Reid's 120g Oceanic Tech Build
- Thread starter reidcrandall
- Start date
reidcrandall
New member
Yep. We're going with a dark brown with a hint of red. It's a custom color that I had mixed. Unfortunately, using two different woods, I had to get a mix for each wood and have it matched.
I have thought about doing more of a flat or satin poly instead of the normal glossy.
reidcrandall
New member
As a matter of fact...
The top of the canopy is cut and primed:
The front and back of the canopy are primed:
The entire inside of the canopy will be painted with an exterior white latex paint both to reflect light and to seal the wood. All of the corners will be caulked as well.
And the corner blocks have been cut and assembled. There will be one located at every corner of the base and the canopy. The trimwork will run horizontally around them, and there will be fluted trim pieces that will run vertically between them:
Unfortunately, there will be no progress tonight. I am on the road for work. Even more, it's my wife's birthday. It's not the greatest timing on my company's behalf, but you've got to do what you've got to do, right?
veloboy
New member
My wife's B-day today! -so no progress. I was trying to come up with something...but didn't think dedicating tonights work on the stand to her and her birthday would quite cut it!
Hey-think you are going to do like 4 coats of poly? I was told to do that with mine. I assume we are supposed to sand the poly in between coats with super fine paper or steal wool?
What kind of music does your band play dude?
Hey-think you are going to do like 4 coats of poly? I was told to do that with mine. I assume we are supposed to sand the poly in between coats with super fine paper or steal wool?
What kind of music does your band play dude?
crvz
Team RC
I used three coats on mine (I used the sherwin williams water-based poly, and it worked pretty well). I did sand it down ever so slightly after the first coat, but after that I didnt have much grain raising and didnt bother sanding again. I used an oil-based stain first, and once that was on and sanded it was pretty smooth after that.
reidcrandall
New member
She might like it if it is progress toward getting the build out of her living room. You never know!
I was planning on 3-4 coats of the poly, using fine sandpaper between all coats and steel wool before the final coat. And cross your fingers and hope it looks ok!
My band plays rock in the vein of a mix between Foo Fighters, The Stills, Weezer, and some other bands in the mix probably. It's hard for me to say, but that's what I have been told. I can send you some samples to check out if you want.
Rock!
veloboy
New member
You are right there...she'd love it if I got the build outta her dining room! Can't say I blame her.
Yea, get me some samples of your music. I gotta buddy from the UK - he and I are always on the prowl for new tunes...
Be sure to get some pics up of the finishing process. Are you planning on finishing the staining/poly up this weekend?
Yea, get me some samples of your music. I gotta buddy from the UK - he and I are always on the prowl for new tunes...
Be sure to get some pics up of the finishing process. Are you planning on finishing the staining/poly up this weekend?
reidcrandall
New member
Oh yes. There will be a lot of staining going on this weekend.
If you want to check out the band, we have some stuff online at www.myspace.com/blueskygoodbye. It's mostly pre-production stuff for what would have been our second record that we put down right before we broke up... and now we're back together but more for fun than we were before. It was pretty serious back then.
veloboy
New member
Reid, not to get off topic here but what happend to the band? I dig the music esp Blood red streets and Insatiable. Seriously dude, thats some good stuff. how come A Front From the West isn't playable on your site- I'm curious- looks like it was pretty popular-? Did you do most of the writing?
reidcrandall
New member
I don't know why a Front from the West didn't play. I don't manage the site, but I'll look into it.
I'm glad you like the stuff. It's not the greatest recording quality, because for pre-production, you pretty much do one take through on everything and do a quick mix to get the track down so that you can get on the same page with the producer before you record the 'real' version. The real version is a lot slicker (20 times as much spent on the mix and about 100 takes on everything), but those never got to production. We liked the songs and wanted people to hear them now that we are going to play them live, so we put the pre-production stuff on there.
The band is kind of complicated. Things were going pretty well, and we were playing with bands on tour that are getting pretty big now, and we were talking to some big labels and bigger producers getting ready to do another record, but it just kind of fell apart. It's a lot of hard work and it's really stressful, and I think a couple of the guys just felt that they couldn't do it anymore. Looking back now, I think they feel like they made a mistake, but it's too late. 3 years later, we lost all of the momentum that we had, and we burned a lot of people when they wanted to stop.
So now we're just playing for fun!
