Tuesday, June 16, 2009

How to Build an Ocean

So on Sunday I built two oceans, with some help from my lovely hub Justin...


First I traced the wave pattern onto a 4' x 8' sheet of Masonite.

Close up.


Next, I cut down some 1x6's to use for the sides.


Justin brought over his handy dandy compressor so I could use the pneumatic stapler.
It was fabulous...


I glued up the sides...


And clamped them in place...


And stapled the mess out of 'em.

Once the two sides were on, I cut and fit a 1x3 for the bottom piece...


And also stapled the mess out of that.


In order to make this panel hang on the wall easily while supporting the weight of the sculpture that's going on it, I knew I wanted to do a french cleat. Justin cut the cleat for me and attached one piece of it to the 1x6 that is the top of the panel.


The cleat.


Gluing the cleat to the 1x6.


And Justin stapled the heck out of that...he even threw in some screws for good measure.


This is us placing the top piece. We had to make sure it was low enough that it doesn't show when I cut out the waves.

More stapling.


Assembled panel.


Me cutting out waves.


Finished ocean hanging on its cleat.
Now all it needs is some patching, sanding and painting....sheesh!


Side view.

2 comments:

Dees said...

Geeeeeez you look totally cool doing all that yourself:-)and really cool Justin helps you out a lot.My husband Pim always helps me with everything too.He is very much into cars and knows alot about ...well everything LOL.Can't wait to see your finished ocean!

Darla said...

Thanks!!! I have to admit that the stapler freaked me out a bit at first (with visions of stapled fingers and such) but it was a dream to use!
And I love a man who gets down and dirty helping out his lady :)
!!