mdf (OT) (pic)
Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI
>Last week I think TOdd Hughes was wondering what mdf was, and I ended up buying some Monday evening, thought I would show him what it looks like ;) It cost about double what I expected, over $17 for a 4x8 sheet of 1/2" mdf at Menards. Our church is putting poinsettas in for Christmas, so they asked me to make some plant stands.
Design content; All the pews, pulpit, and tables are made with a white painted base and dark stained wood top on them, so I opted for this design to match. I decided not to contrast the current furnishings so the point of interest would be the plants on the stands and not the stands themselves. I started with the figure of 6", which is what the pots will be; they said 6" pots, so I figured that means 6" diameter, although I didn't double check it. I decided to make the columns 6" square, and then used the golden mean to make the smallest column a "golden rectangle" (excluding the base and top) , and increased the height for the taller columns in 6" increments. I drew it up on cad and it looked okay to me so I went with it.
Hand tool content; minimal hand tool use for this project, although I did drive all the screw with a Yankee screwdriver (the columns are biscuited together, and the bases and tops screwed on to the columns). And the air dried walnut tops, after power planing to clean up the faces and power sawing to size and beveling with a r**tah were hand planed and not sanded; a beautiful exercise with my #604-1/2 and a freshly sharpened Hock iron for the tops and a #18 with a Hock iron for the bevels and edges. And the columns are painted by hand, and the tops finished by hand. They'll be delivered today, we'll see how people like them tomorrow ;)
