Anyone ever made a large cross?

[Matt Armstrong]

I've been "commissioned" by my church to build a cross for services (new church). I wanted to use spalted maple to give it sort of a funky organic look but the pricing and availability of spalted maple makes that a no-go. Anyone build a large cross (6' + ) before? Ideas? Plans? Thoughts? Just looking for ideas here.

[Brian Kent]

Nice hat, Matt.

I have not made a large one, but there are some threads in the recent past that talked about some of the weight issues - like making it hollow to look solid.

I wondered about Ash. It is a less expensive wood around here, not as pretty for furniture, but with strong enough grain patterns to be seen from quite a ways back.

I'll be watching to see what you do.

Brian

[Jamie Buxton]

Do you think this cross will hang in the air from cables? Or be fastened to a wall? Or stand by itself on the floor?

And how funky is funky? For instance, could you build it with tree trunks or branches? That probably would have been how Jesus' cross was built; they didn't have thickness planers and dimensioned lumber then.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Veneered surface?

[Kevin Womer]

That is really nice, I will be happy to hear how it goes for you. I have just been making several crosses 10" to donate to children of Baptisms and now for new members as well. I use a half lap for these and chamfer all edges. I know this doesn't help your assignment, but I just wanted to let you know I think that is really cool. Please post your finished piece, I would be interested in how you did it. Best of Luck!

[Darnell Hagen]

I'd suggest going to various churches with a tape measure.

Crosses have surprisingly tough to figure out proportions, especially when they are large or seen from an angle.

[Adam Strong]

I have built one out of rough cedar (still had bark on the edges) that was around 10'+ tall some years ago. This was for a "Passion" play. The proportions were determined by the fact a 6' tall man had to hang on it and was simply proportioned by the height and arm span of the actor.

[Mike Henderson]

If you want an exotic wood look, build the frame from some ordinary wood (like poplar) and use veneer on it. The amount of veneer you'd need would not be expensive.

If you want to, veneer the wood first then cut it for the project - but you'll have to make mitered joints where the wood meets.

Mike

[Chip Lindley]

Dogwood would be the ideal wood, since Christ's cross was made of it. But alas, dogwood is only a brushy tree of no stature today.

A thought would be to spring for Purpleheart! That would certainly make an impression in the church's sanctuary!

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Yes for new church, about 12' x 8' out Red Oak. Built a steel frame first out of 3"x 5" steel tubing. The Red Oak was a box that the steel frame fix in side of. Total weight of about 350-400 lbs. With out steel frame I do not believe cross arms would stayed square the last 15 years. Face of cross was about 10" wide surface hand carved to give some distress too surface. I don't remember much more then that. I can see if I still have some photos of it going together.

[Joe Jensen]

I built a large one, 12 ft tall and about 7 ft wide. It was set inside a 5 ft diameter round window with cross mullions. The outside tips of the cross were flush with the drywall, and I cut the cross to fit tight inside the window. Our paster wanted it covered in hammered copper so I built it out of plywood and then "veneered it in distress copper sheet. The hard part was putting the 200 lb plus cross in place 18 feet up. I rented a couple very long ladders. In hind sight I should have rented a lift, but since it was all my donation I was cheap :eek:

[Jim Finn]

I built one of redwood and painted it. It is 14' tall and 7' across and made of 2x10's and 2x12's. It is hollow and held together with sliding dovetails. I slipped it over the 6x6 stub of the old cross on top of the church steeple ,with a crane, 50' above grade. Been there 18 years now.

[Brad Moser]

I built one a few years ago out of rough cedar 8X8's. It was 9' tall. The center of the cross was 6' up and the cross piece was 6' long. That made a good looking, proportional cross.

[Clisby Clark]

I made a cross of two 1x4 boards of mahogany half lapped to lie in one plane. To give the cross some depth, I housed the mahogany in oak 1x6 boards which were grooved to accept the mahogany and then rounded over to soften the edge. The oak boards were mitered on all the corners (PITA-pre Domino). To clarify, the mahogany sits parallel with the wall and the oak is pepindicular. Good luck.

[Jim Heffner]

Matt, I think if you wanted to be "correct" in building a replica cross
for the church,you would be better off building it from rough sawn timbers.
The reason for that is this, Christ's cross wasn't built from finely finished
wooden timbers, it was made of the roughest, hand cut, hardened wood that
was available at the time and put together in a rough form so that the Roman
guards could do their thing and that was to cruficy Jesus! Enough said here.

[Greg Portland]

The style of the cross is obviously going to depend greatly on your church. Some prefer rough wood, some prefer polished wood, some prefer metal / gold (and that's before you even get into the cross shapes). If the 'funky organic' look is something that parishioners would like then I would stick with veneer laminated over high quality plywood torsion boxes. Plan your veneer seams carefully. A domino or biscuit jointer will really help with aligning the edges to form each box.

[Geoff Potter]

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p127/bigdog72/cross_dimension.jpg

[Van Huskey]

Dogwood would be the ideal wood, since Christ's cross was made of it. But alas, dogwood is only a brushy tree of no stature today.

A thought would be to spring for Purpleheart! That would certainly make an impression in the church's sanctuary!


Actually dogwood is merely a legend not correctly associated with actual text.

There are some who believe that olive or cedar of Lebanon was used. Others suggest perhaps it was cypress, pine or planetree. There have been as many "supported" claims as their are species in the area, but almost universally it is agreed among scholars and archeologists that dogwood is not correct.

[Matt Armstrong]

A lot of great thoughts here. I hadn't considered the weight issue of a solid cross, though it'll be a floor-standing cross. I like the idea of a more rugged looking cross, but I'm not sure how I'd go about it. That was the impetus for the integration of spalted maple... it looks funky and organic but modern as well.

