Designer Dining - A Venezuelan Creative Odyssey (part 3)

Previous parts
https://steemit.com/life/@handsolo/designer-dining-a-venezuelan-creative-odyssey-part-1
https://steemit.com/life/@handsolo/designer-dining-a-venezuelan-creative-odyssey-part-2

Returning to my workshop a few days later I wasn’t fully recovered but couldn’t afford any more time off. I wanted to take a break from the steel working; using the grinder really aggravates the tendonitis in my elbow and having had this condition before I knew that it was only going to get worse if I didn’t rest completely for at least a couple of weeks but this I couldn’t do.
Setting the steel work aside temporarily I got on with cutting and planing all the wood pieces which make up the seats, backs and table top.

The wood was provided by my client who was told by the vendor that it was Teak; in all honesty I couldn’t tell you which wood it was but it most assuredly wasn’t teak. As soon as I began cutting the wood I could see that it was wet to the core. As each slat was cut from the main it began to warp. This made me more than a little upset. I was working to a tight deadline during a time of the year when almost everybody else was relaxing and enjoying the Christmas vacations yet here I was dealing with problem after problem. I called up the builder who had sold my client the wood and he let slip that the wood had been stored outside. We’d had a great deal of rain towards the end of last year so that explained that.

There was nothing to do but finish cutting and find some way to clamp the wood for drying. I dug around in my storeroom and gathered together enough steel to make a drying rack.

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After clamping the wood in the specially made rack I got in touch with my client and had the uncomfortable experience of having to tell him that the delivery date of the 15th of January was not looking likely. Though I still felt that I was letting him down; he assured me that there was no problem as he was also delayed and wouldn’t arrive back at his house until the middle of February.

During the week that followed I finished up the painting of the table and speeded up the wood drying process by placing the clamped timber in the sun for short periods throughout the day. Sure enough at week’s end the wood was nicely dried and had straightened out well enough to use.

The table top would consist of three sections each made up of six slats, the idea being that it resembled the deck of a yacht.

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The actual fitting of the table top was a slow process, taking almost all day to get right, but by the end of the day I had given the completed top its first coat of Marine Varnish. As an aid to good adhesion of the protective varnish the first coat is always mixed 50/50 with thinners. This allows the varnish to be fully absorbed into the wood and greatly increases the durability of the finished product.

The table completed it was time to begin with the chairs.

To be continued......