We thank Dan Osborne for sending in these photo’s of his deck upgrade
Category: DIY
Acrylic Waterwall Directory
Another project from Michael…
Here’s a shot of a waterwall I built for the Toronto Reference library down on Yonge St. The hardest thing about it was getting the water to flow properly over the acrylic. The problem was the thing was 11’ high and getting the water up there, and flowing evenly was a chore. The worst thing about the whole project was that after months of adjusting to get the water to flow properly, the library personnel didn’t want to fill the water reservoir every week. You see, the water evaporated rapidly because it was so dry in the library! They eventually took it down after only a few months of operation…..
Cochrane Custom Cabinets and Carpentry michaelcochrane@rogers.com
April 2008 Newsletter
Huge Off-cut Sale
Being one of the most trusted names in plastic sheet, rod, & tube means we do more cutting for more businesses than just about any other plastics distributor this side of Saskatoon… Visit our promotions website for the latest list of specially priced pieces.
Guillotine Services Available
We have a well-trained team of operators ready to cut thin-gauge plastics such as Coroplast, PETG, and Styrenes to size.
It’s Time For Fun In The Sun @ Home – Polycarbonate Twinwall Sale
Ready for your deck and greenhouse project… 4 x 8′, 4 x 10′, 4 x 16′ and 4 x 20′
EZ workings for sunrooms, deck enclosures, spa covers, and carports
Opening Up The Workshop Soon?
We carry all kinds of polycarbonate and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pieces that you can use to make jigs for your home workshop. HDPE is great for making re-usable Muskoka chair patterns that you can double tape to your stock and run through the routers.
Being Nagged About Making Your Pool/Spa Area Or Patio Deck More Livable?
We can help! Check out this article on our blog and you’ll learn how King Starboard can be fashioned into luxury cabinetry and furnishings for your outdoor lifestyle on the deck or by the pool…
Did you know we can cut replacement patio tabletops, too?
Just about any shape… we offer clear, frosted, and a few glass-style patterns
Readying Your Boat For Launch? Get your King Starboard orders in now!
We stock one of Canada’s largest selection of King Starboard which you can fashion into all kinds of nifty amenities for your pleasure or commercial fishing boat. From onboard cabinetry to hatch covers and swim platforms… larger size sheet stock needs 6-8 weeks for delivery
We really do appreciate your business and LUV REFERRALS…. We want to hear about your projects or products made with plastic. Feel free to email in your pictures and a brief story and we’ll post them on our blog, which just happens to be the biggest DIY plastics website on the web!
4 Convenient Service Centres To Assist You
Kitchener: (519) 725-6111 or toll free 1-888-669-8922
Brampton: (905) 456-1579
Scarborough: (416) 281-4300 or toll free 1-800-268-6784
Halifax: (902) 406-4022 or 1-877-406-8222
Acrylite P-95 Japanese Sliding Windows/Doors
This project comes from one of our customers.
Stylish… modern… easy maintenance… nice job, Michael!
From Michael:
The mullions and frames are constructed of poplar which is a good wood to use as it is harder and more stable than pine, but not as expensive as maple. This will allow for long straight pieces without fear of breakage. It also is lighter than other hardwoods making for a reasonable strength to weight ratio. I knew since the client was requesting they be painted black that the expense of better hardwood would be a waste. They can be produced using different species but I would only go that route if they were going to be stained, not painted.
To make production of the mullion strips easier, I purchased 1 x 6 D4S poplar then ripped them to the correct thickness using a really sharp, fine ripping blade. I also painted the 1 x 6’s prior to ripping which meant that I wouldn’t have to paint the narrow sides of each mullion. After ripping I only had to do 2 sides of each narrow piece instead of 4. If I did this again I would certainly have sprayed the mullions, it would have been so much faster than rolling. The reason I used a roller is because to spray such a narrow piece there would have been a tremendous amount of overspray and a waste of paint but looking back, the wastage would have offset the time it took to roller each piece. As it was I ganged up pieces together but it still took a good 2 days to paint all the pieces.
As for how to do it: I kept it simple in the design stage. The left and right panels are exactly the same, and the doors are both the same. For strength I planned on dadoing each mullion where they crossed over. This makes for an extremely rigid frame. By keeping the pieces similar in size all the dadoes on the verticals are identical, and there’s only two sizes of horizontal pieces. If you add them up there’s over 500 dadoes in total. To do them all I set up a jig on my table saw using a dado blade and a block set to the desired spacing. I then sat there all day running pieces through it. One thing that I would do differently is to buy over sized stock. It worked out that the dado blade cuts 1/32” over ¾” and the poplar is exactly ¾” thick. 1/32” isn’t a lot but after cutting 7, that’s almost ¼” difference, quite a big difference on the last one. After running a few test pieces through, I adjusted the spacing so the last dado to be cut was only 1/8” out. Not a big visual difference.
