1. Wood shopping time! Go to Home Deopot and buy processed pine boards the dimensions you will need are 8 inches wide, 6 feet long, and 1 inch thick. Knowing the wood would have to be processed I bought three of these boards to split between Ben and I. We also bought 1 can of Valspar premium finish glossy white spray paint.
2. In the woodshop process your wood on the Joiner and Planier
3. I cut the wood into 12 inch boards on the chop saw, then arrange the boards so the grain direction is cupping each other
4. Glueing time, Spread a generous amount of glue on each board then clamp and let dry overnight.
post glue job
5. Once the block is dried, process again, so the block is about 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 x 12” long.
6. Take the processed block to the table saw and raise the blade as high as it will go. Use the cross cut sled to cut the one block into two blocks that dimensions are slightly larger then 5x5x5. Use a clamp with the sled so the cut is as accurate as possible, you will have to rotate the block three times for the blade to cut it all the way through.
7. Take a ruler and mark lines so on one face of the cube, there is a visable 5×5 box. In the box, in the middle of the x take both cubes to the drill press and drill a hole in the direct middle. If the measurements are off the finished product will not have the desired dimensions of 5x5x5
8. Take one cube and attach it to the jig on the band saw to make a pyramid. Have the side of the cube line up with the side of the jig and make your first cut, go slow and steady. After the first cut is done rotate the cube 90 degrees. Repeat this step three times
9. To make the cone repeat step 8 and make a pyramid. Then take the pyramid on the jig and move to the skinny band saw. Cut off the four corner lines on the pyramid making it an octogon. Once you have the octogon, remove the back pegs and slowly and steadly rotate the octogon around the band saw, cutting it into a cone.
10. Now with the two rough geoforms attatch them to the sanding jig and sand them.
11. Once the two shapes are sanded by the machine. It is time to start hand sanding. Make sure you leave ample time to sand and paint, this process is very time consuming, and if this step is rushed the forms will have an awful surface. I used my jig to help me hand sand and started with 80 grit sandpaper. After the 80 grit I covered both forms in a light layer of wood filler applying it in a simmilar method to how the poly was applied to the first geoforms, rubbing it into the wood in a circular direction. This filled in the deep groves the machine sander left in my wood. Once the wood filler is dry resand progress up to 220 grit sandpaper.
12. Spray paint time, Read the directions on your spray paint, it truly helps. After the first coat I took 220 grit paper and sand paper and resanded both forms.
13. After sanding add 3 more layers of paint, but be sure to let the coats fully dry in-between.
14. Done Congrats!
Lisa Parrino 