Another view of the same scrap piece of cherry. In both pictures, the surfaces have only been minimally sanded, and a single coat of blonde shellac has been brushed on. In the final product, proper sanding will be done, and 3-4 coats of the shellac will be sprayed on, weather permitting.

EDIT: and despite photographic appearances, the wood is not warped on the lower right (nor elsewhere) -- that's just the curly depth of the wood playing tricks with the light

Cheers

Wow, very nice stuff! Did you buy the cherry specifically for docks or was it from a previous project?

I recently laid out some big bucks for a very small stack of curly cherry boards -- just cuz they were available at somewhat less than the normal outrageous price. I really do think that cherry is the most beautiful abundant hardwood in these parts, and the curls just take it to a new level. It goes without saying (but since I'm typing not talking here..) that the photos don't do it proper justice.

These four docks are being constructed from a single 8' x 5/4 x 9" board, with grain matched top and bottom where feasible. Most cherry is sold in smaller widths, and the wider boards (anything over 8") are priced higher per-board foot, due to their relative scarcity.

I really do appreciate the chance to get into my shop and play with this stuff again. Thanks, all!

Cheers

Wow, looks gorgeous. Can't wait to see it in person.

Very nice. I'd be amazed if I could even *dream* of knowing how to use the tools that you have to create the edges (bevel?) on that raised section.

Mm, only 4 created. Maybe the "PCA TV Out board" is the only empeg thing more rare than these pieces. Perhaps I should have some of buttons cast from solid gold (or translucent gold?!) just to make my project interesting.

Can't wait to see the full docks!

It's called a router. They're actually easier to use than you think, especially if you have a router table.

Naw.. rooters are for managing my internet connectivity, routers are for edge treating the docks (and grooving out the airflow channel).

Cheers

Mmm.. my avatar seems to have gone missing.. uploading a new one here. Please ignore this posting.

Lots of old avatars still used the empeg.comms.net address. Hopefully it will come back shortly.

Also, the user control panel allows uploading of avatars now, though your profile may cause an unrelated bug that I hope to fix tomorrow.

Well, time for an update on these.

Yesterday was our 5th "Go and Get 'Em" geocaching event. I managed to log all 25 new caches in the 24 hour event period, including a healthy nine hours of sleep time, so all is well.

Both the curly cherry docks and the shells are now complete, at least with regards to the woodworking. Next, the shells need to be wired for ethernet, and then sold and shipped; the curly cherry docks will spend much of this week having blonde shellac sprayed onto them. My prototype looks better than I expected after a single coat, so there's still reasonable hope that these babies will shine.

Cheers

Here (attached) is one of the curly cherry docks, with one coat of clear shellac. These are currently light in colour, but cherry does darken with age (exposure to light), so over time they'll mellow to a nice rudy brown.

Cheers

*drool*

Yeah, I second that! *Drool!*

That is beautiful Mark.

It's just a model.

That looks great. I think I'd be afraid to use it!

WOW, very nice. That would look great in my cherry cumputer cabnet. Lets see 150 dollares plus my full works dock on trade in. Tony you do not really need a cherry dock.

Construction and finish look fantastic. It's a shame you didn't do the side pieces in cherry too. Still, quite nice!

I actually like the two-tone effect of using a different material for the sides, not the mention the extreme convenience of already having them on-hand from the last batch of 180 docks.

It takes about 24 individual cuts to make each side piece, along with associated machine setup times for each. And the left and right sides are *different* from each other (mirror images, actually), so not all setups can be shared between the two.

Thus, the only way I would ever make new ones (from cherry or anything else) would be for another VERY large batch of docks.

Cheers

Hey, Mark, if this really is your last batch of docks...

And, being a supporter of the open-source movement...

What do you think of the idea of open-sourcing the dock? (Creating and publishing a set of plans?)

If you have the skills/tools to create the docks the way they are designed, you should be able to reverse-engineer the docks Mark as designed without much problem. I lifted parts of his design for my dock, and the hardest part is just getting all your tools set up to make the precise cuts. The dimesions and general design should be easy to figure out. Not saying everyone should steal the exact design, though.

Okay, the four curly cherry docks now have enough coats of shellac for a nice satin finish. They look good enough to me that I'm thinking of holding one back for myself now.. heh heh. These now need wiring before they can be sold and shipped.

The five shells are also complete, with respect to the woodworking, and also now await wiring of the ethernet connections.

Meanwhile..

While spray-finishing the cherry ones, I had one extra cherry top piece that was used for machine setup/test and also for testing of the shellac finish.

It seemed just too nice to chuck at the end, so I've gone and made a dock out of it, with MDF for all of the other pieces. It took some scavenging of the scrap heap to find a lost pair of side pieces for it, but it's now glued up and ready to sell as a shell. Looks rather nice, I believe.

For now, I'll hang onto it, until all of the other docks have new owners.
Then, it will be time to figure out some way to put it up for grabs here.

Cheers

*gets down on his knees and prays he is lucky enuff to get one*
Please Oh please!!!

I don't think blowing you a kiss would work