Airport cabinet

HMR

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Joined
Feb 17, 2015
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78
A company at our local airport asked if I could build them a wall hanging key cabinet.  It was for the lobby of a private jet terminal.  The interior colors and furnishings have kind of a funky/modern vibe.  I did a project for them awhile back and it was a challenge to come up with something that "fit".  They wanted the cabinet to hang on this wall:
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The manager of the facility was familiar with my work and gave me 100% freedom to do whatever I wanted.  His only request was that it could hold 50 sets of keys and have lockable doors.  I spent a week experimenting with different color combinations and ended up with a bad case of creativity-block.  Finally, I was sitting in the shop daydreaming about what it would be like to be a good woodworker when I looked over at my wood storage and saw a piece of plywood next to some walnut... BINGO!

I downloaded the company's logo onto my computer and put a scrap piece of walnut on the CNC:
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While the logo was cutting I started breaking down the plywood with the tracksaw, cut it into strips on the tablesaw and glued up 2 panels:
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After the panels dried, I cut the logos in the plywood and completed the inlay:
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The cabinet case and door panels were all joined with 6x40 dominoes.  I used 45-minute epoxy for the case glue-up.  Epoxy plus dominoes results in a REALLY strong joint.  Exterior sanding was done with the ETS 125 and the RO 125.  Inside corners were sanded with the DTS 400.

Finished product:
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I did the install earlier this week and the client said it "exceeded expectations" (always nice to hear!):
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[member=45553]HMR[/member]

Wow, that's really creative!  The two stripes of on-edge plywood provide a nice backdrop to really highlight the logos.  Nice!

How did you cut out the reverse logos from the walnut board for the inlay?

Thanks, Mike A.
 
Dude! That is gorgeous! I applaud your creativity and appreciate your thinking outside the box marrying plywood with walnut... Stunning! And how can you not love the CNC company logo... Brilliant!
 
That's beautiful!  But why recycle the interior backboard in this gem?
 
Thanks everyone!  Always nice when the light bulb finally flickers on, you get an idea and run with it.

[member=30413]mike_aa[/member]
The image can be flipped in the CNC software.  The normal and "flipped" images both get carved on the CNC to create the inlay.

[member=21249]RKA[/member]
Ha!  That background is actually a part of the cabinet.  I made it that way as a little bit of an "inside joke" with the guy who ordered the work (long story).  In use, the background is obscured by all the keys hanging on the hooks.  [wink]
 
Ah hah!  See my money was on "hook placement did not conform to 32mm system"!  :)
 
Hole Mole! - as TWO GRUMPY OLD MEN" used to say in Minnesota . . .
In all my years of passing you general aviation terminals I have never seen anything close to this work of creative craftsmanship.

Have you considered ways to get word out around the corporate aviation world? There is a market there for your work, I'm certain.

My hat's off to you!
Hans
 
Very nice. I could almost picture some internal lighting being useful for similar projects.
 
[member=59331]TSO Products[/member]
Thanks!  I work in aviation for my "other" job.  I try to combine my love for flying and woodworking whenever possible.  I'm actually busy in the shop this week building something for the Blue Angels.  Second year in a row I've had the privilege of working on a project for them.

[member=40772]Holmz[/member]
I like the lights idea.
 
HMR said:
[member=59331]TSO Products[/member]
...  I'm actually busy in the shop this week building something for the Blue Angels.
...

They best put a lock on their key box, else you take one out for a spin (or stall or loop)
 
Ok I am a little slow here. The walnut appears to be 3/4". for your inlay did you resaw it, then inlay,  and hit it with the RO? 

Bill
 
Beautiful! I've not done inlay work, how do you go about getting the parts out of the walnut board and into the cnc'd plywood?
 
[member=27808]Discap[/member] and [member=4834]PaulG[/member]
It is 3/4" (18mm) plywood and walnut (that was coincidental, thickness doesn't have to be the same between materials).  The plywood was cut into strips and then glued back together to expose the plys of the plywood (think the same as you'd make an end grain cutting board).  The "female" inlay gets cut into one surface and the "male" inlay gets cut into the other.  When you sandwich them together the two halves slide into place.  I do a careful cut between the 2 halves at the bandsaw then clean it up with the RO and ETS.  I use inlays in a lot of my projects.  Here's another airport project I did awhile back.  The backrest text/image is walnut inlaid into maple.
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Thanks for the explanation, beautiful application of cnc to do things that are unimaginably tedious otherwise
 
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