First Monday, part three

Only one more day until we go to Weatherford for First Monday Trade Days. Events have conspired to prevent me from producing as many pieces as I would have liked, but I'll still be taking over 100 candle holders and bookends to the sale. Just over, but still...

I was able to take ten mesquite candle holders all the way through the finishing process in one day today. That is not generally thought of as a good idea, but it was just sunny and warm enough to pull it off, without being too warm. Tomorrow I will complete the finish on some curly maple candle holders and I'll be done with the manufacturing for this show.

I have one more sign to design, and I have to affix two signs to a small billboard I built a couple of days ago. After that I only have to pick up a table we're renting and load the truck and we'll be ready to go. I will post the concluding chapter of this little saga, along with photos from the show, after our return Saturday evening... and by "after" I probably mean Sunday or Monday. Right now I need to rehab my knee. I tripped over a box of candle holders here in my office earlier and landed on my right knee. It's swollen and it hurts, but I'll recover fast.

The Lectern Reality

Well, it has happened. Debra sent photos of her new lectern and the two in-boxes I made for her to several other teachers in the district, and some of them want lecterns and/or in-boxes of their very own. Now the fun begins as I get to build these items and collect the money. This is why I do this job. It's fun, people like what I do and they're willing to pay me money to do it!

Right now I have orders for two lecterns and one in-box, but there are some others who have yet to get back to me with their decisions. This is a good week!

All this activity has prompted me to go ahead and post photos of my lectern and inboxes at my Etsy shop and list them for sale, with the stipulation that there will be a lag between ordering the item and receiving it because I'll have to build it.

If you happen to be one of the people interested in obtaining one of my lecterns or in-boxes, please go to my Etsy site starting Monday, October 6, 2008 (for the lectern), and Wednesday, October 8, 2008 (for the in-boxes) and check out what I have to offer. You'll like it, and I'm sure you can find uses for at least one of these items. And if you don't there's a ton of candle holders and wine rest for sale there, so look around for a while. And go to my "Favorites" pages to see some great stuff from other Etsy artists.

And you can read LOTS more about all of this stuff right here in my blog. Just check out the archives for September, 2008. It's all there and I think it's a lot of fun to read... you can tell me what YOU think of it if you like.

The Lectern Initiative, part the last

I am done with the building process on Debra's lectern! I worked on it for nearly 5 hours today, and boy are my arms tired!

First thing this morning I routed a chamfer profile on the legs and upper supports. A chamfer is just a 45º angle cut 

along the edges. This softens the edge a bit and breaks up the squareness of the piece, adding visual appeal.

I followed up the legs and upper supports with a matching chamfer on all for edges of the column. This created huge clouds of coarse dust which could still be trying to settle some seven hours after I left my shop. Routers and plywood don't play well together as far as my lungs and eyes are concerned. I'm not sure that was grammatically correct, but you get the idea.

Anyway, I then drilled a hole on the bottom of each end of the legs, screwed a treaded brass insert into each hole, and screwed the height adjustable legs into place. I installed the upper supports with glue and lag screws and did the same with the legs. This gave me a rock solid platform on which to mount the work surface... which I had yet to build. And I was running out of birch plywood.

Rather than delay the building process I decided to use some other plywood I had lying around to finish the project. It's rock hard, easy to work and very durable. It's just like the birch plywood I used on the rest of this unit, but without the actual birch. I'm not exactly sure what it's made of. I know it looks like pine in some places but not in others. Regardless, it's perfectly good material for anything intended for use in a junior high school.

I cut the lower shelf, the one that's parallel with the floor. It's a bit smaller than 20" square. I attached the double thick back wall to it after taking a 12º angled wedge off the top. Then I measured from the front edge of the lower shelf to the back edge of the angled wall, cut another piece to that length and the same width as the lower shelf.

I drilled three holes in the upper end of the top. These holes are big enough to hold a pen or pencil each. I figured I should make this thing as useful as possible and that seems like a very useful addition. A storage shelf in the right side also seems useful, and is just a good use of otherwise wasted space. Karl Champly would be so proud.

Finally I just lined up my pencil marks, drilled a few pilot holes, spread some glue and screwed the top to to the base, then mounted top, supported by a long, pie shaped piece on one side and a very tiny one on the other, leaving a space in front of the tiny one for paper/folder storage, utilizing the afore mentioned otherwise wasted space. With the addition of a piece on the bottom end to keep books and/or pencils from rolling off, the building process was completed. 

Now the lectern is drying after being sanded up to 220 grit, then receiving a coat of satin polyurethane. Two more coats should do it. I'll move it to Debra's classroom tomorrow evening so I can use it Wednesday and Thursday when she's at an ESL conference and I'm subbing for her. And she can use it thereafter.

Update, September 30, 2008: Here's the lectern drying in the sun after a light sanding and a final coat of polyurethane.

And here it is in it's new home, room 506 of the Alvarado Junior High School.

The Lectern Initiative, part the second

I'm finally declaring that I'm on part two of this project. I have glued up the column, cut the half-lap joinery for the upper and lower supports, and I did a dry fit of the parts this afternoon before I had to stop making sawdust and mow the lawn.

Everything fits like the parts were molded to work together. And, in effect, they were. They were milled to work together anyway.

Now I only have to do the following:

1. route an edge detail on all four sides of the column, the top edges of the lower supports and the bottom edges of the upper supports. I haven't made a decision on a round over detail or a chamfer for these edges, but they will all get the same treatment.

