Elliptical shelves WIP

[AndyT]

Can you tell me if the photos in the first two posts are working now? Seems ok from my son’s iPad.

Hmm, something odd here. I still can't see some of the early images on my phone, using Opera on Android. On a PC (Firefox, Windows 10) they all show up fine. They seem to all be from the same domain so no idea what's going on. Sorry to distract you!

 

[thick_mike]

Nice work. You could put a complete elliptical ply back on it (screwed from behind) and screw that to the wall?

Thought about that, but I quite like the appearance of the ellipse skeleton emerging through the wall. Almost as if the rest of the egg is on the other side.

 

[custard]

An amazing amount of work

I guess a lot of people would agree with that, but there's an important point here. It's not so much "amazing" as "appropriate".

As soon as you introduce curves and compound curves into a project the preparation required goes up exponentially. The rule of thumb taught at Parnham was that adding a curve in one dimension increases the build time by x3, and adding a curve in two dimensions increases the build time by x10.

This project tends to support that.

If everything was square and straight then this project might take two or three hours and would need nothing more than a simple pencil sketch. Curve it in one dimension and you'd be wise to build a simple mock-up and make a single master template, there'd be quite a bit more fairing to be done at the intersections so you should probably think in terms of a full day's work.

But then if you curve it in two dimensions, then exactly as thick_mike has done (or to give him his proper name, pretty_smart_mike), you're looking at multiple templates, two rounds of mock-ups, fairly complex calculations, a lot of head scratching, and a huge amount of fairing. So three day's work or even a bit more doesn't sound excessive.

It's that essential truth about furniture making that rarely gets the airtime it deserves. As soon as you start being a bit clever with projects then be either be prepared to sink huge amounts of time and effort into the job, or learn to live with a totally rubbish result.

 

[thick_mike]

Ha! 3 days, I wish

Workflow is as follows:

Thinking 45%
Shifting my tools and bench in and out of the garage 30%
Dodging the rain 10%
Looking for that tool I’ve lost 10%
Doing woodwork 5%

So, my original concept was to build in ply and paint the faces and leave the ply exposed as a contrast. But looking at the shelves this morning, it looks like I need a pretty big chamfer which will expose a lot of the inner ply. I’m going to try it on one of the smaller extreme pieces which will have the biggest chamfer and see how it looks. If the ply was perfect, it would look great, but I fear it won’t be. I might decide to have a clunkier design for this one and then build another in MRMDF where the exposed inner core would be less of an issue.

 

[MikeG.]

Excellent!

Do you know how to set out an ellipse with 2 nails and a piece of string? It may have saved you a bit of work.

 

[thick_mike]

Yes, I started out like that, I love old school setting out with compasses and the like. Then I realised that I needed to be able to calculate the segments at known intervals along the surface of the 3d shape and at that point I started delving into maths and spreadsheets (which I also like bizarrely).

 

[Racers]

Ha! 3 days, I wish

Workflow is as follows:

Thinking 45%
Shifting my tools and bench in and out of the garage 30%
Dodging the rain 10%
Looking for that tool I’ve lost 10%
Doing woodwork 5%

So, my original concept was to build in ply and paint the faces and leave the ply exposed as a contrast. But looking at the shelves this morning, it looks like I need a pretty big chamfer which will expose a lot of the inner ply. I’m going to try it on one of the smaller extreme pieces which will have the biggest chamfer and see how it looks. If the ply was perfect, it would look great, but I fear it won’t be. I might decide to have a clunkier design for this one and then build another in MRMDF where the exposed inner core would be less of an issue.

Chamfered ply like my kitchen cupboard doors and the edges of Shahinian speakers, lovely IMHO.

Pete

 

[novocaine]

not to mention laminate rifle stocks that still fascinate me.

 

[thick_mike]

More calculations and plotting the chamfer

 

[thick_mike]

And done

Spokeshave works brilliantly, really chuffed as it’s my favourite tool.

Have to calculate some more ellipses now and then plot some templates to make the marking out easier.

 

[novocaine]

well that does look rather spiffing.

glad the spoke shave worked too, I shall retract my block plane statement.

 

[thick_mike]

To be honest, I thought the same as you, but it was great. Just took me 15 minutes to do that shelf, and that one needed the most material removing.

 

[Rorschach]

They look awesome!

 

[MusicMan]

That looks cool!

 

[thetyreman]

probably not intentional but this will diffuse sound in a nice way, as well as looking good

 

[thick_mike]

Funny you should say that, but I am planning a set for the blank wall opposite my Hi-Fi for that very reason.

 

[Racers]

I have rugs on the wall for the same reason.

Pete

 

[Doingupthehouse]

Looking good. Love the look of those chamfers on the ply. It’s nice to see something like this being made by hand rather than CNC'd

Can’t wait for the next instalment

Simon

 

[thick_mike]

So, more maths required and a new set of templates for the chamfers

First one cut, but not easy to see whether it’s right or not until I’ve done both parts of the joint

Rather pleased with these results...

 

[thick_mike]

More chamfering...

I like the way the outline of the ellipse that will be described on the wall is appearing.