Begin making trophies in, 3.. 2..1.. FIRE!

[Arzrover]

VERY nice work, Tom. Thanks for giving us a glimpse into the effort required to make such seemingly simple things . Your skills and knowledge are incredible there!

Looking forward to seeing you at EBR.

Bob

 

[Tominco]

The "Impossible Pellet" update...

The plan and the board together. I picked a nice wide piece of Walnut in order to maintain the grain pattern. 

After a little sanding to get the numbers off, I wipe on a little paint thinner in order to give me an idea what it'll look like. Lovely!! 

Here's the blank all marked out with the plan. 

Dang it! I cut my push block making the strips. **sigh...**

To make things worse, I cut the strip about 1/16th" too narrow. That's ok though, I'll use this one somewhere else. 

Next is a little mock up with the properly cut strips. Looks good! 

The first cut is a tough one. Not only am I slicing this beautiful piece of walnut in half diagonally but, the angle has to be correct both vertically and horizontally. Any deviation from this can cause the whole piece to be scrapped. I also need to cut it twice in order to take out the full 1/4". So, I got things set up on the chop saw and ran my first cut fine. Then, I moved the piece over a little in order to make the second cut. While cutting, the saw bumped into the clamping handle that was holding the wood down. That's all it took to give me a bad cut...

I really don't like throwing away a nice piece of walnut like this without trying to salvage it. My new project became sanding this cut to perfection before moving on. I managed to pull that off and moved on to glue up. This is a multi part glue up and cut project. and it's nearly impossible to fix so, I take it one step at a time. 

This is the tough spot for glue up. I have to keep pressure on the joint but also make sure the original piece is square and the grain stays in line. It's very likely to slide along the diagonal due to how slippery the glue is. I also have to keep everything at the same elevation. With everything clamped, I need to be patient. There's a lot to lose if I rush it and make a mistake. 

So, I put it aside and work on gluing up some other blanks since the glue is already out. 

And, there they sit all clamped up tight and drying. 

Tom

 

[Tominco]

@Arzrover - Thank for the compliment Bob! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again too! 

 

[Tominco]

Continuing on the impossible pellet,

Now that the red stripe is set in place, it's time to move on to getting the blue and yellow in place. Which means I get to cut right through all the work I've done so far. But, first I need to level the face since I'm working with the laminate. 

Off to the new sander for some bulk sanding. and then some fine sanding by hand. 

A little paint thinner to remove the sanding dust, show the finish, and allow me to check on the glued up seam. No gaps! This is looking good so far. 

Sometimes it's easier to glue the stripes together before gluing them into the blank. It allows me to have more control over how they mate up as well. Here's 2 sets of stripes being glued up in the vise. I did the same thing with the blue and yellow. You can see them sitting on the bench top in my last post in the pic with all the clamps. 

The center wood in these is Bocote. It's usually used in making knife handles, fancy pens, and other smaller jobs. It's very beautiful and very dense. 

Cut, glued, sanded, and looking good! All the grain lines are in line as well. There's still a long way to go with this so, the leftover glue you see on the blue will stay there until the final sanding. 

Looking very good! No gaps in the seams, nice tight bonds, everything looks sharp and crisp at the intersection. 

I'm up to 6 blanks now. Glued, sanded, and ready for shaping. 

I'm hoping to be able to get back into the shop over the next few days but, I've got work, overtime, practice for EBR, and other responsibilities to take care of. I hope you're all enjoying this and will update you when I get some more work done. 

Happy Shooting!

Tom

 

[Dirte]

Very nice shop! Love how you integrated the laminate. CNC is sure fun to play with.

 

[Peskådot671]

You have some great woodworking skills there Tom. I wish I had the tools, space, time and skill to do what you do. Where do you find the time to shoot your airguns lol?

 

[intenseaty22]

Very nice shop! Love how you integrated the laminate. CNC is sure fun to play with.

Where have you been Dirty Man? Been a while since I see ya around. Good to see you still lurking about.

 

[Dirte]

Working on my woodworking shop! Not gone just swamped this last year. Need to shoot more.........Which will come soon.

