I cut the mortises, but ran into a problem. The mortises for the rails and rebates for the glass channel are really close together. On several of the stiles they broke right there. Dang.
The dry fit is OK, and the rails are all in good shape. I could probably make this work with some epoxy and filler pieces, but I’m going to re-make the stiles a little more carefully — leaving more clearance between the rebate and mortise.
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back…
OK, the new shop is more or less operational, and I’m tired of working ON the shop and wanted to work IN the shop today.
I’ve been wanting to make a sconce like one I’ve seen from the Blacker House. I drew it in Sketchup, then re-drew it in Solidworks. Earlier this morning I scaled it up a little. Originally I drew it with 1/2″ thick stiles, then in Solidworks I made them 5/8″ square. This morning I scaled them up again to 3/4″, made the stiles an inch longer and lengthened the rails to match. Then I spilled half of cup of cold coffee, which went everywhere, and swore loudly. I guess that’s how I roll.
Out in the shop I milled up some Mahogany I picked up a couple of months ago. It took no time at all to true it up (it had a whopper twist too) and rip/cross cut all of the parts. I cut all of the tenons on the table saw. Now I need to decide how I want to cut the grooves and mortises. I cut a few extra parts so I have some allowance for errors and experiments.
Time to go practice chopping mortises I think. Or set up my Dremel tool in a little router table.
Long Rails – Front and Back
Short Rails – Sides
Stiles
Mockup – Stiles on Top of Tenons
We did the 3 hour “joinery” tour this morning, led by Jim Ipjekian (sp?) and it was just wonderful. He did a superb job, and we got to see all sorts of great details. Unfortunately, no photography in the house.
After the Gamble house we went to the Maloof house, which was very different of course.. But also very wonderful.
Finally, we finished off the day with a hot rod show in Pomona. I’m tired now.
I drove down to LA yesterday with my pal Ron. We went directly to the Huntington, which is a museum and botanical garden in San Marino, near Pasadena. Our goal? Greene & Greene furniture on display there.
I only managed to snap a couple of innocent pics before a surly, heavily accented guard informed me that was verboten.
So, no woodworking this weekend, but I did re-draw the sconce in SolidWorks so I could print out a full size version. I also drew out patterns for the stained glass and figured out the dimensions for the rest of the parts.
Front View
I think I’m confident enough of the dimensions now that I can start (again) making this. There are some funny reflections in the glass, but my old Windows PC that has SolidWorks on it keeps overheating when I run a render…and shuts off completely. Kinda frustrating. I guess I need to replace it. I’ll start dimensioning the stock for this and see if I can’t get the show on the road finally.
Blacker House Lamp Rendering
After making a prototype of the front of the sconce last weekend I decided it was a little too small. After trying to print a scale drawing I decided that I don’t really care for Sketchup. Even following the directions (page re-size off, model size=print size, etc) it still prints smaller than actual. And there is some kind of a bug that when I try to print now it puts Sketchup into a weird state where I can’t see the model anymore and I have to exit and re-start. Clearly, you get what you pay for.
I ordered a lamp and socket. I decided to use a compact florescent bulb because I’m concerned about heat. I found a 6500K color temperature (bright white) that should have the same brightness as a 75 watt bulb. You can see that the lamp — which isn’t all that big — dwarfs the stile I made.
Lamp and Socket
So I scaled up, about 1/4″ in stile length, and I went from 1/2″ square stiles to 5/8″ square stiles. I adjusted the rails, and also made it slightly deeper (front-to-back). This gives me a lot more clearance between the rebate for the glass and the mortises, and allows me to go from a 1/16″ shoulder on the tenons all the way up to a generous 1/8″.
Scaled Up Lamp
I want to print out a full size version before I make this to ensure I get the scale and dimensions right. Which means re-modeling it in SolidWorks, which is simple enough. Since I can use that to make the patterns for the stained glass too it’s worth the little bit of extra effort to re-do the model.
Updated Stile
I have the sense that this project is going to take a while… I’m not big on deferred gratification, and this is going to be fussy to make.
I sawed up some Mahogany scraps yesterday and started planing them square. I’m measuring them with digital calipers, which is making me a little crazy. I’m trying to get them square at exactly 1/2″. They will be .512″ in the middle and .487″ at one end and .478″ at the other. Do I throw it away? So far, no.
