Below is another sighting of the rare and elusive Shaved Sasquatch. Early fitting trials. At this point I am so excited at seeing my dream come to life, I can’t stand it. 😉
I’ll take you thru the process I went thru to create the desktop for the 2112. You’ll notice in the photo above that the desktop looks like it’s metal. That’s because it’s aluminum honeycomb, the same material used in executive aircraft cabinets. Extremely light and very strong. Very expensive also.
The veneer on top is the very finest walnut burl (there were very few compromises in the creation of this dream come true) and the edges are hand-picked solid walnut. The mitred joints were the most challenging part. All the edges except for the tailpiece of the desktop (closest to the user) have multiple compound mitres. Very difficult to do correctly. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being butt simple picture frames and 10 being the most mind-bendingly difficult thing you could imagine, this is about a 9.5. The tailpiece was then carefully fitted to the back edges.
In my dreams I always envisioned the Unistation logo and model number along with my signature engraved on the back edge of the tailpiece. Originally I thought that I could have it cut with a laser, but the piece was too large to get into the machine. So I had to do the engraving by hand. So on the left side of the tailpiece is the Unistation logo and the model number 2112, and on the right it says, ‘100% Doyle Calvert’, and my name is my signature. Well, after all, it is MY workstation. 😉 I know I went overboard on this thing and I realize that the 2112 will probably never be a production model. But I sure do enjoy mine. I have other models more conducive to mass production. The 2112 is a totally hand-crafted piece of highly functional art.
First, I created the Unistation logo, model number and signature in as an .eps file. I then printed out the logo and pasted it into position on the walnut tailpiece. Then I took an exacto knife and carefully cut away each letter and number to expose the wood underneath. I then used a little 2mm Dremel bit and a router attachment for my Dremel mototool to cut the engraving out freehand. Very delicate work. Came out great.
I then masked off the wood and painted the engraving black, to make it stand out better.
This is after I glued the tailpiece in place on the desktop.
A little masterful filing and sanding by this goofy hairy guy and….
…it’s ready for clearcoat and polishing.
I then sprayed layer upon layer of catalyzed varnish, sanding and re-applying until the finish was smooth and flat.
And the end result came out better than I ever imagined.
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