Sea Eagle Intarsia - WIP

[Claymore]

.......

 

[linkshouse]

Quick update in case people fear I've abandoned the project !

I am pegging away but my it is slow going with the greenheart, if that is what it is.

I'm committed to it as I have cut to much to change my mind but now, but in hindsight I perhaps should have changed to a different wood. It is such slow going as to be a bit distracting, also it occurs to me now that I will probably use just about all of it on this one project. Maybe I should have saved it for smaller projects then it would have gone further and not been so exasperating in small doses!

Ah well, here is where I'm up to so far.

I just hope it sands better than it saws :roll:

Phill

 

[Claymore]

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[linkshouse]

ps do you have one of those black and Decker 125mm foam sanding drums for ya drill press? if not i suggest you invest in one as they really speed up the intarsia sanding process and they are around £10 on Ebay etc

There's one on it's way now

Phill

 

[Claymore]

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[linkshouse]

Wee, happy days!!!

I've finished cutting all the greenheart, what a pig that has been!

Just a few tail feathers and the feet and I'm ready to start sanding....

 

[linkshouse]

Even happier days...

All the pieces have been cut and the patterns removed, now I can see wood, makes me happy

Shaping next.

 

[AES]

This is going to look SUPERB linkshouse.

You've done a huge amount already, but are we going to get bits on the sanding, then finishing? (Please - pretty pleez)

AES

 

[linkshouse]

This is going to look SUPERB linkshouse.

You've done a huge amount already, but are we going to get bits on the sanding, then finishing? (Please - pretty pleez)

AES

Will do.

Phill

 

[gjhimages]

Excellent description of how to create ones own patterns .
I shall be having a go
Quick piece of information
Photoshop CS2 is available free from the Adobe website all you have to do is
create an account.
You can then download it , they also provide the serial number

 

[AES]

@ linkshouse: "Will do." You wrote.

Thanks, you're what we always used to call "a scholar and a gent Sir"!

I now have a question if you don't mind. In your picture (beautiful pic BTW) your bird is apparently flying from the Top RH side of the "frame" down towards the Bottom LH. In my discussions with Claymore (Brian) of this parish about the aeroplane Intarsia I'm going to make (STILL not even started yet!), Brian said that the aeroplane should appear to be flying "out of the wall, towards the viewer" - i.e. the bits furthest away from the viewer should be thinner than those bits nearest to the viewer.

But looking at your finished cut outs, they all appear to be the same thickness. So are you going to SAND the backs off the bits that should be the thinnest (sounds like a LOT of work, and messy too!)? Or are you going to mount the finished pieces onto individual "wedge-shaped" backing pieces (before mounting the whole lot onto a 1 piece backer)? If the 2nd, that sounds like a LOT more careful cutting.

Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick, and TIA for your patience in answering.

AES

 

[linkshouse]

@ linkshouse: "Will do." You wrote.

Thanks, you're what we always used to call "a scholar and a gent Sir"!

Ha ha! Thank you.

I now have a question if you don't mind. In your picture (beautiful pic BTW) your bird is apparently flying from the Top RH side of the "frame" down towards the Bottom LH. In my discussions with Claymore (Brian) of this parish about the aeroplane Intarsia I'm going to make (STILL not even started yet!), Brian said that the aeroplane should appear to be flying "out of the wall, towards the viewer" - i.e. the bits furthest away from the viewer should be thinner than those bits nearest to the viewer.

But looking at your finished cut outs, they all appear to be the same thickness. So are you going to SAND the backs off the bits that should be the thinnest (sounds like a LOT of work, and messy too!)? Or are you going to mount the finished pieces onto individual "wedge-shaped" backing pieces (before mounting the whole lot onto a 1 piece backer)? If the 2nd, that sounds like a LOT more careful cutting.

Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick, and TIA for your patience in answering.

AES

Brian is absolutely right (of course :roll: ).

Although it does depend on the pattern/subject. If the view is "square on" so to speak then of course this would not apply.

However in the case of your aeroplane and my eagle if definitely does.

So the top wing (in my project) is the furthest away and so needs to be thinner than the rest. Similarly the top foot is behind the bottom foot so also needs to be thinner.

Often on intarsia patterns you will see pieces marked as e.g. -1/4" and in this case the piece needs to be made of 1/4" thinner material than the rest or, be cut or sanded down accordingly.

You may also see pieces marked e.g. +1/4" and in these cases a 1/4" wooden shim is placed behind the piece/s. You were concerned that this might involve a carefully cutting a lot of addition pieces but usually one can use a single shim behind several pieces (I may end up doing this with the lower/front wing, eagles left wing actually, on my project). Also, as the shim will be underneath the intarsia pieces it doesn't need to be cut as accurately as the intarsia pieces. Indeed shims are usually made slightly smaller than the pieces they are supporting to avoid interference with adjacent pieces.

