Beachcomber Bob's

Building a better tomorrow through merciless experimentation.

[beachcomberbob]

Almost there! I still have to work on the hinges and lock, but this is the result after the first coat of beeswax polish. Still some more wax and buffing to be done yet though.

[beachcomberbob]

Remember what it looked like when I started? Well here’s the split lid now I’ve done the repairs. The shrinkage has been blended into a smooth bevel on the back which is hardly noticeable unless you’re looking for it, and the horrible splits in the veneer at the front are all smoothed out. 

[beachcomberbob]

O.K. Things don’t always work out. Here are the veneer repairs on the base part of the box. I didn’t even bother putting a ring around the last one.

But I’m not trying to make it look brand new - it should have a little bit of character. All adds to the charm of a restored piece. 

[beachcomberbob]

These next few posts are just highlighting my missing veneer repairs. You still can see them if you get the light just right, but I’m getting better at blending them in as I get more practice.

[beachcomberbob]

Making the pewter beading and Mother-of-Pearl roundels ‘pop’.

Just going slowly and carefully, scraping the French polish off with the tip of a craft knife. There is still that little section of beading missing on the front of the base part (bottom left), but I have my donor box to take some from. It will be just cut to length, laid in the slot and glued with PVA.

[beachcomberbob]

The lid has a padded, velvet covered panel to be fitted. On the previous one I did, I had the original boxwood plate to utilize. But here I’m just using a piece of hardboard. Again I’m using quilting padding material and attaching the velvet with Elmer’s rubber cement.   

[beachcomberbob]

For the purposes of this build, there will be no lining paper. A coat or two of black craft enamel is all that needs to be done to the interior.

[beachcomberbob]

I judged my depths of cut, bit by bit, using my own pistol prop. I’ve had to be quite liberal in the cavity dimensions, because this one is for a friend who already has his own Tesla, and I don’t know the exact dimensions of it.

[beachcomberbob]

Carving out the foam insert for the Tesla presentation box. 

[beachcomberbob]

Oh, it gets better!

Plug it into a USB port and it will simulate the charge in the pistol, thanks to the modern volt meter innards.

[beachcomberbob]

Time to address the lens. This is flexible acrylic, for safety, and is cut to fit the inner contours of the top section. A few dabs of hot glue will hold it in place. Chrome screws in front and black self tappers at the back hold the case together, just like the real thing. This part is done!

[beachcomberbob]

Brass knob and braided cord in place, next is the black one. This is a metal powder reinforced resin cast, with a coat of 1k smart black primer. The screws have to be flush to avoid the inner workings.

[beachcomberbob]

Attaching the knobs to the meter. As with the previous build, these are dummies, and just require countersunk screws

[beachcomberbob]

Sand, polish coat, sand, polish coat......finer grits until I’ll finally reach 2000, then it’ll be wire wool. 

[beachcomberbob]

Now comes the fun part. Initial sanding, with various grades of grit paper, to get rid of the original finish. Then the first coat of French polish. This is where you start to get an idea of how the grain is going to show itself. 

[beachcomberbob]

I went on to do the same thing with all of the missing bits. Trace, cut, glue and sand. Once I had done them all, I went back and used the dark oak filler to blend in the cracks and seams. Strapping and clamping stopped the replacement veneer pieces from curling while the glue dried.

[beachcomberbob]

Addressing the other missing pieces of veneer, I went through the pieces I had from my donor box to find as close a match as possible. I took a bit of tracing paper and rubbed the shape of the missing section into it. I could then use that as a template to cut out a replacement veneer shape roughly to size.