Fireplace Mantle Clearcoated (large pics)

[autobodyman]

Finally decided I'd done enough recarving and sanding (probably could have used more sanding)
and sprayed 3 double wet coats of Defthane satin clearcoat with some automotive urethane hardner on this last night.
http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/109824/Mantle012583.jpg
Added a cigarette to the first cowboy and put a pocket and whisky bottle on the stagecoach driver.
http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/109824/Mantle047291.jpg
This picture is just to show the driver has two legs.
http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/109824/Mantle032997.jpg
Here it all is close-up:
http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/109824/Mantle024281.jpg
When I attach this to the fireplace it will be surrounded by ¾" walnut,
essentially framing this. I will glue the cactuses that I cut off of the carving
back on to the bottom "frame". I carved those and thought they would look
better all the way to the front.

What do you think of it? It's not my best work but I think it came out okay?

When I get it installed should I post a "done" picture?

Thanks ~Mike

[supershingler]

absoutely beautiful, all the added detail sure shows. you must buy your patience by the tanker full. there is no way i could do what you did with this.

as far as not being your best work.... i dont think many could claim to match your talent.

thanks for the pictures

kendall

[geekviking]

That is one of the most beautiful pieces I've ever seen...
Breathtaking!

[BBrooks]

Amazing Mike! That is one spectacular piece of work. Well done!

[liquidguitars]

Wow!

Lg

[DocWheeler]

Mike,

I think it came out great!
Really great detail.

[rjustice]

Wow Mike!.... Lori, my wife is asking me how soon could i make her something like this!.... we dont even have a fireplace!!!...LOL...

Very very nice, and well done!

Ron

[badger]

Wow Mike!.... Lori, my wife is asking me how soon could i make her something like this!.... we dont even have a fireplace!!!...LOL...

Very very nice, and well done!

Ron



Well better get started the fireplace then.

Awesome work

[fwharris]

Mike,

Ok, maybe not your best but I will let you be the judge of that.:)

Great job and thanks for all of the documentation (pictures) of the whole process. This has been a great project to follow and YES POST THE "DONE" PICTURE!!

[rjustice]

Well better get started the fireplace then.

Awesome work

Funny, thats what she said too!....LOL

[brdad]

If that's not your best work, I don't want to see your best work, I am feeling inferior enough already!

[PCW]

Mike

What can I say that hasn't been already said . I love it and I hope it was PPG.:D

[hess]

Man if you ever sell the house I would be takin that with me.

It is so nice

Gos to so you Bodymen can do so many other things

Hess

[Eagle Hollow]

Let me join the chorus of praise! Mike, your work is awe inspiring. Thank you so much for sharing the details of this project.

Check you private messages.

[chebytrk]

Let me join the chorus of praise! Mike, your work is awe inspiring. Thank you so much for sharing the details of this project.

Check you private messages.

When I grow up I want to be like Mike ! :)

[Tom75]

truly a work of art excellent job

[RayTrek]

Hello Mike
That is some amazing work, you have shown us. Please let us see it mounted I would have to say it may be the center piece of your home but what I have seen of your work that may be another master piece in your art gallery.

[Rickrljones]

Where are the photos of this project? Have they been deleted from the board or am I losing my mind?

[AskBud]

Where are the photos of this project? Have they been deleted from the board or am I losing my mind?

http://forum.carvewright.com/showpost.php?p=93564&postcount=1

[mtylerfl]

That's really, really gorgeous!!

[jpeter14]

I couldn't add anything to what has already been said, it is gorgeous, it looks to me like it was worth all the extra work. Congratulations on a fantastic job.

[fishcarver]

Hi Mike, it turned out awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!
super job! i think the frame will even bring out the pic. more!
Stacey

[mifflinlake]

What else can be said except this is truly AWESOME.

[autobodyman]

Thanks for all the kind words, much appreciated.