I'm glad you like the stuff. It's not the greatest recording quality, because for pre-production, you pretty much do one take through on everything and do a quick mix to get the track down so that you can get on the same page with the producer before you record the 'real' version. The real version is a lot slicker (20 times as much spent on the mix and about 100 takes on everything), but those never got to production. We liked the songs and wanted people to hear them now that we are going to play them live, so we put the pre-production stuff on there.
The band is kind of complicated. Things were going pretty well, and we were playing with bands on tour that are getting pretty big now, and we were talking to some big labels and bigger producers getting ready to do another record, but it just kind of fell apart. It's a lot of hard work and it's really stressful, and I think a couple of the guys just felt that they couldn't do it anymore. Looking back now, I think they feel like they made a mistake, but it's too late. 3 years later, we lost all of the momentum that we had, and we burned a lot of people when they wanted to stop.
So now we're just playing for fun!
reidcrandall
New member
Well, after a lot of sanding (helped by the electric sander for bare wood), we have a double coat of stain on the birch ply of the base. It's still too light, so I am going to have to sand by hand and put another coat on tomorrow. I was hoping that leaving the first thick coat on for 20 minutes, it would be dark enough, but alas, it isn't.
A couple of pics:
It actually looks a lot darker in these pics than it does in person. Here is a little bit better representation of the color:
My little point and shoot camera doesn't give the best color... I need to get a shiny new digital SLR, but with all of the expenses coming up, I don't see that happening any time soon, unfortunately.
As far as the wood stain, I was really hoping for a much deeper, darker color, but we will get there. It's just going to take a little bit more work. The stain color is perfect when it goes on, but when I wipe off the excess, it lightens a great deal. It's not sinking in as much as it seemed to on the sample wood that I used to have the stain mixed.
All there is to do is sand, sand away!
A couple of pics:
It actually looks a lot darker in these pics than it does in person. Here is a little bit better representation of the color:
My little point and shoot camera doesn't give the best color... I need to get a shiny new digital SLR, but with all of the expenses coming up, I don't see that happening any time soon, unfortunately.
As far as the wood stain, I was really hoping for a much deeper, darker color, but we will get there. It's just going to take a little bit more work. The stain color is perfect when it goes on, but when I wipe off the excess, it lightens a great deal. It's not sinking in as much as it seemed to on the sample wood that I used to have the stain mixed.
All there is to do is sand, sand away!
reidcrandall
New member
Let me tell you, sanding millwork is not all it's cracked up to be 
reidcrandall
New member
I wish the end was near. Matching stain is going to be a major challenge. It looked ok on the samples, but in practice it's not turning out as easily, because the poplar wood is not takin the stain as well as the birch. Next time, we'll use the same wood for everything, budget be damned!
reidcrandall
New member
Lots of progress!!!
Lots of progress!!!
Holiday weekends are always good for getting things done. In addition to getting my materials list for the basement priced, I got a lot done on the stand.
First, I was able to get the birch ply on the base stained to the color that I was going for. In this pic, it looks almost black:
Perfect! It's right where I was going for. This closeup is the nearest to a good representation of the stain color I could get with my camera:
Sorry for the flash reflection!
Once I got that color where I wanted it to be, work began on matching the stain for the poplar to the stain on the birch. It was a pain, and I went through a LOT of scrap like this:
It was a pain, believe me, but I reccommend it over the alternative, which is staining directly on the wood you're using for the finished project. That ends in disaster 9 times out of 10. It's hard for me to have patience sometimes, but it's something the we all have to learn in this hobby. Thankfully, I haven't found myself learning the hard way as often as some.
At the same time, I can't overestimate the good things that can comeout of experimentation like this. Too many people are in too much of a hurry or too scared to do it. But the reality is, there isn't a lot to lose!
And then there was sanding. Sanding, sanding, sanding...
Lots of progress!!!
Holiday weekends are always good for getting things done. In addition to getting my materials list for the basement priced, I got a lot done on the stand.
First, I was able to get the birch ply on the base stained to the color that I was going for. In this pic, it looks almost black:
Perfect! It's right where I was going for. This closeup is the nearest to a good representation of the stain color I could get with my camera:
Sorry for the flash reflection!
