Pulp Art Bricks

While working on pricing for an upcoming proposal, I was recommended to check out Pulp Art Surfaces. This company provides brick and stone surfaces (as well as others) either as a finished print that can be applied to a wall, or as a 3-D (approximately 3/16" - 1/4" thick) material made from recycled paper, card board and wood chips. The sheet is raw, so it will still need to have scenic art applied, but the bricks can be easily cut to go around corners. The person making the recommending the product to me prefers it to vaccuform. The price seemed reasonable, though it would quickly add up. While there would be fright charges, there is no additional charge for shipping prep. Take a look the next time you have a design for rock or brick walls.

Stagelam

I was digging through some samples in my office and came across a couple of pieces of Stage Lam. It is a black product, made for staging. You can buy it standard sheet sizes from 1/8" thick to 1 1/2" thick. It is fairly scratch resistance, and you can lightly sand scratches out (the material is black all the way through the material.

Enkerboll Designs

While looking for some architectural moldings I can across Enkerboll Designs today. They have a large variety of moldings, rosettes, onlays, finials, and other moldings. It is a good reference.

We also source moldings from Moulding and Millwork. They have a variety of catalogs that you can download on the site.

Wood Balls

Seems like I am often in search of teh most random things. Todays quest - 3" wooden balls. Premier Wood Products has them up to 18" in diameter. Don't expect it to come cheap that large though - the cheapest (pine poplar or mapple is $683, and other woods can run up to & over a thousand. They have other items - appliques and overlays, corbels and brackets and columns and pilasters among others.

Casey's Wood Products also has a wide varity of items, but they tend more towards game pieces, starts and craft cutouts than architectural details.

Woodworks, ltd. has a wide variety of wooden shapes & also sells wooden kitchen utensils.

Bear Woods has turnings, including balls, as well as clock parts and other craft items.

Craft America has a crazy assortment of wooden items acrylic items, as well as much more. It's an odd collection of craft stuff.

Deck Wrench

This Hardwood Deck Wrench looks like it could be a helpful addition to the shop. I like that it can be used with 1 person, and that you don't need to screw it into position to use it.

Check it out!

Decking Calculator

I was looking up some information about the specific weight of an exotic hardwood and came by Advantage Trim & Lumber.

I thought it was interesting for several reasons. First, they have a great selection of wood, and can ship ($100 min.), plus they provide information about the species. They carry FSC wood for LEED credits. They also carry several different types of planking. And what is nifty - is that they have a planking calculator that converts square footage to linear feet for either 5" or 3 1/2" planks.

Alternative Materials

I was looking through an ad for books relating to design and architecture and thought that a couple were worth pointing out.

The first is Materiology by Daniel Kula. It discussed a wide variety of materials as well as how the materials are made. It seemed like a book that would have been perfect when I was taking "Advanced Materials" in grad school.

Another is Materials for Inspirational Design. It offers a view into a variety of materials, uses, and even rough pricing.

Browsing through Amazon offers a variety of books on the subject of materials. Happy browsing!

New Beginnings

Well the new year is hear, and I haven't shared as much as I would have liked to. Project wise, most of my time has been spent on a large museum piece that has been going on for over a year, and many of the others are much smaller than in the past thanks to economy. But here's to a new year and more exciting technical exploration.

I found a site that could be useful to anyone thinking about building green near NYC. Its Build it Green, NYC. It is a large warehouse that sells reclaimed materials. Its interesting for theatrical use in several ways. First, theatre tends to be anything but green, and frequently wastes alot of material. Second, reclaimed materials may actually fit the bill for certain designs better than new - save some of the distressing! They also take in cabinets, fixtures and other "props" that could be useful. And, some of those items could be returned after a production when they are no longer needed. It may also save a few bucks.

Cost is usually the biggest issue against going green - finding resources where you can use reclaimed materials at prices that make it worth it are valuable. Check it out & let me know if you find other resources like it.

"Opera Pins"

I heard a term today in the shop that was new - Opera pins.



They are really just large shop-built lift-off hinges. But they do work nicely.

Dykes Lumber

On the East, (though I see is everywhere) Dyke's Molding numbers are often called out on designs. Dykes now has their molding catalog available online. They also have flexible moldings available in all of their profiles.

Molding Resources

Moldings and decorative elements can be hard to find and specific to the manufacturer. Below are a variety of resources to help locate decorative elements, or can assist with ideas when designing.


Frank Morrow Company has a variety of metal stampings and architectural details.

Decorators Supply has a large variety of wooden and plaster decorative details. While you can order their catalogs (which are great as a resource), you can also browse online and get a variety of CAD downloads.

Architectural Depot

Cast Design Supply

Van Dykes Restorers

Historical Arts and Castings

Woodworking Resources

The following link has a huge list of suppliers for various woodworking products including plans, tools, furniture pieces, and carving / turning blanks. The list includes Klockit, Rockler and Van Dykes Restorers, all of which I have previously enjoyed working with.

http://www.showevent.com/home/woodworking.shtml

Board Foot Calculator

For no good reason other than being a little lazy, I have been using this calculator to do the job for me. There are, of course, tons of versions out there. And frankly, the conversion is pretty easy, so I probably should just do the math...
or you could refer to a chart:

1” x 4” x 1’ = 0.33 bd. ft.
1” x 6” x 1’ = 0.50 bd. ft.
1” x 8” x 1’ = 0.67 bd. ft.
1” x 10” x 1’ = 0.83 bd. ft.
1” x 12” x 1’ = 1.0 bd. ft.
2” x 4” x 1’ = 0.67 bd. ft.
2” x 6” x 1’ = 1.0 bd. ft.
2” x 8” x 1’ = 1.33 bd. ft.
2” x 10” x 1’ = 1.67 bd. ft.
2” x 12” x 1’ = 2.0 bd. ft.

