123 replies to this topic

[Bowdy]

When I said holes I ment them to be open at the bottom so you can remove it Like a half circle but ye what you have planned is good.
When you make the notches I would suggest putting them as close to the corner as you can that way the canister pipes arnt sitting in the middle of the tank
Looking good mate.

[AXIS]

Makes sense to me Bowdy, will do.

[AXIS]

Okay so I splashed a coat of stain over an offcut to see what colour came up.

And I'm pretty happy, pretty much the colour I was going for. Or should be with another coat at least.

But its the light colour I wanted anyway.

I'll put another coat on tonight and see how that deepens it.

[ice]

Looks great mate, doing a fantastic job of it!

[AXIS]

Well I put another coat on yesterday.

Actually it was a bit tough to get on smoothly, might have to look into thinning a bit.





Unfortunately upon discussion with the wife, the current colour isn't really matching the rest of our furniture.


I might have to look into a different stain...... I wonder if you can make mixtures between two to make a custom colour.


Nuts.... knew this bit wouldn't be easy.

[AXIS]

Okay here's the test from the other colour stain I had, and I tried rubbing it on this time with a cloth, and I I think I kind of like how it went on better this way.









I think its closer in matching to the rest of our furniture too.

I'll give it another coat over the weekend and see what it comes up like.

[AXIS]

Put an another coat.









Getting somewhere with this one I think, I'll run it by my wife tonight and see what she thinks.

[AXIS]

Crappy pictures today, it's all cloudy.

Anyway last night I put a third coat on half the piece just to see what it looked like.

And came up with this





And I think its getting pretty close to matching what the wife wants, although I'm tempted to throw a 4th coat over it.

A lot of coats I must admit, but it seems to go on quite thinly when using a cloth. However I prefer to how it does with the brush.

Gotta get this sorted out over the next few nights, as I've a 4 day weekend coming up, and I want to smash out some actual staining on the stand.

[AXIS]

Even crappier photos today, not only cloudy outside, but actually raining. Good for the garden though. Had to take them insdie.

Okay here's the results of the 4th coat

(put it across everything, so now its a comparison between 3 and 4 coats)








And the good news is my wife is happy with the colour, and I've got the go ahead to go full scale this weekend and start staining the real thing!

Finally can get past these test updates.

4 day weekend this weekend, so its a great chance to smash out heaps of work.

[AXIS]

Well the staining was a interesting learning process.

I stuffed the first coat slightly. I should have thinned it, and I didn't. And I should have wiped off the excess better. Dried a bit fast for what I was doing I think, hot day in the shed.

So the first coat ended up a little patchy, but a bunch of sanding and additional coats its come up nicely to something I am happy with. Ended up having my wife follow me with a cloth fixing up things which worked much better. Should have thought of that for the first coat. Ah well, live and learn.

We are happy with the current colour (3 coats), decided not to go for any more as the grain would be lost too much.

All I have to do now, is put a coat of clean finish on, and its all done!

So here are the pics.

After putting putty in the nail holes and sanding back

Really happy with how the putty cleaned up the corners and so on too, looks even more nicely joined.





After first coat of stain
You can see where it's a bit uneven in places.




After third coat of stain
Bit late at night when I took these photos, I'll get some better ones in nicer light this weekend when I do the final clear coat.







So all in all I am very happy. So final clear coat this weekend, and then door hanging!

[ice]

Looking fantastic mate! Something to be proud if.

[Bowdy]

Great job mate turned out awesome. Are you sticking with the old tank or getting a new one ?
I think only a new 2ft high tank would do the cabinet justice.
Cheers

[AXIS]

thanks Ice

The plan is to stick with the current tank Bowdy.

In hindsite, yes I probably should have gotten a different tank than the one I did. One of the problems in starting a new hobby I guess, you never get things right the first time.

But I'd never get changing it past the wife now.
(unless someone wants to give me one )

Should look good in the place I've planned for it anyway.

Next house, Next time perhaps.

Edited by AXIS, 10 April 2012 - 05:03 PM.

[Kent84]

That cabinet looks insane!!!. Are you a carpenter by any chance?.

[AXIS]

Thanks Kent.

Nah, I'm a Geophysicist.

Which basically means my day job is processing seismic data on a computer. About as far away from a "trade" as you can get.


This is my first woodworking project and I must admit I am very much over the moon about how it turned out, it could easily have gone terrible as I've never done anything like it before.

Just goes to show how important it is to plan things out before hand I guess, I must have gone through a bunch of different plans ideas making them up in Google Sketchup before finalising it.

Learned a lot as we went along, managed to avoid any major mistakes that we couldn't work around. Definitely a few things I'd do different next time.

I must admit I enjoyed the woodmaking part of it a lot, I think I'll make that a new hobby too.

I'm thinking maybe trying making a "nest of tables" as my next project, as we totally need some around the house to replace the crappy Ikea ones we've had since our student days.

[AXIS]

Looks good for the weekend, should be able to have time to both the clear coat, and hang the doors hopefully.

[AXIS]

Well after six weekends work, six months of planning.

THE STAND IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Went well over the weekend, the clear coat went on nicely. Although the clear coat is WELL more harder to with fume wise.

The stain coats were fairly mild, so I first put some on the inside of the stand, and then went for a drink as I was all lightheaded from the fumes from just that.

Ended up doing the rest of the stand while wearing a filter respirator mask (lots of time for Luke, I am you're father darth vader jokes).

The only thing I wasn't happy with was the hinges I had for the flap on the hood, they were bending like butter. So I stopped messing around with them before we messed it all up.

I'll be getting some different ones to put on later.

But the cabinet is all sweet, the doors went on nicely. managed to get them even, and the handles are looking good.


bit of a surprise, my wife presented me with a little metal plaque with my name and year on it to stick onto it. Which I thought was a nice touch of her. Nice surprise.

So now the plan is to leave the stand to air out for a while until the smell has gone down as its still a bit whiffy. not letting it into the house until its not smelly as we have a 6 month old child in the house that doesn't need that. (nor do we for that matter)

So now, photos!

First bunch are with my crappy phone, but my wife snapped a good one at the end with her iphone.

[Bowdy]

updates man ? please tell me there is water in this tank

[AXIS]

Nope.

No water yet.

I know frustrating right? It's damn well killing me.

I'm waiting for my electrician friend to come around and put a power point in for me as the wall where I want to put the tank doesn't have one. Whoever built my house was a bit stingy on the old power points, they really could have put a few more in.

And as good as it is having a friend who is an electrician who can do work for you like this it does mean I have to wait for him to have free time to come do it.

Hasn't gotten back to me yet about when he will have the free time, but I'm hoping its soon

Picked up a few of the remaining equipment too. I got an Hydor Eth 300 W Inline heater and have ordered myself a 6 foot Dalbarb light which should be here next week.

The smell of the stand has pretty much gone now too, so once the power point is in, it will be time to get this baby wet!


Getting cloooooose.

[AXIS]

Okay got a date now.

My sparky mate is coming around Saturday Morning to install the power point so that's that nailed down.

The smell seems to have worn off, so that's good. I just now need to find the time to bring it back from my inlaws farm in GinGin, which while not too far will take a little organising. Obviously can't lift the thing by myself

Got to get myself some sand and wood and so on together as well at some point.

No sign of the lights yet, I've sent Dalbarb an email to chase up on it.

I've a wedding to go to this weekend, so I'm not a 100% sure of how much I'm likely to get sorted this weekend.

Might aim at having it already to be setup the weekend after, assuming the lights turn up.