Ipe Ki Yay...

There's been a fair bit of progress on the Japanese Lamp project, without, I'm happy to report, any dire or assorted 'cock-ups' , which for me, dear peruser, is a bit of a bloody miracle!

The first pic above shows the various smaller components hanging from a line and if you've ever been to Naples, you'll know exactly what they remind you of.  Masking off the pre-glued Doms and suspending them from a cord means that I was able to finish all sides in one hit, using a couple of thin coats of matt Osmo-PolyX (great stuff by the way)

















Once all the interior surfaces were dry and waxed, it was time for a trial assembly of the lower panels, made in Ipe, or Brazilian Walnut (band sawn veneers over 4mm ply).  No real Doms used here, but 5mm bits of ash cut to the right size.

















Having checked it all, there were three gluing stages to get to the point above, where a long 22" jointer was used as a 'super-smoother' to level each of the sides, after which the....


















...router could be used (with an extended base) to make the rebates all round for the shoji panels.  With the corners squared out, the exterior frame was polished and waxed.  The eight little stubs were then individually marked with Roman numerals using a 3mm chisel...

















...and if you click on the pic to enlarge it, you can clearly see the markings.  This means that by aligning the 'III' on the shoulder with the 'III' on the frame, the stub, once shot in and sanded, will fit...

















...exactly with no 'step' or overlap.

Clever, ain't it?

Once the stubs were hung out and polished (as before) they were glued in place...

















...a pair at a time.

However, that's not quite the end of the saga, because I had a small parcel of Ipe left over and I found that it's one of the nicest cabinet woods that I've ever used in a long time. Being somewhat of  a parsimonious old git I decided not to waste it, so I made a small...

...box out of it.

Delving through my off cuts drawer under the bench, I discovered a bit more, so there's a very good to middling chance that I'll make another even smaller box...

Next on the lamp will be internal electrical fittings in acrylic (bending thereof) and making the shoji paper screens, using 7x7mm cherry...an interesting little exercise in itself.