Stand Pivot Design

In order to finalize the design of the pivot I had to first determine what angles I wanted the stand to be able to adjust to.  I used a protractor on my own music stand, and determined that one of the positions should be about 20 degrees.  The other position should be about 70 degrees for playing above the stand.  To design the pivot bracket, I needed to make up a full-size template so I can be sure that the bracket will accommodate the locking pin at the right angle, while also being robust enough.  To do this I used sketch-up to print out a full sized template, which I learned to do from this blog article: Printing to Scale in Sketch-up.  Then I drew the bracket outline on the printout.  Next I will begin the shaping of the bracket.

Zeh, Joe. "Printing to Scale in Sketch-up." Web log post. Chiefwoodworker's Blog. 10 Nov. 2008. Web. 23 May 2012. <http://www.srww.com/blog/?p=117&cpage=1>.


I also did some much needed shop clean-up.
Before:

 After:

Magazine Article Research

For my magazine article I will be writing, I need to do some research on the general layout of a typical woodworking article.  To do this I browsed through a couple of Popular Woodworking Magazines, the most recent edition and the April 2012 edition, focusing on the feature article "Irish Chair" by Don Weber and the  cover article, "Cherry Wall Cabinet" by Matthew Teague.  Both share a similar layout and structure that I will use to guide my writing of my own article.  As both of these project articles are about fairly unusual projects and techniques, they focus on the unusual aspects, instead of going over every single aspect of the build.  This saves the reader from having to re-read information on basic woodworking techniques, so for my article I will focus on the aspect of this build that are unique to my project, such as the adjustment system, both height and angle.  I will briefly cover my methods of making the adjustment mechanism, and will also cover my influences for the design, and wood selection, as well as the finish I end up using.

Teague, Matthew. "Cherry Wall Cabinet." Popular Woodworking Magazine Apr. 2012. Print.

Weber, Don. "Irish Chair." Popular Woodworking Magazine June 2012. Print.

Adjustment Mechanism

With the stand almost done, I have started thinking more about the adjustment mechanism.  For the tightening screw, I will need some dowel, maple for durability.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=32721&cat=1,250,43217,32721

For the overall shape of the pegs, they will be modeled after tuning pegs, which is not my idea, I saw it done somewhere, but I cannot remember where.  I think that I will top the maple screw with a darker wood, possibly macassar ebony, or burmese blackwood, both of which I have on hand.

Base Joinery

Moving on to the base joinery, which consists of a kind of half-lap joint that I had never cut before.  To prepare, I read Tage Frid's primer on mortise and tenon joints, and then I cut a practice joint.  It was surprisingly easy. 

I find that chalk rubbed in the cut-lines make them more visible on dark walnut.

One down!

Marking out the thickness of the column.

Halfway done.

Unfortunately one of my joints was too tight, and while I was fitting it, it snapped.  Luckily it was easily repaired with some glue.

All done.

So far this was one of the most fun parts of the project.  Most of the work has been milling, which is slightly boring, so it was nice that I was finally able to do some real joinery.  Iwas also very proud of the way it turned out, that (besides the one component breaking) everything went together very smoothly.  Overall I am very happy with the base.

Frid, Tage. Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking. Newtown: Taunton, 1986. Print. 

Power vs. Hand

As a follow-up to my post yesterday, I want to talk about why I could not earn a living with my woodworking, as I am currently set up.  When I first started purchasing tools, I only purchased hand tools, mainly because I could not afford or fit any power tools in my shop.  After a while I bought a bandsaw, a drill press, a grinder, and a router (all relatively small and inexpensive).  Why is this important?  Because about 80-90% of the time I have put in to this project so far has been milling.  Milling is making the wood the correct dimensions so I can cut joinery into it.  My current process it to use my bandsaw to rip the stock to the correct width, hand planing to flatten and square the faces, and hand sawing to cut the piece to length.  Almost every woodworker who makes money from making furniture has power tools to do almost all of these tasks, simply because milling by hand takes way too long.  If a task can be done more efficiently one way over another, it is unrealistic to do it the more inefficient way, and milling with power tools (using a jointer and planer) produce excellent results much quicker.  So to really start making money from woodworking, I would need to mechanize in order to reach maximum efficiency.

