The main framework assembly starts by gluing the center
“U” shaped sub-assembly to the posts.
This is because they fit into a dado and can’t slide side to side which
locks the four posts into alignment.
That’s followed by shooting a pin nail from the inside through the post
into the “U” shaped piece. The same
process is used for the second and third “U” shaped pieces. The photo shows the process with the first
two “U” shaped pieces glued and nailed in place. The clamps on the third “U” shaped piece are
there to help keep the pieces aligned during assembly.
Here the third piece is ready to be glued and
nailed. The inset shows a pencil line
that’s the limit of the joint overlap when assembled. The enlarged inset shows a closer view of the
pencil mark. It’s used as a guide so I
know where to limit the glue application so there won’t be any glue on the part
of the post that’s exposed or if glue is squeezed out when the "U"
shaped piece is slid up inside the joint next to the post. It only takes a small drop of glue on each of
the six contact points which is spread with a toothpick. 
Once the glue has cured the clamps are removed and the
three spacers at the back fill in the "U" shape are glued in place to
make a box of the assembly adding quite a bit of rigidity. They are shown highlighted in the drawing and
noted with the red arrows. Because the
light structure gets applied to a larger plywood backer it needs to have a flat
mounting surface. This precluded the use
of the overlapping corners used on the front face. Doing this drove the assembly installed "U"
shaped sub-assemblies because there was no good place to glue these last three
spacers to at that point. With the
framework assembled there is now a place where the spacers can be added. Unfortunately, it’s glue only as the two
pieces are too thin to pin nail together.
That’s why all the clamps are needed.
Here are a couple of photos of what the light fixture
framework looks like to this point. For
reference the framework is about 15” tall.
Installation of a filler strip provides a surface flush
with the inside of the posts and a 1/8” decorative top reveal on the exterior
is next. The top drawing shows these
pieces highlighted. In the bottom photo
the red arrow points to the highlighted first filler piece glued and nailed in place. The other eleven pieces, four per layer get
glued and pin nailed in place.
This photo shows the two top layers with the filler
strips installed. The red arrow points
to the reveal mentioned above.
Next is to glue and pin nail the front and back supports
for the top and side lens material. To
make sure the supports are in the right place a spacer is used for consistent
locating. The drawing below shows the
back horizontal support and two of the vertical columns highlighted. 
With one horizontal support in place two of the vertical
columns could be fitted and glued in place.
I would have liked to have pin nailed them into place but could not get
the nail gun to fit inside the frame’s latticework so I had to glue and clamp
them in. Unfortunately, there was only
room to glue and clamp in two of them at a time. The top photo shows the first two installed
and clamped in place. The red arrows in
the bottom photo point to one of the top supports and one of the columns. 
Adding the other columns by gluing and clamping them the
same way as the first set is next. Last
is to add the remaining supports for the lens material. The red arrows show the ones visible in the
two photos at the top, middle and bottom of the fixture.
Here, on the left is the completely assembled light frame
ready for final sanding. The rendering
on the right shows the lens panels in place with the panels translucent enough
so the light frame and electrical parts are visible. In reality I plan on using panels that are
translucent enough to not block much of the light but opaque enough to hide
the light bulbs and fixture. Not sure if
they will be glass or plastic. 
After final sanding I stained the frame a light golden
oak to enhance the grain and so it would stand out from the white wall of the
garage. It did take a while to apply the
stain because while the piece is not very big there are a lot of inside
corners, nooks and crannies both on the inside and on the outside to do. Using a small cotton swab helped make sure
these places were fully stained. For the
finish I had two options either a wipe-on polyurethane or sprayed on
lacquer. In the beginning I was leaning
toward the wipe-on poly as it has given me good results for small projects with
complex shapes that are hard to get good even coverage when spraying
lacquer. However, while applying the
stain it looked like there will be enough room inside and in the open spaces
between the corner posts that spraying is an option.
After getting the airbrush out and doing some practice
dry runs to check spraying clearances and angles I decided to go ahead and
spray the frame with lacquer. The photo
shows the frame upside down because the light will be mounted high on the wall
centered at about 7’-2” above the floor.
As a result, the primary view of the light will be from below rather
than from above or straight on. The
little bit of the frame that did not get sprayed with this setup will be done
later by flipping the light. If things
don’t match perfectly at the top, it won’t be seen. I don’t anticipate a problem but it’s better
to be safe. If you are interested in
getting a more detailed discussion on the lacquer spraying setup this link will
take you to my Greene & Greene End Table project. If you are wondering about the blue tape,
it’s to prevent those areas from getting sprayed with lacquer because that’s the
area where the frame will get glued onto the backer which I haven’t made yet.
Next Up – Framing Back Panel, Installing Light Socket
& Dry Fitting Framework to Back
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