Well, though this video covers ground already detailed in the last two posts, being at last edited and narrated, it seemed worth sharing:
I did my first trip out to Colgate this past few days to install some woodwork. I got into ‘worker bee’ mode while there and didn’t take a lot of photos, but I hope a few is better than nothing.
Here, in the Japanese room, I’ve mocked up the arrangement of the wainscot panel with some plant-on inside corner posts, and a piece of baseboard:
There’s a 2-piece cap to be fitted to the baseboard yet of course.
I’m using 1/4″ (actually measures 0.2″) plywood with one side faced with VG fir. I hesitated to employ plywood, but it was the best option it seemed to me for an appliqué which needs to be thin, and given the difficulty/expense of obtaining VG fir at this time. As you can see, the bamboo floor laminate has been installed in that room and the upper portion of wall has been painted.
My main task in the Japanese room was fitting the various plant-on posts – here’s a look at another area of the same room:
Excuse the dust spots on the lens. The posts, now that they have been trimmed to length, were taken back to my shop afterward, to have yet more cut out done upon them.
The Chinese space at the other end of the connecting hallway saw the installation of the framed bump-out which in turn will later receive a cusped window:
The framing had been largely done in my shop ahead of time, save for final length. I used 2×6 spruce studs, and sheetrock. Not materials I would normally want to use, but they make sense when you are affixing to that same sort of wall system, though the existing framing uses steel studs not wood. I put some drywall compound on the exposed screw holes, and will leave the rest of that work to Colgate’s plastering/painting workers.
Speaking of attaching the framing, I had brought some Spax™ screws with me for the task, which are advertised on the box as being for various materials, including steel, however I only had luck getting them into the steel framing studs at the bottom of the wall. Of course, when I was atop a ladder and struggling to get the screws in, they stubbornly refused to do their job. I ended up having to go out to a building supply and obtain some self-drilling drywall screws. That really was the only hiccup during this install.
Leaving the site work for the moment, as regards the cusped window, it is made. I elected to use a chunk of bubinga that I had for that. The sides of the frame were made with a pair of pieces joined at a slight mitre angle, with a glued spline joint inside. Here’s my glue-up fixture for that task:
A pair of wedges at each end pushed the two segments together. It worked well.
Once the gluing was done, the parts were marked out in preparation for band-sawing to shape:
Here’s a look at the cusped window frame about halfway along the course of fabrication:
Not yet fitted in the above photo is the face frame portion, now glued on, which gives it the final appearance at the front. That’s almost done, not photographed though, and into its third coat of finish. Also completed is a framed glass panel that attaches to the back of the window via 4 magnets. a sliding panel goes behind that. I’ll install the window frame and associated parts into the opening on my next trip out to Colgate.
Also installed during the visit was the transom at the entrance to the Chinese room, which went in with a little planing and coaxing:
I did end up scratching the wall on the right and some fresh paint was removed, however there will be a bunch of electrical work done in that space and the adjacent hallway, involving cutting into the sheetrock in several places, so further plastering and painting is needed in the space regardless. I felt like I should have left a little apology note for the painters though!
I now have a slate of tasks for the next two weeks before the second installation visit. Hopefully I can complete everything in that timeframe.
Thanks for coming by the Carpentry Way. Post 14 follows in this build thread.
Wow- that window frame is beautiful! How did you finish the inside faces after bandsawing? That looks like a job for a card scraper, but perhaps you have a trick?
Joshua,
glad you like the frame – hope you like it just as much when you see it in its final form.
No trick to finishing the inside faces – really basic. After band-sawing, I template-shaped the inside of the pieces, and followed that up with a round of block sanding, progressing from #120 up to #320. Then I glued the cusped facing on to the frame (the one you see in the photo), and did some finish sanding to feather the two parts together, and applied more coats of finish. It’s getting there.
Great work per usual, loved the video-would not be opposed to seeing more of that sort of thing. Party on, Chris.
Duane,
thanks for the comment, and glad you liked the video. I’m trying to improve the video production, but I am a long way from anything especially polished.
Chris …I would have to disagree….Your video is as polished as any professionally done video. Well done post and video. We all thank you for taking the time to do this. I like the double stick tape/angled block/plane idea….Looking forward to the next post! Thank You.
Well, Joe, that’s kind of you to say. I find that when doing video work it can be difficult to sort out how to transition between scenes, what the best sort of titles are, how to use music, what sound level to use, how much to narrate or not, etc. – – so, in short, I feel a lot like a fish out of water, just struggling to put something together that is not too half-assed. Part of it too is learning to observe these details in other videos, as they tend to be a little bit invisible unless you are looking for them. Of course, we all notice when the odd Hollywood film has editing glitches in the finished product, so it is a matter of just trying to have things go without glaring errors it seems to me. Each video is another chance to improve.