Inspiration

Clutter. I can’t tolerate it. In my opinion nothing is more detrimental to the creative process than an untidy workspace. As James Brown said “Papa Don’t Take No Mess”.

I’ve been troubled lately that my guitars are all over the house. Some of them are where they belong, in the musical man cave where I spent a lot of free time. Some are in cases, some are in those singular ugly stands from music supply stores. Let’s organize my guitars for easy access, just like my tools!

I have seen a couple of plans, and the one that grabs me the most is a little beyond my current abilities and would be easier with the right tools. As I’m a power hand tool user, I thought that for this effort I should concentrate on using my corner clamps, which was a shortcut I took for my drink stand.

First Step: Assembling the Base

Another portion of this outing is the choice of poplar. While pine would likely be softer, I wanted to venture into a different density of wood, like trying new canvas or paper for visual artists. Here is the assembled base with a closeup of the clamps.

You really need these if you are going to get into woodworking. Mine were a gift from my brother when he saw a stretched canvas that wasn’t “true”, but if lost or stolen I’d buy them again in a heartbeat. Required!

Assembling the Two Parts

After a few hours of basic carpentry, the stand is functionally done. The next steps are ornamental, some might say optional – but I’ve already taken a few shortcuts – I feel compelled to add the suggested felt fabric in spots (most plans online call for carpet) and likely a quick coat of polyurethane. Not seeing a need to add stain, I want to bring this into use sooner rather than later.

The Fender Strat seems to like its new home pictured, but the first real wrinkle reared its head when my Fender Precision Bass was touching the floor in the cradle. Will have to improvise “feet” or find some ready-made on the shelves. I went with additional felt to cradle the instruments against the epoxy cement floor finish.

Lessons Learned

Not really a new lesson, but a recurring theme: these things take time! I rushed to synchronize the rare arrival of my new addition. There are plenty of rough edges and I could have put another week of finesse into this. Also, perhaps oil-based finish is the way to go. Even though water-based is easier to clean up, I used four coats of polyurethane and it is only a hint of the polish I wanted.

Finale

If you’ve arrived here from Search and are interested in trying this, feel free to ask any questions. The point is that if I could do it, anyone can – but you should have at least the basic power tools. Below is a list of online plans from which I drew inspiration. My goal was to finish it in time for the arrival of the new addition to my arsenal (I hate to say “collection”, that implies I don’t play. I do.)

Here’s a list of inspiration:

• DIY: Make a Boomerang Guitar Stand
• Eledar.net: The plan I mostly used

It’s already full, so I will try another when I get another six guitars!

Please leave any comments below.  Thanks for reading.

I have had aspirations of getting into woodworking for the longest time, and the time is upon me! This is partly owing to nearly forty years of making decorative visual arts and the nagging feeling that I’d like to branch into “creating something from nothing… that is useful“.

Inspiration

Here is my first outing. A drink stand, if that’s even a thing. As I was sitting on my balcony (another work-in-progress post for another time), I realized I had nothing to put my drink on. I set out to be “inspired” by some existing ready-to-be-assembled designs and found this one online . It seemed an achievable first outing.

I knew my surface would be a pop of color, probably a reddish-earth terra cotta, which I found at Home Depot for the under $2USD. I didn’t look at the palette for the balcony design (yes I have one. Check it out on Pinterest), but I know neutrals and grays will work with this.

The Drawing Board

Maybe because I’m a glutton for punishment, I thought I should mock-up the plans in SketchUp. At the very least I could establish my own measurements. I haven’t looked at that app in years, it is apparently no longer a Google product but that doesn’t change what I want more than anything is at least an hour or two of professional SketchUp training. I digress.

First Cuts

As you see from the picture, these cuts are pretty basic. What I was going for was completing this piece in one day, I have since relaxed my ambitions to the extent that if it takes two days or spans two weekends, it’s better to do it right. As Teddy Roosevelt said “anything worth doing is worth doing well”.

Assembling the Base

I far underestimated the number of 1×1″ pine boards I would need. That’s a lie, I didn’t do the math at all, even with an app, because, well: math. I used a few smaller boards for the inner “I” bracing left over. I used wood screws and will graduate to counter-sink and hide the screw heads as time goes on. I went with an interior polyurethane I had laying around, even though this piece will be outdoors most of the time. So I’ll haul it in when inclement weather returns, or chalk it up to experience.

Finale

I added the heavy paver stone and adhered it with Gorilla Glue and let it set overnight. Didn’t see a need for clamps due to the weight of the stone top. First time using this product so time will tell if it’s up to the task of gluing stone to wood.  If I had to do it all over again I would have used my corner clamps to make sure the I beam bracing in the bottom was squared-off all around. There truly are no shortcuts to doing a quality job.

While I may have spent 30 or 40 years learning how to make a painting in one day, woodworking is a whole new medium. As with anything, practice makes perfect.

So at last, here it is in place.

And the drink stand in action. That’s right, I spilled wine on it with the inaugural use. I knew I would. The social media debut of my first useful piece :

Thinking of Dad #tributetodad @wine_fix #wineoclock #cabernet @josephcarrwines #winefix #napavalley

A photo posted by Timothy Dempsey (@timothyadempsey) on Jun 18, 2016 at 5:05pm PDT