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Birds, Part 2
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| The birds have been roughed out on a band saw and are now reading for refining. That means rounding off the edges and forming the shape. Sanding is the usual method for this step. I happen to have five drill presses, a legacy from my production craft business, so I set up three so I could go from one sanding step to the other without stopping. This saves a huge amount of time.
Sanding is the final finishing step. Staining, coloring, and adding the wings finishes the bird.
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It doesn't look like it, but there are 200 birds ready for finishing here.
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I set up three drill presses with different sanding drums so I could do all the sanding necessary at one time. When I am finished with the four different sand steps, it is ready for staining, painting, and installing the wings. This setup is also outdoors because of the dust. |
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| The first step is to roughly round the figure with a tool new to me. It acts like sand paper but cuts more wood. The result is still very rough. |
I want the end result to be round without edges so I am using a pneumatic sanding drum. It is soft and conforms to curves so it will not leave edges. |
The curve of the first two drums are too large for the beak, so I am using a mini grinder with a 3/8" sanding drum for finishing the details. |
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| The final sanding drum is also pneumatic, fairly soft so it conforms to a round shape and with fine grit which takes out the sanding marks of the earlier sanding drums. The bird is now ready for paint, stain and wings. |
After a couple of tests, I decided to paint the bird first, then put on the stain. The Paint I'm using needs to dry overnight before the next step. |
The last step is to install the wings and paint with a cover coat of satin lacquer. I will be positioning wings up, out and down, to vary the birds and make them look more lifelike. |
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| At last, a finished bird. I have done all the robins at this time. |
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