Check here for a more inclusive reference list. And here for a version available for excel.

Fake Rivets

It seems as though it is always the weird things that take the most time to hunt out. This time I am searching for alternatives for fake rivets. I believe the last time I did this the rivets were on the smallish size, and I think we made them by sculpting them around a bolt head. They looked nice, but were time consuming if I remember correctly.

One option I am looking at is upholstery tacks. The size I am looking for current is around an 1 1/2" and there are a few that come close, and look good. DIY Upholstery Supply has a number of decorative nail options larger than an 1". Such as:


The other option is mushroom plugs or buttons. I can get these in hardwoods that will match the rest of the construction, but do not come in the current size I am looking for. While these are pretty common, Bear Woods has a variety of wood parts and pieces. They also have a variety of wooden game parts. Cherry Tree Toys has a similar stock of merchandise, which I have used before.

Molding References

Looking through molding resources for a current historical project I am bidding I found a few resources I thought would be useful to post here.

First, Hyde Park Moldings, has a variety of useful moldings. They also have an article describing the different materials molding is made from.

Balmer also has a variety of moldings available, as well as custom and made to order pieces. They also have pricing available online and cad drawings.

Focal Point also has some pieces available online, but I think the most interesting thing about Focal Point is their Quick Clips. This item is a faster system where brackets are installed to the walls, and then the cornice snaps into the previously installed brackets. They are also reusable if adhesive is not used, which means that they could be used for theatre work.

Since we are on the topic of molding anyway, Lee Valley has a tool that is also useful for mounting molding. In this case its a jig that helps you keep the cornice at teh correct height / angle, and then slipps out from behind the piece so you can move on to the next piece.

Resources

Freeman Manufacturing Supply has a video library that is a free how-to regarding mold making, casting and laminating. They also sell a variety of sample kits and other supplies. Their video collect has over 2 hours of content, plus their technical library has some useful resources as well. These resources include a glossary of plastic tooling terms, shore hardness guidelines, viscosity guidelines, and conversion tables. Another section of their site has a variety of users guides, such as one on selecting the right adhesive.

One line of their products is called Renshape and is polyurethane foamboard for machining. This line seems intriguing for machining via the CNC machine.

Last but not least they have some alternative lumber products like a pre-primed white Masonite sheet and "armorboard" an exterior grade plywood with hardboard faces.

lumber storage

Toolcrib had a post recently about lumber storage that I thought I would pass along. You can check it out at:

http://www.toolcrib.com/blog/2008/09/17/wood-storage-101-14-lumber-storage-plans-and-7-storage-tips/

The post has photos and rough plans of multiple storage solutions. I also thought that the rack / panel saw could be a potential space saver for my shop in the garage. Though, I would be wary of the wheels.It would have to have a very positive locking mechanism for me to think the cart safe and practical to use in that manner.

Cut List Programs

I was browsing Toolcrib this evening and found a blog entry about cut list programs (see link below). I thought it was worthwhile for a couple of reasons. First, while probably too time consuming for general shop use, it could be useful when using critical resources. Like for special prop piece that needs a $100 a sheet material.... Second it reminded me of our cnc machine that does this automatically (I learned this after I spent several hours arranging an entire job into 4x8 squares since the machines I had used in the past didn't have that feature). Third, it is actually an interesting thought process, both in the thought required to layout the materials in order to reduce scrap, and in cutting the material. For instance in the article I refer to below, there is a definite order in which you would want to cut the materials to ensure straight cuts.

Two concerns - one, which is compensated for within the program, is cutting thickness. Secondly, in critical applications I would be concerned about grain orientation. While this wouldn't matter in some situations, it can be critical in others.

http://www.toolcrib.com/blog/2008/11/15/2-free-cutlist-programs-that-minimize-scrap-for-woodworkers/

Making floors that are quiet

I found this site while looking for information about homasote or Celotex:
http://www.soundstopunderlayment.com/learningcenter/LearningCenter.aspx
The link has two things going for it – information regarding several different types of underlayment and sound characteristics. While we frequently don’t build stage floors the same way that we build homes, we do run into some of the same problems (sound), and with the prices on some of the flooring alternatives out there, using the real thing for the floor is a very real option.

Lumber Resources

The following are a few resources dealing mostly with lumber:

Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Materialhttp://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/fplgtr113.pdf

Wood Web, a resource providing general knowledge regarding lumber. Their knowledge base provides information regarding adhesives, millwork, business, and cabinet making, laminating, wood engineering and many other topics.
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Warp_in_Drying.html

Southern Pine By Design FAQ
http://www.southernpine.com/expert/faq.pl?leafcode=33

Article about Warping and Drying in Lumber, and few others if you go a little further back in the directory.
http://www.colostate.edu/programs/cowood/library/Tech/Warp_in_Drying.pdf