Vaughn McMillan
05-29-2006, 5:17 AM
Since several Creekers were following along somewhat on my recent redwood arbor project, I thought I'd show some pics now that it's been moved into its intended place. The pic I posted last week (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=36860) was somewhat obscured by fake ivy and a couple of newlyweds. Soon, it'll be covered in wisteria vines.
The design is my own, stealing several elements from various pictures I saw while searching the Internet. It's sort of an Arts and Crafts style, with a bit of Oriental influence in the double-arched top. This is the first project for which I've used SketchUp, and it was really handy for visualizing how a change in one proportion would affect the others, and for determining critical dimensions of various parts.
Here's the SketchUp (free Google version) drawing I did as a guideline. There were several other detailed drawings I did in the process of putting it all together in the real world:
39657
And here's how it came out in the end:
39658
Here's a look from another angle: (The lemon tree is in the foreground of the picture; the lemons really aren't as big as basketballs.)
39659
And here's a detail shot showing the lap joints attaching the legs to the top. I used stainless steel screws and plugged the holes with mushroom caps from the local hardware store. The sides are all mortise and tenon joinery, but the through mortises on the legs are fake. I had intended for them to be blind mortises, but I cut the mortises on the wrong side of the legs, so went ahead and cut them all the way through. Since I'd already cut the horizontal members to length and cut the tenons, they were not long enough to go all the way through, so I used rectangular plugs on the outsides of the legs to give the appearance of the tenons going all the way through. The top slats are held in place by deeply countersunk stainless steel screws, the holes for which were also plugged to prevent water from building up inside.
39660
Not really fine woodworking, but it's plenty stout and this project had several firsts for me: M&T joinery, drawing large-radius curves with a bent piece of 1/8" x 3/4" stock, and designing (and drawing) in SketchUp. As a bonus, I didn't mess up the finish (because there isn't one). As always, your comments are welcome.
- Vaughn
The design is my own, stealing several elements from various pictures I saw while searching the Internet. It's sort of an Arts and Crafts style, with a bit of Oriental influence in the double-arched top. This is the first project for which I've used SketchUp, and it was really handy for visualizing how a change in one proportion would affect the others, and for determining critical dimensions of various parts.
Here's the SketchUp (free Google version) drawing I did as a guideline. There were several other detailed drawings I did in the process of putting it all together in the real world:
39657
And here's how it came out in the end:
39658
Here's a look from another angle: (The lemon tree is in the foreground of the picture; the lemons really aren't as big as basketballs.)
39659
And here's a detail shot showing the lap joints attaching the legs to the top. I used stainless steel screws and plugged the holes with mushroom caps from the local hardware store. The sides are all mortise and tenon joinery, but the through mortises on the legs are fake. I had intended for them to be blind mortises, but I cut the mortises on the wrong side of the legs, so went ahead and cut them all the way through. Since I'd already cut the horizontal members to length and cut the tenons, they were not long enough to go all the way through, so I used rectangular plugs on the outsides of the legs to give the appearance of the tenons going all the way through. The top slats are held in place by deeply countersunk stainless steel screws, the holes for which were also plugged to prevent water from building up inside.
39660
Not really fine woodworking, but it's plenty stout and this project had several firsts for me: M&T joinery, drawing large-radius curves with a bent piece of 1/8" x 3/4" stock, and designing (and drawing) in SketchUp. As a bonus, I didn't mess up the finish (because there isn't one). As always, your comments are welcome.
- Vaughn