Room box

[Guest Sculptor]

I decided to stain the floor, door and wainscot to see how they look using Cabot Walnut stain, the mahogany floor looks very good in person, a bit red in the photos, but the color in person looks nice, as well as aged, the basswood doesn't stain really evenly but gee, in the future there's no reason I couldn't make the wainscot out of mahogany, ditto for the stairs, the only issue would be the moldings, I'm not thrilled by the design of the Northern scale lumber's baseboard profile I could come up with a much better one if I research what machine it could be cut on and have a custom cutter or router bit made for it (thinking of the possibility of selling them as well)

We have custom shaper cutters made frequently at work, but those are very large and run about $800-$900 to have made from drawings.

I would think the baseboard, door case frames and crown molding would not be difficult, the tiny moldings such as the 1/8" quarter round probably won't look any different when stained whether they are basswood or mahogany.

I need some more stair tread wood now I ran out, think I'll make what I need since it's just flat strips anyway.

A couple of photos from today, one with the chair and table set in place to see how they look, I pencil marked the primed wall, down and around to give me some idea where the wainscot or similar will go, above that line will be wallpaper, under the stairs behind the table will be filled in with panelling. The window in the "dead space" can be seen through the doorway, it will need interior trim, it is primed and the visible part of that room will have a different treatment on the wall, likely wallpaper to the baseboard.

I find that I'm not as happy with the Houseworks door as I was but it'll do for this, I sanded down the too thick threshhold to about half it's thickness and rounded the two edges. The door itself is only hinged with a couple of pins from the top and bottom, it's hinge side was rounded out in an unrealistic way- done to allow the door to open without hitting the frame, I'd rather have real hinges and hardware, and squared edge.

Also the face boards of the HouseWorks door frame are somewhat crude- two vertical grooves, but given the bulk of the market these are geared for - dollhouses, they are very nice little works of craftsmanship, but for something aimed towards higher quality they are on the crude side.

These certainly could be given a much nicer, realistic profile with an appropriate cutter or router bit.

[Sable]

I've made custom baseboards and flower boxes by cutting window trim down the middle and attaching it to strips of basswood. See attached.

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=gallery&image=99402

[Guest Sculptor]

I've made custom baseboards and flower boxes by cutting window trim down the middle and attaching it to strips of basswood. See attached.

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=gallery&image=99402

That looks nice Sable, good idea!

I had in mind though a door casing more like these that I made using a router on oak:

And a baseboard like this :

I'm pretty sure I've seen a miniature molding the same as I made for the top of the baseboards in my house, the bottom is just a quarter round but this is all oak not basswood of course.

Northern has the door casing that looks the same but of course it's only basswood.

The baseboard top molding is not far removed from one of the wainscot moldings they have, but it could probably be made from a 1/6" cove and a 1/16" half round but the half round would need to be glued to a small square piece of wood to hold it and for the cove to glue down to, but then again those are only made in basswood.

I'd like to see what they use to make that 1/16" cove molding with, I showed it to the guys at work and they were amazed. I'd rather make the stuff out of mahogany than basswood but I don't see doing that without some expensive machine that can handle such tiny pieces of wood like 1/16".

The baseboard could probably be made in one strip with a custom made router bit or cutter, or at least 2 pieces- the quarter round could be added on.

[Guest Sculptor]

Today I applied the wallpaper to the inside of the exterior rear wall, the small portion that will only be visible through the open door. That YES! paste is a lot thicker than I imagined it would be, but I used a 2" wrush to spread a thin coat on the back of the wallpaper and it was easy to apply the paper to the wall with a minimal amount of fuss.

I set the baseboard in front of it for the photo, the baseboard will need to be lacquered yet as will the wainscot and door etc.

I also lacquered the mahogany floor, on which I used Sherwin WIlliams' medium satin rubbed effect lacquer, but I didn't stir it very much so that the stuff that makes it more satin would be somewhat reduced in the cup of it I put in the spray gun. I did that I would get a slightly shinier finish than the satin, but not a high gloss- I was pleased how it turned out, both the color of the stain and the level of the sheen.

I want to paper the three walls soon but I need to deal with the wainscot or panelling behind the stairs where that pencil line is so I have any routing done BEFORE putting paper on, I found a restored former mansion in NYC that has a staircase with what I had in mind for the wall behind my stairs, but unlike this which continues to the ceiling, mine will have a molding the height of the bannister, and above that will be wallpaper to the ceiling:

I can make those rectangular frames out of strips of molding once I decide their exact size and what molding I have that would look best, these in the mansion look like their length is about 3 steps wide with the space between them included, and no more than about 50% taller than the height of the steps, that's a nice scale size and it's topped with a chair rail type molding to complete that lower section of the wall.

