Work In Progress - Quilt Rack

[Bill Arnold]

This is built for a nearly 100-year old quilt made by my wife's great-grandmother. Material is Honduras mahogany with black walnut accents. Overall size is 37" high by 40" long by 13 5/8" wide at the feet. Legs are bentwood laminations -- 7 strips 1/8" thick. Crossmembers are triangular for stability. This photo is after the first finish coat -- blo/naphtha/poly plus a few drops of red mahogany stain. It's sitting in the Sun to enhance the color a bit. I'll hand rub a few coats of clear blo/naphtha/poly to finish it.

It will be in the Fine Handcrafted Furniture exhibition at the Florida State Fair in a couple of weeks. I'm also showing a side table and nightstand.

Your comments are very welcome.

[David Wilson]

Bill

Verry nice,I love the accents.

[Michael Stafford]

Bill, that is quite stylish and sleek. A nice decorative piece. Good job. :)

[Bobby McCarley]

Very nice piece of work Bill. I think your wife's ggrandmother would be real pleased to have her quilt displayed on this. What are the accents made of?
Also what determined the shape you chose? I notice it closely resembles a fish, a common reference to Jesus.

Bobby

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Bill,

Could you post a pick of your set up for the bent lamination? I would really like to see how you did this and a brief description if you have the time to post. That's a really nice looking graceful piece you made there. Great work! Thanks Alan

[Bill Arnold]

... what determined the shape you chose? I notice it closely resembles a fish, a common reference to Jesus. ...
Bobby,

Thank you for your comments.

When my wife, Bobbie, suggested building a quilt rack we did a little brainstorming one evening during dinner. She described something more open than the typical rack and waved her hands through the air in a criss-crossing motion. I played around with a drawing at the computer over the next few days, starting with a radius that would give me a 10"-12" width and about a 36" height. As I tried different ideas, the fish symbol kept surfacing. Although it was not intended at first, the Christian fish symbol is sure to appeal to a lot of people.

Regards,

[Bill Arnold]

Bill, Could you post a pick of your set up for the bent lamination? I would really like to see how you did this and a brief description if you have the time to post. That's a really nice looking graceful piece you made there. Great work! Thanks Alan
Alan,

Thank you for your comment. Actually, I posted the setup in another thread showing my vacuum bagging system. Here's the link: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost.php?p=134104&postcount=1

[Keith Christopher]

Bill,


Love the quilt rack ! The accents fit it nicely and as always contrasting wood very nice. If you made a few of these and went to a christian church bazaar, you'd sell out very quick !


Keith

[Bruce Page]

Bill, your work is very sleek & graceful. I’m glad my mother-in-law doesn’t know about SMC – she’d want me to make about ten of them. (as if I could!)

[Bill Arnold]

Bill, Love the quilt rack ! The accents fit it nicely and as always contrasting wood very nice. If you made a few of these and went to a christian church bazaar, you'd sell out very quick ! Keith
Keith,

Thank you for your comments.

After the design evolved into the Ichthus, I began to think about how to market to the Christian audience. I'm not sure I could recover my costs at a bazaar, though. What do you think the price point should be?

Regards,

[Doug Shepard]

Those accents are very cool. I'm tying to figure out how I might have made them without worrying about breaking off at short grain. Were those bent lams as well? Or segments? Solid wood?
I've been using poly over BLO. Hadn't thought about mixing them together, but that makes tons of sense. What kind of mixture of the BLO/naptha/poly works best?

[Jim Becker]

That's really beautiful, Bill. Outstanding design, too. It actually looks like a project I'd like to try sometime, too, as I like the idea of the bent laminations, etc.

I get a real "Celtic" feel from it, too, for some reason!

[Mark Singer]

Bill,

Great design! I really like it ...very unique

[Marshall Harrison]

Great looking piece Bill. I could also see that with stained glass in the ends.

How did you do the horizontal pieces? They appear from the pic to be oreinted plumb (90 deg) with the ground but I don't see how they could be anything but at an angle considering the end pieces.

[Keith Christopher]

Keith,

Thank you for your comments.

After the design evolved into the Ichthus, I began to think about how to market to the Christian audience. I'm not sure I could recover my costs at a bazaar, though. What do you think the price point should be?

Regards,

What are your costs to make them ?

[Bill Arnold]

Great looking piece Bill. I could also see that with stained glass in the ends. How did you do the horizontal pieces? They appear from the pic to be oreinted plumb (90 deg) with the ground but I don't see how they could be anything but at an angle considering the end pieces.
Marshall,

Thanks for the compliment. Your suggestion about stained glass sounds like part of the next one I build -- especially when LOML hears it!

Each of the horizontal (crossmember) pieces are built from three pieces of mahogany glued up into a triangular shape. I decided to use that approach on the top crossmember to provide support for the quilt, then repeated it on the bottom member. The pieces are beveled to match the angle of the legs. The photo below is and end view of the assembly. I did more shaping on them after the photo was taken.

[Bill Arnold]

What are your costs to make them ?
Keith,

Materials used in the rack are about 7bf of Honduras mahogany, 1/2bf of black walnut, and miscellaneous glue, finish, etc. I didn't track my time exactly, but I'd estimate I have about 8 hours or so in it. I see street prices of mahogany anywhere from $6.50 to $11.00 per bf. Frankly, I'm not sure where to position myself on a shop hour rate yet, but if I use a rate of $25 then the total for the project would be in the $300 range. I'm open to suggestion on any of these figures, especially since I'm finally starting to move into projects that I hope to sell.

