Thwarted Again

Category: Projects

  • Table Finished

    The end table is finished. The travertine block from Travertine Stone Products (or possibly Webb & Reed, Inc. according to the business card I collected today with my stone) looks great in the table. The koi pull from Bright and Thorpe via the Hardware Hut is fantastic. The glass from Anchor Ventana fits perfectly. Thank you to all my wonderful suppliers and to everyone who encouraged me and listened patiently to my complaining and worrying and thanks to Bill for finding TSP for me and to Heather for helping me get exactly what I wanted in the way of a rock. Bill took some pictures of it today for me though clearly the lighting in the house is still problematic for photography even if you have a fancy camera and I don’t really know what I’m doing around the color and light balance portions of the photo editing software.

    finished table
    Here’s a big picture that links to the gallery.

  • Blueprints

    SketchUp table topThough I used to mess about with POVRay back in the day I actually know precious little about drafting/modeling software. This project is coming to a close but I will want to build a second one of these tables in the future. I decided that having an actual schematic with measurements in an electronic format for the table would be a useful thing to have so I don’t have to keep hunting around for the piece of copier paper that originally I drew it on. Google pointed me at their own solution for this which is called SketchUp. It’s decent and the time from installation to being able to use it isn’t bad. The built in instructions are pretty good and have little animations to show you what it is you’re supposed to be doing with the tool you have selected. I’ve modeled the four side pieces of the top so far. Ultimately I think I’ll model the whole thing and then lay the pieces out in cutting diagram form. Maybe there’s even a useful way to upload it here and let everyone play along. Tomorrow is rock day!

  • Hope springs eternal

    The extra special Mr. Bill told me that there was a company called “Travertine Stone Products” on Rutland and Metric that might fit my custom stone supply needs. I called them yesterday and they said they thought they could help me so I went down there at lunch today. The woman who helped me was patient and informative and friendly and after I decided what specific kind of travertine I wanted and described the desired dimensions she said they’d get back to me with a quote. The quote was forthcoming about an hour later and it was for a price less than I had decided I was willing to pay and the estimated delivery date would be Wednesday next week which was faster than I’d expected. If the stone actually comes in and is anything like the correct size and color I will promote these people to the auspicious rank of Big Damned Heroes. With any luck the next post here will be pictures of a finished table. Cross your fingers.

  • Rocks are hard

    I’m sure I have mentioned the “rock” that I want for my table in here before. The idea is that there is to be a thin slab of limestone or travertine underneath the latticework in the top. The problem is that no one wants to sell me this rock. I’ve been to two different Home Depot locations because they claim to sell exactly what it is that I’m looking for. The first location was too helpful for my own good and told me that I didn’t actually want to buy a box of tiles from them. What I actually wanted to do was spend four hours on the telephone with local flooring sellers (apparently HD doesn’t qualify) trying to convince them that I should be allowed to buy a sample tile from them. The second Home Depot was much more not-helpful and actually managed to place an order for one box of 24″x24″ unfilled, honed Travertine floor tiles for me for the low, low price of $139 including tax. They said it would be in in 7 to 10 days. They said they would call me when it came in.

    So, two weeks after I ordered it I’m starting to wonder where my rocks are. Since I was meeting Whitney at the greek food for dinner (Zorbas = nummy) and the HD was right across the parking lot I figured I’d wander down there and see what was the hold up. I found the guy who had placed the order for me and talked with him for a little and eventually we find out that my order had been canceled because the supplier said that rocks have been discontinued and that no one had bothered to call me to let me know that there are no more rocks. This puts my record at 0/2. I’ve been told that you only have to get a hit one in three times to make it into the hall of fame. I’ve also been told that there are a lot of flooring vendors in the Metic/Rundberg area and that I might be able to find someone that still has some rocks in stock. We’ll see. I might need to start thinking about alternatives to rocks if this keeps up.

    Oh, I also had a dinner party. It went pretty well considering that I’ve never made dinner for nine people before. Bill took some pictures and put them on his Flickr page. Alex made the bestest cake ever and I’m thieving a link to the picture Bill took for my stupid blog.

  • Construction complete!

    tableThe construction work on the table is complete! I took some pictures today but they’re a little dark. I need to figure out a good way to photograph this thing for when I get the last two pieces. I ordered the drawer pull from the hardware hut who have an enormous selection of pulls and knobs and other goodies. It was a little expensive but it’s the one that stuck in my head. It fits the general design of the table and it’s very unique. Plus it’s organic and fluid looking on a table which is geometric so I think it’ll stand out and look good.

    tableThe stone is elusive. This could be considered irony because I can’t dig three inches down in my yard without pulling up a big limestone boulder. What I’m looking for is a piece of limestone or travertine that is 22½” x 22½” x somewhere between ¼” and ½” thick. The first thing that I thought of was floor tile. Natural stone tile comes in many sizes and materials and they have a decent catalog down at the Home Depot so I went down there. They did indeed have 24″x24″ travertine tiles (unfilled so you get the nice porous texture). However you have to order them and you have to order a box which is five tiles and $130. I think this might be worth $130 to me and then I’ll have a tile for the next table so I went to the sales lady and asked her what I needed to do to order a box. tableThat was the beginning of the end. She asked what it was for and I told her (oops) and she said let’s go talk to this other lady. The other lady said I was better off calling around to local flooring suppliers (I guess HD doesn’t think they are a flooring supplier) and asking if I can buy a sample. I am really not interested in calling around for four hours trying to convince some local floorshop franchise owner that he should sell me one tile. This is why I went to the hardware store in the first place. Anyway, after having a nice long chat with the two ladies I ended up leaving the Depot without a rock or an order for a rock. Mom said she would write the guy who is making the headstone for my grandparents’ graves and see if he could make me something like what I want. The internet has been very unhelpful in this respect as well. Searching for what I want usually leads me to quarries in Australia. While I’m certain the Aussies have fine, high quality stone and stone craftsmen it’s on pretty much the opposite side of the world from where I am.

