Needs Pictures: 0
Results 1 to 13 of 13
Thread: The boat which hangs on our wall
-
5th October 2021, 10:05 AM #1
The boat which hangs on our wall
For many years we’ve had our TV hanging on a wall in our living room. It was a practical solution, but it has long bothered me, always a bit of an eyesore. A big blemish of technology saying to any and all “look at me, I’m the most important being here”.
I had considered moving the TV to another room, making a wall cabinet, even hanging a picture over it. But in the end, not being an absolute monarch in my family home meant that most of my suggestions were never going to receive assent.
20210604_093534.jpg
In addition to the TV, we also have an Xbox with its plethora of controllers and headphones which end up littering the couch arms. I would frequently cringe when a visitor got confused between a coaster and a gaming console when looking for somewhere to place their drink. It too needed something.
After many ideas and mental plans I settled on a simple box, which would hold the speaker bar beneath the TV, and offer some storage too. The hope was that by spanning the entire length of the wall, it would draw some of the focus away form the TV, and add some much needed warmth to that view.
20211004_172649.jpg plan.jpg
And so it was off to the races. I had a lot of 120 mm x 35 mm construction Tasmanian Oak which I could use for the main structure. The plan, was to make the main carcass with proud dovetails on the corners, with the narrower dividers (produced by re-sawing the 35 mm stock in half(ish) ), holding firm with proud tenons protruding by a couple of millimetres top and bottom. The three boxes on the right would have sliders behind which the mess could be contained.
A pleasant benefit of having my outfeed table on wheels is that when needing to break down big stock, I can just separate my table saw and outfeed table a little, and I have a nice gap to cut between. Re-sawing for the dividers could also be captioned “Butchering my stock”
20210604_113426.jpg 20210604_113449.jpg20210604_115942.jpg
I quickly ran into an unexpected close-call. My dovetail saw doesn’t have a very deep cut, and only just, by standing on its tip toes was able to cut the tails in my end pieces. Phew! Other than that, they were not unlike most other tails, just thick. I did stop and touch up my saw which helped it along somewhat. In hindsight, I think my poor saw was probably just getting its tiny teeth clogged with so much material.
20210604_130556.jpg 20210604_132333.jpg 20210604_141119.jpg
Onto the pins. Hmmmm, normally I would hang the stock vertically in my vise, but at 2.7 m long, that was never going to be practical. I did consider clamping the stock to an upstairs balcony, but dignity wouldn’t allow my to do something which I assumed would just look ridiculous. In the end I clamped the board at an angle in my vise, kneeled on a stool and, sore knees and muscles be dammed, got on with it. It worked surprisingly well.
20210604_151420.jpg 20210604_151344.jpg
I really didn’t fancy chopping out the pins, as there wasn’t enough room on my bench, so would have needed to do it on a less than solid surface instead. I recall hearing Frank Klausz talking about using a trim router to clear the waste in a hurry, so thought this was as good an opportunity as any to see how it worked for me. Other than ridiculously messy (I have no dust extraction at my bench), it worked surprisingly well with a spiral bit.
20210604_161212.jpg 20210604_153418.jpg
Now that the dovetails were cut, it was time to chop the mortices through which the divider’s tenons would protrude. The plan called for two mortices for each divider per side, at 13 mm square. I really don’t mind chopping mortices, and find that they go fairly quickly. This however was really time consuming, as the square didn’t allow me much length to get to depth. I started by drilling out the centre of each mortice with a 7 mm bit to provide the waste with somewhere to move into, then using my 12 mm mortice chisel, expanding to size. Square holes really weren’t that simple a task. In the end I managed it, but how a hollow chisel morticer would have made the job easier.
20210605_153310.jpg 20210605_143458.jpg 20210605_134347.jpg
The final part of the case was routing the channels in which the sliding doors would run. I can assure you that I double and triple checked that I was routing the correct face and side before starting each one. To much work had gone into it to make a silly mistake at this point.
20210609_182039.jpg
Time for the glue-up. It always impresses me no end when things go together as planned. I did need a degree of clamp gymnastics to pull the two ends in however, as I certainly don’t have any 3 m clamps lying around. But the glue-up was a success and the cabinet was done.
20210609_193913.jpg 20210609_193852.jpg 20210609_193235.jpg 20210609_193207.jpg
The final stage was to make the sliding doors. I decided that I would do a frame with kumiko panels, which wouldn’t totally hide the contents, but rather just obscure it a little. I had already done several kakuasa-no-ha patterned panels for other projects, so decided to try something new with this one. It took some doing calculating the best dimensions to minimise the frame size but display the pattern evenly.
20211004_172704.jpg
Well, one new sled, two new angle shaving jigs, 429 individually cut and shaped pieces of wood later (not counting the failures and discarded tests), I was finally done. One would think the monotony would drive one mad, however I would get into a rhythm, and knock out sixty to eighty pieces in a go. Shaping the different angles on the edges of the tiny pieces with a chisel was actually rather therapeutic.
The only worrying part for me was making the lattice frame. Each strip could have as many as thirty cuts, and I find that repetitive use of the table saw is the most dangerous because of the ease with which one goes into auto pilot. Much like the newly introduced minimum pit stop time in Formula 1, I forced myself to go slowly and do a mental check after each cut. Even then, I still added some tactile stops on the rails of my sled, so that I would feel myself getting too close to the blade. I still have ten fingers, ten toes and one nose, so must have been successful.
