A little project, trying new things, fixing mistakes

A friend wanted brackets for her bedroom wall to hang a bicycle. I decided it was a good excuse to try a few new things like braces at odd angles and stopped chamfers on octagonal pieces. Overall I think she will be happy with these and they will look fine from 10 feet away. But, I’m not that happy with how they came out.

Octagonalizing the arms but having the stopped chamfer was tricky. It would have been much easier to make the tenon smaller so I could just make the whole piece octagonal. The first few chamfers looked like they were done by a blind beaver. After a good bit of rasping and sanding they are acceptable. I felt like I was starting to get the hang of it bye the last few.

The extreme acute angle on the braces made layout and cutting tricky. Again, by the last one I was starting to get the hang of it, but it made it much more fiddle than a 45 degree brace. Also, I didn’t come up with a good way to clamp these during glue up. They went together fine dry, but I couldn’t get the last bit to seat when I glued them up.

the biggest mistake was getting a crack in one of the base plates during glue up. Everything had to go together at the same time. I was trying to work quickly to get the arm seated so I could work more on seating the brace fully. I rushed a little too much and ended up cracking one of the mounting plates. I can put a butterfly in the back so it will be fine structurally, but I’m sure the crack will be visible. Other than packing it with glue and sawdust, any ideas for fixing it cosmetically?

Overall, I’m glad I tried this, but it started out as a little project to try a few new things and turned into more than I intended it to.

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Overall, I’m glad I tried this, but it started out as a little project to try a few new things and turned into more than I intended it to.

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Sounds like a good learning experience. The getting better as you kind of says that.

If you can, post pictures with a bike on them.

jtk

Having the screw holes directly in line with the bracket is not the best design IMO.
I would stagger the screws off center which will add stability when mounted and reduce the potential for splitting the back plate.
Just a suggestion

I am wondering about using something like these brackets to store a couple pieces of 8/4 hardwood over the laundry machines for a couple years. Couple layers of shellac to protect them form the various laundry products...

I think I would wedge the crack apart carefully, work some glue into it and clamp it tight. I bet it almost disappears.

Those are neat. I would gladly hang a Bike on them. Being wood they will be easy on Bicycle paint.

Structurally the top of the wall plate should be higher. The leverage of the long arm will want to rip the top screw out. The plate could be sculpted in then rounded to minimise the look of the taller plate.

The type of wall is of course key. If each is in a wood stud then the plate splitting is the main concern. If in a drywall plug I doubt it will work.

Yep, it is set up to screw in a stud. I have zero structural concerns when a 21 pound bike is hanging from them. In hindsight I probably should care left the plate long until after glue up, then trimmed it to final length, just like you leave haunches on door stiles. I clamped it tight and put a butterfly on the back. I expect that will keep the crack barely noticeable. I’ll take some pictures once they are set up and have a bike on them.

I think they’ll work!Attachment 479750Attachment 479751

I hadn’t cut dovetails in a while, so i made a little tray out of some cherry I had left over from another project. I finished it by wiping on some spar varnish/blo mix I have laying around.

The joints came out OK but not great, and the 4th one went the smoothest. I definitely think doing something like this as warm-up before diving into a bigger project makes sense if you haven’t cut a joint in a while.

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The joints came out OK but not great, and the 4th one went the smoothest.

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In the past this phenomena taught me to cut some practice dovetails before starting a project if it has been a while. Also on drawers cutting the back dovetails before the front helps the front to look tighter.

jtk

ummm,,,if someone nudges that bike with their head they could be hurt. Safety straps would be good.

Dovetails look great from here. They are cherry and half-blind and fairly thick which ups the degree of difficulty to 2.7. It’s not like through dovetails in 3/8” white pine. That would be more like a dod of 1.1. I would score them an 8.9 on artistry and 9.1 on technical merit.