Michael's Paradise Box project ROCKS!

[CarveOne]

My wife's cousin Becky asked me if I could repair a 100+ year old broken rocking chair's seat that belonged to her great grandmother. She wasn't asking to have it accurately restored, just make it functional again. The seat frame was broken at all four glue joints, and the cane weave has a broken in place at the back of the seat. I knew that Woodcraft sells the spline, strands, and pre-woven sheets to do these repairs with, but I haven't done it before. She and her husband brought the chair over for evaluation, and I agreed to see what I could do with it.

I looked online for how-to videos and found one that covered the woven sheet installation pretty well. I picked up the weave and spline at a Woodcraft store in west Raleigh, NC. The seat frame glue joint repairs were done and placed on a flat surface, weighted, and allowed to cure. I cut two pieces of red oak like the chair is made of that span the left and right sides of the seat, bridging the glue joints. rounded over the two bottom edges, used slow cure epoxy to glue the two stiffener blocks to the bottom of the seat frame. When cured overnight I installed six stainless steel screws in each board as double protection, then stained the boards with MinWax Dark Walnut to produce a close match to the original chair color. Brushed on some MinWax clear satin polyurethane to seal it. The boards are visible but most people won't notice them unless they are inspecting the chair. A few other small repairs were made to improve the looks of the chair. The cane weave installation work went well, Becky was ecstatic about the results, and her husband couldn't believe how well it looked when they came to take it home.

Well, gears started turning in my head, and I took a few photos of the chair before they left with it. I had a plan to make them even happier. I made this for her using the photos I took of her chair. The design on the chair back was used to make a 3D model with slightly rounded top surfaces, unlike the concave flat carved surface of the chair back. The cane weave is a 3D model I have used on some of my guitars. She has been very good to my wife over the years and deserves some repayment for it. We will be giving it to her soon.

CarveOne

[WNC_Ed]

The chair looks great and the box looks fabulous!
That should make a very happy cousin Becky.
Congrats!

I always enjoy hearing the story behind the project - so great job on the post too.

[jay pieper]

What a great looking box and made for for a great reason.
I hope you realize that this is the first of many to come,
once the public gets to see it you will be a busy man.
Really nice work thank you for posting, makes the wheels spin!!!!

[Savannahdan]

CarveOne is a grand master of making Paradise Boxes with many wonderful designs. Look at his posts and his website and you'll see what he has done and it extends way beyond the Paradise Box. I first met him in 2015 at McGrew's and he had a lot of his carvings on display. I was new to cnc and by him showing what can be done was enough to convince me to march forward and stick it out even though my first system was junk. I love the chair and the new box. Thank you.

[CarveOne]

I forgot to add the tray photo.

I have lost track of how many of these I have made over the years, for sure it is 50+ by now. Most have been gifts to family and friends. My website is way out of date, and it all wouldn't fit the storage space it has anyway.

CarveOne

[scottp55]

Impressed by the chair repair and the complementary box CarveOne!!!
She'll be surprised and pleased I bet!
scott

[mtylerfl]

Spotty cell service here in Lee/Lincoln, Maine on Madagascal Pond (lake). But today got some signal and saw this! Excellent work, Richard! Beautiful!

[Buc]

Another excellent project completed Carve One.
bUc

[scottp55]

Lobster Roll Shacks look pretty thin on the ground up there Michael!!!

[mtylerfl]

Monday we are having our “Lobstah Night”!!

[CarveOne]

Thanks for the compliments everyone! The box will be delivered one day in the coming week, on the premise that we have something to show them that is a recent project of mine, and to see how the rocking chair is holding up.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

There is just something about this particular box design of Michael's that has become something akin to a "canvas for my creativity" with the Aspire software. Kudos to Michael and to the folks at Vectric Ltd. for their creations. Without them and the www.cnczone.com website I wouldn't have two CNC machines and the ability to do this stuff. Michael's other box designs are beautiful in their own right, but this one is large enough to be very impressive as a personalized gift when the right designs are carved onto it.

My next project for this week will be to cut the lower left and lower right wing panel molds for a friend who builds UAV, RPV, and wind tunnel models. These are for his own personal use and are 20" by 47.5" in size. I have imported an stl file and will receive the mold material later today.

CarveOne

[scottp55]

THAT should certainly be a surprise to her CarveOne!!
Always like seeing what you're doing!!
(sorry for 'Jacking when I saw Michael was in Maine! Just couldn't resist:)
scott

[SteveNelson46]

I forgot to add the tray photo.

I have lost track of how many of these I have made over the years, for sure it is 50+ by now. Most have been gifts to family and friends. My website is way out of date, and it all wouldn't fit the storage space it has anyway.

CarveOne

I've made several of Michael's paradise boxes also. You sure did a nice job on this one.

[CarveOne]

Here is another variation on Steve's 12 pocket equal rectangle tray idea that I'll use in a few future Paradise Box projects. It has been modified to have the pull knob in the center also, but in addition, it has two longer pockets that may come in handy.

CarveOne