An interesting thing I found recently describes classical moldings well and their use, that lower section of the mansion wall behind the steps is directly related to and taken from the classical pedistals used on columns, the wall would be the column shaft, the cornice or crown molding as the case may be at the top of the wall where it meets the ceiling would be related to the capital, it could be Corinthian, Doric, Composite, Ionic in style reference.

Ditto goes for wainscot itself- it's the pedistal base, and the inset panel relates to the inset panel of the pedistal, the baseboard relates to the pedistal's base plinth, and the chair rail topping the wainscot relates to the top molding of the pedistal.

The house with that white staircase by the way sold recently for $20 million and now is for sale for $28 million, here's some photos:

http://www.blocksy.com/nyc/townhouse/160756-54-east-64th-street#/0

[Caseymini]

Randall, the Yes glue is meant to be thinned with water. Always start with a damp brush and don't be afraid to keep dampening it as you go. Before I put my Yes glue jar away, I always make sure that I put a little water on top of the glue to keep it from drying out too. If you open it and find it too thick to work with, simply wet your brush and work it around in the jar until you get a consistency that you like.

Your room is coming along nicely.

[Guest Sculptor]

Thanks Casey, at first I thought maybe I got an older jar that had been sitting on the shelf a while and thickened up, I didn't notice anything on the label about thinning it or else I missed it, but I was able to spread it out with brush pressure.

I'm tempted to make the wainscot for behind the stairs out of mahogany- just a flat panel with raised half-round molding frames on it, OR if I'm feeling adventureistic I could compile up a molding from the 1/16" cove and the half-round to make a cove and bead molding to use.

I think the under stairs enclosure wall will be mahogany as well. I might work on that tomorrow so I can route the wall and finish that part so I can paper it soon- for now the wall is removable so I can access the narrow space behind it as wiring for a couple of lights will go up through there, so I'm not ready to make the wall permanent just yet.

A further back overall shot

[Guest Sculptor]

Here's the link to the web site that has an excellent page about classical moldings, wainscot etc., where they originate from, and how to use them:

http://www.thisiscarpentry.com/2012/11/23/the-magical-entablature/

[mesp2k]

Thanks Randall - great reference!

...check out the Featured Articles...there's a wealth of information!

[welcomehomeminis]

What Mike said. I never thought about it that way before! Printed and saved.

[Guest Sculptor]

What Mike said. I never thought about it that way before! Printed and saved.

Thanks Randall - great reference!

...check out the Featured Articles...there's a wealth of information!

Sure thing! frankly I never thought of it either, and architectural elements is a topic I know a lot about! I always thought they just put in whatever moldings and stuff looked good, but as it turned out the majority of this stuff all originated with a lot of care and thought- going back to the Greek and Roman period, more specifically the columns, capitals, entablatures and using the column diameter in multiples to come up with proportions for everything else so it all looked good.

A book I have:

The Carpenter and Joiner's Assistant

By James Newlands

1869 - Glasgow, Edinburgh and London - Blackie and Son

Is chock full of all the tricks and tools, methods and more, it very well shows how much geometry was used in all of the architure, how those gothic pointed-arch windows and doors were actually laid out using a compass (the kind you draw circles with not find directions from) how those crazy ceilings in mansions and churches were calculated and laid out also using geometry.

[havanaholly]

Dover reprints a lot of those old architecture textbooks.

[Guest Sculptor]

Dover reprints a lot of those old architecture textbooks.

Yes they have/do, a lot of books can also be downloaded free from Google books or archive.org for free if they are out of copyright.

"The Handbook of Ornament" 1898, is one of them that has lots of good stuff in it, it's over 500 pages. You can also have these books printed in hard copies very cheap from Google Books' links to the expresso books printers which can print any book Google has scanned, there's one at Harvard I have used before. I've had 3-4 old very thick books printed that way for about $12 each- keeping in mind these are books with more than 500 pages in them! the raw paper alone almost costs as much.

[Soapz]

Try the Gutenberg project - it takes a bit getting used to, but once you know your way around it is a great resource.

http://www.gutenberg.org/

[Guest Sculptor]

Now to finish my roombox I need a window curtain, a couple of carpets, table lamp, wiring it up, something for the ceiling which I haven't decided on yet, some kind of picture scene installed behind the window with a light to look like an outdoor scene through the glass, and I need to make something to cover the dead space on the left that looks finished, and can be opened to access the inside of that since there will be a light in it.

