Project FiveWood

Okay, here comes my first mod/build for 2008.

My last build, PhaseIII (http://www.wizdforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8104) is complete and will be making it's first magazine appearance in about a month.
I'll post the details when I can.

Project FiveWood: While I am a big golf fan (I play 2 to 5 times a week), this project has nothing to do with golf despite the name.

The name is derived from my desire to use as many different types of wood as possible in this project.
The following types/kinds of wood will NOT be used:

-any type of pine
-ash
-MDF
-plywood
-veneers

The wood types I know I will be using include:

-mahogany
-white oak
-red oak
-cracked walnut
-maple

That covers at least five to justify the name anyway. I imagine I'll be mixing in some other types as I go along.
My intention is to use wood in almost every part of the build.
I won't use the waterjet for wood cuts. Wood tends to swell on the waterjet anyway.
This was to be Project Bubinga, but at $14/board foot. I would have to make the case very very small.

Why?

As I mentioned above, I just got finished with the Phase III project.
Lots of metal work there and it was my FIRST project with that much aluminum.
Granted, it utilized the waterjet a lot and I love the waterjet, but I found out how difficult it can be to prep and finished aluminum.
I'm glad I did it, I learned a lot, but I've been missing my wood working projects.

Another thing I'm going to do here is "shoot from the hip" a little more.
I usually do a lot of design planning, but I am going to do what's necessary up front and then let the creative "juices" flow.
This means I'll probably wind up with a book shelf instead of a computer case, but it will be a nice one.

As I said, I'm doing the bare minimum for design planning.

Here's where things started:



It doesn't look like much, but it let me get thinking anyway.
I used my regular software (Lightwave3D) to get dimensions so that I know things will fit:

mockup A


mockup B


mockup drive bays


These are all mocked up for dimensions and I imagine I will change these as I go along.
I intend to connect the parts together using dowels so that I can 'tack' the parts together without permanently gluing anything until I have to.
This allows a lot of flexibility in the build.

The good part is when I've got something to do in the shop. Now that I have some idea of what I'm gonna do, I can start making saw dust.

Here's some of the wood I'll be using for this project:





It looks like a pile of scrap until I get it cleaned up.

rough plane it:



Split it up:


Here I have the frame parts cut up and planed down:


Here's one of my favorites, the cracked walnut.
This wood comes in bricks that are 5" x 5" x 10".
These are pieces too small to use for gun stock so I can get them for about $4.
This one I have planed on four sides to clean it up:


then split it up:


I'll use this for accents and decorative parts of the front panel.

I like the premise here. There is a inherent beauty to wood, a depth and warmth that only it has. Nice selection of different woods aswell. I'm excited to see how this progresses!

Vision

PS. Let me be the first to make the joke- dude you so got wood

I then started to get the frame pieced together so that I can get the marks for the dowels so I can start drilling holes.

What I'm going for here is just the frame itself:



Here I'm just fitting stuff together to check the cuts:



I've got the bottom and top pieces framed up:


Here I've got the frame "framed up":


Here it is just pieced together using dowels with NO glue. I'm avoiding glue as long as I can.
If you look here, the frame has verticals that are mahogany and horizontals that are white oak.
I plan to keep the wood selection mixed up this way.

Well, I've caught the build log up on this project. As I progress, I'll keep posting updates.

Thanks and yes, I DO!

Man I'm such a fan of wood cases!

I can't wait to see this come to life.

Someday I plan on trying my hand at something like this but I can see you have some carpentry skills and apparently the tools for the job.

Keep it up! (The project that is)

Thanks to all for the upfront support for this project. That always help keep the fire lit for a project.

It's nice to see the enthusiasm for a wood case project. I suspect a lot of it is driven by potential amount of phallic humor we can get for this project.

So, in light of that:

It's nice to see so much support for my wood........project.
The idea surfaced the other morning when I woke up with wood......working on my mind.
I love to work with my wood.......craft tools.

okay, I'll stop there.

lookin good!! I just love wood cases they have a very nice, clean and warm look to them. Just love it!!
Can't wait to see it done.

I have a question. What exactly is a planer? you said that you planed the wood

A planer is used to "plane" the wood surface. That is that it takes incrementally small layers of wood off the surface of a board. The idea is that it do so perfectly flat and evenly.
There are many types and ways to plane wood. I use a 12.5 inch board planer. It uses a 12.5" wide roller with 2 blades across the roller that 'shave' the board surface.

Here's a 12.5" Delta planer:
http://www.tccook.com/p5w/planer.jpg
PLEASE DO NOT HOT LINK IMAGES THIS IS BANDWIDTH THEFT - HEAD ADMIN

Here's mine

Yeah, wood. That's such a cool medium to use because there's so few of them. Technology fused with nature.....I dig the theme a lot and look forward to checking back to see how this 'grows'.

My plan is to keep the frame in "mock-up" form and work on the inside structure for this case. So I've started with the 3.5" Drive bay.

The rough design is as so:



I started with a mockup. I cut 2 different side panels and cut single slat rails for the drives.



After the glues dries, I cut the side panels apart and trimmed the edges:



I then put it together with quick clamps to test the concept and measurements:



This will work. So I started with the mohogany:



Here I've got the walnut worked into the center:

I've still got to do some trimming and sanding and add more accents of walnut.
Here, I've got maple rails rough cut and placed to check measurements.

I'm going to go back and work on the side panels a little more before gluing these in.

More later....CC

I love the look of that walnut!

Not only do you have awesome tools, a killer work shop but the knowledge to boot. it's a joy to watch your builds.

Thanks for the props. That's what keeps these projects going when the sawdust is piling up everywhere.