Monday, January 10, 2011

Back Panel & Misc.

Welp, got to over sized milling for new door frame parts and worked on the back panel.
The "stage" of this cabinet is so close to the bottom That I really couldn't justify making a second sliver of a panel so I made a wide bottom frame member. This doesn't make for a nice slip-tenon though so I doweled the bottom and went for slip tenons at the top joints of the frame.

Here's a neat little trick. Learned this at IP but haven't made a floating panel big enough to justify using this technique till now. I put a little 1/8" dowel in the groove of the frame and a notch in the panel. The panel will be centered on these little "pins" and have room for seasonal movement on the sides. This means that even when moving the reveals on the sides of the panel will be equal. Keen!

Aaaand poof! glued up and getting finished.
There wasn't a large selection of decent AD Maple to choose from. What I got I thought was a bit flatter sawn then I would like. I took the best section out of the center of the plank and got some interesting composition in grain pattern and think it will be nice. A little less "liney" and a little more open for a very soft looking background which should do a display cabinet good :).

I've been whittling away at the door frame members but am now over cautious about them ha. Thus I've had much more down-time than I'm used to around the shop. Starting to get stir crazy I went ahead a rough milled some lumber for the next project I've had in my head. It will be relatively quick and straight forward.
With the goal of coming up with something more "Gallery savvy" I'm looking for something smallish, simple, and less time consuming all lending to a lower price without sacrificing craftsmanship or visual interest. I'm not even going to use curves in this one! :p
I remembered the last time I got into some Oak from the commercial supplier it had crazy tension and needed to mellow out. So I milled with plenty of margin and time for it to do its thing.
More on this one later...

In addition I took some time to look at some "web design" for the gallery. The website they have now desperately needs to be updated! Will, the director of the gallery, has been kind in hearing some ideas I've had about the show space. I thought he may be interested in allowing me to try my hand at the website.
Now, I've never claimed to be a graphic/web designer... Hell, I've never even claimed to be a furniture designer. There are still bugs to be thought about and worked out but here are a couple concept screen shots.
The pics aren't all too important at the moment just defining content space.

Some of the colors will change a bit I've sure. Screen size is something that may need reworking... I have a little wide screen monitor that frames these jpgs nicely but others are different soooo... I don't know, not there yet ha.
Anywho I think it would be nice to contribute more to the gallery, and hopefully the success of the gallery. Sure I'm spending my own time on these gallery things but it stretches my brain a bit, allows me to practice other "skills", and I just may learn something too.

3 comments:

SGI said...

Looks good Nick, you are one productive guy!

BTW - has anyone ever told you that you look like Pat Sansone? For some reason that picture on your website reminds me of him.

Nick Brygidyr said...

making the cabinet before the door? whats this world come to?!

Nicholas Nelson said...

Pat Sansone? Heh No, but I did a google search and can see how... maybe I looked more like hime when I was 21-ish :p

Hey, I WAS making the door and the cabinet at the same time, then crap happened.
I usually get the door started before the cabinet. Define the shape of the door and leave it over-sized. Then I tend to finalize the cabinet and finish the door later... depending on other factors it will vary. Just how I tend to work.