With all the needed items for spraying out, measured, mixed and ready to go I can almost get started with spraying. First though is to thoroughly clean all the parts. This starts by going outside the shop and using compressed air to blow the dust from the pores. It’s done outside since I don’t want to stir up dust in the spraying area. Once that’s done the pieces get wiped down one last time with a tack cloth to get any residual dust off. They are then set on their stands or holders and staged for spraying. Here is the spray area. There is cardboard that has been wiped down to get rid of dust then laid down on the workbench to protect it. A light gets set up so I can catch the wet lacquer’s reflection to gauge the application rate. In the center is a lazy susan so the pieces can be spun around as needed. Last on the right side is the air brush on its stand along with the air filter and pressure regulator that’s clamped in the vice.
Once sprayed the pieces are moved out of the way to a remote place in the shop so they don’t get any overspray on them and left to dry. When it’s warm, I can do a couple of coats a day or sometimes three coats but in cooler weather like now I let them cure overnight. In any case once the lacquer has cured a bit the finish gets evaluated. If it’s the first coat most of the time 400 grit sandpaper or a wet sanding with an 1,800 grit pad is used to get rid of any dust or rough overspray. That’s followed by a damp wipe down and drying to get rid of any residual dust and once dry the piece is given a second coat. The second coat is wet sanded with a 2,400 grit mostly to remove any dust. The third coat is then sprayed on and if necessary, wet sanded with either an 8,000 or 12,000 pad. If the piece is going to get hard use, then a couple more coats get sprayed on but this project is not going to be subjected to much wear and tear so as long as the third coat looks good that’s plenty.
Those with sharp eyes may wonder what the funny looking thing is in the upper left corner of the lacquered pieces photo above. That’s not part of this project but a tap I use to put threads in special purpose fixtures that are then threaded onto the live center in the tail stock. Its handle had been turned some time ago but never had a finish put on it and now is a good time to do that. The greyed-out part at the bottom of the tap in the right photo is only to hold the tap and handle for finishing.
With everything except for the lid and finial done assembly is the next step. First, the cherry dowel joining the body to the base gets glued in to the body. To apply the glue a drop is put in the pink tray and the toothpick is used to lightly coat the hole. The two red arrows in the top photo point to the dowel and the hole it goes into. The glue goes in the hole rather than on the dowel since if applied to the dowel when it is pressed in the hole any excess glue would end up where the dowel meets the body. If the glue is put in the hole then any excess glue ends up at the bottom of the hole and no cleanup is required. The bottom photo shows the dowel glued in place.
The same process is used where the dowel goes into the base and this is the completed joint.
Gluing the bowl to the body follows the same process except the dowel is made from oak and has had the center part that will be exposed dyed with India ink then lacquered. The top photo shows the undyed and unfinished gluing surfaces of the dowel. If you look close at the top of the dowel there is a small “A” since the dowels are individually cut to length for each of the two pieces being made. The bottom photo shows the bowl glued in place with two spacers being used to set the gap between the bowl and the body. They get removed once the glue sets.
As the project has progressed, I have been doing various studies to see what I want to put on the top as a finial which will also act as a handle to remove the lid. Here are eight different options I have come up with. So far, I have gone to a lot of effort to make the pieces identical but now am seriously considering putting a different finial on each one. The first group to be discarded was the three white ones. Next to go was the tall one at the top left that was in the original drawing. It just seemed to be too tall and a bit overpowering when the piece was viewed in real life. The round ball top one in the lower right was next as it looked like a golf ball on a tee. That left the three at the top right.
As the piece has an art deco vibe I remembered a photo, on the left, I had taken at Hoover Dam called “Winged Figure of the Republic” and used the wings from it as a starting point. The first pattern is shown on the left but when it was done, I was concerned that the area between the red arrows was a potential weak point due to the grain orientation. A slight thickening of that dimension was used for the right pattern which is what will be used for the final finial.
Here are the three different prototype finials set on top of the bowls. The bowl tops are still the natural oak and have not yet had the India ink applied but they will get it ending up black like the other accents. This does give an idea of what they look like though.
After much consideration these are the two different finials that will be made. One thing that does not show up well in the photos is the left one based on the Winged Figure of the Republic is that it tapers from the 3/8” wide at bottom of the wings to 3/16” thick at the top of the wings.
Next Up – Making Winged Figure of the Republic Finial
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