Regards,

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Wow, now that is a nice quilt rack! I could definately see someone paying $300 for it.

[Alan Turner]

Bill,.
I think your shop rate is too light by at least half. That rate not only pays you, but also buys and sharpens tools, buys disposables, rent, power, etc., etc. Seems to me that a pretty fair price for the quilt rack would be in the $500-600 range. Good luck. HOw many are you taking with you to the show?
Also, I would htink that if you are doing a small production run, you might achieve some economies of scale and bring that labor time down by quite a ibt.
Alan

[Bill Arnold]

Bill, I think your shop rate is too light by at least half. That rate not only pays you, but also buys and sharpens tools, buys disposables, rent, power, etc., etc. Seems to me that a pretty fair price for the quilt rack would be in the $500-600 range. Good luck. HOw many are you taking with you to the show? Also, I would htink that if you are doing a small production run, you might achieve some economies of scale and bring that labor time down by quite a ibt. Alan
Alan,

Thanks for your input. This is the only one I've made so far. The State Fair has a juried exhibition in which one can enter a single item in each of several categories. There's a scoring procedure based on design, execution, fit and finish. I'm entering the quilt rack and a side table for sure; maybe a nightstand if I'm satisfied with the finish in a couple of days.

I don't disagree with you on the shop rate; I'm probably uderestimating the value of this and some other items I've got on the drawing board. Since I'm just getting started on trying to build items for sale, I've got to see what the market will bear. For instance, I see quilt racks made of oak and cherry listed for under $200, but none are anything like mine. Another part of my pricing will be getting visibility.

Economy of scale on making these would come by doing all of the bentwood pressing for one rack at the same time. For this one, I built a small form that held the material for one side of a leg and repeated it four times. Also, I used Titebond for the adhesive. For production, I'd use something like Unibond 800. Now that I've done one unit (shall we call it a prototype?), additional units would go together much quicker. Instead of a hand-rubbed finish, I'd most likely apply a light stain coat and then hit it with a few coats of lacquer followed by buffing. I can see getting down to 3-4 hours per unit; maybe a bit lower.

Regards,

[Keith Christopher]

I would suggest 350.00 for the rack. But you're right you won't get it at a bazaar, however see if there is an artisan commonwealth there. You might be able to consign it with a shop like that



Keith

[Bill Arnold]

I would suggest 350.00 for the rack. But you're right you won't get it at a bazaar, however see if there is an artisan commonwealth there. You might be able to consign it with a shop like that. Keith
Keith,

Thanks for your input. I'll be joining a local WW group in February that meets monthly. I'm sure they can lead me to local outlets. I did a quick search for artisan groups and have seen some listings to investigate.

Regards,

[Alan Turner]

Bill
For a small production run, you could widen your bending form, and resaw your strips wide, perhpas as wide as the stock would allow, and glue up 6", or even 12" strips. Whatever. Joint one side, and then rip off your leg strips. Might be easier than trying to orient a whole bunch of 3/4" strips on a form as glue is slippery, and always causes movement at the wrong time.

At a show, if you have multiples of an attractive piece, then you might at least cover your show costs by selling the smaller items such as this rack. One retailer I know says that if you have one of something on the floor, it is hard to sell, but if you have 10, selling 8 or so is easy. I am not a retailer at all so just passs along the comment.

I have been thinking of doing a show, and taking with me a dozen or so hearth benches for impulse buying type sales, to at least cover the costs of the show. While I think it might be fun in some respects (who doesn't love to show their work), at least the first time, the thought of being polite for 2 or 3 days running is a staggering thought ( : .
Alan

[Bill Arnold]

Bill
For a small production run, you could widen your bending form, and resaw your strips wide, perhpas as wide as the stock would allow, and glue up 6", or even 12" strips. Whatever. Joint one side, and then rip off your leg strips. Might be easier than trying to orient a whole bunch of 3/4" strips on a form as glue is slippery, and always causes movement at the wrong time.

At a show, if you have multiples of an attractive piece, then you might at least cover your show costs by selling the smaller items such as this rack. One retailer I know says that if you have one of something on the floor, it is hard to sell, but if you have 10, selling 8 or so is easy. I am not a retailer at all so just passs along the comment.

Alan
Alan,

The finished legs are 1-1/2" wide and 7/8" thick. For this one piece, I made a form 3" wide (4 pieces of MDF) and ripped strips from 8/4 that was milled to about 1-7/8", then glued up 7 strips. I held the strips in alignment with blue tape while the vacuum bag was pumping down. I'm planning to widen the form to 8" and resaw from a board 7" wide to yield the 4 leg pieces.

The 'show costs' for the State Fair are $2 per entry, so I've got a whole $6 invested so far. Additional cost is a one-hour drive round-trip from home. I deliver the items on the 4th, judging is the 6th and the Fair runs the 10th through the 21st. I'm sure not planning to be hanging around there the whole time. The main thing I'm looking for from this is some exposure for the first time to a wider audience than family, friends and a few fellow woodworkers.

Thanks again to you and others who have responded. You've given me some great encouragement and guidance.

Regards,