# Wood-Art for the wall! Work-in-progress: have a look!



## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

Hi everyone, here is my first wood-working project, I am hoping to learn some basics with this one, before this "thing" I have only just made panels to paint on or stretched canvas frames. This one is gonna be fun to see get finished up.

The picture attached is from today after I got done cutting all the wood to float over the panel... I started a thread in joinery ( http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f5/question-joining-small-pieces-wood-help-please-107585/ ) about how I should connect all the pieces together and also maybe some ideas for floating them all above the panel, each at a different height (but all will stay pretty close to the panel). 

Anyway, any advice or input is appreciated and I hope to have this one pretty much finished by the end of the week 

Thanks for reading!


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## mikeswoods (May 18, 2009)

I remember your thread about the jointery---looking promising--keep us posted--


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## woodchux (Jul 6, 2014)

Very creative "wood-art" design! Consider staining or painting a few of the angles in accent colors to give a shadow effect. Hope to soon see the finished project. Be safe.


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

Thanks for the interest guys! @woodchux - yes I will definitely be staining the floating pieces in accented shades - maybe 2 of them with a coat of white/black between the stains as well. Not sure yet. I also plan to install warm dimmable LEDs under the 1st and 3rd levels of the 4 total 

Hopefully soon I complete it!


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

Little update! I have about 40% of the joining work done as of just now. I ended up going with the double dowel with the round stock (I think it is 3 or 4mm thick) + glue + 2 staples on the hidden side solution. I just really like the way these joints feel in my hand - compared to the just glue and stapled test joints these feel like they could take maybe a little accident during assembly or something without failing... so I opted for the slightly more tedious solution (but really it doesnt take so long to drill for the dowels, plus they hold the joint together really well for the glue to set.

Anyway, here is a picture! Tomorrow I will do a little bit more and will definitely have 2 of the 4 floating levels fully completed by the end of Friday - 2 from the 4 will be ready for staining 

Also today a large order of various LED goodies came in the mail today... I plan to end up going with this part of the plan  2 of the 4 floating levels will be LED backlit with warm-white (dimmable). Looking forward to getting this project complete!


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## mikeswoods (May 18, 2009)

The wood is thicker than I thought----your dowel work should keep them together--

Keep us posted as you move along.


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## mengtian (Nov 8, 2012)

HIndsite 20/20...........I think if they were mitered with splines it would look awesome. I don't think he said he had a table saw or router


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

Thanks for the input guys! Yes, the dowels I think are worth it, maybe not totally necessary but during assembly and all that jazz these joints could take a little mistake/drop/etc without totally failing IMO.

I think the idea for a spline joint is also quite good, though I would imagine it is a little bit more tedious than my dowel solution - I have a small hand held non plunging router (so no table) and without a table and all that I think it could be a headache doing splines, right?

Although you are right, a spline joint can be a nice design feature too  might keep that in mind for the next project! 

Now I am thinking, wouldn't a table router setup be nice


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## woodchux (Jul 6, 2014)

Keep moving (thinking & gluing) in a positive direction, and again thanks for sharing. Be safe.


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

hey guys! well I didnt get the progress I wanted in on this thing last week (my parents visited me so I was with them a ton) anyway, I just glued up and pressed my last joint! I got a picture of the 3 completed levels sitting on a panel I have sitting around - then the other picture of the last joint setting  so tonight I do some stain tests and figure out what color(s) I want to go with  I also got a bunch of LED goodies in the mail so I will get to that stage soon! I hope in a week or so it is all finished!


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## Smith Brother (Dec 9, 2012)

Looks like a troubled heart beat, but cool

Dale in Indy


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

^ thanks! 

So I decided to go with this arrangement to be done - just gotta trim the L/R edges on a few of the pieces then stain them and mount the LEDs (under the 2 middle levels) and then tediously mount them all to the panel.


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## Smith Brother (Dec 9, 2012)

Call it ' EKG ABOUND '

Dale in Indy


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

hey guys - I did a mock up of the pieces today, I think they look pretty good - the picture quality isn't so good and the lighting is also kinda bad but yeah these basically show how it will end up


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

hey guys, here is a little update 

the piece is nearing completion, I have the LED wired up and ready, just have to finish getting the other 2 top pieces connected to the panel  I am just gonna leave the lighting as it is and not add anymore (to save me the headache and it already looks lit up enough imo).

