I haven't posted for a couple of weeks due to holidays etc but today I was able to deliver this project so I can now reveal the finished article.
Several months back I mentioned my friend had requested a murphy bar/drinks cabinet for his beach hut. So I offered to see what I could do. The desgin specification was simply to fit inbetween the upright beams of the beach hut, which Craig assures me is exactly 42cm wide. I'll wait for the pictures of it fitted to confirm this!
It will go on the wall where the yellow and white towel is. From this picture I also took the colour scheme and the diamond pattern to incorporate into my design.
Unlike the hundreds of £50 murphy bars on facebook/etsy at the minute, I dont have any pallet wood, so will be using various bits of oak from my collection.
Here is a quick sketch of the design.
The main back box is made from plywood offcuts from the mega shed, more time consuming than using fresh ply but adds to the rustic beachy asthetic (and it was to hand).
An oak face frame will sit over the box and cover the upright beams at the side giving the illusion of being wider, the front door will hinge down and there will be a shelf for glasses.
Frame all glued up
The issue with using small oak strips is it's quite a faff to produce a large flat panel. These bits were planed and sanded to thickness, bevelled on the front face, mitred, slotted on the edges to take a floating tenon, then stained with vinegar/wire wool solution, yellow dye, or white wax before being glued and fitted to the frame. It's pretty good for a first go but the mitres are not perfect, however, I think the overall effect works and is consistent with my design idea.
Next, I added a personal touch using the CNC and then painted the back box and white waxed the oak frame. The front panel had a couple of coats of lacquer so that it can cope with the odd spillage without losing the colour.
The final touches required were some sort of handle and stays to hold the hatch at 90° when open. I searched eBay and various hardware sites but couldn't find what I wanted, so left it for a while. However, a late notice visit by Craig to the area would give me a chance to hand it over in person rather than having to mess with delivery, so I cracked on with what I could cobble together.
A bit of walnut from an offcut of kitchen worktop, and some offcuts from a ukulele fretboard I was also working on, were turned into a custom handle. A bit of chain I found in Wickes provided the stays.
The finished product:
Yes, it's a toy plastic lime, I had nothing else for set dressing!
Total cost was less than a fiver for the hinges and chain, the rest was all bits and bobs around the place (and lots of time, most of it spent head scratching).
Craig was very happy with it, I can't wait to see it fitted and for the first (of many) Jagerseccobombs it serves!
In other news I've been cracking on with the electric ukes but I'll cover that in a separate post next week, hopefully with something resembling a complete instrument.
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