As for sanding a taper on the back of pieces. This would be wrong as it would result in the sides of the pieces slanting as well and then they would not longer fit together.

Reducing the pieces from the back (which I do on the disc sander part of my belt/dic sander) should always be done square to the piece. If the piece needs to have a sloping face then this should be done on the front face.

You mention that all my pieces are the same thickness, but if you look carefully you will see that there are all sorts of thicknesses This is just me not thinking ahead. One usual only has one thickness of material to hand, but in my case I cut and thicknessed the bulk of the material from 10" square stock so should have thought of this and saved myself a lot of work at the shaping stage :roll:

Regards

Phill

 

[linkshouse]

I've started shaping my bits

I usually do rough shaping on the bobbin sander -

I don't normally get use my palm sander on intarsia pieces, but then they're not normally this big :shock:

Here I am shaping the eye on my 1" belt sander -

I use a Dremel with a flexible shaft attachment for a lot of my shaping, in this case the upper beak -

I also use burrs in the Dremel for any additional small shaping that may need to be done, in this case the eagle's nostril -

Once shaped I smooth them off with a home made sanding mop in the drill press -

Here are the pieces for the head assembled together -

I would normally shape and sand all the project pieces first, before gluing them together or applying any stain of finish, but this is such a big piece, here is the head with the beak and eye stained yellow.

And here it is with the top of the front wing (eagles left wing) in place a cheeky coat of oil/varnish mix to bring out the colour of the wood (I'm impatient to see how the wood looks).

Regards

Phill

 

[linkshouse]

Further to my earlier reply to AES (Andy ?), I have indeed decided that I need a shim under the nearest wing but as per my earlier comments you can see here it is just one big, very loosely cut, piece -

What's more having put it in place I think I may need another shim to lift the last row of feathers (there's a name for them but I can't think what just now) up a bit more.

Of course this will mean that the ends of these feathers will be "hanging" in fresh air, but for this piece I think that will actually work quite well.

Regards

Phill

 

[Claymore]

.......

 

[AES]

Looking great Phill, and thanks for the explanation. (I went back to look at your original cut out pics and now see they ARE different thicknesses ("Wake up at the back there")!

Yup, it's Andy, but as there are several others on UKW, I usually stick to my initials.

AES

 

[linkshouse]

"Bad news" well kind of...

I've just picked up a pretty big web design contract, which of course in other respects is good, for me. But it does mean that I'm afraid my work on the Sea Eagle while continuing, will by necessity slow down a bit.

Blumming work! It's P.I.T.A.

Ah, well, such is life

Regards

Phill

 

[AES]

I understand Phill, and agree with the sentiment. Now that I'm "properly" retired I think back and wonder how on earth I ever used to fit "non-essentials" (like work!) into my schedule.

Never mind, I'm sure the rest of your "followers" here (some new kind of cult maybe? ) have patience enough to wait a bit. Just hurry up though

AES

 

[linkshouse]

I understand Phill, and agree with the sentiment. Now that I'm "properly" retired I think back and wonder how on earth I ever used to fit "non-essentials" (like work!) into my schedule.

Never mind, I'm sure the rest of your "followers" here (some new kind of cult maybe? ) have patience enough to wait a bit. Just hurry up though

AES

I'm self employed so at least I can choose "when" to work even if not "if" to work :lol:

Phill

 

[linkshouse]

What's more important - work or play?

So, with the above question answered in my head, back to my Sea Eagle.

I finished sanding and fitting the feathers to the shim that I made earlier, and then made a second shim as I thought I might, and have just glued that to the first -

This means that the front edge of the nearest wing will be lifted with the first shim by 12mm (12mm MDF) higher than the body and then the edge feathers will be lifted a further 12mm higher than the body. This is quite a lot and these are thick shims but then it is a big project.

AES mentioned in an earlier post that it sounded as though there would be a lot of sanding and I kind of glossed over it with reference to the shims etc. I should mention that even using shims there is usually a lot of quite heavy sanding when shaping the pieces for intarsia.

I use my bobbin sander with 80 grit sleeves for this and it can shift wood at a fair rate of knots. To be honest for all but very large pieces it is as quick to sand it down as it is to cut it down with the saw.

Also, sanding has the advantage that one can do it a bit at a time whilst offering the piece up to the rest of the pieces/project to check progress.

The only thing to be careful of with the bobbin sander is that it can shift a lot of wood quite quickly. And, if whilst pressing on and "shifting a lot of wood" one slips, it can shift skin quite quickly too :shock: and it really hurts!

Not that that has ever happened to me. But I had a mate that did it once and he said it it hurt a lot 8)

That's all for now.

Phill