Woodwork projects
Here are some of our woodwork projects unrelated to musical instruments. The first describes building a home for a hand-carved chess set.
The next project follows the chess theme: building a chessboard with the CNC router. There is an important lesson-learned here: if it is emergency-stopped, don't restart it without homing the axis first!
Furniture
A chair (we made 5)
Based on a picture of a chair we liked, we designed our own version to match our personal requirements. The challenge was the intersecting planes; calculating the build required three-dimension geometry, later verified by Computer Aided Design, and iterative experiment. The final chair was sanded to 400 grit, and then waterproofed with two coats of clear marine epoxy (MAS). This epoxy coating was then sanded to 320 grit, and protected from ultra-violet light with 5 coats of clear acrylic containing ultra-violet inhibitor (General Finishes 450 outdoor satin), with inter-coat sanding to 320 grit. The final acrylic coat was sanded at 400 grit.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Chaise Longue (one was sufficient)
A minimalist chaise longue. Each of the 11 longitudinal support slats is made from three individual thin strips. One support slat is made at a time, with the strip contact surfaces coated in slow-curing marine epoxy (MAS), cold-bent to a form and clamped in place. Wax paper stops the epoxy sticking to the form and clamp. Cleaning up the wood is painful. The 20 cross pieces, and the head and tail bars are each one piece, and also epoxied in place. The finished chair is painted in epoxy for weather-proofing, and then varnished with ultraviolet resistant marine varnish (Coma Berenice).
A significant design flaw is that anyone over 40 finds it impossible to get off the chair gracefully.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------