I set the carving on my existing mantle, and it appears kind of dark (course I took this picture at 3am). I thought about using some LED strip lights with a low voltage dimmer, but it would be something of a pain to install and more than that I have so many lighted cabinets I've built and have found that the lights seem to need replaced every year or two.
http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/110019/StageMantle012310.jpg

http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/110019/StageMantle027993.jpg
I've been thinking about possibly doing this again out of maple, it would still have the walnut surround. If I do this again I would do it in 3 layers, the first layer out of 6/4 slightly curly maple with the back tree, stage coach and back horses, I would carve the inside of the coach on this layer, carve the second layer (¾" thick) for the horse rider, stage coach inside again ( would have seats and 3 passengers) and the back of the top horses for the coach, the third layer would be the top of the stage coach and the top horses and the forground trees.

I don't really have any issues with the extra work involved in doing this again however I'm not sure what I would do with the walnut one I've already spent 52 hours on.

I went to woodstock in Rapid City SD yesterday to get the walnut for the perimeter of the mantle, they had some mildly curly maple in 6/4 so I picked some of that up just in case I do decide to do this again, going to have to think about this for a few days before I start tearing out the old mantle.
http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/110019/StageMantle036927.jpg
If I decide to just go with the walnut finished one I will use the maple for some future end tables I intend to build that will have carvings on top under glass. Sort of like the nightstand (http://www.MikesPhotos.woodwork2007.photoshare.co.nz) I did but with western scenes.

Brought the mantle board up to my shop and set on top of a cabinet I built last year. I had made the drawer fronts out of one piece of wood and put them on the drawers so the grain was matched back up, it dawned on me that if I could come up with a long enough pattern idea, it could be and interesting project to replace all my kitchen cabinet upper drawer fronts with a carved scene that went the way around the kitchen.
http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/110019/StageMantle049050.jpg
Just a thought, so many incomplete ideas.

Again, thanks for all the nice comments.
~Mike

[Kenm810]

What can I say, -- "First Class Workmanship" seem Inadequate.
Thanks for sharing your Project Photos, their a real inspiration.

[mtylerfl]

I'm almost speechless - what a great craftsman!! You are an inspiration to all of us. WOW!

[DocWheeler]

I don't really have any issues with the extra work involved in doing this again however I'm not sure what I would do with the walnut one I've already spent 52 hours on.


Mike,

I was thinking of a place in Ohio if indeed you could not find somewhere to put that beautiful project;)

[henry1]

Would you shear this pattern with us if you would would be well appreciated:-D

[autobodyman]

Would you shear this pattern with us if you would would be well appreciated:-D

It isn't a single pattern there were six patterns and I bought them all so I don't think I'd better share them. Here is a reply I had posted in a previous post:

Quote:
Originally Posted by supershingler
could you share the depth and heights of the patterns that you used.

i went in the pattern store and found some for my project but i cant seem to get the depth that you accomplished.

also if the patten is additive or subtractive ot normal. i havent learned all of this stuff yet

any help appreciated

kendall

I can give links to the ones I used, I just searched carvewright pattern depot, searchs like Western, Trees, Mountain etc..
The mountain range one I laid out 4 times for the background, it requires some hand carving or sanding as it's not really designed right to be a repeated pattern. I just overlapped them a bit and set the depth to .75. I started with a carve region (rectangle) 8" x 54" set to a depth of .75. Then added the others on top stretched them to the size I wanted and adjusted their depths till it looked right to me. I laid out the board size in Designer at 12" x 54" x 1.5" but the actual board with the runners screwed on was 12" x 72" x 1.5" (runners were 1.5" x 2" carve board was 8" x 1.5") told it not to stay under rollers and to center, not to size board.

I can list the carve depths I used (I'd post the mpc file but I don't know if that embeds the copywrighted patterns? I don't want to get into any infringements.)

Mountain Range 1:
http://store.carvewright.com//search...=search&page=1
Depth .75 height 100 Merge styles all set to normal. Clip carving inclusive on the 2 outside ones, not the two inside ones.

