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Step 3Improvisation and Impatience
. . .or how to build a board without going to the custom lumber store and paying exorbitant rates . . . AKA it was new year's day and nothing but home depot was open *cry
The wheels of intuition shifted from low gear into the ideal ratio
and the produce of the fields of his mind issued forth
Materials:
My design came out to be 46inches long 2 inches thick and 8 inches wide (or tall if we're thinking about the final product) so I went out to find a board that would fit those dimensions . . .unfortunately the only lumber carrying store that was open and within driving distance was the home depot and unless you're building a house or somethig their wood selection is somewhat lacking. So with my dad and brother we dug through their paltry selection and found two pine boards free of knots(this is important since knots will make carving darn near impossible) and a couple of hard wood boards that when put together gave me the thickness I wanted. I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 for these and almost surely could have found a better deal if I was patient but that is one virtue that I lost somewhere back in 1995 . . .
Back home we cut the boards to the right size and smeared glue onto one thick one, tacked the thin ones to it (they were slightly warped) and then more glue and clamped the other thick board to them. to make sure we didn't get any air pockets we made little 1" thick oak sticks that we clamped together to help make sure everything was flat. Then came the boring part . . . .waiting . . . .about 6 hours. Luckily I bought paint and other stuff while out so I worked on the barrel and compression chamber assembly finishing while I waited. More on this step later.
The pictures show us (my dad couldn't help himself . . .he's more obsessed with woodworking than even I am!) building my custom blank. His company proved very handy since the end result was heavy and the gluing rather tricky. See the pictures for details of this process.
Next I took some spray adhesive and coated the back of my pattern and stuck it to the wood. this is how I've always done this sort of work and I find it works better than just drawing lines onto the wood since your pattern is high contrast and won't smear. Let the glue dry and move onto the next step!
The wheels of intuition shifted from low gear into the ideal ratio
and the produce of the fields of his mind issued forth
Materials:
- wood enough to fit your design and thick enough to accommodate the pipe you're using as a barrel.
- little 1" sticks if you're making the board
- spray adhesive
- your pattern
- Table saw
- Radial Saw
- C clamps ( as many as possible . . .we used 12)
My design came out to be 46inches long 2 inches thick and 8 inches wide (or tall if we're thinking about the final product) so I went out to find a board that would fit those dimensions . . .unfortunately the only lumber carrying store that was open and within driving distance was the home depot and unless you're building a house or somethig their wood selection is somewhat lacking. So with my dad and brother we dug through their paltry selection and found two pine boards free of knots(this is important since knots will make carving darn near impossible) and a couple of hard wood boards that when put together gave me the thickness I wanted. I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 for these and almost surely could have found a better deal if I was patient but that is one virtue that I lost somewhere back in 1995 . . .
Back home we cut the boards to the right size and smeared glue onto one thick one, tacked the thin ones to it (they were slightly warped) and then more glue and clamped the other thick board to them. to make sure we didn't get any air pockets we made little 1" thick oak sticks that we clamped together to help make sure everything was flat. Then came the boring part . . . .waiting . . . .about 6 hours. Luckily I bought paint and other stuff while out so I worked on the barrel and compression chamber assembly finishing while I waited. More on this step later.
The pictures show us (my dad couldn't help himself . . .he's more obsessed with woodworking than even I am!) building my custom blank. His company proved very handy since the end result was heavy and the gluing rather tricky. See the pictures for details of this process.
Next I took some spray adhesive and coated the back of my pattern and stuck it to the wood. this is how I've always done this sort of work and I find it works better than just drawing lines onto the wood since your pattern is high contrast and won't smear. Let the glue dry and move onto the next step!
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