Woodworking as a Business

As part of my research component, I am interested in how much I would sell my project for, if I was selling it.  This is a very hard question as I am certainly not a professional trying to support myself with woodworking, so my costs are significantly less than a professional's.  So far what I can conclude from the literature I have read on pricing your work is this: it depends.

When I talked to Chris Lowe, he told me that he figures out how many hours it will take to complete each part of a project, and what the materials cost is, and uses this to calculate the total price.  A while ago I began making a detailed log of how many hours I spent on the stand, and on what.  Up to now I have spent approximately 20 hours on the build of this project, and have spent $55 on materials.  At a conservative $20/hr, that makes the total cost be about $415 not factoring in at least 6-7 more hours before completion.

However there are other ways to determine a price that take into account factors such as sale method, and the target market.  The most direct way to customers is (unsurprisingly) to sell to them directly.  However unless you already have a substantial customer base, you will have to put time and money into marketing your work, which takes away from your profits and production time.  Another way is to sell through something or someone, for example selling products through a gallery or a show.  Depending on the venue however, some of the purchase price will be given to the gallery/show.  Another important factor in pricing is your target customers.  How much are they willing to spend?  Can you justify your cost by the quality?

Because of my situation as a student, it is very difficult to make a hypothetical cost estimate.  I don't have to pay for my room or board, so my direct costs are only the materials cost at the beginning of the project.  Really I am just happy to have something work on that I know someone will value greatly.

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/articles/pricing-your-work/

http://bridgewooddesign.com/estimator/howto.htm

http://www.woodworkersjourney.com/category/pricing-your-work

Graves, Garth. Earn a Second Income from Your Woodworking. Cincinnati, OH: Betterway, 1997. Print.

More on Steamed Walnut

A sample of how un-steamed walnut looks vs. steamed, left to right respectively:

Steamed Walnut

The walnut I am working with is steamed walnut, which means that it has been steamed to darken the sapwood to make it the same color as the heartwood. This is because the sapwood is considered a defect so after the steaming the entire board is considered a defect-less piece (unless there are knots or other conventional defects), and the board can be sold at a higher rate. The cost of this is considerable however, as the heartwood that before had many complex colors and variations is turned a gray-brown color. For this reason most furniture makers prefer unsteamed walnut. While I was aware of the costs and benefits of steamed walnut I didn't know much more than that. After doing a little searching I found a site that offers advice on how steamed walnut's color can be invigorated. While I will probably will not do everything they suggest, I do plan on doing some expirementation on how to get the best color out of the wood I am using. I also learned that walnut naturally lightens with age as opposed to other woods that naturally darken with age, including cherry (my primary project for this project).

Put the life back in steamed walnut

Adjustment Mechanism

I have settled on a final design for the height-adjustment mechanism.  It involves a wooden screw to steady the main post, as well as a cross-peg to support the weight of the stand, as well as to prevent slippage.  The wood threader/ die is sold by grizzly.  I have never used a wood threader before, so I will have to learn to use it.  When I buy a new tool, there is always a learning period associated with it.  I usually read all the instructions that come with the tool as well as read any articles or videos online that I find about the tool.  I then use some scrap wood and practice with the tool until I feel comfortable with using it on a project.  However, I will not have to worry about this for a while as I will only do the threading after the central post is complete.

Tap:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Wood-Threading-3-4-Tap/G1869
Die:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Wood-Threading-3-4-Die/G1868

2/13/2012

Did some rough but important design work today to decide on a final shape for the stand.  My design is based off one by Craig Yamamoto, and is also influenced by George Nakashima.  Right now I will probably use walnut and beech, or walnut and quartersawn white oak.  Either way the walnut will be mostly for accents, mainly the base, the adjustment mechanism, and the lip of the stand. 
Great class period, it was really interesting to hear what everyone is doing as their project.