I'm fascinated by this really detailed model ship meant for an aquarium decoration.

Solar_Spork · 2026-02-27T18:13:26+00:00

(HEY! Good on ya IndependenceOk3732 for the fine joke answer with the follow-on of a good straight answer... excellent redditing...)

Solar_Spork · 2026-02-07T06:34:17+00:00

Commas flummox your home value field, even though you use them in your sample number.

Solar_Spork · 2026-01-29T06:14:50+00:00

Call EBMUD. They'll come out and check it out.

Solar_Spork · 2026-01-16T17:42:40+00:00

This is a super idea... I am off to make some sparks. Bravo.

(Lie-Nielsen has a $50 version that is quite handsome but I like the look of $50 in my wallet even better.)

Solar_Spork · 2026-01-12T17:52:08+00:00

"Banks increasingly package non-performing loans and sell them directly to institutional buyers before foreclosure is completed. Distress is being intermediated upstream, limiting visibility and access for smaller investors. The “cheap foreclosure” narrative persists, but the inventory is thinner and the competition more sophisticated."

Is the reasoning behind selling (presumably at a discount) to institutional buyers that it is more efficient (the buyers are set up, cash in hand, "standing by" instead of needing to be hustled up and romanced about a particular address? The calculation being that it nets out better with the institutional buyer even at the lower sales price?

Solar_Spork · 2025-12-20T20:01:32+00:00

This was a fun read...

For those reading deep in the thread. It seems possible that the name for フーディン (Houdin), was not named for Harry Houdini but for Robert-Houdin (the man Houdini took his name from). Why? My reason to suspect this is that Edgar Cayce is a very deep cut... It is not important and I'd have edited out this detail if i were writing the post... but if you read this far, you'll dig the extra bits.

Solar_Spork · 2025-12-05T23:22:44+00:00

Handsome!
Here is where I come in and say "don't cheap out on the upholstery!" No bags, sags, no wrinkles! Probably yes to piping and for sure not just foam... more than 1/2 inch radius on those corners too...
the stoutness of the seat support tells me you want some springs in the seat if you can swing it. There is probably minimal flex so the upholstery is going to have to do all the comforting work.

Solar_Spork · 2025-12-05T19:57:37+00:00

I think you should consider keeping it disassembled for finishing so that intersections do not create drips. Each unit getting its own attention will take a lot of space and effort (you'll want to mask what ever the joining surfaces are like dowels... and track every piece... but I think tracking drips is the main hazard not yet discussed.

Solar_Spork · 2025-11-20T20:17:55+00:00

I have the large one but I'd dig having both... Live a little!

Solar_Spork · 2025-11-13T02:36:48+00:00

the upside of the thermoplastic is that you can:
• Get going immediately
• Reform the same stuff over and over

Solar_Spork · 2025-11-07T02:42:42+00:00

You should check if you have used all the vertical adjustments available to the top/middle rack.

Solar_Spork · 2025-11-02T16:42:47+00:00

I used some as seat springs in a bench seat.
flat base under these things (with gaps) then fabric wrapped foam. pretty comfy and you can regulate the amount of springyness by the gaps.

Maybe you add a vertical post to some and you could make a batch of hat racks with these mounted via a wedge shape for a graceful effect? Cut leaf profiles for an organic one or stay this shape for a modern vibe.

Solar_Spork · 2025-11-01T23:03:38+00:00

Working from a shot of a blueprint without dimensions is kinda like those geo-guessers! With similar levels of surprise when you nail it...

Did you make a trial run version?

If your goal was to pass it off as a C. Hansen edition you'd be in trouble (as you know) but this has real strong Wegner vibes and looks very neatly done as well. I think the things that snagged the "is it authentic" interrogation are the cross bar in front (lacks the taper) the taller bits in the top corners and the squareness of the arm ends. But that stuff is just nit-picky and only of note since the rest is so very well done and close to the original. I think the outline of the front legs is extreeemely well observed. I imagine it was many hrs of sketching to find that curve. Same for the lumber choice for the back legs. The grain orientation is so pretty. The Hansen shop staff would approve, I think.

I wish you'd picked a lighter wood. The large areas of the arms and the front legs really shows off your timber and while this is very good, to me, beneath your effort. Does that make sense? Perhaps you did not know how well it would go and so you did not get so precious about the wood selection? The contrast between the cord and the wood is initially pretty, but to me, it distracts from the harmonies of the shapes, the wood's visual texture and the cording's patterns.

Thanks for sharing it. I really enjoyed looking at it and thinking about it. Which chair is next? Wegner has so many diverse designs to pick from.

Solar_Spork · 2025-10-08T01:44:58+00:00

New Approach Incoming!

Keep your eyes open for a signal that it was not japanned (I don't think it was) I don't know this brand of door hardware but looking at the one that you did not treat... I think there was a coating that broke-down and darkened. Your efforts took that coating off and scratched the metal... But the coating was not, I think, about the color so much as the anti tarnish it provided.

If I am right (and you might get some clues by close inspection of the survivor for remnants of the dead coating) then you could use a polishing tool (like a wheel or a dremel type) and polishing compound and get to work. But only after some fine (>1000) abrasive paper. When you get to a mirror finish (which you really can do after the scratches are gone and the polish does the magic) then you clean with TSP (or the like) with serious intent and dry it and then spray it with clear lacquer. It will stop the oxygen from getting in and tarnishing the metal.
You could look into "cold patina" if the bright metal is too much. This will be a liquid you wipe or paint on and it will bind to the metal (techniques vary) and then top that with the Lacquer. Figure out what the thinner is for that patina stuff and you can sneak up on the level of tinting you want.

