all my woodwork so far

[EddieJ]

It isn't very often that someones work grabs me and makes me go WOW, but you have managed it.

 

Hopefully you have a bright and successful future ahead of you.

 

With ref to marketing yourself properly, you can do a lot worse that talk to this lovely guy, Richard Marchant. He is always keen to try and steer lads such as yourself in the right direction. Designer/Makers

If you would like his contact details, just let me know.

[Chippy]

You could try selling on ETSY , if you've not heard of it its a upmarket ebay, the quality of your work shouls sell easy.

[se7enthdevil]

thanks for everyones comments fellas, much appreciated...

 

just remembered a job i did earlier in the year, not exactly furniture but quite a challenge.

 

 

 

i was asked to make whats called a frame for the london skittles league that play in the freemasons arms on the edge of hampstead heath. the frame is what their skittles stand on in a diamond formation and is constructed of a base layer of heavy lumber with a skin of 2" maple on top.

 

well tjhe mapple had taken a hell of a beatting over the years and i had to come up with a way that would future proof it against any damage that will happen in the years to come.

[se7enthdevil]

as you can see by this pictur its actualy constructed of three layers, two layers of 3" oak joists all screwed together. the top maple layer like the other two were all laid in alternate directions to keep it square...

[se7enthdevil]

i had to slightly redesign what was being replaced but here's what i came up with.

 

 

first i made a model of the frame to be built, then i ordered the timber and cut most of it to length and labled up the iroko so i could keep track of the two base layers as they were all different widths.

[se7enthdevil]

everthing was labled up before machining and once completed i knew what went where, a neccesity when you do something complicated like this.

 

as you can see it all machined up very well and i was impressed at the quality of both the maple and the iroko. if you stood 30feet away you would have sworn it was teak it looked that good. very oily too.

 

 

right, on to the drilling. this was the laborious bit.

 

i marked out and drilled lots of holes for threaded rods with a nut reccesed in to either side that would basicly clamp the whole lot together. i hade to be quite precise in my marking out and made sure that all my equipment was set square. once i had gone as far as i could with the pillar drill i drilled though with my hitatchi and that huge auger.

[se7enthdevil]

once i got going it all came together rather quickley as these things often do.

once the two base layers were done then i finished of with the maple to wich i added buiscits to the construction to keep the top skin 100% level with no posibility of movement. most people will think this is overkill but go back and see the old frame and wait till you see what they throw at it.

[se7enthdevil]

now it was time to start work on the appron which is an angled bit of maple attached to the two front edges to protect them. i set my rip saw up at the correct angle and made a 5 1/2" deep cut allong the length. it was then cleaned up, sanded, mitred and heavilly bolted together as that will probably get hit quite often and i did not want it comming appart.

[se7enthdevil]

once the appron was finished it was time to fit it. all the components went to the pub we ripped the old one out and cleaned up the crap that was underneath and me and a friend bolted each layer together and laid them in place with a few dozen screws to stop any movement. once it was level we could stand the pins on it so see how it looked.

 

the two iroko base layers got a couple of coats of osmo exterior uv protection oil but the maple had a coat of polyx. these were needed as the basement of that pub has flooded many times (partly why the old one looked so manky) and i hade to take all these precautions to future proof it as much as i can.

[se7enthdevil]

you can see a slightly more in depth process on their website in the news section as they wished for me to document the whole job from delivery of the timber to the final coat of oil.London Skittles

 

just a few stats it is 54" square 8" thick overall and weighs 280kg, thats over 600lbs...

 

the pins are 14" high and 6 3/4" at their widest and made from hornbeam and the cheeses are 10"x 3" discs (a fat discus is the best description i can think of) and are made of lignum vitae and weigh about 5 1/2 kg. they are thrown 21' at the pins without hitting the deck first.

 

now you can see why i had to make it so robust...

 

 

 

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