 

[Tominco]

Hey Dirte! Great to see you poke your head back out. LOL!

 

[Tominco]

The hard part about getting the correct colors to come out of the laminates is getting those colors to line up during the glue process. On this one, I want the Orange, Blue, and Pink to all line up on the finished top surface. If they shift while being glued... I'm screwed! lol! 

This was a big glue up day! I almost ended up searching for more clamps!!! 

Meanwhile, outside in the real world... I had no idea there was a big old wildfire blowing up in the next county. No danger to me but, it was really cooking! I could smell it in the afternoon and even had little white flakes of ash falling around the house. As far as I know, this one is all in wilderness with no homes threatened.

A short while after taking that picture, I took this one. With the sun being blocked by smoke, it really reminded me of "Eclipse Day 2017". 

I can't show you guys the finished trophy plaques until after the event. But, I can show you some other neat by products from doing this job. Some of my cutoffs are pretty neat looking...

And, I have a LOT of them! There's pieces in this bucket from last years trophies. I'm thinking I might glue a bunch of them together and make something out of them someday. 

Frank, the "Shop Boss" seemed unimpressed that I was taking his picture and started yelling at me to get back to work or go get food or something. He's sitting on the top of my filming studio. 

The riskiest part of making these is the shaping process. This is the part when a really good looking blank can turn into complete scrap in an instant. I've lost many during this step and I've also learned a lot along the way. What really makes it bad is the amount of time I have already put in by the time I reach this stage. It's not just toss a bunch of pieces together and go for glue. There's a lot of designing that goes into these. Sometimes I have only one piece of a particular type of wood with a particular type of grain pattern that matches up really well with the next piece of wood which is also the only one I have that would look just right. To see those ones get torn up really sucks. I've had to walk away from it for the day a few times. 

Sometimes the shavings can look pretty neat though! One of these piles is from the grand champions trophy. 

Shaping is where I've lost all but one of the "Impossible pellet" attempts. But, this time...I PULLED IT OFF!!! It looks as though someone WILL be winning my favorite design at Extreme Benchrest this year! WooHoo!!

After the blanks get to this step, I will generally move on to cutting in the keyhole slots which allow them to be hung on the wall. Then, I round over the edges and move on to sanding. More on that in my next update!

Tom

 

[Tominco]

I have spilled my blood for this years competitors!! LOL! Not a big deal, really. I was using a new razor blade and nicked myself. 

Here's my jig and router ready to cut a keyhole into one of the trophies. This process presents its own unique risks such as a piece being off center or possibly moving while cutting. 

A finished keyhole.

Next up is sanding! 

 

[Tominco]

UGH... HAND SANDING!!!

Luckily, I only have to hand sand around the edges. I can use the RO sander on the faces and to remove pencil lines off the backs. As much as I don't like hand sanding, it is pretty important. The shaping process often leaves some burn marks in different areas of the piece.

When my arm starts getting tired and I don't feel like hand sanding anymore, I start to think about the winner that will be receiving it. I want them to have something that they will enjoy looking at and that will bring back memories of a happy time for them. That thought quickly gets me focused and motivated again. 

Hand sanding allows me to remove the burns as well as smooth out the rough areas. Additionally, I generally like to soften the hard edge from the face to the round over (which you can see in the above pic).

This year, I took a few of them to a new level with super fine sand paper. And, yes, I really did go up to 800 grit. LOL! I liked the results too so, I just ended up doing all of them. Getting to the final grit is a stepped process. I'll bulk sand with 100 or 180 grit through the drum sander. As soon as I reach a level surface, I stop and transition the RO sander for the rest. Then, I start steppin' 150 to remove the lines from the drum sander, 220, 320, 400, 600, and finally 800. A little trick I learned is to scribble on the face with a pencil between each grit. This ensures that I'm getting the proper depth of sanding and that I don't miss any areas. 

I don't think anyone could tell the difference between the finish of these ones and the ones I did last year which were final sanded to about 320. But I can tell you, they were smooth as glass when I got done! 

Tom

 

[Tominco]

After I'm satisfied with the sanding, I remove all the leftover sawdust from all the little grain cavities with compressed air. 

