I've had a lot of people asking what I do in real life
so I thought the best thing would be to take you all with me
today I'm visiting the South Ribble Museum and Exhibition Centre here in my
hometown of Leyland
while the brick on the outside of the building is dated around 1680 the
interior is of a much earlier timber frame structure constructed around 1585
this is the current how to date and tired-looking display that is coming
down to be replaced with a more modern looking streamlined and adjustable
system I need to design rails that will attach to the existing frame as I cannot
drill into or do anything to disturb the original stuff and dog timber frame yeah
also I can only build outwards nor more than about 70 millimeters otherwise I'm
going to foul the swing of the door now the funding for this project is being
met from visited door nations which does mean there is no bottomless pit of money
to buy an off-the-shelf system so the design is going to take some thinking
about
so after a bit of cogotating I've come up with a minimalist idea that
should fit the bill I've made a quick test piece just to try out my idea first
and the only thing to attach to the existing frame will be three vertical
aluminium bars this is twenty two millimeter aluminum I think so there
were three of these set vertically on the existing frame and onto these
horizontal rails will attach with this clamping method so the front and the
only part that will be visible is wall not MDF laminate and I've used this so
that it will match the existing timber work in the room everything else will be
cut from eighteen millimeter ply the back rail and the components for the
clamp I'll have a piece of strip wood in the middle to form the hedge section to
accommodate the display boards but apart from the laminates and the strip with
everything sure to come out of one sheet of eighteen millimeter hardwood plywood
this is the clamp and will be three to each rail the passive side of the clamp
is bigger and rigid and that's the part that fits up against the aluminium like
that this smaller active side of the clamp
will use two bolts which will tighten up through embedded tea knots and grip the
aluminium now I've designed it so that when you tighten down this part of the
plywood will actually flex backwards and what that will do is apply tension
on the bolt so the bolt can't come loose through vibration over time so
altogether I'll be making a to these rails but they could do with a set of
three in four days time so I better get started a dry room with the blade down
like this is a good idea so you know the cut will go according to plan and you
won't be faced with any unusual or unexpected snags in the middle of the
court
when I'm ready I raise the blade and start cutting using infeed and outfeed
tables you can forget about the weight of the wood while he making the cut and
it also avoids a dangerous balancing act so all we have to worry about is feeding
the material through the blade
I'm cutting the MDF laminate first I picked this off course or part the local
builders merchants for a good price
it should be enough if I don't make any mistakes otherwise I'll have to buy a
full sheet and that would increase the cost of the job so I'm taking my time
with this
I had a few false starts with the plywood because I'm standing to the side
so I can be near the table saw I can't sight down the line of cut but once I
had the codes established I was okay
this ply is made up from layers of hardwoods so I'm taking the cut slowly
so I don't put too much strain on the Malta and I don't overheat the blade if
you watch carefully at the end of this first cut I'd skew the board on the
outfeed table and peach the blade
I'll watch for this from now on
as the board got smaller and lighter I could do away with the infeed table on
sight straight down the line of cut
forty minutes later I had all the sheet materials cut the width I did make a
little bit of a mess a good job the tidy police weren't watching or so I thought
after detention and paying my penance for messing up the garden by having to
wash up I was eventually allowed out into the workshop I wanted to cook all
the components with the clamps to stay on schedule
there was a lot of PCs to cope before it got too late so Stanley the clump gave
me a hand
that's it time for supper
it's 10:00 to 3:00 in the morning I couldn't sleep
this job kept going round and round in my head so I thought I'd come down to
the workshop and get all the parts marked off ready to cuts in the morning
I guess I'm kinda tired I think I'll go home now
each day two and I'm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed so I hit the ground running
and get all the components for the clams cut out I'm on a roll
this four teeth per inch bandsaw blade is a bit rough but it is fast
although a lot of these parts will be out of sight I thought I would clean up
all the edges on the sander
you would make them look nicer
I break all the edges are knit the corners by hand these two pieces of four
by one screw together at 90 degrees makes a really versatile jig the red
clamps act as stops and using a scrap off course as a spacer allows me to
drill all three holes in one operation
they do say that if you want to find the easiest way to do a job and give it to a
