Xmas wood project for wife

[Mordred]

Been working on this Nativity scene for my wife project started before last Christmas. Trying to complete it for this year's Xmas lol.

 

 

Made the dowelling myself using a 1/2 inch round edge router on all 4 sides saved me 250.00 in material. Using strictly cedar for the wood portions then thinking about how to simulate the mud packing. Thinking about a grey clay pack between the logs.

Edited October 31, 2019 by Mordred

[iNow]

That’s cool, Mordred. I can imagine the whole shop smells quite nice while milling you’re pieces. Cedar is great and I built an outdoor table for our deck with some last year. 

I assume you used a router table to turn the square stock into dowels? Also, looks like maybe yellow wood glue is your primary form of joinery, or is there some sort of mechanical fastener in there we can’t see?

I’m super curious how the glue up process went for those joists and braces in the front and back coming together to form a triangle supporting the cathedral. I have to imagine that was a bear to clamp and a bit of a headache.

Anyway.. quick thought... If you choose to seal the cedar first so it doesn’t stain, another option to simulate mud might be a brown tinted grout. Sanded grout would even give it a bit of texture. Main risk with grout is it stains the wood if the pores aren’t first sealed with some sort of tung oil or poly, etc. 

Regardless, that’s super cool and love that began with square blanks. Nicely done

[mistermack]

It's nice, but I can't imagine an American-style log cabin being used as a stable in the middle east 2,000 years ago. Having said that, I have no idea what a stable WOULD have looked like, in that time and place. Pretty rough, I would have thought. 

To make an anally realistic one, you would probably have to use sticks found at random in the woods. But there again, Jesus was a carpenter (allegedly) so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. 

[iNow]

1 hour ago, mistermack said:

But there again, Jesus was a carpenter (allegedly) so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. 

I'm guessing it would've been hard for even him to build a manger before his own birth. Lol

[Phi for All]

Remember your Doonesbury. The part of baby Jesus should be played by a 7w 6500K LED. That'll also show you if you got the chinking right.

[Sensei]

4 hours ago, mistermack said:

But there again, Jesus was a carpenter (allegedly) so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. 

..."3d carpenter" aka "3d graphician" aka "IT engineer" aka "computer programmer"..

13 hours ago, Mordred said:

Been working on this Nativity scene for my wife project started before last Christmas. Trying to complete it for this year's Xmas lol.

Made the dowelling myself using a 1/2 inch round edge router on all 4 sides saved me 250.00 in material. Using strictly cedar for the wood portions then thinking about how to simulate the mud packing. Thinking about a grey clay pack between the logs.

Virtual 3D remake of your project:

Back:

Source files attached below, so you can load object in 3D application and make modifications or render it by yourself (or ask @Janus)

Christmas stable.zip

I tried to mimics it to your reference as close as possible. But not everything was visible on just two photos. I closed hole in the back (anti-hurricane trick?), used different order of planks, and cut front planks.

ps. Enable smoothing in Surface/Material Editor.

ps2. ~6500 polygons. It could be used in 3D game engine. Sorry for not using sub-patches!

 

Edited October 31, 2019 by Sensei

[mistermack]

I'm still betting it would have actually looked more like this : 

 

 

[iNow]

Nobody cares. That’s not what this thread is about 

[Mordred]

Thanks Sensei I finished the back after I posted last night so I removed the anti hurricane feature lol. The 3d rendering is cool and accurate to what I have thus far.

@Mistermack yes I agree that the original building would probably have been as some form of building similar to your pic. I however had the cedar and woodshop available lol so I grabbed some cabin designs and chose one of the simpler design structures.

@INow I picked up a couple of small corner clamps to help with the angle trusses. I will be using a sealant on it prior to doing the mud simulation. The grout may be the solution I was looking for thanks for that advise.

[iNow]

1 hour ago, Mordred said:

The grout may be the solution I was looking for thanks for that advise.

Probably goes without saying, but recommend a test on some scrap pieces first to see how it falls into the cracks and how it wipes off. Cheers

[mistermack]

2 hours ago, Mordred said:

@Mistermack yes I agree that the original building would probably have been as some form of building similar to your pic. I however had the cedar and woodshop available lol so I grabbed some cabin designs and chose one of the simpler design structures.

No criticism was intended of the project, it just occurred to me how the world in general projects it's own preconceptions on the god business. Of course, kids wouldn't know what to make of the type of structure that I posted, I wouldn't actually suggest trying it for a nativity crib. Unless you were deliberately trying to make an historical point.

You get a similar effect in portraits of Jesus and Mary. Artists use familiar faces, including Anglo Saxon blue eyed Jesuses. It's just artistic licence. 

[MigL]

This type of Nativity scene is very popular in Italy for Christmas decoration, Mordred.
My brother actually has one that was brought by my parents to Canada in 1968.

Just wondering how you plan to make the Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Magi, shepherds, Angels, cow, donkey and assorted sheep figurines.
Seems you've just got as far as the 'easy part' so far.
 

[Mordred]

The actual decorating is my wife's task. Lol she is already shopping for the materials and decorations. She has already located some lanterns.

55 minutes ago, mistermack said:

No criticism was intended of the project, it just occurred to me how the world in general projects it's own preconceptions on the god business. Of course, kids wouldn't know what to make of the type of structure that I posted, I wouldn't actually suggest trying it for a nativity crib. Unless you were deliberately trying to make an historical point.