Stile Dimensions and Story Stick
I made up a story stick with the dimensions for the the stiles and laid out four pieces. The layout lines are knifed in, I went over them in pencil to make them show up a little better. I also flattened the back on my 3/16 chisel. I got a Lie-Nielsen set for Christmas and I’m tuning them up as I go.
Laying Out the Stiles
So I started by chopping out the mortises. I only did a couple, just enough so I could get a sense of the scale of the finished part. And get a feel for working in this scale.
Little Tiny Mortises, 3/16″ x 9/16″
I cut tenons for the rails and put it together. The rails are set back nicely, but I’m concerned that it’s a little too small. It’s too narrow, compared to the picture. In fact, it’s too narrow compared to my model. I made these rails 3 3/16″ between the tenons because that was what I had in my noted, but 4 3/16″ is what I have in the model. I think the stock dimensions are a little small too.
Back to the drawing board. At least I know I can cut little tiny mortises now.
Mockup for the Front
I spent some time last night working out the joinery and part sizes for the Blacker House Sconce. Today I hope to try making a mockup of the lantern body. I picked up come off-cuts of Mahogany at Global Wood on the way home last night, so fingers crossed…but first chisels sharpened.
My first concern around making this piece is the scale. The parts are all relatively small, and the joinery is even smaller. Maybe that will make it easier in the long run, but I suspect it will mean I have to hold tighter tolerances and be more accurate. I have other concerns, but I’ll hold off on those for now or I’ll talk myself out of making this. Sometimes it’s better to just assume I’ll figure it out as I go.
For the joinery on the lantern body I am using stepped tenons so that I can have them reasonably long. The tenons are set back from the top, bottom and outside face of the rails by 1/16″. I had to move them to the extreme front/outside of the rails so that I had space for a 1/8″ x 1/8″ rebate on the inside edge to hold the glass.
Stepped Tenons
The first step will be to mill the stock to rough dimensions, then make the stiles. See how close the mortises are to the rebate for the glass? That worries me. The fact that the top mortise is only 1/16″ from the end worries me too – I think I’ll leave it long until I’ve chopped the mortises, then trim it. I’m not entirely sure how I’ll do the stopped rebate. With power tools this would be a simple router job. Right now I’m thinking that I’ll chop the ends with a chisel and then use a plow plane to remove the waste in between.
Stile Dimensions
Time for one more cup of coffee, then I’ll head out to the shop and rough out the stock. I’m having lunch with a buddy that does fabulous hot rod metalwork, I’ll post some pics from his shop later.
I really like the Greene & Greene aesthetic, and have been wanting to fix up my house following in the same style. I have grandiose visions of someday doing a kitchen remodel, but between work and family there is precious little time. So, baby steps then.
I’ve been looking at lighting fixtures from different Greene & Greene houses, looking for one that I like and at the same time seems achievable within my budget, skills and tools. I think the only thing that truly fits those criteria is a bare 60 watt bulb hanging from the ceiling, but I digress.
I’ve settled on a sconce that was made for the Blacker house. I’ve never been to the Blacker house, so I’m taking a small leap of faith here, but I do like the design. This particular light was made by Jeff Grainger (http://grainger-arts-and-crafts-studio.com). Jeff’s rendition is great, the proportions look right to me, the parts are rounded appropriately, but it doesn’t look like someone took a router to it.
Blacker House Sconce
Blacker House Sconce, Side View
So, how can I make one of these? I need to figure out the size of the parts, then figure out the joinery, light mounts and making stained glass. Yikes. The dimensions on Jeff’s web site say it’s 9″w x 7″d x 15″h. I imported the front view picture into Sketchup and scaled it until the width of the widest part was about 9″. Then I could use the tape measure tool to pick up approximate dimensions for the main elements.
Picking up Dimensions
The stiles seem to be about 1/2″ square by 6.5″ long. The rails are wider, my first cut was 5/8″ wide and 7/16″ deep. After I had the first version drawn in Sketchup it wasn’t quite right. I had to widen the stiles slightly (to 11/16″) and thin out the lantern top and breadboard ends. I think it’s close in this view, what do you think? The rounding on the ends of the different parts makes it tough to be absolutely sure, but I think it’s close.
Current Model
I think the depth is close too, maybe it should be a tiny bit shallower, maybe 1/8″? I’m not sure about mounting the stained glass, for now I have a 1/8″ x 1/8″ rebate cut into the back edge of the openings. I’ll play with this more and see if I can get a decent looking model, then add in joinery. There just isn’t a lot of room for joinery, the parts are all pretty small. This should be interesting.
Model Side View
