Wood cover sketch book

[Underdog]

Love these. Keep up the good work.

To be able to drill straight into your spine pieces (I assume that's where the problem is) you're going to have to clamp it to a jig in your drill press. Use sharp drill bits. All your stock should probably be dead square as well.
If you still aren't drilling straight holes, then you may need to set the sweep on the press. It's easily done with a dial indicator and an "L" shaped piece of cold rolled steel mounted in the chuck. You will need to flatten the end and drill a hole to mount the dial indicator. Then adjust your table so that as the dial moves in the circle, there's no deflection of the needle. You can get very close to a 90 degree angle this way.

[oscarl48]

The drill press vise made a big difference. The drilling was a lot straighter than my other attempt using a homemade jig. The design I am finding is very forgiving. The beauty of using a natural flexible material like wood.

When its fully open the book lays open, locks flat, and acts like a table to sit on your lap. I am getting closer to a final design.

I am questioning whether to stay with wood hinges. It is a good discussion topic when showing off the book but I am worried that after 6 months of opening and closing they will start failing. The dowels do have a lot of pressure on them. The book is heavy since I am using 3/4 in thick stock. I have 2 more to go before I declare a final design.

[Canemaker]

Oscar, have you considered hard rock maple for the wooden hinges? Are you making your own dowels using a lathe? I do have some black walnut blanks that I was going to turn into some walking canes if you're interested. Call me or pm.

John.

[oscarl48]

Okay, after 4 prototypes I am declaring my design a failure. The hinge thing is too inconsistent. Sometimes good results but also sometimes not so good. So going to redo the design with the alternate method for making the hinges. Should be much more consistent with good results if I can get the design down.

But here is my last prototype using the old design. Its Dr Who theme with blue dyed deer leather.

[Dale]

Sorry to hear that the hinges are not working, but it sure looks nice.

[oscarl48]

John, Dale, thanks.

I have the panels drying now for the next design. This next prototype is going to the wife so tonight will start working the design. She wants a world of warcraft book/tome. Should be fun to design.

I am already seeing this design will work much better for the hinges but on the negative side I have to be much more precise. Had to pull out the jointer and planer.

Enclosing the rough plans if anyone wants to play with this.

Disclaimer: these are really, really rough initial drafts so still have a ways to go to finalize them.

[oscarl48]

Finally had some time with my tools. I am very pleased with this effort. It is far from perfect but I learned a lot and this should be a viable design once I clean it up a bit. I will redo the plans sometime this weekend and post the basic construction design. The initial plan I posted will not work well. You need more space for the covers to open and close.

But the book design is a perfect blank canvas for some cool artistry to happen.

The sword carved on the spine is the legendary Thunderfury. Much talked about but never found sword in the World of Warcraft.

Lol. I actually had no clue what it was but the wife asked for it so she got it. I think my pattern came out pretty good. Added a picture of how it looks like in the 3d digital realm.

For everyone that is learning blender...it rocks once you get past the initial mountain of a learning curve.

P.S. forgot to mention its an all wood construction. Oak dowels for the hinges and through dowels to hold the spine to the hinges.

[henry1]

What kind of wood are you using for this project have to say very nice

[oscarl48]

Henry, it was black walnut.

[mikemi]

I happen to run across the article and I thought of you. http://www.woodcraft.com/articles/61...en-hinges.aspx
Don't know if it may help you or not with your wooden sketch books.

Mike