WIP photos and info for the "Segmented Eagle"

[Lin]

Devonwoody and Gary have ask if I would post the sorta WIP of the "Segmented Eagle" that I completed earlier this year. I took pics along the way of that piece to show how I do my segmented projects. This will end up being a long thread. I will post a few pics each day or so thru to completion of the "eagle". There are over 25 pics that I will be posting to complete the process. I will type info for each pic.
The way I do my segmetation projects is not necessarily the right or wrong way...just my way. I tend to go after trying to get the realistic look during the shaping process that you see more so in Intarsia....therefore the shaping is the hardest part for me and takes the longest to complete. (also tends to be where I make my mistakes)
Any questions or comments along the way are welcome.
So here's the first set...
Lin

Pic one-I used one piece of 3/4" aspen and used blue painter's tape under the pattern so the pattern would pull off easily with the tape. After each piece was cut I put a number on the back of the piece (you can see #9 and #10 are flipped upside down) to match the numbers I had put on the spare pattern before I started cutting. I also lightly sand any burrs from the back edges of each piece as I cut. Don't sand the back of the piece itself just bottom edges a bit to assure a good fit. I used a #2R blade for cutting. The aspen is fairly soft wood so a #2R could be used and helped me get a fairly tight fit...(small kerf especially for the eye area) One of the points to make here about segmentation versus intarisia is the fact that if your cuts are not exactly on the line the pieces will still fit back together because you have cut it out from one piece of wood puzzle style.

Pic two-shows what I decided to take off each piece to layer it for depth to show the right wing as being furthest away and so on..(for this part I put the pieces all together and generally lay it on the floor so I'm looking at it from a distance to try to determine the layers needed to make it look real...pics from the net help me decide also...lol)..at this point in reality I messed up on how much to take it down on that right wing. The bottom of the right wing should be taken down the 1/2" you see but the top two pieces should have only been taken down 3/8". This error in my thinking cause me to say a lot of bad words when I realized my mistake...After I had sanded them down I ended up having to raise those top two pieces to make it look right....shows I am still learning.

Pic three-I measured and drew myself a line along the edge of the pieces to give myself a guideline for sanding to....

Pic four-shows a pic of the entire eagle laid out on the spare pattern before I start the sanding process.

 

[Lin]

Six more pics and info on how I did the segmented eagle.
Lin

Pic five-shows how I set up the right wing for sanding. I use a sanding shim which I cut from cheap junk 1/4" ply. (I just held the pieces together and drew around them and cut it out..doesn't have to be perfectly cut...just needs to hold the pieces) Then I use two sided thin plastic carpet tape on the back of the four pieces and even little pieces of the tape along the inside of the pieces to hold them together if needed. You will be surprised at how well this thin plastic tape holds. Generally you don't want to leave it sit on your pieces overnight. Makes them hard to get apart the longer it sits.

Pic six- shows the sanding shim attached to the backside of the right wing pieces. You can see the line I drew to give me a guide on how much to take this set of pieces down.

Pic seven-shows the front side of the right wing with the sanding shim attached.

Pic eight-shows me started to sand this set using a pneumatic sander. I did not check how much air was in the sander (how firm it was) nor which grit sleeve I had on it from previous use. Looking backwards....I should have tried a lower grit sleeve and pumped up the sander a bit to make it firmer. Sanding it this way was going to take a long time becasue I didn't do the checks...(ya know one of my CRS moments) so I came up with another idea to get the wood off this set quicker.....

Pic nine-I decided to run this set thru the drum sander using a 80 grit belt to take the wood down the 1/2" ....This was a good idea had I thought it thru totally before jumping the gun....I should've stopped when the pieces were 3/8" thick and I would have save myself a lot of time in fixing my mistake....The next pic shows why I over did it.

