From a chair to a TT shelf . . .

you've lost me there CJ?

Here we are, finaly got some sense out of the site software, then find you cant post a picture on the first entry!!!

My efforts so far on making a TT shelf:

This is it in the 'raw', it was originaly an old cottage type bent wood arm chair, you can just see the bending in the suports.

Very nice beech wood, I have taken as much of the old dark varnish off as I could, it now has an antique, stressed look about it.  Problem now, how to finish it . . . ?  I've tried pine and mahogany wax on some scrap . . . not impressed, I'm going to mix a few spots of mahogany to some pine tomorrow, slightly stonger colour?  We have very nice old pine doors in the room that are waxed in a deeper colour than the pine wax I have.

I will not be mounting it above the radiator.

I want to use the waxes I have if I can, so far the shelf has not cost me a penny, be a shame to have to give in and go to B&Q for some other stain?

CJSF

Did you miss the nail and hit your thumb

Get your backside down bnq or whatever. You need a tin of hard finish remover CJ. That will sort out the old varnish, bit of elbow grease required though. Then , if twas me, i would apply with a rag a thin coat of Danish Oil. Once dry lightly rub it down then go through the process again, how many times you do this is up to thee. It buffs up pretty damn good if you put some time into it plus the grain will show though really nice. One caveat is it will darken the original colour slightly but ,imo,looks better than wood stain. Dunna like stains does me.

Cracking bit of diy mate.

Oh yeah , Danish Oil hardens up so you will have a bit of protection against knocks and the like.

Oh yeah take 2. It stinks to high heaven. Another option is Lemon Oil. Similar thing but smells better  .

Just had another lookie at yer platform. Do you have the gear to ...

Fasten a stretcher piece between the wall strutts, neatly ?.

A Router or Dremel thingy so as to enable you to slot the fixing holes a bit. Makes life easier when you bolt it to the wall and find its squint.

Hi Floyd, thanks for that, the old varnish has come off fairly well, the picture does the wood no favours and I like the 'old re cycaled wood look'.

Thats not a bad idea with the Danish oil mate.  I am/was a boat person so have Danish oil in stock . . . I did last time I looked . . .?  Sadly no longer have a boat, poor mobility and all that,  I used to use teak oil first then Danish on top when I rebuilt the gallies on my boats.  I've rebuilt 4 gallies and two sleeping quarters in my time, entirly self taught as I go along, king of the bodgers, my secondary school woodwork teacher, Mr Caulder, would turn in his grave if he new . . . dislexia and depresion has no affect on my hand shills.  I'm well on top of the depresion thing these days, just feel a bit fed up occasionaly, dont we all . . .

By the way Floyd, the Benz will be here by 1.00pm Friday, they phoned me to let me know. So now, its get the shelf up, which means a rebuild of the hifi corner in my room . . . we aint finished yet . . .

No I dont have any routing tools, but I have drilled a genteral hole for mounting to get the shelf level, helps acurate marking of the wall, but yes I am worrid, but there about 6/7mm of bumpy spike adjustment of the suport board . . . fingers crossed.  There is a stretcher across the back at the top, you just can't see it, very substantial, its made of the same stock as the sides

CJSF

Hi Cam Croft, thats the thumb of the ever faithfull Hazel, she burnt it on the cooker the other day, picked up her new glasses Wednesday, she can see now!!! . . .

CJSF

Aha ,pretty good that i aint teaching Grannie to suck eggs regarding the Danish Oil. Im guessing that you have a central hole* in the hidden stretcher ?. Thats what i always do if poss. Nail that sucker in first then swivel to level, tighten him up,then in ye go my beauties.

Bet yer sitting in the porch waiting for the postie.

* erm yes you do,lol. That'll teach me for scan reading wunnit.

Morning Floyd, I had forgoten about Danish oil, its been a couple of years since I had a boat, and a couple more years since I did my last refit, the mind gets a bit dim these days.

Yes, there is a row of three holes high on the strecher and two hole low, 5 in all to give a solid fix, although I suspect the two low is guilding the lilly unless I put a realy 'heavy' TT on there, 'nod, nod, wink, wink, you know what I mean'???  Plus of course, the two holes at the bottom of the vertical suports.

Postie has just rung the bell as I type . . . its Chrissssstmas! . . . after all these years, one still gets excited over a new item even if the old one was a good'un . . .

CJSF

    A High chair for your High fidelity turntable........

CJSF

OK, the shelf is up, here are a couple of pics:

It went up almost spot on horizontaly, I had to make a 3mm shim to allow for the wall out of plumb.  Nice and tight, solid and all that.  Wood colour issue was solved with a mix of waxes and a final coat of a red mahogany wax.

  . . . setting everything back as it was, apart from the re vamped cupboard/shelves that Hazel has decided she does not want, new item requird, more expence

Why did things not sound right, I could hear extra detail but the imageing was off, a little tweak here and there to the shelf helped, three board suport points instead of four made a big improvement, but I had to be honest, it was not doing it for me.

Bed time, 2am! . . . sleep on it . . . Fresh this morning, it had to be the cartridge, already reported as suspect, was I actualy hearing even more clearly its worn stylus.  Removed the cartridge, had a look with a glass, it looked very sad?  So, the new Benz was installed, £1000 worth of cartridge and no stylus gard 

 . . . All went OK, the old eyes are not what they were; time and care, the new high position for the TT helps a lot . . . but it still made the old back twinge a little.

Instant improvement, better, not perfect but in the right direction.  Started tweaking, as you do, considering its straight out of the box, the Benz was suprisingly good . . . now with just a couple of hours playing time, it is obviously bedding in, its not going to take long to log up the required 40 hours, then I can finaly set it to my liking, doing well at present . . .

All I have to do now is get the Sumiko looked at and order the 'Plank Wood Cupboard' Hazel likes to go under the TT suport . . . relax, enjoy the music.

CJSF

Looks the bizzo CJ. Well done that man, cracking bit of re-cycling 

+1, they look made for each other.  

    Arthur would be proud......

Which one . . . Daily or Negus . . . ???

CJSF