lazy man this time I changed the procedure and did away with the spacer
block
I was getting a bit lightheaded constantly blowing the wood chips out of
the way so I made another little modification
the last procedure was to drill at the recessed holes all the way through with
this 8 millimeter drill bit ready to accept the tea notes
this bolt makes the job of pressing home the t-nuts much easier as I can apply
pressure using the vise and drive them fully home the nuts are close to the
edge but will be okay with that where did that bolt go
another quick and dirty jig scraps hot glue together align the parts and speeds
up construction I'm using thin screws to remove the need for drilling pilot holes
this joint will be in compression when it's finished and the glue will be doing
all the work anywhere
a quick modification to the jig and I'm ready to start assembling the active
sides of the clump I was a little confused here as I was taking out the
screws from the box somewhere the wrong way around only later did I realize they
were for the holes on the other side of the clump
I'm using artists acrylic to paint parts of the clamp I won't be able to get to
later when it's assembled should any of the clamps be visible then hopefully
there will just blend into the background a small pieces of anti-slip
fabric glued to the passive side the clump should just help with the grip a
little bit
well that's it for today time for bed and a fresh start in the
morning
day three and the Sun is still shining I can get outside and start assembling the
rails the bandsaw is way too heavy to lift out of the workshop so I wheel it
to the door uh name the fence for the back corner so I can cut the strip wood
oh just Maddie
I'm going to assemble everything on a piece of flat plywood so don't
accidentally create a curve in the rail when I nail on the strip would not
wanting any screws to be visible the laminate will be fixed from the back so
I'll mark out positions for holes using a set length of wood just as a rough
guide and then I drill them now the laminate does need to line up with the
back of the rail otherwise it will cause problems later on
so I hot glue a quick jig together to help me
this double-sided tape will hold the laminate firmly in place until
everything is screwed together and I use the jig while I press the laminate home
countersink in the holes just a little ensures the heads of the screws will be
below the surface and out of the way and ensures they will reach long enough to
bite into the back of the laminate a drive these screws home by hand feeling
for any telltale bulges in the laminate which will warn me if I'm about to break
through if I detect a bulge I can just back off the screw a little all that
remains is to cut the rails to length I
use a fine toothed tenon saw and once the cut is established I lean the saw
back to follow my line I then take the cut through the back edge of the
laminate now so when I power through the rest of the course I know I won't blow
out the back edge
the remainder of the rails are painted with burnt umber artists acrylic it
resists fading and should be readily available many years from now should
they have any touching up
it's the final day and the rails will be fitted this afternoon to hold the rails
together and mark the places where the clamps are going to go across all three
rails the passive side of the clamp is screwed right on the line and the speed
square insurers I'm straight the active side is fitted using a spacer
with the bolts in place the construction is finished well they passed the quality
control inspection by Lilly the neighbor's cat so I can get them in the
car get some lunch and get them fitted this afternoon I can finally take down
the old display and I'm hoping I don't find anything unexpected underneath not
now at this eleventh hour everything is as anticipated so no surprises fitting
should be straightforward I start by fitting they sent two
vertical bar first ensuring it's plumb
temporarily attaching one of the rails at the top will help me align the other
two bars I check for level but in a building of this edge
the timber-frame has shifted and shrunk over the last 500 years so nothing is
straight even the floors slope which does come in
handy because if you drop something you always know where it's going to end up
moving the rail to the bottom guarantees I've got the outside rails in perfect
alignment so I can drive home the rest of the fixings
we are on the home run now and the rails are fitted into their final positions
four years ago we were looking at a 30 year old tired display past its best but
now we have a modern system flexible and fully adjustable to meet the needs of
the next 30 years
the unobtrusive rails do their job to perfection and discreetly blend into the
background
and not only that using the original ironmongery I had time to fabricate two
frames to accommodate the displays in the corridor now everyone can read about
dr. Corden and his contribution to the history of the town of Leyland in a few
weeks time the remaining rails will be fitted into these cabinets when this
display gets its makeover
thanks for watching and as always jobs our Gordon
you
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét