Fireplace

This was a project that I needed to complete before the end of this weekend before it could be operational. It was quite a bit more work than I really wanted to do because there was a lot of panel and gluing to do. I used white oak on this project. This is the first time I used white oak and it is like using hickory! That’s probably why they use it for pallets. Anyway. I needed to tint the wood first, so I used a mixture of denatured alcohol and Transtint (reddish brown) to bring it to a red to match the other furniture in the room.
Since I couldn’t get columns, I tried to keep a uniform design through the thing. By doing things like keeping the 3 panel idea going from the base front, sides and the top overhang. Actually, I read the instructions for building these things, according to the fireplace manufacturer, so that really gave me insight as to how far (combustionable) things have to be and how far the wood can come out over the top and when. Very interesting.
Also, I had cut the corners at a 45 degree because I didn’t want the typical case/face frame look. I wanted the fireplace to have a hearty look with posts. I had originally wanted to do oak columns in the front and box the back, but I didn’t have a lathe to make the posts. I going to order the posts, but the company wanted $770, plus delivery for two 3’ posts. Crazy.
I am going to paste some pictures on here to show how I glued up the corners of the posts. It was very easy, but again, time consuming.
The first picture shows me taping up the corner pieces with gorilla tape. You have to use heavy tape, because there is a lot of pressure on the seam when you bend them together.

This picture shows the glue on the joint and there is one that is taped up next to it. Basically, alls you do is tape the front, flip it and then glue it and pull the joints together and tape them to hold them together. I have seen people use rubber bands, but I had too many to put together for rubber bands.

This last picture shows how the final joints came out. I always try and leave my glue dry over night, especially something like this with such a fine corner joint. After the glue is dried, you tear off the tape. The gorilla tape comes off pretty hard, so don’t force it. I used white oak on this project, so if you pulled the tape too fast and happen to have a sliver stuck to the tape, you can have a pretty good chunk of wood come off before you are done. I cut the tape near the joint on one side and pulled slow, that decreased the pressure of pulling off the tape when I did the other side. Also, after you put the black gorilla tape on, you have to put another layer of tape over that. You would be surprised how it rips right through the tape. I used regular duct tape for the second layer.

-- Do we do this for purpose or passion?