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2016-05-09 |
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Chiffonier |
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A while ago I ordered a bunch of laser cut stuff from Ponoko (see |
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previous post for one), among them 1:24 scale miniature furniture. |
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I finally finished assembling the most complicated one, a mirror |
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chiffonier. Here's a short writeup. |
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These types of chiffoniers were popular in beginning of 1900 |
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Finland, they were called peilipiironki (mirror chest of drawers). |
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I designed it with Inkscape, using Ponoko's simple template. I |
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verified all measurements, but since I knew there probably were |
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mistakes that I had become blind to, I exported the plan to |
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Blender, separated all the paths, gave them thickness, and |
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assembled the item virtually. Surprisingly there weren't any faults |
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(unlike most of the other stuff I ordered and didn't check this |
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way. |
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Having a nice virtual model at my hands, I made a small animation |
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illustrating the assembly. |
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Ponoko's plywood cuts come with a protective sheet on one side, and |
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a sticky paper (for keeping the pieces together) on the other. I |
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popped the pieces out, and took most of the charred wood from the |
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edges with a small wire brush bit on a dremel. |
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I then peeled the protective stickers from the pieces, which is the |
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most time consuming part of the whole build. There must be an |
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intersection of people who love to peel things, and people who |
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enjoy tedium, but I don't think I'm in that set. |
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Maybe I should haul all my childhood legos here... very useful for |
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many purposes. I made the drawers with zero tolerance, so I wanted |
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to make sure they're as narrow as possible. |
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After a bit of gluing. While the pieces have slots for alignment, |
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I've left the outside surfaces (except for the back) clean, so some |
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gluing needed. I used very small amounts of PVA glue. |
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After staining. I used strong instant coffee and clear spray |
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lacquer. I also experimented with iron(II)acetate, but it gave a |
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dull look. (You can produce it by soaking steel wool in vinegar: |
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there is lots of material about this, one set of experiments here.) |
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I made the knobs from thumb tack spikes that happened to be ideal |
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for the purpose. I had ordered a set of brass-tinted small nails |
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for this, but they were too big. |
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The mirror is cut from a vinyl mirror sheet. It's not ideal, a bit |
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uneven, but then again antique mirrors weren't perfect either. At |
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close range it works pretty well. Maybe I'll try something else |
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later. |
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(The wallpaper and the floor are just printed free textures, from |
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Mydesigndeals and AGF81.) |
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The hinges of the three doors are just pieces of copper tape. They |
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do work, but probably not very long. |
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Some items for scale. I didn't have a banana. The piece is 1:24 |
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scale (half inch scale, meaning ½" → 1'). At 7.5 cm (3") it's the |
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equivalent of 180 cm (5' 11") in real life. |
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I had two of these cut, but only assembled one. If you want to buy |
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it, assembled or DIY, contact me! |