Pic ten-This is the right wing set laid into place after the many trips thru the drum sander.....Whoops....I saw it as soon as I laid them into place...The upper two pieces need to be 1/8" higher than the bottom...Now I have to cut accurately (or at least the outer part that will show has to be cut accrately) a piece of 1/8" aspen to raise the top two pieces....I didn't have any 1/8" aspen so had to resaw and plane and sand down a piece to do this....Cost me another couple hours or so fixing my error.

 

[Lin]

Five more pics and info to go with them...BTW...This "segmented Eagle" is the only piece I have done that I used a drum sander on. Most projects do not have that large of an area to take down that far. It could've been done with the pnuematics but I have the drum sander so why not get some use from it....I have since done another of these eagles and used the drum sander again...Did not make the same mistake (taking too much off) with the second one as I did with the first.
Lin

Pic 11-I used a sanding shim on the left wing and then the head and body area. I tapered the left wing as a whole to go behind the body and shaped the outer edges and the tips then took off the upper two pieces to sand more off the bottom to give it the layered feathers look...I will do the same with the right side with out the tapering after the glue has dried on the piece I had to cut to raise it back up... The head and body I sanded as one till about 1/8" was taken off then took the head off and continue taking the body down a bit more...then just the body itself down a bit more...leaving the leg and shoulder a bit higher.

Pic 12-Rough shaping along the way as I'm layering the pieces...

Pic 13-Pic from another angle to how how the left wing is tapered behind the body.

Pic 14-Close up of the tapering and shaping on tail and body area so far.

Pic 15-shows how I know where to sand to when I round over the edges. Draw a pencil line then roll it down to meet the piece below...Placing the piece back in every so often to check your work.

 

[Chris Knight]

Lin,
This is a super set of pictures about a great piece of work - thanks very much.

 

[devonwoody]

Thank you for the posting, and your skill and patience are to be admired.

 

[Anonymous]

Really enjoying this series and stunning work too.

 

[Lin]

Sorry...Failed to mention in the pics info....The sanding tool you see in pic 11 and 13 is called a "Bow Sander". I have a two styles of them and have found them to be a great asset to have for segmentation and/or intarsia. They really got a work out with this eagle project. There were lots of areas I couldn't get to with the pneumatic sanders (around the head area and breaking the inside edges of the wing tips and those little bitty feet) and the bow sander did the job and fairly quickly also considering it is used by hand. The one in the pics takes the wood off quicker than the other I have but the second one can get into even smaller areas for shaping. Has more flex to it.
I know that the pics make it look as thou I know what I'm doing but I'm still learning with each project I do. This eagle was the 10th segmented project I have done. It was not till the 6th or 7th project that I started to really get an understanding about how to look at the piece and figure out the layers and not be quite so afraid to take a lot of wood off. My first projects did not have any where near the height variations nor the extensive shaping that this eagle has. It's a learning process and the first projects looked fine also....Just not as real (3d) I think. That is my own opinion on what I'm trying to achieve when I do one of these.
Lin

 

[Lin]

A few more pics and info
Lin
Pic 16, 17, 18 and 19 all are different angle shots after all shaping has been done..with the exception of the eye....I did raise and round it but it looks like his eye is bulging out....I didn't get a pic after I fixed it but what was done was I sanded both pieces down some and left the outer eye almost flush with the head and barely rolled the edge...and the pupil ended up being just a hint above the outer eye and then it looked right . All that's left to sanding now is hand sanding all pieces with 320 grit then next pic will be of the coloring..

 

[dedee]

Lin,
stunning photos and text thanks for taking the time. It helps to confirm how easy you make the whole process seem.

Andy

 

[Adam]

Thankyou for taking the time to post that. Very interesting.

Adam

 

[Lin]

Lin,
stunning photos and text thanks for taking the time. It helps to confirm how easy you make the whole process seem.

