Ark project finished

[poolhound]

I have not been diligently scanning every post over the last few weeks as I have been busy finishing this project. As some of you may recall from my posts searching for some construction hints for this project I have been building an "Ark" for a new Temple that has recently started near me.

Last coats of finish went on on Tuesday and I gave it a hand waxing yesterday so it is now all complete.

There were some fun challenges with this project including the fact that it had to be disasembleable for easy moving.

Now I get the chance this weekend to tidy my shop and relax a little.

[BobSch]

A beautiful piece, Jon. I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

[JR]

That's really nice, Jon. I'm sure the folks at the temple (sorry, I don't know, is it called a "congregation"?) will be thrilled to have it.

In the meantime my head is aching at the thought of all those angles! Is the design your own?

JR

[pelligrini]

That turned out well.

What method did you end up using to do the acute angles?

[poolhound]

That turned out well.

What method did you end up using to do the acute angles?

Thanks for the positive feedback.

I constructed the jig you can see I posted at the end of this thread.

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=40110

Unfortunatley about 3/4 of the way through the project I managed to close the garage door on it and broke it (lots of swearing). Luckily most of the angles had been cut and I had plenty of offcuts that were at the right angle and could be used to setup the other cuts I needed.

[pelligrini]

OK, I must have missed that last post of the thread.

[poolhound]

That's really nice, Jon. I'm sure the folks at the temple (sorry, I don't know, is it called a "congregation"?) will be thrilled to have it.

In the meantime my head is aching at the thought of all those angles! Is the design your own?

JR

Congregation is correct.

The angles were definatley one of the challenges, at times I wished I had designed it to be square, much simpler but boring

The design was my own. The short story goes...

They originaly came to me asking what it would take to make something from scratch. When I told them they got cold feet and asked me to look at various pieces of 2nd hand furniture and see if they could be adapted. The stuff the showed me was C**P and had no structural integrity (think walmart chipboard).

Then they had a triangular open style book case donated that was built on a ladder style construction with shelves that simply sat in sliding dadoes. This got my creative juices flowing as I realized a triangular style would mirror the Star of David (seen at the top of the Ark). I then design this based on the "A" frame concept of the bookcase.

I am not sure if I will be "paid" much for this but given what it was for I decided it was a worthy project and should bring me some good karma. They were just over here looking at the finished project and one of them asked me if there were any items of equipment I had been hankering for so maybe there are some new tools in the offing.

I think my list would include a grex pin nailer, an omni jig and the pro Bosch colt kit. Who knows....

[jackellis]

That's a beautiful piece of work and much more appropriate for what it will hold than something made of engineered materials.

For those who are not familiar, the scrolls that will spend their time in this ark are made of many pieces of sheepskin glued together. A specially trained scribe copies the whole thing by hand using feather quill pens. There can be no mistakes. I think one set of scrolls that contains the whole of the first five books of Moses takes about two years to prepare. I've seen it being done and it is not an easy task.

Jon's creation is certainly one of the most unique arks I've ever seen.

[Kristofor]

That looks very nice Jon.

I can't tell from the picture, what is the scale of the piece? If it's for holding scrolls, and there aren't any shelves is it a table-top unit? Or are these scrolls several feet long and the ark sized to match?

Thanks,
Kristofor.

[scmhogg]

Jon,

Mazel Tov.

Steve

[radhak]

Jon, that's a nice piece of ...umm... furniture..?!?? No wonder they balked at the price-tag; that must cost a fortune if you were charging them !

What wood is it?

And how does it dis-assemble?

[shoottx]

Very Cool

I was wondering over the last couple of days where you had gone. The good news it was to the shop for a beautiful,and inherently spiritual project.

If I were you, I would be careful sharing picture of this ark very far and wide or you may find yourself in the synagogue outfitting business.

[lrogers]

Wow, that turned out very nice Jon.

[poolhound]

That looks very nice Jon.

I can't tell from the picture, what is the scale of the piece? If it's for holding scrolls, and there aren't any shelves is it a table-top unit? Or are these scrolls several feet long and the ark sized to match?

Thanks,
Kristofor.

The base is ~56" and it is just shy of 6' tall. It is designed to go onto a standard 30" table top hence the seemingly low position of the door handles. It is sized to be home for one scroll that is approx 3' tall and 12"w X 8" d.

I built it based on a mockup model and am waiting for the real one to arrive and I will retrofit some internal backets to support it but I didnt want to make them until I could measure the real thing. They are actually getting a Holocaust scroll that was rescued from somewhere in Poland I believe.

[poolhound]

Jon, that's a nice piece of ...umm... furniture..?!?? No wonder they balked at the price-tag; that must cost a fortune if you were charging them !

What wood is it?

And how does it dis-assemble?

Its made from solid walnut with 1/4" walnut veneered MDF for the back, side and door panels.

The "A" frame is hinged at the top like a ladder and the front and back are complete sub assemblies attached with machine screws and captive threads. There is a small filler piece that sits on the top in the gap created by the opening of the frame. The shelf slides in from either side.