    Even though there is no stone to be had I am still declaring victory. Once I get the pull in I’ll affix it and start loading the drawer up with CDs and DVDs and maybe reclaim some horizontal surface in the house. Huzzah!

  • Yay pictures!

    It appears I’m terrible at the blogging thing. It’s for the best really. Anyway, there are pictures of the table in its almost complete state. The legs and sides are not actually permanently affixed though the legs are on there tight enough that they might as well be. Remaining tasks are gluing and finishing the lattice top, installing the drawer rails and acquiring the stone block, glass top and a drawer pull. That’s single digits! End of the year here I come!

    tablemore table

  • Good and bad

    Bad first. I have not had the opportunity to row since Thursday night due to my back acting up and having a full schedule all weekend besides. Tonight I was looking forward to getting back on it especially since Saturday I weighed myself for the first time since I started this and found to my shock that I am heavier than I was before. While the weight gain is probably more related to muscle building than me becoming even tubbier I still would like to actually lose some weight. So, I climbed onto the machine and after about five minutes I started feeling like I was pulling something in my inner thigh. I stopped after ten minutes and tried to stretch it out but whatever it is doesn’t want to be stretched it wants to be left alone and is willing to tell my brain that in no uncertain terms. I guess I’ll have to take it easy until it’s better. I can still do small strokes just with my back and arms but that wears me out quickly. I’ve been religious about my stretching so this is a big disappointment.

    Stained topTop stainedThe good news is that staining is complete on the table. Huzzah! I have pictures to show of the top which are located here. Next step is the finishing and I have finally decided what I want to do for that. Oddly enough it is the least exotic of the things I’ve tried. Three coats of water based polyurethane and then sanded with 330 grit paper/sponge to smooth and #0000 steel wool to get a nice satin finish. It looks great on the sample (which does not photograph well at all so you’ll have to take my word for it unless you saw me Sunday when I was carting the thing around). I’m thinking the best course of action is to coat everything before I start worrying about rubbing out the finish so I avoid getting dust in something that’s still drying. I should also consider getting another grit of sandpaper between the 330 and the steel wool. I’ve put in for vacation the week of July 2nd to 6th which will be a nice opportunity to get this thing complete.

  • Short weekend

    Drawer thumbnailI don’t feel like I got much done this weekend but I did take some pictures so I’m putting them up. I slept until almost noon both days and only managed to drag myself out of bed to attend the noon conference call for work. Still, the drawer pieces are stained and all that remains now is to stain the top and lattice. I think I can do that in two days. It is within the realm of possibility that the table could be finished except for glass and stone this coming weekend. Of course this weekend brings both a birthday and the third Rise of Honor gathering. Though this gathering will mostly have people in attendance who are either no longer in the guild or who have not logged in to the game in several weeks or months. Perhaps there will be new life for the guild since Marty is leading for a while but there is a lot of momentum to overcome. I’ve been thinking of renewing my account once the table is finished to try to get the Netherdrake mount but that is probably a bad idea. We’ll see. Anyway, as usual pictures are located here. There are new table pics and a couple from the yard.

    One more thing, I’ve tried to change the number of posts the front page shows to five. When I look at it now there are five and a link at the bottom to previous posts. I hope that worked out. It was getting a little long. daylillies

  • Progress

    I have spent most of my Memorial Day holiday staining table bits and reading The Golden Compass from which they are making a movie. The pieces I have stained so far are the legs, side pieces, drawer front and frame. The quality of the black from the india ink is wonderful. Looking at the pieces when they are dry I wish I could just assemble them without any finish at all. The finishes I’ve tried cover the matte of the wood and hide the nice diffuse satin reflection of the surface. I will have to consult my interwub resources to see if there is a finish that will seal in the india ink (which bleeds badly until coated with a finish) but not substantially change the surface finish. I’ve been thinking a single thin coat of a 1-lb cut of the shellac and maybe some furniture wax. We’ll see. I’m running low on ink after today so I’ll have to go brave the Hobby Lobby tomorrow to continue my work without fear of running dry in the middle of a piece. Until then enjoy the fancy new pictures.sides and frame legs and drawer front

  • Pretty colors

    Staining table and sampleWell, almost pretty colors. I’ve set up a little area in the garage to do the staining. The work surface is a spare piece of MDF I had laying around sitting on some sawhorses and the makeshift dust barrier is a 2 mil plastic drop cloth duct taped to the ceiling. I’m sure that this will accomplish very little in terms of keeping dust off the work and will mostly just ruin the ceiling but I thought I should make some kind of effort. All of the table pieces are sanded and have been cleaned with denatured alcohol and I’ve started a stain and finish sample which you can see in the second picture. The gallery for the table pictures is here.

    Staining areaThe sample is black on one side and red on the other and each side has been divided in half to test the two finish options I’m considering. Finish #1 is a water based, satin polyurethane which I have some minor concerns about the black india ink bleeding into. Finish #2 is a clear shellac which could end up looking very nice except that I haven’t worked with it before. I have to say that I am pleased with the way the india ink looks on the sample. It is very uniform and matte but you can still see the larger grain features and it covers very well with just one coat. The red looks weak and washed out with one coat but the second coat basically matches the color to the coffee table I stained several years ago and is vibrant red. I expect that a nice glossy finish like the shellac will look fantastic on it. I’ll play with the finishes tonight after rowing and then, provided they look decent, I’ll start staining the table pieces tomorrow. Hurray progress!