Andy

Andy and all, Just hoping that this WIP will enlighten some folks as to how I end up with the final piece and that anyone can do the same if they just take the first plunge. There is not a right nor wrong way with this type of a project. They tend to be a "one of a kind" project for me. I can't repeat exactly the same piece because of the shaping process.
The pics may make it look as thou I spend a lot of time shaping but in reality when I did the second one of these I cut, layering and had half of the rough shaping done in one day. I spend about as much time deciding what to do as the actual doing...lol
Lin

 

[Alf]

Lin, fascinating stuff; thank you. I love the result but I think the sanding would get me down.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Taffy Turner]

Lin,

Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to post all the WIP pictures and descriptions.

I am really enjoying reading this post, and starting to get a much better understanding of the process. I think I may well buy myself a saw and have a bash at this Intarsia stuff.

Once again - many thanks.

Regards

Gary

 

[Lin]

Glad to hear this is peaking a bit of interest. Hoping to see WIP pics from one of you sometime going thru the process.

More pics....coloring and beyond.
Lin

Pic 20- shows the pieces after coloring...I used three colors of minwax stains...dark walnut, english chestnut, and early american on the wings and body. Beak, feet and outer eye are done using woodburst stain...colonial maple....I sanded most back off on the outer eye to lighten it. Black leather dye on the pupil and white pigmented gel stain on the tail pieces and head...I ended up going back over these white pieces with thinned white oil paint to whiten them up a bit more.....

Pic 21-The eagle after coloring put together to check and make sure I didn't miss any areas with the colors...I have done that and have learned to look before gluing it to a backer....

Pic 22-I laid out the pieces on an 1/8" backer...(used a piece of cherry ply I had laying around-thinking I wanted to use a darker backer on this one rather than the normal BB to help hide any seethru in the veining areas) and drew around it to give me my cutting line. (holding the pieces together as I drew) Normally I just wing it while cutting the backer by just staying approx. 1/8" inside the drawn line but because of the wing tips on this piece I redrew myself a line to follow while cutting. You can see both lines on the pic...light line is the original and the darker line is the redrawn line for me to follow. I use a #2R blade when cutting the backer....really thin wood and cuts fast.

Pic 23-The backer cut and laid out on the extra pattern.

 

[Lin]

Should've posted these two with the last thread but got in a hurry....lol
So here's the rest of the pics and info for finshing up the backer then next pics will be glue up and final pic after the shine..

Pic 24- After cutting the backer I color the edges of it so it won't stand out while hanging on the wall. There are lots of ways to do this. Many use stain or ink...I use a brown marker. Notice thou I didn't use the marker on the areas where the tail will be glued...First time doing one of these where white ends up being on outer piece...so I thought leaving that area without the edges colored would be the way to go

Pic 25- Next up I seal the back of the backer with lacquer. Two or three light coats...sanding with 400 or 500 grit after the first coat.

 

[Lin]

Last set of pics with the finished "Eagle" at the end.
I will be doing a third one of these eagles in a month or so...They really turn out nice and folks really like the looks and size of them. From tip to tip on the wingspan it is over 24".
Hope this thread has helped anyone interested in segmentation on how I do my projects. And maybe I will see pics in near future of some projects like this one showing up on this board.
Any commments and/or questions welcome.
Lin

Pic 26-After backer is dry then the final gluing can begin. I edge glued some of the pieces...checking the fit of the entire piece while I'm edge gluing...then I place all the pieces on the backer and pick out an anchor point to glue from...On this piece I used the eye and beak area that I had edge glued together. Holding everything in place I pulled that set out and put glue on the back of it and then placed it back in..still with all the other pieces in place...making sure no part of the backer is showing...let that piece dry to the backer.

Pic 27-The rest of the glue up can begin. I did half one day and the other half the next day...Notice I used pieces of ply under the clamps to protect my project from the pressure.

Pic 28- This is the final pic of the Eagle project with four coats of semi-gloss lacquer on him. I lightly sand the entire piece with 600 grit after the first and sometimes second coat if needed....Hanger on the back and remember to sign it......I also put the year that I made the piece in also. I use a sharpie to do this...Easiest way I have found for signing...