NICK FALZONE DESIGN
>Nakamura
Introduction
After finishing my last case, Yuugou, I was ready to take a break but I got the opportunity I had been waiting for for a long time; to build a case for a paying client. This worked out great because the client wanted a mATX case and that was what I planned on doing next. This case would become a test of not only speed (since I had less than a few months to complete the project) but also my ability to accommodate a client which I felt turned out great in the end. Unfortunately, the client bailed and the case is currently up for sale but the initial experience was just the same.
Design/Inspiration
The original client is half Japanese and wanted something similar to Yuugou while also incorporating his family symbol. It turned out his family symbol is so well known and widespread that there are stock fan grilles made of the exact same thing.
Basically, the design is a simplified Yuugou frame with inset panels which are an abstraction of the symbol with a shoji panel and paper behind that to create a very nice contrast and sense of depth. For the front and back panels I chose a neutral, but oh so sleek, black gloss acrylic to make the wood and especially the top panel, the main attraction.
Frame
I decided to make the frame out of Cherry, one of my favorite North American hardwoods prized for its ability to take a great finish, its color, and its really nice grain.
To start the frame, I milled the pieces to the correct dimensions using my surface planer and then cut the pieces to the correct length using a mitre saw. Once this was done, it was time for the joinery which I again did all by hand. Of course it’d been a long time since I did the woodwork for Yuugou and I was very rusty but eventually I became comfortable with the tools and wood and everything turned out great.
The first step in the joinery is to cut the tenon. I always cut the tenons before the mortices simply because its easier to make a while match a pin and you can always shave some material off if the tenon is too big.
Once the tenons were done, I layed out the mortices using my marking gauge and engineer’s square, rough drilled the holes using a drill press (cheating I know but I don’t have a manual drill) and then I finished everything off with a combination of bench chisels and paring chisels.
Once I knew the joints fit snuggly, I was able to make the 45 degree cut on the top pieces. I designed it this way for this case (and Yuugou too) so I can make a curve in the top piece without it taking too much material away from the sides. It also looks better proportionally.
Once the joints were complete, I marked out the curves using the drawings I’d made previously and used a band saw to cut as close to the line as possible. A little sanding would clean up the roughness left by the saw.
Shoji
I decided to make the shoji panels out of cherry also to give them a nice contrast from the paper which would eventually go behind them. The most difficult part of this was figuring out the best proportions for the shoji as both the negative space and the size of the shoji pieces themselves would determine the feel of the case.
I was originally going to inset the shoji with the spruce pieces but after having cut all the shoji and joined them, I realized that it was just not going to work, Back to the drawing board, I decided to simply put the shoji panel behind the spruce. This means his had to be thinner which worked out great because visually this is what the case needed.
To build the shoji panels, I first milled the cherry pieces using a band saw to get the rough strips and my surface planer to get a smooth finish. The plan was to make all the panels first, and then inset them into the cherry frame.
The panels are held together by half lap joints which are very easy to make with this small of wood. For speed, I clamped about 7 pieces of wood at a time and cut them all at once. I also trimmed them to fit while clamped to expedite the assembly process.
Side Panel
The side panel design is based off of the symbol that I used for the design inspiration. Basically, it is simply a slightly abstracted version using only one of the three points. I chose Sitka Spruce since its one of my favorite woods and it contrasts the cherry very nicely.
The process of building this part was simple. I routed out where the spruce pieces were supposed to go after I planned them to the proper thickness. After that, I cut the pieces roughly so they’d fit in their respective grooves. Then I drew the curves and cut them out.
To give more three dimensionality to the case and take advantage of the layered design, I did some light sculpting of the spruce using a pneumatic drum sander for the rough sculpting and my random orbital sander for the finish sanding.
Acrylic
The acrylic in this case serves dual purposes. On one hand its aesthetically pleasing, adding simplicity to the case which focuses the eye on the wood instead of the acrylic.
On the other hand, it allows my inner/outer frame concept to work as the front and back acrylic plates are the only elements that have contact with the wood.
To construct the back panel, I first made templates out of cardboard and foam-core
board until I got the correct spacing around the elements. Once this was done, I
used the end-mill to mill out a template out of MDF. This way, I could make multiples
quickly using a router table with a flush trim bit. I attached the back plate to
the back using the same 4 screw holes that the stock side panels used.
I tried to think of some more fancy for the front design but it turned out that the best design was to make it as simple as possible so that is what I did. I just milled some holes for the stock buttons which worked perfectly with the design and stealthed the DVD drive behind some more black plexi.
Paper/Finish
To keep the focus on the wood, I decided to use a neutral color and texture rice paper that I picked up from Miki’s paper in Berkeley. To add durability to the paper, I backed it with acrylic that fits snugly into the wood making a very stable panel that you can’t simply stick your finger through.
For the finish I chose to use my special Sam Maloof finish which is in two parts and basically consists of: four coats of an oil, polyurethane mix and one coat of an oil and wax mix which gives a very nice lustre to the piece.
