After a combination of boiled linseed oil followed up by an oil / urethane blend, I finally finished up the birdseye maple lamp. This is the first version of the lamp that I built with a dimmer switch. I’m sure it’s not evident from the photos, but the switch makes a tremendous difference. The bulbs can put off a lot of heat, and the dimmer allows you to dial in the brightness to just the right level. I’m pretty sure this will be a standard part off all future builds.
There were a lot of moving parts in the shop today. I started by sanding the interior surfaces and the top for the lamp base. The first photo shows all of the pieces before sanding and before the top is cut to the right size. You can tell this is the interior of the box showing by the groove at the top edge of all of the pieces. That groove is what secures the top into place.
The second photo shows my quick test of the fit of the dovetails. It looked like a pretty good fit. But after years of doing this, I’ve decided to reserve judgement on the quality of fit until after it comes out of the clamps. Speaking of (or more accurately… writing of) clamps, the final photo shows the box after being glued and clamped. It may not look like much, but trust me that you have to move quickly to get everything glued and clamped in time. You don’t want the glue to setup too much before it is fully clamped. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get to the shop for a quick trip this week to clean up the glue and check the fit.
On a quick trip to the shop post Thanksgiving, I started work on yet another Edison lamp. I had a small piece of spalted walnut in the shop. It wasn’t really big enough to incorporate into any other piece, so I thought I would see how it would look as a lamp base. It might ultimately end up being too busy in the final design, but I wanted to give it a shot. The photo below shows a partial dry fit after I cut the dovetails. This one shouldn’t take long to finish from here.
Put the finishing touches on the 5 bulb / 36″ version of the latest Edison lamp this weekend. The final piece has three coats of finish applied. It already has great color, but the cherry will continue to darken with exposure to natural light. I mentioned a few posts ago about resawing the lumber so that I could get the top cut from the same piece of lumber. In addition to the benefit of matching tone and color, it also has the benefit of matching the grain and streaking of the board used for the front of the lamp. It will be sad to pack it up, but it will have a new home in its future…
Getting close to finishing up the next Edison lamp. As with the last few small pieces, I’ve started finishing items at home. It’s more efficient for applying multiple coats of finish (compared to driving 45 miles each way to the shop). Plus the temperature and humidity are much better for finishing in my condo. The picture below was taken right after the first coat was applied. It will probably take at least 2 more coats of finish with 4 aught steel wool in between. The next post on the blog should have the finished lamp photos…
I started working on another variation of the Edison lamps I’ve been building. Per a customer request this one will be about 36″ wide (I had been building them around 18″ wide so far). I wasn’t sure how it would look at first, but after the original dry fit I’m liking the proportions.
It is big enough though that I needed to use some of my standard stock (I like to build these out of leftover lumber or from some repurposed lumber). So no interesting lumber story to go along with this piece. I was however able to get all of the pieces out of one piece of lumber. It may not sound like a big deal, but by getting all of the lumber from one board I don’t really have to worry about the cherry matching in tone. Prior to planing the box pieces to thickness, I was able to resaw the stock for the 1/4″ thick top. This resulted in the box pieces being a fraction of an inch thinner than I usually build, but it definitely doesn’t ruin the look (it actually gives me some more options when it comes to the dovetails).
In the 2 photos below you can see my initial dry fit and all of the pieces awaiting the initial glue-up. I should be sanding up and working on the wiring on the next shop trip.
Finished up the cherry Edison lamp. As mentioned before, I made this one out of reclaimed lumber from a cherry table top. This isn’t reclaimed in the sense that it was a table that was hundreds of years old. But it does have history relative to my shop. It was the first table that I made. The lumber was purchased from the hobby shop through the navy exchange system. It was probably built around 1998. 14 years later and it has a new life.
Started building another Edison lamp in the shop this weekend. The first one I made was made from walnut. This time I’m recycling some cherry that I have in the shop. The lumber was used in the first table I ever built. Unfortunately back then I didn’t have all of the tools I do now. As a result, not all of the boards were as flat as I like them. Eventually the wood kept moving to the point that it needed to be rebuilt. Fortunately I’ve been able to reuse almost all of that lumber. In the picture below I did a quick dry fit of the box to come up with a good assembly strategy. It’s now sitting in clamps and hopefully it can get to the finishing room soon.
Spent Mother’s Day in the shop. None of these pieces are for her though (sorry Mom). Most of the day was spent between assembly, sanding and fit work. The tall cherry piece in the photo below was the dry fit of the back part of the new cabinet I’m working on. The four corners of the piece feature through dovetails. The back is a panel about 1/16th of an inch thick. The wood for the panel is from the same pieces used to make the sides of the cabinet. My cherry stock was pretty thick, so I resawed it to get the backs and the sides out of the same piece of lumber. The walnut piece below is in the middle of being fit for the 4 drawers in the center section of the piece. Little more fit work on the drawers and doors next week and then this one will be ready for finishing…
Part of the way through a dry fit on a cabinet. The primary woods in this piece will be cherry with some nice looking dark streaks running through the wood. There will be some walnut used as a secondary accent wood in the piece. Between the through dovetails, dados for shelves, resawn lumber glued on edge for doors and the back, and then an intentional gap running around the perimeter of the piece; the dry fit will be crucial to get all of the measurements right.
Claremont Designs 