20211004_165257.jpg 20211004_165228.jpg
Everything was sealed with several coats of shellac and finished with wax. It is hung and I am really pleased with the result, and best of all, so is the rest of my family.
20211004_185036.jpg 20211004_163734.jpg 20211004_164009.jpg 20211004_164120.jpg 20211004_163816.jpg 20211004_163909.jpg 20211004_164621.jpg
Hang on, where is a boat hanging on the wall you ask? Well, the sliding panel frames are Tasmanian Oak, with our favourite Radiata Pine for the light coloured timber. The dark wood? I have no idea. But it’s more special then the rest. We made some wonderful friends with a couple who were refitting their yacht in Tasmania during national travel restrictions. They used our workshop for their wood work and repaid us with many a laugh and great conversation. They have long since continued their travels, but in cleaning up several months ago, I found an old piece of timber they had pulled out of their boat, left on a shelf where they kept their timber stash and templates. And so it is that Mirrool (or part of her) now hangs on our wall, reminding us daily of distant friends.
-
5th October 2021 10:05 AM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
- Join Date
- Always
- Location
- Advertising world
- Posts
- Many
-
5th October 2021, 12:48 PM #2Senior Member
- Join Date
- Nov 2020
- Location
- Oregon, USA
- Posts
- 234
Big improvement and a creative solution. Well done. I love to see kumiko in a non-traditional setting and lots of other details to draw your eye away from the blank screen.
If I might suggest: perhaps extend a wood frame up and around to capture the other sides of the TV, too?
-
5th October 2021, 01:22 PM #3
-
5th October 2021, 01:24 PM #4
This the most elegant and functional piece I think I have ever seen!!! x 10
Re the suggestion from GRadice, personally I think it would be over kill, you have the right aesthetic as is.The person who never made a mistake never made anything
Cheers
Ray
-
5th October 2021, 04:14 PM #5
I like it and also like the story behind. It's always good to have things with a tale.
Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk
-
5th October 2021, 06:15 PM #6SENIOR MEMBER
- Join Date
- Jul 2014
- Location
- Brisbane
- Posts
- 937
Lovely design and execution. I'm with rwbuild, it looks great as is, framing the TV in would draw more attention to it.
What's the googly eyed plants name?
-
5th October 2021, 09:13 PM #7
Lance,
That’s a great piece and your story behind it is fantastic “fitting TVs in or trying to make them fit in is difficult in a home.
But you have done well,I’m even going to forget about the disgusting picture you posted with that orange piece of junk,especially since I’m quite sure you have a few nice panel saws courtesy of Australia Post [emoji6].
Cheers Matt.
-
6th October 2021, 07:50 AM #8
Thank-you all for your encouragement.
Originally Posted by GRadice
Originally Posted by labr@
Originally Posted by rwbuild
I finished the cabinet several months before the kumiko panels, and in the interim whilst hanging in place, I was getting concerned that the delicate kumiko would look out of place on such a heavy/strong construction. But in the end, it worked incredibly well.
A lot of the inspiration comes from Mike Pekovich's work. One of the elements I borrowed from him is the use of different thickness stock to allow the use of heavy solid timbers, but not have it look monolithic. So here the top and bottom rails are thick, the two sides slimmer, and the the dividers slimmest of all. In effect, the further in we move, the slimmer the stock. In that progression, I guess it stands to reason that the light kumiko would fit in too. Though I spent more time than expected trying to size the panel frames to keep them as light as possible. All in all, I think it was all effective.
Originally Posted by Alkahestic
Untitled.png
Originally Posted by simplicity
-
8th October 2021, 12:02 PM #9... and this too shall pass away ...
- Join Date
- May 2012
- Location
- Brisbane (Chermside)
- Age
- 71
- Posts
- 2,084
A truly lovely piece.
This piece has it all. Great design and wonderful craftsmanship. I'd never have thought to make the joinery proud, but it works a treat.
-
8th October 2021, 01:05 PM #10Senior Member
- Join Date
- Sep 2019
- Location
- Somerville
- Age
- 50
- Posts
- 295
Great update!
-
9th October 2021, 05:03 PM #11
knowing how wise you are I suspect you have already addressed my thoughts.............
I love the design but shudder at someone relaxing on the sofa and head going back into that unit. But then depending on whose head might not be a bad thing.I would love to grow my own food, but I can not find bacon seeds
-
9th October 2021, 05:38 PM #12
-
14th October 2021, 11:15 PM #13Intermediate Member
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
- Location
- Melbourne
- Posts
- 30
Love it! Looks great, the kumiko panels are a really nice feature which grab your attention at first, but at the same time they aren't distracting once you've looked at it for a bit. Nice story too.
Similar Threads
-
Sea pearl vs Core sound vs Swallow boat... sail boat...which one
By Tom The rower in forum BOAT DESIGNS / PLANSReplies: 5Last Post: 5th January 2013, 03:56 PM -
Sail boat on trailer, wooden boat great old collectable
By SimonP in forum CLASSIC BOAT RESCUE & ADOPTIONReplies: 0Last Post: 26th October 2010, 07:56 PM -
Interesting rules of boat building - Australian History of wooden yacht/boat design
By soundman in forum BOAT BUILDING / REPAIRINGReplies: 23Last Post: 27th July 2009, 06:11 PM -
I want to build a boat! (maybe electric fishing boat)
By RobertAdair in forum BOAT DESIGNS / PLANSReplies: 24Last Post: 12th November 2008, 11:56 AM