A Video Presentation of "The Unit"

He is a quick video presentation of my entertainment unit. There's not a lot to explain in writing. I hope that you can see it. I'm still working on the quality of the video.




So until next time... Live long and prosper

Presenting... Well I haven't named it yet, but here it is.

So today I finished the entertainment center. I put the doors on and the ball and socket casters. The whole piece got a coat of oil. The doors only have one coat on them at the moment. But the rest of the piece now has 5 coats of oil. I tell you what, I have not had the time with any other project to get more than 2 coats of oil on. Man the more you put on the better things look. I can't believe how this stuff builds up and looks so beautiful.

So all that is left is to get at least 3 more coats of oil on everything and then present it on Friday. Well I still have to build the 4 inner cabinets but that can wait until next week. I also have to come up with a name for this piece. Any suggestions let me know, kalafinefurntiure@gmail.com, or leave a comment.

So until next time... it's all fun and games, until someone gets an eye poked out.


This is a shot of the back.






















Check out the figure in the doors.









Shot of the top of the cabinet


Sorry about the quality of the shots, I hope to get the professional in soon to finish shooting my stuff.

Sliding Doors and stuff...

Well so faar this week has been good. The class decided to work late tonight, but I worked a normal day and came home. I'm a firm believer that if you plan right and put in a full days work, you'll get everything done. With that said, I didn't plan right, because I haven't gotten the 4 cabinets that go on the inside of the main cabinet done yet. But I realized this about 3 weeks ago and made plans with the lecturer. Those will get done next week.

But as for yesterday and today, a lot has happened. We use this finishing oil here from a company called Livos. They produce the only finishing oil endorsed by Green Peace. It is an oil that is 100% natural. It's derived from plants. So recently they introduced a colored oil range. So that you can use it like a stain. So I decided to use a Dark Walnut color on my case. I've used Blackwood veneers, and Blackwood is a lot like Koa wood from Hawaii. So it is a brown wood, but not really a drak wood. I wanted to make it a little darker. This oil is the finishing oil with color. So I really don't think it made a huge difference in the overall color of the wood. But the piece has come out dark like I wanted.

Today I fit the doors into there sliding grooves and cut out the handles. So the doors work like a charm and they can be removed if needed. So I'll get them on there tomorrow for good and continue oiling. At the moment I have 4 coats of oil on. I have never had enough time to every get more than 2 coats on before. And man it builds so nicely and is looking really sweet.

I also got 4 ball and socket casters to put on the bottom so that the whole piece can be easily moved around. So those will get installed tomorrow and "Bob's you Uncle"

So until then... "Bob's your Uncle" means Then it'll be all good.

Friday- one week left and counting...

I know that I have been post crazy these last few days, but lots happening these days. I told you that I got the case glued up yesterday. So here are a couple of shots of the clamp monster. This thing took 24 clamps in total.

Well it came out of the clamps this morning and into the show room to be prepped for finishing. And that's what I spent the day doing today. I spent the entire day scraping off veneer tape, because I didn't want to risk sanding through. Then I think I spent something like 5 hours sanding. But it was good, because I got a coat of oil on the outside of the carcass tonight. I prefinished the inside of the cabinet, but it still needs another good sanding and the dividers haven't received any oil yet either. But the school is open tomorrow and I should get everything sanded back again and another coat of oil on.
















Next big thing is going to be getting the doors ready and fit to the case. For those of you that have forgotten or might not know. The doors are on the front and the back and they will slide in grooves. So this should be interest. Wish me luck, and I'll keep you all updated.

Until then... where's that ginger beer, it is Friday right?

GLUE UP is Done...

Well the glue-up is done. Man was it a stressful event. Hence the reason I am listening to some relaxing Beach Boys music. I had to coordinate this glue and it worked like clock work.

First it was spread the expoy on all the surfaces that needed glue. Then systematically I had to put 8 pieces together in there proper places and also get clamps everywhere. I didn't have the camera, but I will get a few shots of time clamped up tomorrow. It's a site to see.

So until tomorrow... Liger, half lion and half tiger, it's probably my favorite animal


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Now playing: The Beach Boys - Kokomo
via FoxyTunes

Progess on the entertainment center...

So what's happening with the current project. Well it's been a good couple of days. I spent Monday fixing a mistake that I made so that frustrated me to know end. But yesterday and today were really good days.

Yesterday I cut all the joinery for the piece. I used the Domino machine and cut everything that I needed. So I was able to dry fit the carcass and the dividers together. This thing is massive looking. Well it is just massive. 2 meters long, that's around 6 and half feet long. It's 600 mm tall, that's about 2 feet and it's 500 mm deep, which is about 20 inches. So this thing is big and I like it.






Today I got all the veneer ready for the doors. I used a really sweet fiddle back blackwood. The color of the veneer should be a little different to the rest of the piece. Thus letting the doors just stand out. I hope it works. I also cut all the grooves for the doors to slide in.

So the goal for tomorrow is to get this baby glued up. Also I hope to get the doors veneered up. And then it's veneer the rest of the inner cabinet parts and putting those together. So I hope to have all that done by Saturday. Since for the first time this year the school is going to be open on Saturday. But we all need the extra time.

So until next time... beam me up Scottie, there's no intellgent life here.

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Now playing: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Take Me Home Country Road
via FoxyTunes
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Man what a difference a professional makes...