I'll have a look at ash since that might work as well.

Thanks for all the input thus far....

[Loren Bengtson]

Matt,

Too bad you aren’t closer to Indiana. I have a sawmill and some ash logs ready. I could cut you some lumber to order. No charge; it's for your church.

I sometimes have spalted maple as well, but I haven’t been able to saw it at the perfect time. The perfect time is after the log has sat long enough to get nice pattern all the way through, but not so long that it has started to lose all its strength.

Ash is relatively inexpensive these days. The Emerald Ash Borer is spreading across the country, killing ash trees as it goes. Landowners are cutting their ash trees now rather than lose them to the insect.

My guess regarding the look of the real cross is that it probably would have been hand hewn using flat-sided axes and/or adzes. The most common place I’ve seen lumber like this is in old barns. Most of those timbers are too big to use for a properly proportioned cross, but some of the bracing is smaller, sometimes 6x6's.

Check for old barns being torn down in your area. You could also do some on-line searching for sellers of recycled lumber.

Good luck,
– Loren

[Matt Armstrong]

Matt,

Too bad you aren’t closer to Indiana. I have a sawmill and some ash logs ready. I could cut you some lumber to order. No charge; it's for your church.

I sometimes have spalted maple as well, but I haven’t been able to saw it at the perfect time. The perfect time is after the log has sat long enough to get nice pattern all the way through, but not so long that it has started to lose all its strength.

Ash is relatively inexpensive these days. The Emerald Ash Borer is spreading across the country, killing ash trees as it goes. Landowners are cutting their ash trees now rather than lose them to the insect.

My guess regarding the look of the real cross is that it probably would have been hand hewn using flat-sided axes and/or adzes. The most common place I’ve seen lumber like this is in old barns. Most of those timbers are too big to use for a properly proportioned cross, but some of the bracing is smaller, sometimes 6x6's.

Check for old barns being torn down in your area. You could also do some on-line searching for sellers of recycled lumber.

Good luck,
– Loren

Thanks Loren! I actually wanted a hand-hewn look but I was running out of time prior to Easter and it doesn't feel right to not have a cross for the church. So i bought a 6x6 in doug fir and decided to stain it dark and overlay some zebrawood on it. I couldnt' figure out how to impart a hand-hewn look onto the board without actually using the axe/adze...

[Jon McElwain]

My dad made one a few years ago out of Purpleheart. It was a box frame of purpleheart constructed with dovetails at the corners. He used plywood backing for structural support, then had a stained glass insert made for the front of the cross. He lit the stained glass using LED light chord (I think) run through the inside with a series of light diffusers. Turned out absolutely gorgeous.

[Neal Clayton]

while i'm not a religious person, and don't consider myself a christian, this sort of thing, i agree with the others in part, is not really what most of our typical wood built things are meant to be: functional art.

this is symbolic art, not functional art, that's a pretty big difference.

thus the manner in which it's built doesn't really concern the species of wood all that much, but the desired symbolic impression of the end result. it could be anything from rough crooked logs to gold inlaid marble when you get done. it's all in the eye of the beholder, and what the people paying for this want those eyes to see.

[Van Huskey]

I couldnt' figure out how to impart a hand-hewn look onto the board without actually using the axe/adze...


As usual Festool makes a tool for that... planer with the undulating head

[Loren Bengtson]

A wise observation, Neal, and totally correct.

-- Loren

[Harry Goodwin]

I made a walnut one framed up years ago with inch walnut. About your size. Vertical one piece, horizontal long piece was behind the front piece straight thru and shorter arms on face. Now that is pretty usual but I was tempted to be proud of how we fastened it. Took two 3" pieces of angle aluminum or steel and drilled a hole in both ends and a matching set of holes in both pieces that matched one another. Take bolts and put them in lower angle with nuts tightened and then another set of adjustible nuts and simply lift the cross and drop over the bolts and if it's crooked adjust the loose nuts on which the angle iron rests. I hope this makes sense. The lower angle iron was lag screwed to wall 2 by 4's in wall. After it was straight had cover insert pieces and mending plates in arms that I screwed to the wall.

[Matt Armstrong]

As usual Festool makes a tool for that... planer with the undulating head

Wow, that would be pretty cool, though not worth $600 or so for this one purpose

[Van Huskey]

Wow, that would be pretty cool, though not worth $600 or so for this one purpose


Yeah, its a shame Harbor Freight doesn't make one. Thats one thing I love about HF, if you need a tool to use one time they are the perfect place.

[James Carmichael]

When I bought my house, there was an 8'-high steel i-beam cross in the backyard, set in a slab.

It was actually highlighted in the listing "made by local artist", like it was an improvement. We put in the contract that it had to be removed. I'm sure one of the many reasons the house stayed on the market empty for 10-months (when housing was booming), and was a steal. The listing agent was apalled that we didn't want it.

LOML said maybe we could donate it to a church, till my teenager pointed out that the decorations were actually pagan symbols.

[Matt Armstrong]

When I bought my house, there was an 8'-high steel i-beam cross in the backyard, set in a slab.

It was actually highlighted in the listing "made by local artist", like it was an improvement. We put in the contract that it had to be removed. I'm sure one of the many reasons the house stayed on the market empty for 10-months (when housing was booming), and was a steal. The listing agent was apalled that we didn't want it.

LOML said maybe we could donate it to a church, till my teenager pointed out that the decorations were actually pagan symbols.

Well, depends what message you're trying to send to the church, lol