Monday, September 17, 2018

Danish Chairbuilding Extravaganza 2018, preparations

I'm signing off tomorrow afternoon, so I should be home early Wednesday morning.
That will give me a bit of time for preparing the oncoming DCBE.

There are a couple of things that needs to be done prior to getting the shop filled with people.

First I have to remove Gustav's mopeds from the shop, and also the motorcycle lift that is currently residing in one part of the shop. Then I need to do a thorough clearing up and cleaning, so it will look nice an inviting.

I'll have to arrange with Olav to pick up some extra workbenches, and have those put in the shop as well.

There is likely going to be some steam bending this time, so I have decided to make a proper steam box, instead of relying on my old gutter pipe balancing on top of a micro deep fat fryer.
There was one sheet of plywood left over from building the two Mini Max hydroplanes, and that should be sufficient for a steam box. I need to buy a wall paper steamer for supplying the actual steam, but I think that they have those at at the local home center.

I would like to make some sort of kiln as well, but I am not completely sure if I'll do it from scratch. An idea that has crossed my mind is to just get my hands on an old cabinet and install a heater inside that. But I think the steam box is more important, so the kiln might just have to wait.
In a pinch it should be possible to stack some insulation around an old table, and then put the heater below that. So given that there are a bit more options for that I am not so worried about the kiln.

I need to go and talk to the caterer, and discuss a menu for the week, and agree on when I should come and pick up the food. That is a very important thing, since we need to be well fed to yield maximum power!

Due to the planned return to chairs featuring some turnings, I thought that it might be a good idea to see if I could get my act together, and install an electric motor on an old wooden lathe that I bought at an auction in Sweden maybe 15 years ago. I don't want to make a foundation for it, so it will just be clamped to my workbench. That way there shouldn't be a traffic cork for a lathe when the need arises.

As usual I am probably way too optimistic regarding how much I am able to achieve in a few days, considering that I also plan on talking Bertha for long walks, ride in the forest with Mette, and I have signed up to chaperone the first school dance at Gustav's boarding school.
But on the other hand, once in a while I am actually able to impress myself with being efficient, and I hope I will be able to do just that this time too.


Frog pastries.
Picture courtesy of Toolerable.


10 comments:

  1. I don't know if I'm more excited about the chairs or the pastries!

    I woulnd't worry too much about the lathes. It sounds like we'll already have two besides your Swedish flea model.

    I can't wait!

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    1. It will be an extravaganza bot in respects of chairs, materials, pastry, coffee and beer :-D

      See you soon.
      Jonas

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  2. The pastries shoud be your top priority. Just sayin'.

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    1. Indeed, the chair building is just an excuse for getting together and eating pastries :-)
      DPEE Danish Pastry Eating Extravaganza.

      Cheers
      Jonas

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    2. That really should be a weekly event ;-)

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  3. 'Traffic cork'. I'm going to let this one pleasantly turn around in my head for a bit.
    You manage to balance a modicum of nervousness in your preparation with carefree anticipation of the actual event. I doff my hat to you, sir

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    1. Hi Mitchel

      :-)
      Traffic cork might be a bit of a grand expression, but being subtle was never my finest virtue.

      No matter how little or much we manage to actually make, it will surely be a great event with a lot of laughing and socializing - and that in itself is a measure of success :-)

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  4. On a blog from your list "blogs you should try to read", I was really impressed by the video here:
    http://haandkraft.blogspot.com/2018/03/ark-kiste.html
    Although I do not understand what is being said, the working method is interesting and shows incredible skill.
    This guy has also a strong helper ;-)
    Sylvain

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    1. Hi Sylvain

      It is indeed a really interesting video.
      Helpers like that are hard to marry nowadays :-)
      I can't understand a single word of it either, as I don't speak Hungarian :-)
      The guy behind that blog is Mikkel Frederiksen who commented on this psot as well.
      So you can safely comment on his blog in English as well.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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    2. I was spell bound by that video. The techniques used in building the chest are both simple and sofisticated. Seems like a very effective way of working. A fantastic example of human ingenuity.

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