As a second year group we are planning our graduation exhibition. Part of this planning involves getting the venue and planning how to lay things out. Getting sponsorships and things like that. I have been lucky enough to get sponsorship from a few people. InDesign magazine being one of the few. They are going to give us some post exhibition coverage. With this sponsorship we have to come p with some print material in order to put peoples logos on.

So we are in the process of making a catalogue and some invitations and a few posters. In order to do all this we have to get our furniture photographed. We decided to get it done by a professional. Man when someone knows what they are doing, the results are great. So here are a few pictures. I have uploaded the rest onto my Picasa web album. Here's the link to the album. Let me know what you think.

Professional Photos of my work

Until next time... now you know and knowing is half the battle.

Veneer have you been...

This was a pretty good week. I think that I got a lot done. But no where near as much as I hoped to. The veneering process takes a lot longer than I thought it would. So what did I get done this week. Well most of you have seen the other post. I finally got all the solid lipping on all the pieces. That was a huge feet.

I also finished veneering the entire outer carcass this week. I took that as a huge win for the week. This means that while other pieces are in the vacuum press I can cut joinery on the outer case and get it ready for glue up. I've decided to use a 2 part cross-linking PVA glue. It's a glue that gives me a little more open time than regular yellow wood glue. But it dries just as fast. So I can put something into the presses and take it out within 2 hours. Then once out of the press, it cures. I needed to use this glue for time reasons. It means I can rotate pieces fast. I don't have the luxury of time these days. With only 2 weeks of build time left. Things have to move fast.

So the goals for next week: Get the outer carcass together and glued up. Finish veneering all the pieces. Hopefully get the inner cabinets made. But at the moment that is a second thought.

So until next time all... Remember only you can prevent forest fires...

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Now playing: Wyclef Jean - party to damascus
via FoxyTunes

Don't give me any Lip

Well I finally finished lipping all the pieces to this unit. It only took about 4 days. With that said I did do other things in between as well. I didn't spend an entire 4 days just doing that. But I did lip all the MDF panels and then thickness sand them through the drum sander. So that everything comes out even.












This morning I spent about 4 hours stitching, that's right I said stitching. Since this entire project is going to be veneered, I had to stitch together all the veneer that I am going to use. That meant first jointing both edges straight. Then with a bit of masking tape I had to put the pieces together. Then on the "Show Side" of the veneer I applied the veneer tape. I had to stitch together 3 pieces at a time, and there were 36 pieces to do. Needless to say it took a little while. But it was like meditation, once you got into the rhythm it was really nice. Plus I picked a nice quite spot in the school to use. Which is a lot harder to actually do than it sounds. So first thing tomorrow I start veneering the parts. I hope to get everything veneered by Monday next week. Because time is flying, From Monday there is only 2 weeks of build and finishing time left.

So until next friends... spider-pig spider-pig doing whatever it is that a spider-pig can do.

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Now playing: Salt and Pepper - Push it
via FoxyTunes

Weekend is here have a can of Gingerbeer...

Man am I looking forward to this weekend. Two reasons, and break from building and the quarter finals of The Rugby World Cup start.

You all know from the last post what the week entailed for me. Today was no different, I spent the morning in my Computer rendering class. With some good success I think. What do you think?



























Then I went back to the school to finish up my torsion boxes that I told you all about. I first had to cut the foam into pieces to fit the individual sections. Then I glued them into place, and it was of to the drum sander. I had to send them through a few times to get them all the same thickness. But that all work like I planned it to. I then cut the top skin put some glue down and laid the tops on and stacked loads of MDF on top to weigh it all down.

















So week one is done, and only 3 weeks of build and finishing time left. Lots of work to be done, but for know there's lots of Rugby to be watched. Go All Blacks

Until next time people.... Time for that Ginger Beer.

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Now playing: Natasha Bedingfield - These Words
via FoxyTunes

Solid lipping and more solid lips...

So I know it's been almost a week since the last update. And man has it been a busy one. The week started with finishing up all my drawings and my cut list. Once that was done then it was on. I spent a day cutting up all the MDF for all the dividers and inner cabinets and the rail in the back and the front and back doors.

Next I decided that I wanted to make the outer frame or carcass a more substantial thickness. But I really worried about weight, this thing is 2 meters long which is about 6 feet. And it's about 18 inches wide and 2 feet tall. So I wanted to make it about 1 1/2 inches thick. But man would that be heavy. So I thought about it for a little bit. Then came to the conclusion that I would build the outer frame as a torsion box. But not your normal torsion box, because that would still be pretty heavy. So I am going to be using a Styrofoam core torsion box. I don't actually have any pictures of that yet. The foam gets here tomorrow, so I will have them for the weekend update. But I made a small sample box, and man is it strong as. I jumped up and down on it with all 255 pounds of me. And it didn't dent a bit.




So that is how I spent Monday, building the beginnings of the torsion box and cutting all the components. The next 3 days I have been cutting solid lipping for all the components. Then I had to attach them. So to do this meant to cut miters on every piece. Then I would use the disc sander with a 45 degree guide and just touch up the cuts and size the pieces so that they fit perfectly. Man that took about a day longer than I thought it would. But it was really nice, just working and not having to talk to anyone and not be bothered either.



So tomorrow I'll finish the torsion box and then have to apply the solid lipping to those pieces. Then comes the fun part, veneering. But I'll talk about that next week.

So until next time people.... I have to go Hero's is about to start.
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Now playing: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Over the Rainbow
via FoxyTunes