mickyd's Woodworking Projects

[mickyd]

They're finally done!! Nothing else to do but look at them and enjoy them. It was interesting right up the final steps. Would have been done two nights except for the fact that I forgot we had company coming over for dinner and what was more important, finishing my project or entertaining.....:p .

After scroll sawing the copper 'iris' motifs, the last steps were to sand them to remove the burrs, torch them to drastically change the patina, and then epoxy them to the outside of the glass. Sooooo, I finished them last night.

Nothing remarkable about sanding the motifs......220 grit on a sanding block, part on a flat surface, and sanding both sides to remove the burrs from the scroll saw op and that was it. charlese almost had me convinced me to do a little hand filing but I resisted the urge and left them as is. Sorry Chuck!!!! It was harder for me to ignore picking up that file than you can imagine. I was so anxious to call this a done project that I stood back a couple feet, looked at them, and said….”good nuff!!”.

The propane torching was real interesting. The torch was set very low as the instructions called out and you then heat the copper to get the color shift. It only takes about 5-8 seconds of passing the torch back and forth about 3 inches over the copper before the color shift starts to happen then it VERY QUICKLY goes to orange and then pink highlights start to appear. After that, any additional heat takes the color away completely leaving a silver appearance and once gone, YOU CAN NOT GET THE COLOR BACK. Even though I practiced on a single scrap piece of copper, should have tried several scrap pieces to really get the hang of it. Here’s what the motifs looks like in its original sanded state and after introducing the heat.
.
.
[ATTACH]8930[/ATTACH]
.
.
Where you see lack of color is an indication that the heat was applied a second too long. That’s right….a second.

Here are all 6 motifs, best side facing up, followed by the back side. Good thing you get 2 chances to get them right. The back sides show the problem with the excess heat taking the color away.
.
.
Good Side
[ATTACH]8932[/ATTACH]
.
Bad Side
[ATTACH]8933[/ATTACH]
.
.
Gluing the motif to the glass worked best with the glass laying flat. Tried doing it first with the glass vertical inside the lantern but they crept downward so I remove the glass and laid it flat. The motifs get placed in opposite corner as shown.
.
.
[ATTACH]8934[/ATTACH]
.
.
And finally, the finished product!! Officially a woodworker now!!
.
.
[ATTACH]8935[/ATTACH]

[SDSSmith]

Very nice!! And at night time I can see the light from my front porch.

[beeg]

Great looking lanterns there. It only took ya 3 months to complete em too.

[shipwright]

Congratulations Mike !!

I agree with your assessment "officially a woodworker now" but would like to add "pretty darn good" to the phrase. My wife (who rarely comments on things here that I show her) likes them so much that it looks like I'll have to make some too. Once again Mike, Great work. What's next ?

Paul M

[PG-Zac]

Very Cool Mike !!

[dewey2me1mothyme]

Excellent job Mike, big kudos in order.

[mickyd]

Thanks a lot guys. Sure am glad to have an open spot for the next project. I was so tempted at times to start another but resisted. And beeg......lies, lies, lies....it didn't take me 3 months to complete this project.....it was actually 3-1/2:o. (Houses go up quicker than that, ay?). Got to admit, uncertainty was a paralyzer at times. I would ponder until I couldn't ponder anymore!

Looking back through this thread was interesting. So many members helped reduce the slope of the learning curve. What's funny is.....knowing what I know now vs. when I made some of the posts where I had no idea how to approach some things. That's the neat thing about the forum.

Oh, I guess I have to share my only injury with the group also....don't open it if your squeamish. Darn lucky I didn't get my nail folded back. Glad my nails got softer as I got older. This was from my conical disk sander when I was on the return stoke with my miter gage. For some crazy reason, my thumb decided to extend out and I got popped by the sandpaper and it threw my thumb back toward me. No scratches from the paper somehow but a pretty impressive blood blister and a sore knuckle joint!! I think my problem was I have a tendency to hold everything with a death grip and when the pressure was released, my thumb relaxed....as it was passing the disk!! You should have seen me holding those motifs when I was scroll sawing. My forearms are STILL sore. Gotta loosen up a tad.

[charlese]

...
...charlese almost had me convinced me to do a little hand filing but I resisted the urge and left them as is. Sorry Chuck!!!! It was harder for me to ignore picking up that file than you can imagine. I was so anxious to call this a done project that I stood back a couple feet, looked at them, and said….”good nuff!!”.

....And finally, the finished product!! Officially a woodworker now!!

And I am happy to admit that I was wrong again! The flowers as finished are BEAUTIFUL! Glad you are finding that "good 'nuff" is really good! When I saw what standards you demand when re-furbing machines I honestly was wondering what standards you would demand during wood working. You "done" good!

Officially a woodworker? --- Yes! Absolutely! You now are one, with all of the frustrations and benefits and... !

ATTA BOY, MIKE!:D

What's the next project?

[judaspre1982]

===================================

[heathicus]

Great job, Mike! And very inspiring!!