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Stricken down with a cold today, could feel it coming all week and thought I'd make it through but nope:( So what do you do when you feel like crap? Well I forced myself to try and get Sketchup to do something useful (after using professional software this free program can drive me insane)



It's an organ bench! A current project of mine is getting a "virtual" digital pipe organ working at home so I can practice. Made from 2 MIDI keyboards and a real organ pedalboard (32 notes) going into the computer which creates the sound (yadda yadda) Since the pedal board is so wide a normal piano bench won't do and you can't just go out and buy an organ bench. So what better to do on a sick day. I know it's nothing compared to the magic Bantum somehow draws (concept cars and such) but I'm pretty happy with it.

Now I just have to find somewhere that sells timber that isn't pine and brush up on my woodworking skills Oh and figure out how to get this dumb program to print 1:1 templates.

My last sick day I drove from Melbourne to Canberra to pick up my Brumby...about 7 years ago (actually 7 years next week, it was my partner's birthday and she doesn't let me forget it).

Only 1 day being 'sick' ? I would rejoice.

Thats a nice little bench you have drawn up there.

We sell particle board ... oh wait that's made from pine chips, formaldehyde, urea and wax

Jarrah will set you back the cost of gold bricks per square metre these days and most other wood comes from somebody's rainforest

TOONGA

1 sick day in 7 years? that's not a bad average

Thanks TOONGA, yeah I'm really aware of where the nice timbers come from. Didn't know Jarrah would be expensive, I wasn't going to use it anyway since I've heard it's really hard stuff. There's a place on my way home that sells some furniture timber such as Tasmanian Oak (they say it's government regulated logging timber, but's probably the old growth rain forest ) or Meranti from Malaysia. Writing down the material list I've realised I don't need alot of wood, just some 50mm square and 2 big planks.

Bahtu is another Asian wood thats great to work with soft but heavy as heavy can be.

You should drive around to demolition / salvage stores as they always have "recycled wood"

TOONGA

No idea where it is sourced from but we have had surprising good results from Merbau, which is available from Bunnings in various forms from decking to sleepers. Cuts cleanly and requires very little finishing.

While crook recently I played around with google images and photoshop trying to finalise the end result of my rebuilt boat, we're pretty close to settled on this:


Jordan.

^ Awesome boat mate! I take it's a fibreglass hull?

I'm keen for more details on it - V8? Builder's name?

And most importantly, is it good to ski behind?

SB, you've got more skill and energy than me for these things! Looks very professional!

Cheers

Bennie

I don't remember the last sick day I took.
I get the flue shot every year and haven't had any major issues for ages.
Often feel like crap (thanks to the kids and stuff they pick up at school) and just soldier on or if I have a cold ONLY Condral day/nights work. Chemists own brand don't even touch a cold for me but the Codrals are guaranteed to work.
Guess I am lucky.

Jordan that design looks awesome, loving the RAAF influence
Bennie the only problem with doing other projects is it takes away from more important projects

I suppose if you never take sick days you get plenty saved up for when you really need them. I'm not afraid to have a sickie every now and then though if I'm actually sick, no point in getting up at 5:30 and spending all day in a workshop where you breathe frost inside all day, just takes longer to get better.

Thanks guys.

Given the interest, i have started a build thread here:
showthread.php?p=219993&posted=1#post219993

Jordan.

After discovering the many constraints of wood and available sizes I had to design a completely new bench. For the other one there just isn't 40 or 50mm solid wide enough to cut the legs out without them being jointed. So working on a maximum width of 290mm per plank I came up with this design. Slightly less elegant but still has the look I was going for. This version only the top and side squares need to be jointed to make up the width. I'm going to be using Meranti, maybe I'll put up a build thread if anyones interested, providing I don't make a complete mess of it and $250 worth of timber

However frustrating sketchup is it's oddly addictive once you get into the swing of it.

Were you off sick again? :P

Hope not! Best of luck with the build!

Cheers

Bennie

Well here's the result of that sick day weeks ago (and a couple more sick days this week, wisdom teeth removed) $300 worth of Meranti and days worth of cutting, sanding shaping, sneezing I've got all the separate parts cut out, gonna spend all of tomorrow doweling it all together. Just got the lower panels and foot rest doweled together today.

Those angled legs were an absolute pig to sort out. I planned to use a template and flush trim routing bit to shape them all, make them all the same. Well that kinda worked but lets just say I'm glad I bought twice as much 42mm material than I needed and a valuable lesson in wood grain learned

More tomorrow once it's all done

Here it is 90% complete, just have to secure the top, final sanding and a few coats of varnish. Was a mad rush trying to assemble, square everything and clamp it before the glue started to set but it turned out pretty square and solid as a rock. Pretty happy with it since I've never made furniture before and hate woodwork