2. assemble all the parts I have already built into a solid unit, using glue and lag 

screws. I really want this lectern to be rock solid because the eight or ten lecterns that are in use at the junior high school SUUUUUUCK!!! I know of three which are incapable of standing up straight, one of which tilts so badly you can't assume a book will stay in place on it.

3. build the top portion. I have put this part off for last because I wanted to have the base finished and ready to receive the top. That's almost a reality at this point. I want to be able to test fit the top as I go. I have to build it in two sections so I can attach it to the upper supports on the base column and then add the slanted portion to that section. That way there will be no visible screws anywhere on the piece.

 

When this upper portion is done it will have storage underneath the topmost surface which will be accessed from the right side. I also plan to add a pen and pencil cup of sorts to the top. Originally I wanted to have a rectangular box attached to the side of the top, but now I'm leaning more toward drilling four or five holes in the surface farthest from the user and building a box underneath the surface where it will never be seen. Only the pens will be visible sticking up out of their holes.

I'll figure out the remaining details as I go along. That's pretty much how most of my projects are handled, how most of my designs get established. Eventually I develop a routine method of building a particular item. This lectern, however, will either be one-of-a-kind or will be the first of a fairly limited run, and that only if another teacher just has to have one.

There's probably some money to be made here, considering what the teachers at the junior high have had to work with for the past several hundred decades -- seriously, you should see the building because portions of it are just a few thousand termites holding hands. Maybe I should take some time, add up my hours and material costs and figure out how much to charge for one of these things. I'll have to completely finish this one and deliver it to the Debra's classroom before I do that, though, so the other teachers can get a good look at it and I can judge their responses.  I should be able to finish this project by the middle of the week so I can deliver it on the very day I'm subbing for Debra.  That'll work!

The Lectern Initiative, part still-not-quite-the-second

I've been substitute teaching recently. Actually I've been substitute teaching for almost seven years, but that's not what I meant. What I meant was I subbed five days-in-a-row, ending yesterday, September 23, when I spent the entire day in our in-school suspension unit... with no air conditioning. It was 85 degrees and very humid. And they don't give the "guard" of this unit a break during the day except for 32 minutes for lunch. And I didn't get enough sleep the night before.

It whipped me.

I slept in today, finally arising at 11:50 AM. Aaaaaah, was that nice!

I got up, got dressed, took care of some business at Etsy which turned into a sale a few minutes later, then went to my shop and began cutting those strips of wood to length. I now have the glue-up on the column mostly finished, having built up two sides of the unit this afternoon. They're clamped to my bench right now. Tomorrow I only have to glue the two sides together with two large and two very small pieces in between and the column will be done. After that I'll begin working on the upper and lower supports.

I ordered brass threaded inserts and leveling legs from Rockler Wookworking earlier today. Those items should be here by Friday or Saturday. I'll install a threaded insert at the end of each "leg" and run a leveler up into each of them.

I could actually finish this project within a very few days assuming there are no major interruptions. Of course I have to take into account the fact that I'm going to a friends house Saturday to give him an estimate on a workshop he wants me to build/remodel for him, and my in-laws will be here Saturday night or Sunday and I'm showing my mother-in-law how to tie-dye a t-shirt. But this should all work out just fine.

Addendum: Thursday, September 25, 2008

I have the center column glued up and in clamps now.  I'll let the glue cook for several hours before taking it out of the clamps.  At that point I can start fitting the legs and upper supports in place.  I'd do it tonight but I have to go buy a new DirecTV receiver/DVR, and we're upgrading to HD in the process.  Yay!!!

The Lectern Initiative, part not-quite-the-second

This will be a relatively short step in the blogging process as it was an equally short step in the building process.  And it's not actually a full step according to the criteria I established in the first entry concerning the epic saga of the Holy Lectern, but here it is nonetheless.

I got wood.  And I ripped it into several thin slices.  Yep.  That's just what I did.

I laminated the plywood together to form the 1 1/2" sheet I discussed before, and now I have sliced it into nine strips which are 1 1/2" square by 48" long, and two strips which are 1 1/2" by 2" by 48".  The nine strips will form the column and the two slightly larger strips will form the upper and lower supports, essentially two big "X's", half-lapped in the center, one on the bottom to serve as feet to hold the lectern upright and the other on the top to support the writing surface, the part of the lectern which Debra will actually rest her book/papers/elbows on during class.

The small amount of plywood you see in these photos will become all of the lectern except for the topmost portion.

Here endeth part not-quite-the-second... unless I have some comments later... or maybe you will have a comment or two...

The Lectern Initiative, part the first

I have embarked upon a woodworking task I have never undertaken before. I'm building a lectern for my wife to use at school. I am sizing it to match the perfectly sized piece of crap she has been using, but will be adding a few extra features such as a pen and pencil holder mounted to the side and, possibly, a shelf on which she can stow a few papers or a folder.

Since this lectern will be used at school -- at a junior high school -- I have decided to build it out of birch plywood. This will make it very durable, and I won't get too pissed if some kid writes on it. If I had gone with my original plan of building it out of quartersawn oak...

Anyway, I will be building this over the next couple of months. It's a project I can revert to between other projects or when I'm waiting for glue-ups to dry, though right now I'm waiting for the first glue-up on the lectern to dry.

Here's the plan for part one of this project:

1. laminate two sheets of 3/4 birch ply together to form a 1 1/2" thick sheet

2. cut the laminated stock into eleven 1 1/2" wide strips

3. form nine of these strips into a 4 1/2" square column with notches at the top and bottom

4. form two of these strips into the crossed support for the bottom, the "legs" if you will...

5. glue these two parts together and reinforce the joint with lag screws

And then I'll get onto part two.  I'll post photos when I have some.