Aquarium Stand

My son is a fish-breeder (his blog is here). I built this stand to hold three 55-litre tanks.

The stand is based on four 1 3/4″ x 1 3/4″ pine “pillars” that provide the strength to support 165 kg’s of water. The shelves rest on 1″ x 1 3/4″ cross-pieces that are joined by standard miter-and-tenon joints to the pillars. The cross pieces are rabbeted, and the MDF shelves rest on the rabbets. The MDF is well sealed with paint to protect against spills.

Lights are mounted behind hanging doors that provide access to the tanks. The doors are made of ply which has been edged with thin strips of stained pine.The back of the stand is painted blue to provide a background for the aquariums.

An extra shelf above the top aquarium provides room for power and an air pump.

Headboard

One of the reasons I decided to build my own furniture was the concept of the “bedroom suite”: those mass-produced monstrosities that one sees in furniture shops. I don’t mind sitting on a mass-produced chair, or eating off a mass-produced table, but having one of these things so close to my head while I’m sleeping?!? (There are some nice pieces for sale in furniture shops, but generally the “price-for-nice” may be a bit steep.)

This headboard is quite three-dimensional in its structure, and I did the design on Turbocad while reading a book on Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, so there may be an influence or two (at least to the best of my rather limited architectural abilities!)

The framework is fastigata, with kauri panels and Lawson Cypress “legs” (the legs are completely hidden behind the bed, but the Lawson Cypress fragrance is always present!)

The whole structure is waxed, with no stain.

Jewelry Boxes

Building a box  is a very satisfying way for a part-timer like me to actually get a job finished! When you only have time to get into the workshop a few times a month, you need a few projects where the end is in sight right at the beginning. I’m building four side chairs this year, and hopefully we’ll get to sit on all four before Christmas! A box is something that can be completed in a few days, although the finishing can sometimes take just as long as a more complex project.

The first box is a simple construction, made of pine and rimu, with fastigata splines to hold the whole thing together. The pine is not stained, but is varnished. The rimu is dyed (Briwax Colourfast Wood Dye (Rimu)), stained (Cabot’s Interior (Walnut Brown)) and varnished. This was a  birthday present for my wife!

The detail pic shows an indentation for a finger-hold to open the box.

This box also has a restraint to prevent it opening too far: this took a bit of niggly woodwork, but seems to work well:

The second box is a bit more complex… Pine for the box, rimu for the lid, fastigata for the legs, and tasmanian oak for the handle. I let myself down on this one to some extent with the finish (all wax), but some of the edges are a bit rough.

This sits on my desk at work.

What’s this about?

This is going to be about furniture – mainly my efforts to design and build furniture (and a few other things!). I’ve been doing this for a few years now, after vowing many times before that NEVER to get involved in this sort of thing (my father spent many hours in his workshop, often with me acting as (in)voluntary assistant!) But then we bought a house in Auckland, and I decided to RENOVATE. The renovations are still waiting (5 years on), but once I bought my first power tools, I started doing woodwork and building furniture.

One of the first complex projects I undertook was a trellis table (see pic). The table is made of tasmanian oak and kauri ply, and is quite complex because of the angled mortice / tenon construction. It all came together quite well eventually, and now resides in our master bedroom.