Another thing I did was make sure the frosted acrylic panels were slightly smaller than the frames they were being mounted to. I knew the location they were to be mounted to wasn’t plumb or level ((3” out of level over 15 feet) so if there was any deflection in the frame, I couldn’t install the acrylic. So when I installed the acrylic panels I just shimmed them (semi) square and attached the mullion assembly on the back side.
One thing that made the job a whole lot easier was the fact that the panels are made up of complete 5 ‘ x 80” acrylic panels with mullion assemblies front and back. The customer originally wanted individual acrylic pieces which would have been even more tedious to build and install. Plus the cost of producing the mullions etc would be astronomical and 5 times their budget. One draw back to this is if they ever damage one area, it will be hard to replace. So I advised the customer to NOT damage it and to only clean it with a swiffer duster.
I used KN Crowder track to handle the sliding doors. They are easy to install, easy to adjust and are light but very sturdy. Plus very smooth operating.
Cochrane Custom Cabinets and Carpentry michaelcochrane@rogers.com
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Feel free to send in pictures and how-to-articles about your projects, even it’s just to share the trials and tribulations of learning to work with plastic. We’ll publish your business information too if you sell plastic products or do custom work.
If You Got The Money… Cast Acrylic Bed Frame
Check this bad boy out @ http://bedzine.com/blog/bed-news/contemporary-sylvania-clear-acrylic-bed-frame/
A couple of the fab and design gize sat around and we came up with a figure that, if this was actually hand crafted from off-the-skid cast acrylic, you’d be into between $10k and $15k of work and material… those end posts would probably be 6″ optically perfect cast pieces that were milled down to the various thicknesses and tapers and then polished. The headboard – wow – you’d probably break a few pieces perfecting the curves.
Scroll Saw Cutting Acrylic Letter Templates
Here’s a nifty tip from Canadian Woodworking (don’t forget to visit their site!)
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Lettering templates
by Ted Duquette
Here is how I make lettering templates out of 1/16″ plexi- glass. I use a computer to print out the lettering patterns first (you could also draw them by hand). The trick to cutting Plexiglas successfully is to buy the type that has the brown paper on both sides of the Plexiglas.
You can glue your pattern on to the brown paper or you can draw the lettering right onto the paper. I use a #5 scroll saw blade with 12 teeth per inch to do the cutting. I set my saw at about half speed. If you only have a full speed saw, it can still be done but you will need to take a lot more care to ensure clean cuts. Take your time when cutting out the lettering – remember this will be the master template for all your future lettering. If you can’t get the brown papered version use un-backed Plexiglas. However, before you start cutting cover the glass with masking tape. This helps cool the blade while cutting so the Plexiglas doesn’t melt. I have made about two dozen of these lettering guides in different sizes and fonts and use them a lot in the shop.
Acrylic Cake Stands
Acrylic (with brand names like Acrylite, Plexiglas, Lucite, Optix) is an excellent material for supporting your super cake creations.
Clear acrylic is an FDA approved material and its edges can be polished to a glass-like shine.
There’s two grades of acrylic: cast and extruded. For your larger flat pieces you can save money by asking for extruded acrylic. If you need near-optical perfection then you’ll end up using cast acrylic – a bit more expensive but absolutely faultless. How do you glue everything together? You need acrylic glue – click here for an article that might help you.
Here’s some ideas I found on line (click on the images to go to the website):
Use Acrylic For Quilting Templates
Quilters hold virtual quilting bees via the Internet
04:23 PM CDT on Thursday, October 18, 2007
Photos by NATALIE CAUDILL/DMN
Debby Luttrell holds the finished quilt from the Patchwork Party 2007. Ms. Luttrell owns Stitchin’ Heaven, in Quitman.
If you think the quilting bee is a thing of the past, think again. The venerable art of patchwork is alive and well, thanks to a modern-day cyber circle that’s the brainchild of Debby Luttrell, owner of quilt shop Stitchin’ Heaven in Quitman, 100 miles east of Dallas.
It’s an example of how an old handicraft is evolving.
Sensing that camaraderie and a mutual fondness for hearth and home were common threads, she launched the twice-annual Internet event called Patchwork Party, inviting quilting enthusiasts nationwide to participate, compare notes and admire the finished works of a select group of shops.
“I had dreamed up a similar concept to use as a marketing strategy at a trade show, and I took it to the Internet a couple of years later because the time was right,” Ms. Luttrell says.
The first sewing soiree was in August 2006, and word quickly spread. Patchwork Party Fall 2007 – appropriately themed Home for the Holidays and featuring a vintage red, green and black color scheme – is in progress.