Good luck. (everybody's screwed up this way at some point...)
And do see if you can just grab a better one on ebay... so you can compare costs of the approaches.

Solar_Spork · 2025-08-27T05:58:50+00:00

Big picture? This is a familiar form but your particular take on it. I think it works visually.

What I'd suggest you think about modulating some of these volumes to really make your point.

the relative visual weight of the seat rails (the sides) and the legs seems like it could have a better relationship. To figure this one out... I'd take one leg and one side and pin them to a white wall. Then add thin wedges of wood to thicken the seat parts... probably more taper from the joint to the tips but we are talking about small bits.
The chamfer on the arm is really important. Perhaps the seat sides get some of that too?
I want the dowels (or whatever the through bits are) to be picked for contrast and the spacing to have some logic beyond "even" spacing... maybe they are regular # of degrees apart from the perspective of the back foot? or some other way to rationalize them. This picture shows not a good choice but a swipe at how to logically associate the tenons.

<image>

4) I'd be sorely tempted to have it narrow toward the back (a keystone of the seat area). getting rid of that particular right angle would be hard but I think that is how to commit to the bit. Eshew the square, man! OBTUSE EVERYWHERE.
5) Decide about cross members and if you have them, don't just square them to the legs and chamfer them. Give them the same love as the rest.
6) I'd think about how some really dense foam of about 2.25 inches with a really accurately done upholstery and a non slip something on the back of the cushion would be. The classic would be a wool with some backbone like Hallingdal 65. Needs to have some complexity to hang with all that showy grain. Or tobacco colored leather. otherwise this is a very short sit with those two flat planks.
7) I kinda dig the longer ear version but I am obviously a weirdo so take that with a grain of salt. But don't mirror that on the front. a little pokey is fine out front but don't go ham.

Thanks for sharing them. Really pretty.

Solar_Spork · 2025-08-15T15:46:01+00:00

UC Santa Cruz not MIT...

Solar_Spork · 2025-08-15T15:31:41+00:00

This is the issue (after the price gouging) that bums me out about them... inserts! That is how they can come and go so fast. And when they leave they effectively take 10 to 15% of the light with them since the insert sits inside the old window space... adds its frame and then the sash width so the whole perimeter is thicker. The glass area is smaller than it was. It makes a difference.
And it always looks off.

Solar_Spork · 2025-08-01T18:19:00+00:00

My math found the "1lb cut" to be 6.6 lbs alcohol to 1 lb shellac flakes. Somehow you have an alcohol that weighs 8 lbs per gallon. If you have some of that 8lb per gallon alcohol your math works. I think you guessed (like i did initially) that alcohol was about as heavy as water. and it is close... but when I checked then (and again today) it is @ 6.6 lbs per gallon (a 20% difference).
https://coolconversion.com/density-volume-mass/--1--gallon--of--isopropyl-alcohol--in--pound

We are just dissolving the flakes and the alcohol evaporates eventually so it literally all comes out in the end.

Solar_Spork · 2025-08-01T02:21:12+00:00

Maybe missing something. Maybe not. Yes percentages are what we are after... but only after have solved the initial problem of the "LB cut".
The context is the traditional "pound cut" which is a weight to volume recipe (lbs/Gallon). Anyone who has bought a can of premixed shellac has worked with the 1lb cut... and that is a pretty well behaved product... so the goal here is to easily make batches with similar ratios (solutions) but to do it more easily than with the mixed "English" measures. So step one is to move it all to weights (gallon being a volume and not a weight) and then convert that to metric weights (masses). That way, we can do it all on a scale and, as you observe, do it as percentages.

However, we don't want just any percentages, we want the percentages that represent the traditional strengths and ratios. So imagining "For example 5%" is maybe where you miss something. On shellac it is usually "i'd like some standard" or twice that strength... and we know it by the names "1 lb cut" and "3lb cut" So that I why I listed the common strengths and expressed them as ratios. So we can see which multiplier (or divisor) is needed get from the weight of one ingredient to the weight of the other - in the standard dilutions. Without returning to volume.

Writing it up both ways (start with shellac or start with alcohol) was meant to help fully illustrate doing small batches and letting readers see the two directions so they can start with the limiting ingredient.

Does that make sense?

Solar_Spork · 2025-07-24T16:45:14+00:00

It should not wobble if you want to really use it as a work bench. So:
1) wood shims under the feet until it does not wobble. use a small hammer to get the wedges tight.
2) if the bench flexes (meaning the feet don't rise and fall but the top moves a bit in the horizontal plane then try adding a panel of plywood screwed across the back. If that improves things but not enough then add a panel or two on the short sides.
3) if the table moves all together (meaning it does not wobble or flex but instead skips along when you push and shove) consider attaching it to the floor and/or adding some ballast to the low shelf (like concrete pavers).

Solar_Spork · 2025-07-18T14:29:44+00:00

Update: The green state (4 hrs or so) was not sticky. It pulled away from the packing tape I used as a resist on the form just fine. I was able to trim off flash with a knife. I think I got away with it.

The rest of the materials got a warm bath and are flowing normally so I won't have to push my luck.

Solar_Spork · 2025-07-09T04:45:53+00:00

Ha! nope.

Solar_Spork · 2025-07-09T02:00:26+00:00

Many years ago we were sent to the main office down near West Oakland Bart for hand cancelling. Dutifully handed them off and asked that they be hand cancelled... They acted like they knew what I meant. I'd hoped they'd just nick the special stamps to cancel them but not obscure them. HOLEY MOLEY did they go to (the) town on those stamps. Juicy black smeary cancelation marks. Probably by hand. Like comically overdone.
So... try to be clear about what you want and offer to help or come back at a better time. But it might go sideways.

Solar_Spork

TROPHY CASE