Malcolm McLeod
02-22-2019, 11:22 AM
All good Scotch deserves a good home! Working on a tight deadline, this bar-back went into place last night for a fund-raiser on Saturday.
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Curly Cherry and Beech in what turned into a Stickley-meets-modern (I hope) design. I’d love to claim it has every dimension set from a Golden ratio, but it is strictly utilitarian in that regard: it fits the space for which its intended, storage is sized for the contents, and it gets the mini-fridges up off the floor. (You know how you reach that certain age and then reach for that 5th bottle of wine and all of a sudden like you need someone to help you up off the floor?? No more of that for this body!)
Rails and stiles are Beech, re-sawed from 8/4 leftovers from a bench build. The curly Cherry panels are shop sawed veneers over ¼” MDF. Tops are solid Cherry, with the best curl saved for the center console. The inset drawer fronts are veneered with curly over No1 solid cherry blanks (so no obvious veneer lines). BB ply was used for several of the interior structures. And Domino joinery on much of it.
Nearly everything was finished before assembly - - and I let that get way too complicated (lesson learned – and I blame SWMBO …Please don’t tell her!). Beech and Cherry both got a different Transtint dye: a weak orange to get the Beech into the right tonal range, and weak red-brown to pop the curl, respectively. The cherry then got a coat of Watco Cherry to warm it up and darken it – followed by 10 days - - that I didn’t have - - to thoroughly dry. Then de-waxed shellac on the cherry to seal the oil-based. Last was 4 coats of HVLP sprayed Minwax Polycrylic.
Caveat - For those contemplating the water-borne ‘poly’, it goes on SUPER easy, but it does leave a ‘cold’ look. It was perhaps a mistake, and may very well ultimately relegate this to the firewood pile. Time will tell. SMC’ers certainly warned of this, but even tho’ I did test this whole finish regime, it is much more pronounced as the size/scale increases. Lesson: test the finish at near final scale.
And what would any project be without a last second crisis? My leveling scheme got ‘amended’ at the last second, when I discovered nearly 1” of fall in the floor over 9’ span. …Gotta love pier & beam on clay!
Sorry, not much of a photographer – and this at night under rather harsh lights, but hopefully will give you a glimpse. No progress photos to speak of, due to looming deadline.
C&C welcomed (it’s how I hope to get better at this craft).
And now - - Uisce Beatha!
404139404140404141404142404143
Curly Cherry and Beech in what turned into a Stickley-meets-modern (I hope) design. I’d love to claim it has every dimension set from a Golden ratio, but it is strictly utilitarian in that regard: it fits the space for which its intended, storage is sized for the contents, and it gets the mini-fridges up off the floor. (You know how you reach that certain age and then reach for that 5th bottle of wine and all of a sudden like you need someone to help you up off the floor?? No more of that for this body!)
Rails and stiles are Beech, re-sawed from 8/4 leftovers from a bench build. The curly Cherry panels are shop sawed veneers over ¼” MDF. Tops are solid Cherry, with the best curl saved for the center console. The inset drawer fronts are veneered with curly over No1 solid cherry blanks (so no obvious veneer lines). BB ply was used for several of the interior structures. And Domino joinery on much of it.
Nearly everything was finished before assembly - - and I let that get way too complicated (lesson learned – and I blame SWMBO …Please don’t tell her!). Beech and Cherry both got a different Transtint dye: a weak orange to get the Beech into the right tonal range, and weak red-brown to pop the curl, respectively. The cherry then got a coat of Watco Cherry to warm it up and darken it – followed by 10 days - - that I didn’t have - - to thoroughly dry. Then de-waxed shellac on the cherry to seal the oil-based. Last was 4 coats of HVLP sprayed Minwax Polycrylic.
Caveat - For those contemplating the water-borne ‘poly’, it goes on SUPER easy, but it does leave a ‘cold’ look. It was perhaps a mistake, and may very well ultimately relegate this to the firewood pile. Time will tell. SMC’ers certainly warned of this, but even tho’ I did test this whole finish regime, it is much more pronounced as the size/scale increases. Lesson: test the finish at near final scale.
And what would any project be without a last second crisis? My leveling scheme got ‘amended’ at the last second, when I discovered nearly 1” of fall in the floor over 9’ span. …Gotta love pier & beam on clay!
Sorry, not much of a photographer – and this at night under rather harsh lights, but hopefully will give you a glimpse. No progress photos to speak of, due to looming deadline.
C&C welcomed (it’s how I hope to get better at this craft).
And now - - Uisce Beatha!