Wiping with paint thinner at this stage not only helps to remove dust and debris but, it also gives me my first look at how the finished piece is going to turn out. 

Here they are all stacked up and ready to move on to the finishing area. 

The finishing area is actually just the garage. I hang them from the garage door track and disconnect the door so it doesn't open. I've got a few windows in the garage which allows for a nice gentle cross breeze and decent ventilation. After the finish is completed, I'll move on to attaching the medallions.

Overall, the shop hasn't turned into too much of a mess this time! 

Well... That's really all I can show you guys about this process, for now. I want to show you the faces but, I also want to keep some level of surprise for the competitors going to EBR this year.

The laser is running in that last pic. I'm working on another special surprise project for EBR this year. I'll post more about that as the event gets closer.

I really hope you've all enjoyed watching this process unfold as much as I've enjoyed making them! 

Tom 

 

[jking]

Ok, Tom enough is enough!! Time to come clean on whats really going on here. I've had suspicions for a long time and I'm sure other are thinking the same...You KNOW what were talking about so don't play stupid. WE WANT To KNOW where do you have them poor little elves locked up and out of sight when it's photo time. I have a good hankering to turn you in to the ELM! (elves lives matter) authorities. You better hurry up and get done with them, throw a few pesos there way and send them packing back up north. haha!

Oh and btw they do excellent work even though your probably in the way most of the time.....

Jimmy

 

[Tominco]

Ok, Tom enough is enough!! Time to come clean on whats really going on here. I've had suspicions for a long time and I'm sure other are thinking the same...You KNOW what were talking about so don't play stupid. WE WANT To KNOW where do you have them poor little elves locked up and out of sight when it's photo time. I have a good hankering to turn you in to the ELM! (elves lives matter) authorities. You better hurry up and get done with them, throw a few pesos there way and send them packing back up north. haha!

Oh and btw they do excellent work even though your probably in the way most of the time.....

Jimmy

Oh, that's easy Jimmy! I lock them up in the airgun studio and make them clean it! LOL! 

If you're going to turn me in to "ELM" you should do if for the times when I terrorize them by letting Frank in the studio to chase them around! 

 

[Tominco]

FAIL!!!! 

Trophy plaque #13 went defective while doing some light sanding today. I was not happy with the finish and was sanding off the old finish when I noticed the orange was getting darker. I sanded through the bottom of the orange laminate and into the next color. 

I wasn't all that please with the dark staining in the center piece anyway. So, I'm not too upset that this one went bad. It did have some nice figuring to it though!

Once it goes "defect", it gets destroyed! 

This will go into the scrap bin and most likely end up in the fireplace. It's not a total loss since it'll help keep me warm. LOL! 

The replacement is already in the works. I decided to electrocute this one which is a new technique for me. It's extremely dangerous so, I won't go into detail about how it's done. But, the effect is pretty cool!

Due to the steps involved with the electrocution method and the use of different colored laminates, this might be the most complex design I've tried to pull off. 

Fingers are crossed that it turns out ok!

 

[intenseaty22]

Tom, that design failed because you are mixing UM colors with UF colors. Stick with the UM colors and you are sure to succeed. 

 

[Tominco]

I have no idea what you mean but, I'll keep it in mind for next time! LOL!

It worked out for the better, anyway. The replacement trophy looks a lot better! 

 

[Tominco]

Well, they're done as far as I'm taking them!  

The final step is going to be a group effort between myself and a few other big names in the industry to decide which trophy plaque goes to what event. I have decided on three of them so far. 

I'm planning on using the "Impossible Pellet" design for Speed Silhouette since it was originally inspired by that event. Good luck, speed shooters!! 

Good luck to all the competitors heading to the 2019 Extreme Benchrest Competition!! 

 

[Tominco]

In all my excitement at EBR, I completely forgot to take individual pics of each trophy plaque. This is one of the last times they were all together. 

I got LOTS of compliments on the "lightning" clock. I'll definitely be doing something like this again after the great reception I received on it! 

The impossible pellet clock ended up going to Mr. Ken Hicks!