The Periphery of the Mind

Honestly, I was disappointed with it. The frame didn't hold together as well as I'd hoped, and the solder on the glass was a lot worse than I'd feared during final cleaning, the Professor and I nearly had a fight over hammering in staples (I didn't want to hammer them in, but nothing was broke by my doing so), it lacks legs or a hanger, and I dang near chucked the whole thing into the trash and decided to buy her a toy or something she'd appreciate more. But maybe as she gets older she'll appreciate it more. I dunno'.

Anyway, I was really and truly pleased with my woodworking on this one. Other than not getting the thing to fit quite right, the wood turned out fairly well. And I have some ideas for fixing that in the future. Anyway, next project: a set of shelves for the kitchen.

Labels: Craft, General

Worked some more on the glass work. Got a lot farther actually. To the point that I'm staining wood for the next couple of days and putting the frame on Wednesday I hope. That said, it went a lot quicker once I realized that I had a third less glass to solder on due to imperfections in the project. I'll cut myself slack though since I didn't really know what I was doing.

The main things I learned from this project....

Patterns: I don't think I did much wrong here at all. Mainly in scanning the pattern in and trying to clean it up. I think removing the grid lines was a mistake, and I'll just use a good scanned image as is next time.

Cutting: Getting your cuts right is crucial, and you're only going to do that with the right tools. If I decide to work with cutting glass again, I intend to purchase something like this to make sure my lines stay straight. I also realize how important it is to get a good (but not too good) adhesive for gluing your pattern pieces on; the stuff I got was easy to clean up but poor for sticking.

Grinding: I'm sure it has a place, but it seems to be a fairly minimal one for this project. A few quick passes usually did as much damage as good from what I could tell.

Wrapping: Not too bad really, just wrap in foil and try to make sure the wrapped areas overlap on the glass so you can't see any foil backing from the other side.

Soldering: I'll get some more experience here, but I did find it amusing that the solder contains chemicals that are "known by the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects". I really admire how the legal system of our nation can recognize carcinogens in one state, and completely ignore them in another. I figure we should have lawyers elsewhere be forced to eat the stuff; since they don't recognize any harm, it should be safe right?

Framing: I can cut wood well, if I do say so. No problems here.

Staining: I know from past experience I can stain well, as long as I don't rely on spray cans. This is the next step.

Assembling: I think I can do this part. Just need to figure out how to staple and hook it without damaging the glass.

Labels: Craft

Continuing the idea of posts with numbers for titles, thirty nine is the number of pieces of glass I cut yesterday. I'm far from being a competent amateur, but I'm also pleased with the results. I may have to go back and cut a couple of pieces again however, but I'm well on schedule. Next up is wrapping the pieces in copper foil, welding them together, cutting a wood frame to hold them all, staining the frame, and then assembling the frame. I'm hoping to be about another 8 hours or so away from having it all finished.

Labels: Craft

Tuesday my glass grinder came in. Got to set it up and play with it some last night. I'll be taking off Monday to really work on it though. And for those paying attention, yes, that's my table saw it's sitting on.

Labels: Craft, Tools