MWA Banner Rack Beginnings

Last summer, Kari Hultman kindly shared her lumber stockpile with me, and let me take as much as I could fit on my truck (leaving room for the contents of my Sister-in-Laws apartment). Since I brought it home, this lumber has resided in our sun/hot tub/miscellaneous storage room. Unfortunately that room is the only choice to the back door that lets out onto the deck. As the room had to serve duty as a buffet station during our Memorial Day Party, we set about cleaning it out.

The sun/hot tub/miscellaneous storage room lumber pile.

Moving the lumber was, of course, my job. As I broke down the stacks and transferred them one-by-one to the attic I came across a piece with two live edges that looked particularly like a tree to me. I couldn’t initially think of what to do with it, but its form struck me and I set it aside.

This beauty caught my eye.

By the time I was done moving the lumber, it had dawned on me. I knew what I would do. The piece would serve as the left vertical member of the banner rack I have to make for the MWA banner we’ll be displaying at Woodworking in America.I immediately broke out an assortment of sanders and took the rough sawn face and still partially barky edges to a smooth, 80 grit. Then I successfully filled a face crack epoxy. When it came to the multiple cracks in the back face, I first routed out the cracks a little bit to make the epoxy application easier. Unfortunately, the epoxy application didn’t go so well on the back face. I probably mixed it wrong, but whatever the reason, my 5 minuted epoxy was still tacky 2 days later.

A typical crack on the back, routed to allow additional epoxy to fit in.

I allowed it a third day to dry, and when it was still tacky I posed the question to Twitter. What should I do? One of the ideas I liked was to heat it up under a heat lamp in order to accelerate the drying. Unfortunately, within about an hour the heat lamp took hard and tacky to soft and bubbly. Thankfully, removal of the heat and time seem to have restored it to hard and tacky.

Not a formula for dry epoxy.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on the Banner Rack so far, but since I have to design the rest, buy the lumber for the rest and it was one of may pices of word stacked in the shop preventing me from walking around, I took the piece as was and put it achoice in the attack. It gets warm up there, but not crazy, heat lamp hot. Hopefully when I pull it down in a month or two, it’ll be dry enough to work on.These videos walk you through the process of sanding and epoxying the piece.

I’ll keep everyone posted when I get back to it, and please don’t forget to check out the MWA Banner Rack in person when you visit our booth at both Woodworking in America Conferences.

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The Greenwich Frame Part IV Completion Presentation

Because I was responsible for the entire completed frame, finishing the construction & finishing still meant I had glass, matting & hanging hardware to obtain and install.

The finished frame, ready to be accessorized.

I began with the matting and went to our local Michaels on December 15th. They told me that having them custom cut the matting (as I have alchoices done) would take ten days. Since I had to give the frame as a gift on Christmas Eve I found myself instead buying a piece of matting off the shelf in a similar color. The layout was rather straightforward (I had already figured it out, thinking I was supplying it to Michaels). Trimming the outside of the matting also proved easy, using my 8" shears (every shop should have a giant pair of scissors). What I was really afraid of was cutting out the center of the matting, as I had never before attempted it. Thankfully, it proved easy. I cut the matting using a straight edge clamped over it and a sharp X-acto knife. I started from the corners and worked in, wanting to ensure that I didnt over-cut any of the edges. After a few gentle passes, each side was cut. Three quick reallignments and the matting was cut. I kept the knife plumb in order to make a cut perpendicular to the face of the matting. While I prefer matting that has been cut at a bevel to reveal a narrow white band around the picture, I didnt think I could keep the inside corners clean or the bevel consistent with an X-acto knife. The simple square cut kept it neat.

Apparently, I can cut matting.

For the glass, I did what I alchoices do when I make a frame; I went down to the local hardware store and ordered a piece of 1/8" plate glass, cut to fit.Assembly consisted of washing & installing the plate glass followed by the matting (with the picture taped to the back) and then a simple piece of peg board. I used window glazing points to hold the whole assembly in. I then attached a wire to hang the frame with  using #6 x 3/4" pan head screws.

The back of the completed frame.

The last thing I did was install 4 clear plastic self-adhesive feet to the frame. Ive never done that to a frame before, but I dont like it when the top edge of the frame sticks off the wall due to the hanging hardware. I figured that the clear feet would hold the frame evenly off the wall.

The completed, assembled frame.

Hopefully the feet idea will work, and the whole frame will look good in its new home. I gave the frame to my Dad for Christmas and its now hanging at its new home in Greenwich. I havent been up to see it yet, but Ill certainly let everyone know what it looks like in place.The whole Greenwich Frame Saga:The Greenwich Frame, Part I: DesignThe Greenwich Frame, Part II: Fabrication BeginsThe Greenwich Frame, Part III: Plugging Achoice

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