This is my current project, and is facing some major challenges, and is skirting the edge of miserable failure. The material is Bloodwood and I was able to find a really beautiful piece to work with. Unfortunately, since cutting it the material has twisted significantly. The original design for the bookshelf was to run four vertical bars through it and use flanges to trap the shelves in place. Since the material twisted, and cupped a bit, there is no way in hell this is going to work, and besides aligning and drilling the holes would be a nightmare.
Enter my brother into the fray. I'm lucky that he happens to have a machine shop. So I altered the design and am using 1.5" round steel stock, and the results I think are better than the original design. I wanted it to feel very open instead of being Just Another Box With Shelves In It. The wood I have is incredibly beautiful, and I wanted to free it up as much as possible to breathe. I will make bookends most likely, or maybe try for some riverbed rocks to use as bookends.
The hope with this new design is that with the
pieces bolted down to heavy duty steel, the twist won't be a problem anymore. Once wood has twisted, usually the advice is to throw it out. Cupping can often be fixed, but twisting is something that is in the layout of the fibers of the wood. This wood, when bought, had been cut and was supposed to have been dried properly. However, because of how it was stored, the weight of other wood on top of it probably prevented the twist from coming out. After it was cut and planed, the twist showed up. I can see why it did, the grain pattern is not even, which makes for a spectacular piece of wood but opens me up to this kind of issue. I'll hope that the steel and the weight of the books deals with the problem.So far the shelves have taken on Tung Oil, and I am beginning to Lacquer them now. I'll let the Lacquer cure out, then will get the holes drilled for mounting, before rubbing out the Lacquer flat for the final finish.
By the way, the Sagulator is an indispensable calculator for anyone who is building wood shelves. It will let you know if your design is going to fail miserably or not.
2 comments:
I recently worked with bloodwood for the first time and ran into the exact same issue you did re: twisting. My rough board was buried within a pile of others and appeared fine when pulled from pile. However, when I unloaded the piece into the shop six hours later, it had warped like no other!
I made the best of wood since returning it wasn't an option. My project is complete but I haven't applied a finish. Can you explain how you finished your shelves please? They are beautiful. Thanks in advance.
-s gray,
indianapolis
recently worked with bloodwood for the first time and ran into the exact same issue you did re: twisting. My rough board was buried within a pile of others and appeared fine when pulled from pile. However, when I unloaded the piece into the shop six hours later, it had warped like no other!
I made the best of wood since returning it wasn't an option. My project is complete but I haven't applied a finish. Can you explain how you finished your shelves please? They are beautiful. Thanks in advance.
-s gray,
indianapolis
Post a Comment