Once I got that color where I wanted it to be, work began on matching the stain for the poplar to the stain on the birch. It was a pain, and I went through a LOT of scrap like this:
It was a pain, believe me, but I reccommend it over the alternative, which is staining directly on the wood you're using for the finished project. That ends in disaster 9 times out of 10. It's hard for me to have patience sometimes, but it's something the we all have to learn in this hobby. Thankfully, I haven't found myself learning the hard way as often as some.
At the same time, I can't overestimate the good things that can comeout of experimentation like this. Too many people are in too much of a hurry or too scared to do it. But the reality is, there isn't a lot to lose!
And then there was sanding. Sanding, sanding, sanding...
Last edited:
reidcrandall
New member
My new best friend:
Luckily, my dad has this handy little disc sander. It saves a ton of time on flat surfaces. It uses little sandpaper discs that attach to the sander with hook and loop:
Best investment ever.
I had to sand a lot of flat surfase stuff with 120 grit and then 220 grit before I could get to the staining phase. This is what it looked like at about 3PM yesterday when I was finishing up with the 120:
Out of the frame is the huge stack of uncut poplar that we're using to trim the thing with. We decided that we would sand and stain before we start o cut and trim. It will hopefully save some time in the long run.
Afterwe sanded the door frames with 120, we routed a pencil edge on the interior edge of the front of the doors and hand sanded a tiny curve on the outer edge:
And we had to route the back of the frame where we will place the face, which will be made of 1/4" birch veneer ply. It went smoothly:
Except for one door, which did not go as smoothly. It started to splinter as we routed the first door. We figured out that we needed to take off smaller amounts and take several passes before we got tothe final finished route. All wasle to use some wood glue to get the splinters back in place without breaking them off:
It sanded out just fine and you can't tell from the front of the door.
Unfortunately, the sander will not work all that well on millwork. All that stuff had to be done by hand. 120, then 220. It took forever:
Finally, at the end of the day today, I got the first piece of poplar stained with the first coat:
The method that I had to use on the poplar is one coat with no wipe. Let dry for 4 hours. Steel wool 00 over the whole thing, and then stain again with no wipe. I have to work VERY hard in order to get the stain even with no streaks since I am not wiping the excess off, which usually evens out your coat. It's an art!
Luckily, my dad has this handy little disc sander. It saves a ton of time on flat surfaces. It uses little sandpaper discs that attach to the sander with hook and loop:
Best investment ever.
I had to sand a lot of flat surfase stuff with 120 grit and then 220 grit before I could get to the staining phase. This is what it looked like at about 3PM yesterday when I was finishing up with the 120:
Out of the frame is the huge stack of uncut poplar that we're using to trim the thing with. We decided that we would sand and stain before we start o cut and trim. It will hopefully save some time in the long run.
Afterwe sanded the door frames with 120, we routed a pencil edge on the interior edge of the front of the doors and hand sanded a tiny curve on the outer edge:
And we had to route the back of the frame where we will place the face, which will be made of 1/4" birch veneer ply. It went smoothly:
Except for one door, which did not go as smoothly. It started to splinter as we routed the first door. We figured out that we needed to take off smaller amounts and take several passes before we got tothe final finished route. All wasle to use some wood glue to get the splinters back in place without breaking them off:
It sanded out just fine and you can't tell from the front of the door.
Unfortunately, the sander will not work all that well on millwork. All that stuff had to be done by hand. 120, then 220. It took forever:
Finally, at the end of the day today, I got the first piece of poplar stained with the first coat:
The method that I had to use on the poplar is one coat with no wipe. Let dry for 4 hours. Steel wool 00 over the whole thing, and then stain again with no wipe. I have to work VERY hard in order to get the stain even with no streaks since I am not wiping the excess off, which usually evens out your coat. It's an art!
reidcrandall
New member
Re: Lots of progress!!!
Re: Lots of progress!!!
DP
Re: Lots of progress!!!
DP
veloboy
New member
Dig the final color man....Interesting how the camera makes it look so dark. The close-up is telling though, can see the grain of the wood - turned out really nice. I wanna see your doors too. I haven't seen doors constructed the way you are doing yours. Think they'll turn out nice. Gotta give you ups just for trying to construct your doors - I ordered mine.
What kind of stain are you using? Water based, gel stain, dye?
Looking forward to the finished product. Looking forward to seeing that tank on the top of the finished stand!
What kind of stain are you using? Water based, gel stain, dye?
Looking forward to the finished product. Looking forward to seeing that tank on the top of the finished stand!
