Viewer Comments:
This is an awesome piece! Congratulations, you should be very proud of this!
How much did the aluminum work cost you? I like mixing up metal with wood pieces, but havent had the best luck with the metal shops in my area.
Keep up the outstanding work! Thanks for sharing!
Another fine example of your world class talent. Looks like a lot of buffing on that finish. Could you explain a little about your finishing process?
Thanks for the compliments Marc and Anthony. The metal work was fairly expensive, I think I paid around $300 per set for the machining and another $150 for polishing and plating. In the future I will probably simplify the metal parts by eliminating the curved surfaces and do more straight section work, that should reduce the cost quite a bit. As for finishing, the polyester is sprayed on quite heavily to fill the grain and marquetry gaps, if any, then sanded flat multiple times until a fully filled surface exists. Then it's just a matter of lots of time sanding up through the grits to 1500 or 2000. Then buff the final scratches out with auto polishing compounds and lambs wool pads on a power buffer. Sounds easy but it takes quite a bit of time to get all the scratches out for a perfect finish. I think I waited about a month before buffing to ensure the polyester was fully cured.
Craig
Great job! I was also curiour about the polyester finish. What brand product and how many coats. Also, did you use a router and jig to do the inlays? Did you sell this piece?
Dan, I will have to check what the finish was as this piece was completed early last year and I don't remember the details. I did use my trim router for the inlay work with 1/8" bits for the smaller inlay and a rabbeting bit for the outer perimeter work.
Craig
The design is nice because it is hard to find the pattern, as you said. It's William Morris-esque in that way.
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