sculptural-beauty-northern-lighting-s-diva-pendant-lamp how about some lamp shades? wait stop everything..............how do do you change the bulbs?.................how many wood workers does it take to change a light bulb

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81694019/natural-headband-wood-headband-cherry thinking i might make these to try and sell at craft sales and maybe as gifts.

http://www.veer.com/more/skinny/wooden-you-like-a-wooden-vespa/ this is so awsome i want one rob can you bend me this???????

[Bombarde16]

Curve #11 went into the clamps this morning. Should be on track for starting joinery next weekend.

The end is almost in sight.

[Bombarde16]

Pro tip: When selecting lumber for your project, avoid boards that have a noticeable bow.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

It took all of holiday break, but I laminated twelve arcs. First step was a very rough pass with a belt sander to get one side ballpark flat, or at least flat enough that it could reference against my new...

...auxilliary fence. One pass to true a side, then set the final dimension (1.5") to cut the other side of the arcs as well as the stock for the straight legs.

Nice to be making sawdust again.