Fir Trees 2:
http://store.carvewright.com//produc...0&cat=0&page=1
Depth .25 height 200
I used clip carving Inclusive for all the patterns that overlapped the carve region. (right click each pattern, choose clip carving, Inclusive)

Stage Coach:
http://store.carvewright.com/product...4&cat=0&page=4
Depth .35 height 125
I actually got this pattern quite a while ago from another place(cost more too $50 instead of carvewrights $30) and I edited the pattern to be deeper in the wheels and threw the windows so the mountain carving would show threw, in pattern editor. I imagine you could do some carve regions in designer or just recarve them deeper if you wanted.

Cowboy 2:
http://store.carvewright.com/product...9&cat=0&page=1
depth .45 height 125

Oak Tree:
http://store.carvewright.com/product...4&cat=0&page=1
small oak on left Depth .55 height 100, larger oak Depth .25 height 100

There was a pricklypear cactus too, but I don't remember where I got that one, I assume you'd want it to be a little different anyway, maybe use sorrel cactus instead of trees. Also when your done choose Edit, select all and set bit optimization to best.

Hope this helps. I'm new at this too, so your mileage may vary, this is only the 3rd carving I've done with the machine and the other two carvings were just rosettes I hand carved and scanned and then had it carve more out for me. I've had the machine almost 3 year but previously only scanned my "hand" carvings. Don't know if it matters I am using Designer version 1.126.

~Mike

[autobodyman]

Thought I should post the redwood carving I ran on the machine as a test before I did the walnut mantle.

While I was having the CarveWright scan the walnut mantle board I finished (took 32 hours for it to scan), I decided to work on the redwood test board. This one isn't undercut as much, since it's going to be outside I figured that would make it to delicate. I also didn't put as much detail into this one, mostly because I was kind of tired of this since I just finished the walnut one. Had probably 35 to 40 hours hand work on the walnut board, this one probably around 8 to 10 hours of hand work.

I didn't clearcoat this one since it will be part of a deck, eventually. I used SuperDeck natural stain along with some tongue oil sanded in with 400 grit and buffed.
http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/110019/Deck01a2828.jpg

I did sort of sign this one, forgot on the walnut one.
http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/110019/Deck01b2956.jpg
Since I don't have an actual brand I just used my initials, M bar L. Trying to keep it Western and all.

http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/110019/Deck01c4367.jpg
This is the deck I need to tear out and rebuild, it sank from not having a gutter above it (as you can see it does now) . We decided to rebuild this deck/stoop a bit smaller than it is now (we, as in the wife, wanted a little larger flower bed ) I'll incorporate this carving into the kicker for the top step (it's sitting where it will be).

This spot only has sunlight on it in the early morning and early evening in the summer (no sun in this spot in the Winter). I may have to put some kind of low voltage lighting in the deck so it can be seen at night and in Winter.

Decided after 9 years the front of my woodshop was starting to look a bit rough, (Superdeck stain held up pretty well, though this side of my woodshop only gets a couple hours of sunlight per day and only in the summer) took a scotch pad to the entire front of the building and put two coats of superdeck natural stain on it today.
http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100503/110019/Deck077434.jpg
I think now I am going to have to carve some kind of sign, "Mike's WoodShop", "Mike's WorkShop", "Mike's Hide Away" Something like that.

I was going to start tearing out the old fireplace mantle tomorrow, but I'm still not sure if I want to recarve the mantle out of 3 layers of maple. Think I might start tearing the deck apart instead give myself a little more time to think about the mantle.

Thanks ~Mike

[twinpeaksenterprises, LLC]

Wow thats amazing!!! On the idea for the deck, yes definately put some like directional lights into the decking to shine on the carving. Hope to see some pics when its all done.! Matt.

[woodslicer]

Very Impressive !! That is something to be Proud of. Want someday to be able to do that quality of work.
Can't wait to see it when it is assembled & installed.

[cnsranch]

I think now I am going to have to carve some kind of sign, "Mike's WoodShop", "Mike's WorkShop", "Mike's Hide Away" Something like that.

Here's one, Mike

Never have posted pics of the finished project, but with silver and black paint, looks great.

[Dan-Woodman]

Is that a mechanics shop sign made with woodworking tools , or a woodworking shop make with a mechanics wrench?
Hey Jerry LOL GREAT SIGN
Later Daniel