A bit of a quiet week this week with the bank holiday followed by my covid jab leaving me a bit drained. However, I've managed to crack on with the painting and assembly of the printing workbench and here it is.
There are loads of things that I would do differently next time from a design point of view but it's a pretty true representation of the plan (the colours on the plan were for definition, drawing a white thing on white paper wasn't helpful!).
The drawers are Ikea ones. I'm not quite up to making 12 identical drawers just yet, although the second part of this project is a pair of large drawers to go under the other large worktop in the studio.
There are few finishing touches left to really finish it off. The height of the rollers versus the feed in/out tables needs fine adjustment with some shims. I'm also going to put a set of retractable castors so that it can be moved out and there are a pair of extension end leaves that will enable a full 1.1m length on either side of the roller.
The next challenge is to make a temporary drying rack as apparently the UK is out of stock on large drying racks. Having ordered one two months ago it now won't arrive until July by which time Trace's commission needs to be nearly complete. Storing a stack of wet A2 sheets of paper is no an easy task without a rack. So a stack of oak offcuts and a roll of fishing wire will soon be a makeshift drying rack.
That's really about the sum of it for this week.
Oh wait, I nearly forgot, I actually finished something else too (only 7 months late).
For Chloe's 7th birthday I made an edge lit LED "my little pony" sign. There is a mocked up picture in the website gallery, but I finally finished soldering the battery compartment connections and mounted the LED strips permanently. 3 days in, and Chloe has already drained the 4 AA batteries so it may need a redesign and a wall plug instead.
The base is oak for the main body and bottom, this has been milled out to created a recess for the batteries and to hold the 3m strip of LEDsThe actual sig It was stained black using vinegar and iron wool mixture. This is then wrapped by a Meranti veneer with "Chloe" and hearts carved out, which were then epoxy and gold mica filled. The whole lot was then gloss polyurethane varnished.
The main sign is a 10mm thick bit of perspex which was engraved with an image of "Twilight" from my little ponies, the LEDs shine up through the sign refracting off the engraved section making it stand out.
The lights can either be fixed or colour changing in various modes.
The actual sign was straightforward to make, making the base was a complete pain. I have now found pre-made plastic bases which I would do in the future unless someone specifically wanted something different for the base.
Have a good weekend.
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