You get a similar effect in portraits of Jesus and Mary. Artists use familiar faces, including Anglo Saxon blue eyed Jesuses. It's just artistic licence. 

No worries I understood what you were getting at. I did think about historical accuracy before I started the project but opted for a design that I was more familiar with.

 So far it's strictly wood and glue with no fasteners. The interlocking design gives it the strength.

[iNow]

Did you use a miter saw to cut the dowels to equal length, or just a hand saw?

[mistermack]

9 minutes ago, Mordred said:

The actual decorating is my wife's task. Lol she is already shopping for the materials and decorations. She has already located some lanterns.

No worries I understood what you were getting at. I did think about historical accuracy before I started the project but opted for a design that I was more familiar with.

 So far it's strictly wood and glue with no fasteners. The interlocking design gives it the strength.

It takes me back to 1971 on Long Beach, Vancouver Island. I lived at a hippy settlement there for a while, and everybody made log cabins out of drift logs. ( Back then, the beaches were STACKED with tree logs at the high tide mark, lost logs from the logging camps would wash up in storms. When somebody new arrived we would all get together, and build them a cabin without any sort of nails or building materials, just using the weight of the logs. It was a fabulous time. My cabin was actually cut off from the land on an island, at high tide, but you could walk to it most of the time. 

It was all really far out, groovy, cool man. Great parties. 

[Mordred]

41 minutes ago, iNow said:

Did you use a miter saw to cut the dowels to equal length, or just a hand saw?

Hand saw for all length and angle cuts. ( this way I could work on it in thre evenings without being in my shop down the road). The dowelling I used a table saw then router to make the initial dowels. It was actually easier to bench clamp the ends and run the router by hand rather than use my router table. This was due to the 3/4 diameter and the fact my router table didn't have the right type of guards.

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by Mordred

[iNow]

Cool. Hadn’t ever considered bench clamping a work piece then running a router across it, but makes good sense 

[Mordred]

1 hour ago, iNow said:

Cool. Hadn’t ever considered bench clamping a work piece then running a router across it, but makes good sense 

I do a lot of router work by hand, as well as use a router table. I also have a router jig that I can follow a drawing and the rig arms transpose those movements to the router. With that rig I can literally do 3d carvings. The rig can even be setup to scale with work piece from the drawing at different ratios. Ie 40, 60, 80 percent.

Bought the rig from KMS tools. Works good along with Dremmils for the fine work.

Edited November 1, 2019 by Mordred

[iNow]

No matter how many tools I have, it seems I always want more. You've just described what I want for christmas, and until I read this post I didn't even know I wanted it. Lol

[Sensei]

6 hours ago, iNow said:

No matter how many tools I have, it seems I always want more. You've just described what I want for christmas, and until I read this post I didn't even know I wanted it. Lol

...3D printer with exchangeable header is a must have these days.. e.g. you model 3D object in 3D application and tell "carve it in wood/metal/whatever".. and it's done..

Print cake? Let's do it!

https://zmorph3d.com/products/toolheads/thick-paste-extruder

 

[mistermack]

Would a router be able to produce the edges on the end plates of a concertina as shown in the pictures? I've never used a router, but would like to be able to make replacement ends similar to the one shown, (which is about 130 years old). 

I have a scroll saw for the patterned ends, but don't know what to get for the edges. 

For size, an edge is 9cm and it's 16cm across. 

I tried to show the profile, it's more of an S shape than a simple upward curve. 

Edited November 3, 2019 by mistermack

[zapatos]

25 minutes ago, mistermack said:

Would a router be able to produce the edges on the end plates of a concertina as shown in the pictures?

Yep. That's one of the many uses of a router. The edge you show could be routed on all six sides in about one minute.

The number of router bits for different shapes seems limitless. Here is an example that is close to what you have.

Edited November 3, 2019 by zapatos

[mistermack]

2 minutes ago, zapatos said:

Yep. That's one of the many uses of a router. The edge you show could be routed on all six sides in about one minute.

Even the S shape that it has? It's hard to pick out, it's a bit like a human shoulder, over the shoulder and then upwards up the neck. 

Would I need to get a router bench to get a straight finish? 

[zapatos]

10 minutes ago, mistermack said:

Even the S shape that it has? It's hard to pick out, it's a bit like a human shoulder, over the shoulder and then upwards up the neck. 

Would I need to get a router bench to get a straight finish? 

Yes, even the S shape. I couldn't make that out. Router tables make it easier to work on small pieces like the concertina but it is not necessary. If I was routing the piece you show and didn't have a table, I would just clamp the piece to a work table, route one edge, unclamp and rotate the piece, clamp and route the next edge, etc. You can find a nice palm router to do that piece for under $100 U.S. 

Here is a picture of some more router bit profiles. Perhaps "F" is closer to what you are looking for? Any profile you see will come in different sizes. And these are just some of the many router shapes available.

Edited November 3, 2019 by zapatos

[mistermack]

Thanks. I'll start looking. We have a german supermarket over here called Aldi, and they occasionally do routers and accessories for very good prices, but you have to wait till the offers come around.

Yes, that F looks bang on.

My phones got a great camera, but I still couldn't get it to show that profile. But the F looks perfect.