I decided early to make it exterior clapboard, and the edge of the plywood of the box will need a finished wood edge on it along with framing for glass. That clapboard piece I may work on today, it will need to hinge open and I happen to have some tiny brass hinges I was going to use a few years ago for something else but didn't, I think they will work for this.

I also made the little crown molding needed in the corner of the dead space which is visible through the open doorway, I made it from a composite of moldings plus the 1/2" crown molding to give it a little more depth, I'll repeat that in the rest of it.

I still need to finish the stairs and do the banister, I might have to wait till next weekend or later to mess with the banister as I will probably make some jig for it to rest in at a 45 degree angle and clamp it in the milling machine at work to drill the holes properly and evenly spaced using the digital read-out, but at the moment the machine is set up for drilling something else.

We have a second milling machine but it doesn't have the digital read-out and it's not as accurate either.

[Guest Sculptor]

As things go, I didn't do what I was going to work on, but I did start the backing panel for the clapboard, I still have to make the clapboard and I decided to make the lower 1/4 of the area a stone or brick.

I did cut some oak for the edging and need to finish other things before I can put this in, the glass will slide into a coule of grooves in the oak and there will be some sort of oak strips over the edges yet, but the photo shows the panel and the edging, the panel will want to be removable to allow easier access to the little space behind it since there will be a light in there too. There will be a corner molding at the wallpaper seam, and I'm waiting for the doorway and window trim as well.

After thinking about how to do the banister rail, I decided having the mill's digital read-out was not going to be of any help, so I made a quick and dirty jig to hold the banister 45 degrees to the other mill bed's vice, this mill is smalelr than the other one and it doesn't have the digital read-out but it was not set up for anyone's project so I was able to use it today.

These machines a great, you can do a lot with them, the company bought both of them used years ago from a used machinery dealer, the larger one was around $2700 which is not really a lot when you consider this is a major piece of heavy machinery, that one weighs around 3,500 pounds, this is below was I think around $1700 and it's smaller, probably around 1500 pounds.

With the two strips of wood, the banister fits snug but can be slid upwards to each pre-marked hole location, not as accurate as the digital read-out but close enough to do it this way than tilting the mill's head 45 degrees and then having to reset that back again!

I marked the holes for the banister by laying it against the stair treads and just marking the edges of the treads on the underside of the banister, the banister is over length and as a result I can just move it so the spindles are where ever I want them on the treads then cut the banister to length to fit the newel post.

I am using a #2 centerdrill, which if I needed a little more clearance to drill I could have swopped out the drill chuck and put in one of the collets to hold the centerdrill that is much narrower, but the chuck cleared the work area just fine.

Why use a centerdrill like this instead of just a drill bit you might ask?

Because of two reasons:

1) Small drill bits tend to wander and also BEND

2) drilling at an angle like this no small drill bit will ever drill straight, as soon as it touches the dood it would start bending over.

That is the nice thing about the centerdrills, they are very stiff, and you only use them to drill a small shallow spotting hole.

The banister's profile is odd and not easy to clamp right, the only FLAT surface is it's bottom, which in the picture faces up, i was holding the banister flat and firmly against the upper strip of wood and against the backing plywood so that the holes would drill 90 degrees to the sides of the banister.

Once I had all 12 holes spotted, I drilled down a little way with a 1/16" bit, then I dry fitted the spindles in and they are all nice and snug and the correct 45 degree angle, then I placed the unglued assembly on the steps to see how it looks:

So actually drilling the holes turned out to be pretty simple, and I really like the fact that the spindles won't just be held in with a minute spot of glue on their tops, that they will have an actual mechancal connection to the banister that for all practical purposes doesn't even really NEED any glue there.

[Selkie]

Very nice. Wish I had a tool like that available. Do you think it is could be possible to create a jig/set up that could be used in a standard drill press?

[Guest Sculptor]

Very nice. Wish I had a tool like that available. Do you think it is could be possible to create a jig/set up that could be used in a standard drill press?

Certainly, it would be of great help to have a vice or similar to clamp the jig to, but in lieu of that, you can certainly screw that vertical plywood jig to something like the adge of a nicely squared-off foot long 2x4 which will lay flat on the drill press table- ideally clamped down to the table in place so it stays still while you concentrait on holding the banister and drilling rather than holding the jig, holding the banister and drilling.

That's one of the niceties of the mill- the drill head stays still, the table (bed) can be moved L-R, F-B, up and down to move the workpiece where you want it in relation to the drill, and that bed is solid and can be locked in place too.

It took some doing but I should now have what I need to finish the room, I ordered the transformer, two light sockets and bulbs for the dead space lighting, an outlet for the table lamp, a table lamp, 2 carpets, two packages of those brackets, a package of brick and some other stuff.

