Had a friend come round and we started to crack on with the senna wood frame. I inherited some workbenches from a friend who is leaving the country which helped immensely. Now I have a dedicated work station!! We cut the top plate and tomorrow we will fix a few issues on the bottom plate i cut last year. We manufactured a jig to place in the centre so all upright pockets will be the same. More pictures soon. So happy to be building again!
So as I'm still away with work, I've been buying a few bits and bobs here and there. DK Murphys skirt arrived today! I cannot wait to get building again. Back to it in July!!
Had a bit of time today to make some headway with the plates for the frame and the middle ring. Getting the hang of the router! Only issue i had preparing to route the bottom plate, my drill hole for the router to pivot round was slightly off centre. 1or 2mm. To correct it i didn't route the whole thing at once and did it in 2 halves so i could find the point where my bit might stray and correct the cut. Worked great. For some reason, lining up my angles on the ring and bottom plate, some are slightly off. Strange as i measured a few times to ensure it was correct. I'll be making sure all is above board when i cut the top plate tomorrow.
Bit off more than I could chew today. Went gung ho into the panel painting and went over the top on a few bits and i lot of paint collected on one area so i was getting a globby effect on some pieces. I got frustrated and tried to wipe it off. Big mistake! Just coagulated obviously. Will strip them back with acetone tomorrow and repaint. Thats what I get for getting too excited!
So I've been rather busy but I've dedicated a heap of time for research and bought plywood to start the frame. I bagged a bargain at the local hardware store and got a 1200x2400 12mm sheet of marine ply for the price of structural ply. Saved many dollars. Its AA grade and looks ace. Had to settle for regular ply for the 19mm. Boo urns. This weekend i started drawing out the senna frame plans and got a nice present in the post. Laser Cut CS:L skins. So pretty. Looks like my coin slot is too small to fit the skins. Guess I'm already doubling up on parts! More drawing tomorrow and cutting hopefully. Really enjoying making the frame myself. I'd recommend everyone do it before buying a frame. So rewarding.
I'll have to move quickly. I'd like the frame done before Christmas. After that, I'm away for work until February. Mini build break will have to be in effect in that time.
One last furious sanding effort got my dome to where I want it. Pretty much. A little cleaning here and there but overall I'm happy with it. I also tested paint combinations. The lighter blue was just cobalt blue duplicolor. No primer or base coat. The others were with the the metalcast ground then cobalt blue. I did 2 coats on the larger side of the pie panel. Again, happy that this will be the final blue.
