Week Three: Gluing and Painting

Busy week.

   I didn’t continue with the hanging piece on Monday. Dennis still wasn’t sure if he wanted to paint them with acrylic or to stain them instead. With the acrylic and the stain, I notice it’s a different texture and saturation of the color so, there would be a different effect with each option. I still had to wait to paint.

  Instead, Dennis wanted me to start another project, to start gluing layers of plywood together. First I had to make the gluing bases for the shape and size. The base is to help clamp the layers down while the glue is drying. Dennis pulled out a large board that has a surface similar of a countertop, he likes to use this for gluing things on for an easier cleanup. I took the shape I needed, took a compass and I ran one side of the compass against it and the end with the pencil would leave a line an inch away from the shape I was tracing. I was able to get three of the shapes traced out. I used a jigsaw to cut the large board into thirds. Then using the band saw I cut out each shape. I sanded the edges and I got to redeem my self on the table router to round out the edges. I made some wooden blocks as the legs for the base. The new tool I was introduced to this week is the Kreg Pocket hole jig. It allowed us to make the hole in the middle of the block so I could put the screw in from there instead of from the bottom. I rounded the edges of the blocks and Dennis showed me how to put the blocks on the base so I could dive right into that the next day.

  For Tuesday I went right into finishing the bases. Clamping the block to the base then screwing the two together in the pocket hole. When they were all put together Dennis came over to see them and to start the next step with me. He noticed I didn’t round out one of the edges on the base. Whoops. Luckily the edge I missed was on the top of the base and was easy to run through the router, no biggy. He then showed me how to wax the bases to make the surface smoother.

Dennis had four stacks of the shapes. One of the stacks was an older group and was put together a little differently then the other three. With each side having to be in a certain order Dennis individually labeled the sides and layer. The others had markings burned on to each layer which made it easier to keep track of. Each end had a hole in them to keep each layer moving back enough to make a curve. Dennis had me make a bunch of dowels to put in the holes that way they would stay lined up correctly. Then the messy part could commence, the gluing.

  Dennis walked me through how to properly glue each layer. We started with the older stack first. We would lay down the glue, then by almost painting the glue on each side of the layer, we would then lay it down on the other layer, all while keeping track which side to lay down is the right one. Therefore, the pencil markings Dennis had labeled on the stack made things a little difficult. When the glue ran off the edge covering the labels it made it hard to tell what label it was. Also, it was Dennis’s handwriting, at times I wasn’t always sure if I was looking at a number or a letter for the side. We did wind up laying a layer upside down and since we already glued it, it was difficult trying to get it back up. We had to use scrapers to pry it up. We paid better attention after that. After getting through the stack we clamped them down all over to make sure everything sticks. Sanding glue off is difficult so we wiped off the sides where the glue had oozed out to make things easier. After lunch and into Wednesday I finished gluing the three other stacks. 

  After finishing the last stack on Wednesday, Dennis had me help him with the commission piece to get it ready to paint on Thursday when a film crew from Comcast was to come in a film him painting the piece. I sanded off some of the yellow paint that had dripped on to the larger side. After sanding and vacuuming the paint off, Dennis showed me how to tape the skinnier side for a sharp edge. He warned me the concave side was the harder out of the two, but I thought it was the convex side was harder to tape. The hump at the tallest point was high for a shorter person like my self and tired out my arms. I was able to get it done and after we finished taping I left for the day.

Painting is Fun!

  Usually, it would be my last day of the week. But I had nothing planned for Thursday and I still wanted to paint. So, for Thursday not sure if Dennis was going to have me paint or not I came in on a whim. Luckily, he made up his mind about what to do for the hanging pieces and had me start painting those. For two of the smaller ones, I got to pick out my own color combinations. Red, Green, Pink on one and Blue, Orange, Yellow on the other. The larger one I used his color combination Red, Orange, Yellow. I was able to paint those and the first set I painted dried enough for Dennis to show me the next step before applying the second layer of paint. We took a 400-grit sandpaper and did a light wipe over the paint to get rid of the fuzzy surface before applying the next coat. Getting it smooth again I did my next coat for that set and then left for the day.  

  Well, I finally got to paint! I’ll be painting the rest probably next week. As far as this week goes, making the gluing bases was interesting. It was like making a little sculpture for a sculpture. It allows the gluing process to be much simpler while creating the piece. I’m noticing there’s a lot of little things that Dennis does to make his process easier while creating, especially since his work deals with a lot of repetition, things like the gluing bases will be used multiple times and help things move smoothly. I look forward for next week to finish the painting and maybe continue gluing.