One of the "other stuff" I bought was this little collie which I may see how he works in this room in some way, his ears are not correct for a collie but I may be able to modify them a little;

[Guest Sculptor]

I received the 3 arm chandelier I ordered, it's MH734 but I'm wondering how these are usually installed on the ceiling? just hanging on the wire tight against the ceiling? It doesn't have any what I would consider a mouting provision other than dangling on the wire, the decorative base that normally in real houses covers the electrical box and wires has a little self-stick dot on it but that method is real funky for hanging something like this long term, and the ceiling won't be flat enough to stick to it anyway.

I'm planning to use a ceiling rosette.

I ordered some embossed ceiling paper I liked, so that will be the decorative ceiling.

[Anna]

Randall, I might be off a little here but I think you could use an adapter like this from Cir-kit, I have some in my "someday" stash so never actually used them myself.

http://cir-kitconcepts.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6_28

Good luck though!

[KathieB]

Randall, I might be off a little here but I think you could use an adapter like this from Cir-kit, I have some in my "someday" stash so never actually used them myself.

http://cir-kitconcepts.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6_28

Good luck though!

The twister caps work fine. The ones with straight pins just can't overcome gravity; the lights will eventually fall down.

[Guest Sculptor]

Oh that's perfect thanks!

[Guest Sculptor]

Still waiting for a few items ordered, but I did some more work on this.

Hard to see but the ceiling now has the embossed paper on it, the dead space room on the left is done except for the curtains, the ceiling has a cornice and embossed paper in the far corner as that can be seen through the open doorway at a lower angle of view, the doorway itself now has the casing and corner blocks installed along with the wainscot and that wall is now screwed in place.

The stairway is now cut to length and the ceiling above is routed in 3/8 of an inch- that area will get painted dark and the opening will have a little "skirt" molding around it's edge to hide the edge of the plywood and close it in a bit, the stairs are not finished yet and can't go in till the wall paper is put in on the right wall. Under the stairs it will be partially enclosed as will the underside of the stairs itself.

I have the oak frame for the front made but not what it needs to hold the glass in place figured out yet.

The ceiling fixture is just clamped in place and not permanent yet till I finish the ceiling cornices and all that.

I'm going to route the plywood over to the dead space and down into that for it's lamp, and the run the wire to the rear dead space for the lamp behind the door for lighting in there, and then down and out.

I'm thinking it would be nice if the ceiling panel can be made removable for access if needed, but we'll see- the front frame and the stairway stuff might be a little tricky to put them in in such a way the ceiling can be lifted off without disturbing those. The stairs could be attached to the wall and not to the ceiling at all I guess, we'll see, but that's the idea I had to be able to access the dead spaces, lights and make it easier to do any repair if ever needed if something came loose like wallpaper or whatever.

I need a transparancy of an outdoor scene behind the window glass of some kind, but I don't want to use an inkjet to do it because those inks are crap and start fading rapidly- some faster than others but they all fade, I was thinking of a photo place like Shutterfly or the like that prints on Kodak photo paper using real photo dyes- much more durable, but I was really only able to find what they are calling backlit signs- the plastic signs you see at airports and the like with a light behind a transparent image- very vivid but most seem to be large, printed on plexiglass and the like, but I'm still researching that, I just don't want a cheap inkjet print in there and having to constantly replacing it due to fade and color shifts, besdies, I no longer have a color inkjet I got sick of the hassles with the damn things so I went to a monchrome lazer printer with toner.

I hooked up a 9 volt battery (all I had on hand) to the light to see how it looks.

[Selkie]

One idea for the window might be cutting a portion of a picture from a calendar. The quality of the photos on nicer calendars is high enough quality that we have matted and framed some and they have stood up well.

[Guest Sculptor]

One idea for the window might be cutting a portion of a picture from a calendar. The quality of the photos on nicer calendars is high enough quality that we have matted and framed some and they have stood up well.

Yeah that would work ok too because those are printed with decent quality inks. A real photo would work too, though I think if the image is semi transparent and can be backlit a bit from behind it would be much a much nicer, more realistic daytime scene that will also add some light into the little space.

That's one of the reasons they use those backlit signs with the light inside behind the image.

My window will only be visible at an angle thru the doorway, and it will have tied back curtains, so not a lot of the area of the glass will actually be clearly visible, but some of it will be so I think going for maximum effect with back lighting might have the effect I'm hoping for.

[Debra from Olde Cape Cod]

Check out the greeting card aisle. Some have beautiful scenes printed on clear overlays that you could cut off. Got a nice stained glass angel that way off a Christmas card.