Final update to come in the next days 

Here is a photo of it mocked up in the dark but lit!


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## NickB (Sep 24, 2013)

I think it looks great as is.


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

^ Thanks, I am happy with it as well - nothing will change really! I just have to finish everything up, the edge pieces I have "wrapping around" the panel to connect the edges of the floating angled pieces need to be completed on the top 2 pieces and then just mounted - almost there! Finally I think I am gonna use a film to diffuse the LEDs or more likely just few narrowly cut pieces of thin plywood mounted just in front of them so you do not see the obvious LED reflections on the panel from viewing angles that are not more or less perfectly frontal.


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## Burb (Nov 30, 2012)

That is a very cool approach. Thats artwork I'd love on my wall. Beats the heck out of most of the stuff my wife likes


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## Travico (Dec 25, 2012)

Very Interesting Project!!!!!!!!!!!


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

Hey guys! It was a little Halloween miracle today, after a frustrating 6-7 hour session on this piece I finally completed it, I will do a few little touch-ups with the finish in some areas and get the 2nd piece of the french-cleat mounting system attached to my wall after I get the proper screws. Today the challenge was getting the thin cut ply wood mounted behind the LEDs to prevent the obvious LED reflections, but I did a good job with that and you cannot see the individual leds reflecting from any angle!! So I am pretty happy with how it turned out, I was able to learn a lot with this one and look forward to starting something new!

I will probably post a picture of it properly hanging on a wall on Monday, but yeah it is finished as of now 

Oh and here is a little video - I had the slow fade program on with the leds, normally I just have it at static 50% dimmed (pardon the strange music in the background, I forgot to turn it off lol)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDMaNVM1htQ


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

hey guys! I made another piece similar to this one, it is a good bit smaller and not as complex, but a few things I learned through this one (namely smarter installation of the back lighting LEDs).


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## Burb (Nov 30, 2012)

Very cool.


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## Benoit (Dec 8, 2015)

Nice work! I really dig this style


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## Quo Fan (Feb 15, 2015)

Looks like a neat way to use up a lot of scrap wood.


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## Slootman (Nov 25, 2015)

I like it and would have never thought of it but might try it. Can you show close ups of how the lighting is installed? I'm curious. 
Rick


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

I have a customer that had this wood art on their wall. I thought it was interesting so I took a picture.


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## Firewoodstudio (Jul 15, 2015)

very cool. great work.


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

thanks for all the input/comments guys! I appreciate it. Steve that piece you posted is really cool! Looks like it was handmade. Many times now things like that are being machine cut.

I will try to get some photos of the way the lighting is installed on these 2 pieces later tonight.


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## arvanlaar (Dec 29, 2014)

Looks great man! Absolutely love how it lights up. You really have the potential to sell those at art shows for sure.


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## bulletshell13 (Sep 18, 2015)

^ Thanks, yeah I think they should sell. I want to make 2 or 3 more though before I go to sell. 

So here are some pictures of the light mounting because someone asked about that.

The first piece (in the first 2 pictures) was just the LED taped directly on the backside of the wood facing the panel... in order to block the vision of the nodes clearly reflecting in the panel I cut small pieces of ply to block that... I just screwed them into the wood and "floated" them directly in front of the LEDs. You can also see that I hid the wire in one of the supports for the floating wood pieces. I also used 90* connectors for the LED strips.























Then in these pictures it is the 2nd piece. I did these quite a bit different (namely better IMO). I used small & thin wood to trim the bottom of the lit shape to hide the LEDs so they could just wrap facing inward, I taped them to the outside strip of wood under the straight view visible piece. Therefore I didnt have to use any connectors to make the turns, the LEDs are facing inwards. To block that light I think did the same thing on the outer edge to the inner edge of the shape. Finally I covered the little trench haha with some yellow tape for color and extra diffusion. This way you do not really notice the individual LEDs. I also made this a sort of design feature and stained the smaller wood on this shape a different color.


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