Disaster In Seattle

bonsaial1

After a short phone conversastion with Carl Bergstrom this morning, I recieved permission to tell this story...


Late spring...I recieve a PM from Carl. I opened the window and it is from Holly, his wife. She writes and says," Al, the stand that Carl won two years ago is beautiful and I would love to have you make me one to give to Carl on our wedding Anniversary in June". (At this time I am working 6 days a week, and have my garage torn to pieces while remodeling it and my tools are everywhere.)

I tell her no problem!

A few weeks went by and I bought the wooden plank. I hope you all remember the thread that started out with me standing next to what Matt would turn into a surfboard. Well.. that surfboard was the Anniversary stand. I finished it, packed it and sent it on it's way in late May.

A few days later I recieve an Email from Holly, and the heartbreak even trandscends the email. She says, "Al, the stand arrived, but alas it is damaged." My worst nightmare. Not only was it damaged, but the gorillas at the post office had apparently dropped the box and the entire stand was compleatly smashed on one side.

Only one thing to do. Build a new one. That is what I did. Now Carl has not seen the new stand and he said he would love to see the stand thru this thread, and will wait patiently for it to arrive. Carl gave me some input as to what he would like to have in the way of size and I have tried to accomodate him as well as possible I think he will like this more then the first.

Well Carl, here is your birthday present (today I think) and Anniversary gift all in one. Thanks for being patient, I think it will be worth it!

Since Carl wanted a rather large stand ( I think he really wants this for a TV stand) I had to laminate the wood to make a larger top piece. The first stand was rather fragile in the way it was constructed ( at least for shipping long distances) and I decided that this stand would be bullet proof!

The top and leg pieces laminated and drying in the hot Fresno sun.

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bonsaial1

The top needed to be of the size Carl requested, about 25 inches long and 18 inches deep. I decided that I would make the stand as near to the size requested as possible. I think he needs it that large for the Hemlock grove that he and Colin Lewis styled.

In this photo I have put the grooves in the styles for the top suround. The actual top came out to be 25.5" x 18.25" in size. A very large stand indeed. But not the largest I have built.

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__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

bonsaial1

After the glue had dried, I began sanding the top. Sanding is a tedious process but one that has to be done. This sanding removes the snipe marks from the planer and any inperfections in the lumber.

Wearing my lucky bonsai shirt Kazuki!

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__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

bonsaial1

With the top finished I could concentrate on the other componets of the stand. With the first stand the sides and top merged to look like one piece. This was major constrution flaw. When sanding the rounded profile of the sides, the wood became thin and weak i those areas. I decided that I wanted to change this aspect. After doing a google search under "images, bonsai stands" I was able to find two stands that had the characteristics that I was looking for. ( you can see them in "test area 51")

Carl said, " Al, I trust your judgement, and I think the applied top would be great." That is what I decided to do. The sub assembly was constructed as a picture frame. The unit was allowed to dry and then sanded smooth.

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dscf0256.jpg (36.3 KB, 258 views)

__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

bonsaial1

With the sub-assembly dry, I can attach the legs and stretchers. Many clamps are needed for this portion of the assembly.

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__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

bonsaial1

All the legs have been attached as well as the stretchers. This unit is allowed to dry in preperation for the sanding out of the legs. The legs are going to be the same as the first stand, and are made with the osscilating spindle sander. A template is made and the legs are drawn onto the sub-assembly.

Attached Images

dscf0259.jpg (36.2 KB, 239 views)

__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

bonsaial1

The top is attached to the sub-asembly after the top had been run through the shaper. The edge detail is done so as to look rather undercut to the sub-assembly. The sub-assembly is also 3/4" larger on all the side to give the stand a more masculine look. Even though the legs are rather feminine in shape the balance of masculine to feminine has been achieved in the design.

At this point the final sanding takes place. The wood is sanded down to 400 grit sand paper and a final fog of water raises the grain just enough to get the wood super smooth.

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__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

bonsaial1

Corner detail

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__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

bonsaial1

Profile look of the top and sub-assembly. You can see how much stronger this construction is over the original design.

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__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.