Or, how not to build with wenge.
This was my first tango with exotic wood 25 years ago. I didn't know what I was doing and this thing just fell apart after about 5 years. I just threw it in a cardboard box, but somehow it managed to find its way on the top of one of my tool cabinets. The specks are insect and hummingbird dooky. I cleaned off one part of the lid just to prove it is in fact wenge lol.
Don't ask what glue and finish I used I've slept well over 9000 times since then. I think I was using elmer's back then but no clue on the finish. I'll put this thing back together one day soon but in the meantime I thought I'd show a before. @Aurora North's wenge thread prompted me to drag this out and photo it so it can serve as a caution to others not familiar how to glue oily woods. I know now but back then I was clueless. I can't show what it looked like before the explosion because I didn't take many pictures back then and the few I did take were polaroids which I'm not sure I still have. You can't tell it now but the fit, finish, and alignment on this box was damned respectable before the glue turned it loose again.
You can see here how I also got carried away with a couple of pilot holes and went all the way through.
Look at that section of white/black. A member here asked last year what he could do to get some white/black contrast but wanted it mixed all together if I remember correctly. I said he could bleach some wenge and did that to show him. Now I guess I have to bleach the entire inside of the lid once I sand all the old finish back off.
So Yusuke make sure you know how to prep oily species like wenge.
This was my first tango with exotic wood 25 years ago. I didn't know what I was doing and this thing just fell apart after about 5 years. I just threw it in a cardboard box, but somehow it managed to find its way on the top of one of my tool cabinets. The specks are insect and hummingbird dooky. I cleaned off one part of the lid just to prove it is in fact wenge lol.
Don't ask what glue and finish I used I've slept well over 9000 times since then. I think I was using elmer's back then but no clue on the finish. I'll put this thing back together one day soon but in the meantime I thought I'd show a before. @Aurora North's wenge thread prompted me to drag this out and photo it so it can serve as a caution to others not familiar how to glue oily woods. I know now but back then I was clueless. I can't show what it looked like before the explosion because I didn't take many pictures back then and the few I did take were polaroids which I'm not sure I still have. You can't tell it now but the fit, finish, and alignment on this box was damned respectable before the glue turned it loose again.
You can see here how I also got carried away with a couple of pilot holes and went all the way through.
Look at that section of white/black. A member here asked last year what he could do to get some white/black contrast but wanted it mixed all together if I remember correctly. I said he could bleach some wenge and did that to show him. Now I guess I have to bleach the entire inside of the lid once I sand all the old finish back off.
So Yusuke make sure you know how to prep oily species like wenge.
