well it's done, learned a lot and also am left with questions on finishing.
the small scale of this sort of project magnifies every little mistake. i chose a Watco danish oil finish with a few coats of wax. I'm left a little disappointed in the result with patches of a nice satiny gloss, and then some dull spots. perhaps not the best finishing schedule for redwood.
Previously, I mentioned having built the carcass wide. I saw no alternative but to remake the tail boards, 1/16" shorter. I traced them off the pins of the front and back, which is the reverse of how I normally do this operation (tails-first). the results are what they are. this is very delicate wood and fractures across the grain very easily. had to bob off the bottom of the pool on my toes to get one nostril above the waterline.
a note on these hinges. Brusso makes them. they're kind of like regular butt hinges, but htey stop at 95deg opening. I had to prune the screws a bit in order to not punch through the lid. The hinges are marvelously made, but I dont think i'll be using the 95deg kind again as I don't like the load they might put on the screws. A heavy handed user might wear out the threads of this soft redwood pretty quick. we'll just have to see.
These hinges were my first chance to use the new Lee Valley mini router plane. it was a joy to work with.
Just enough of lift off these little feet to hover the box over the surface a bit.
With softwood, it can take a good number of coats of Watco to get an even finish. I like to let it set until its tacky before wiping as it tends to give a bit more build on the surface. When I want a bit more surface build, but not much, I use two or three coats of Minwax Antique Oil which is really an oil/varnish mix. I let it get tacky and wipe (hard) the excess. Then light steel wool and wax.
ReplyDeleteI very much like the lid lifting detail. Very Krenovian.
Jeff
thanks for the compliment, jeff - yep, i think you're right: i should have laid down a few more coats before continuing...alack next time!.
ReplyDeleteThis is an exquisite case, Adam. Beautifully and sensitively done. I especially appreciate the intricate and enormous effort shown on the end joint's 'half-dovetails' - fantastic. I recall Uncle Mikes purple cloth. Looks simply great there.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you could place the hinge screws into the redwood with some epoxy smeared on their threads - to give them a little extra 'bonded' shear support. Maybe even a few drops of thick cyano acrylate glue into the screw holes before the screws are set might help. This to let the screws use more of the parent material - be involved in load reaction rather than just the high load potential of the threads bearing against the soft wood with high stress concentrations. (At Boeing there is always the tendency for the ultra conservative structural analysts - Boeing Stress - to require mechanical fasteners in all bonded joints and visa-versa. It's a belt and suspenders world up here. But when you're bouncing around on a cold and rainy night at 40,000 feet in a B777 you're glad those guys insisted on things like that, eh?)