Although the traditional medium for quilt block templates is paper, acrylic templates are recommended by Patchwork Party participants.
At the heart of this online gathering are 12 stores from throughout the country, each with its own collectible quilt block. Patterns for the quilt blocks are by quilting designer and author Marti Michell of Atlanta, whose focus is on “quilting for people who don’t have time to quilt. We take traditional blocks with basic geometric shapes and try to put a twist in them.”
In addition to its own quilt block, each store has its own suggested quilt design for assembly of all 12 blocks, viewable via that store’s link to Patchwork Party 2007. Participants can collect the dozen block kits and, if they choose, purchase a separate finishing kit to follow a store’s quilt patterns. The finishing kit consists of everything else it takes to complete the quilt, such as sashing, binding and alternative fabric to make a center pattern or other signature element.
Paper patterns are included in the block kits, although Mrs. Michell’s acrylic templates are recommended by many shop owners and participants because they’re more durable and wrinkle-proof. And in the current quilt world, they’re also more collectible. Her acrylic templates, which are sold separately, don’t have to be cut and pinned down like the paper version, although paper is the traditional template medium.
Also Online
Participating quilters who prefer not to replicate any store’s quilt design can mix up the blocks any way they wish. Ms. Luttrell says some quilters buy all 12 blocks or just a few to blend with squares of their own design. But most participants tend to buy all 12.
“It’s fun for them when they get 12 packages from 12 stores,” says Kimberly Jolly, co-owner (with her husband) of Fat Quarter Shop in Manchaca, near Austin. “It’s like Christmas.”
Fat Quarter is one of three quilting shops in the Patchwork Party circuit that are online-only operations.
“The stores are all over the country, so it gives us exposure to stores we would not normally have exposure to,” says Diane Patterson, a veteran Dallas quilter. She’s been quilting for about 12 years, and her quilting club meets for a retreat at Ms. Luttrell’s bunkhouse every year.
“The wonderful thing about this program is it allows you to get to know other stores,” says Kim Bicksler of Dallas, a participant in all the Patchwork Parties thus far. “I knew about Stitchin’ Heaven, but I got to know 11 other stores. I just got another newsletter and there was another kit that I just have to have, and they’re all the way out in Georgia.”
Seasoned quilters and novices alike are serious about this skill. “What we aim to do is a really simple quilt so that people would be able to finish it by Christmas,” says Ms. Jolly. “Our goal was to gear things toward the beginning quilter. Each of the stores is different, and each comes up with its own niche audience. That’s part of the fun; they can pick whatever they like.”
As an eight-year quilting veteran at 33, Mrs. Jolly is a living example of the younger audience this pastime continues to attract. “We’re seeing very hip colors from the ’70s, and more and more young quilters are quilting because they can find fabric that’s not ‘grandma’ fabric.”
Most of the stores also offer their own patterns for other items such as table runners, placemats, Christmas stockings and pillowcases that coordinate with the quilts.
Ms. Luttrell says that during the spring event, which ran from Valentine’s Day through Memorial Day, more than 24,000 quilt blocks were sold, averaging 2,000 per store. Nov. 30 is the final day for purchasing the current set of blocks. Expect something different this spring.
“In the quilting world, fabrics come and go really fast,” adds Ms. Luttrell. Of the popular Patchwork format, she says, “It just shows that quilters are Internet-savvy.”
Nancy Myers is a Dallas freelance writer.
Acrylic Scrapbook Albums
Seems there’s a big fad in scrap booking where you use acrylic panels for the front and back joined with a metal “O” or “D” ring.
Found an interesting site @ http://www.scrapbook-crazy.com/my-life-mini-album.html
Our course we know you’ll call us first, but if we’re a bit out of your way just look in the yellow pages for PLASTIC SHEET, ROD, TUBE or PLASTIC FABRICATOR and ask for a cut-to-size piece of acrylic that matches your needs. They can usually round the corners, bevel the edges, or flame polish the edges to a glass-like finish. You can usually pick from an assortment of colors and textures including a frosted surface (P95 or Crystal Ice) or an exotic edge that glows like neon.
Make Your Own HDPE Featherboard
source: http://www.provenwoodworking.com/featherboard.html
Excerpt (Click On Link Above For Full Article)
Featherboard
Make your own and Save Money!
This pattern is for two Featherboards. You make both at one time. It is easier to rout two than just one. With a longer board than necessary, you use clamps for stops, and to hold your work.
I made mine from 1/2″ HDPE (High Density Polyethylene). You can make them from Hickory, Oak, or Maple.
If you need a good price on HDPE, let me know.
THE PLASTIC SPORK BLOG 