Fun with Dremel Carving & Alum Black (HauntedHouse?)

[rayra]

Building a Dark Ages -looking Chandelier, to hang over the massive beam table at the vacation house (:) ).
A few of you may have seen the 'Celt art?' thread I posted in the OT Forum.

Here's a few shots of the carvings, used several wood carving and engraving bits in my multi-speed Dremel, with flex wand.
Learned the hard way that the flex wand has no finger guard - work long enough and your fingers will slip downward until the collet rubs on your finger at high speeds.

The piece is two 3'-dia laminated pine table rounds.
I sawed out the 12 candle holder holes (will be using large 3"dia collonade candles) in the top piece, and put dremel carvings on bottom portion (which will face down towards the table / diners).

http://home.earthlink.net/~rayra/rpftemp/chan1.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~rayra/rpftemp/chan2.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~rayra/rpftemp/chan3.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~rayra/rpftemp/chan4.jpg

I printed the words / patterns on paper, spray glued the paper to the wood as templates, sanded the paper & glue off after carving.

http://home.earthlink.net/~rayra/rpftemp/chan8.jpg


Aluminum Black -

I searched my local OSH / Lowe's / DoIt / Home Depot for some black / wrough iron chain, but all they had was a low-strength, unwelded-link, decorator chain (in black).

This whole chandelier will weigh ~60lbs when completed (intend to put halogen spots in the cross-pieces, someday), so I had to go with a 'real' chain.

I tried chain samples, in both zinc-washed and chrome-dipped, dipping them into the Alum Black bottle, worked nicely!:

http://home.earthlink.net/~rayra/rpftemp/chan6.jpg

Bought 15' of chain, crammed it in a Ziploc bag, poured in the couple ounces of Alum Black and kneaded it for a bit, it all came out nicely.

It does rub off a bit, and can be scratched off, but I intend to zap it with some flat clearcoat.

I'll post pix of the table and chandelier together, in a week or two, after I make the trip / get it installed.

Thought I'd throw these techniques out there, in case anyone is thinking about some kind of props for a haunted house or something next month :)

[StormLeader]

Jeez Rich!:lol:

That looks AWESOME!!!!

[rayra]

thanks!
wait til you see it hanging over the table - table is (4) 4"x10"x8' beams, laid side by side butcher-block style, with threaded rods bored through them crossways, with worked 4x4s for legs.
Going to put another beam in the tabletop, and put some even more massive legs on it soon, too.
Made benches for it, as even with unfinished chairs, would have still been ~$500 for chairs alone.
As it is now, we've only spent about $300 for the whole mess - seating for 10, massive furniture that will take tons of partying abuse, and the chandelier included.

[GuntahKela]

Had you noticed the circle and the "X" inside look just like the "X-men" logo? Kind of cool.

[rayra]

I heard :) , Hydin(?) pointed it out in the Celt OT thread. I had no clue.
I was thinking Saxon/Celt shields (targes) when I laid it out.

[rayra]

LMAO!
I NAILED the proportions (by accident)!:

http://home.earthlink.net/~rayra/rpftemp/xmen.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~rayra/rpftemp/chan2.jpg


I was going for something like this:

http://www.scottishsword.com/TargePics/CelticCrosstarge.jpg

[TheLivingForce]

In the words of Keanu ...Whoa!...

That is some beautiful work. Rich are you going to do any staining to the piece?

-Neal

[rayra]

yep:

http://home.earthlink.net/~rayra/rpftemp/chan8.jpg

Using a Black Walnut stain, for that 400-yr-old look, and I've got some Minwax 'Wood-Sheen' (Rubbing Oil, Stain & Finish), to give it some luster.

[Probe Droid]

Your hand must be on the mend if you can do something of that quality. Looks great.

[rayra]

Good enough to steady the workpiece, or brace my good / strong hand.
56 days since I crushed it, doing o.k.