Radiator Covers

[nydesign]

My first project I'm posting   This was a fun job I just completed. The client has a nicely renovated 1800's brownstone in Brooklyn NY, they have a young child and
wanted covers for a few of their radiators. The covers are free standing, but they are screwed to the walls on cleats to prevent the
toddler from pulling them over. You'll see there are a couple sets of doors as well, they will get child proof locks over the knobs.

For this project I made use of my new domino. There were about 280 slats for 10 covers. After mortising half the slats
I could hardly hold the domino up anymore, it gets pretty heavy when using it with small pieces. I tried to make a quick jig to support it somehow.
I gave up on the idea when I realized it would take longer to make a useful jig than to just suck it up and keep going. At some point I looked at the
domino and decided to just turn it upside down. It worked great. I pushed the slats into the bit, and I finished the remainder of the slats in half the
time.

The finish on the white covers is a sprayed waterborne poly by Enduro. The walnut cover got a semi-gloss spray also by Enduro.
Overall fabrication time was 13 days, much of that spent sanding all those slats, both before and during painting. It took me a long day to install them.

These are photos of most of the covers, I missed a few, I'll have to go back and take pics of them some other time.

I chose walnut to match the existing door and doorframe to the bathroom. The little holes in the side are for the screws holding it to the cleats.
I need to add some walnut plugs to cover them. To make the curves I glued up two more boards to the sides, cut the corners off
on the table saw, then sanded the corners till I got the shape I wanted. I kept sanding to 500 grit. Going up to 500 gave the walnut a
very glass like feeling, I normally would fill the grain before finishing, this time I did not, the final finish came out really smooth.

There are two of these covers, getting them to fit in their locations was not fun. I ended up cutting quite a bit off the bottoms and sides.
The measurements I took did not account for the crazy unevenness of the floor, walls, and molding.

doors I made to cover an existing box.

more doors,

thanks for looking,

- J

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Very nice and clean looking, J.

Did you consider a router for doing your roundovers instead of all the sanding or is that on your wish list?

[thumbs up]

 

[black flag]

very nice.

did you insulate the inside of your covers to deflect heat away from the wood? I've been thinking of building a couple and was worried that the heat would warp the wood.

 

[nickao]

Nice work sir! 

 

[nydesign]

Did you consider a router for doing your roundovers instead of all the sanding or is that on your wish list?

[thumbs up]

thanks nope I actually did not think of using a router. The sanding did not take long, I used a RO 125 and 50 grit to get the shape I wanted.
From there I went through 80,100,120,150,180,220,320,400. Excessive I know, but I did not want to see any sanding marks on this piece.

I don't own a larger festool router yet, it's on the list!

very nice.

did you insulate the inside of your covers to deflect heat away from the wood? I've been thinking of building a couple and was worried that the heat would warp the wood.

thank you I did not insulate the sides, the covers are all more than 5" away from the heaters in all directions. I'm hoping that's enough.
I've made a bunch of covers in the past and never had a problem with them warping. I used a mix of poplar, maple and some maple ply for the sides.
If they warp at all I will be crying, I don't want to have to make any of these again...

Nice work sir! 

Thanks !

 

[tiralie]

Great looking covers.
The photo's are excellent.
Tim

 

[greenMonster]

"holding the domino upside down" does that mean you had the domino clamped, then pushed the stock into the domino?

 

[nydesign]

I did not exactly clamp the domino, I held it on the table with my left hand, my right hand held the slat, and I pushed the domino into the slat in that position.
Writing it makes it sound much worse than it is. It does not vibrate much and your protected from the bit at all times.

 

[-The Dutch Guy-]

Very stylish! How many room is there between your radiator and the actual cover?
Really like them!

cheers René

 

[nydesign]

The space varies for each location,  there is at least 5" from the heaters to the front of the covers.
The side space are between 8" to 12", and the tops are from 8" to 15".

The front slats are 7/8" wide and the space between the slats is 3/4".
I used the 4mm domino's. On the slats I set the domino at the smallest setting.

In the frames I used the second widest setting. With this set up 7/8" was the smallest width
I could make the slats and cover the opening the second setting made.

You definitely need to use the second setting for the frame side, I could not imagine trying to
put together the slats and frames without the extra room. As it was getting the frames together took
some time and patience. It helps having two people when working on a longer cover!

 

[Deansocial]

you could do this with the dom xl and make the slats the size of a domino

 

[Georg]

Great looking covers. nice work
Georg

 

[Kristian]

Beautiful work, J! And nice pictures too. Thanks for sharing.

- Kristian

 

[nydesign]

Thanks guys  [smile]