The Adler class 8 sewing machine - Planning the base
Simple is where it’s at.
Click here to see all the Adler class 8 posts.
I’ve been looking for some wood to make a new base for the Adler ever since I got it. I didn’t want to use beech - the reddish color wouldn’t go well with the gold decals on the Adler.
My wife and I went looking for wallpaper for the kitchen today, so I got to have a look in a building goods store I don’t normally visit.
Besides beech, they also had acacia and oak.
I seriously considered the acacia because I like the grain more, but I ended up with oak. The store only had acacia that already had an oil finish. I don’t know if you can apply shellac over that or not, I just know that I don’t have any plans to find out.
Oak gives a sort of yellow/gold color when it’s been shellaced, so that ought to go well with the black sewing machine with its gold highlights.
With the wood selected, I sat down this afternoon to sketch out the base for the Adler.
The base I’ve planned is just a shallow box with two compartments.
The machine sits over the larger compartment, while the second compartment has a lid. I intend to keep things like thread and spare needles in the smaller compartment.
Here’s the Adler with the wood and a printout of my sketches:
| Future base for the Adler |
|---|
 |
Don’t build anything using these plans. These are just the sketches I’m starting from - the measurements may (probably will) change before I’m done. I’ll post a complete set of corrected drawings when I get the base finished.
Since the base will be gold(ish,) I thought I’d do a kind of yin/yang thing with the colors. The sewing machine is black with a large gold pattern. I thought I’d put a copy of that pattern on the lid of the accessory compartment, but in black on the gold(ish) colored oak.
This is the lid pattern:
| Accessory compartment lid |
|---|
 |
The idea is to print that pattern out at 100%, then lay it on the cut and sanded lid with a sheet of carbon paper under it. I’ll then trace the pattern onto the wood. With the pattern in place on the wood, I’ll go back and paint in the pattern with black paint using a fine brush. My first idea was to carve the pattern into the wood then fill it with paint - then I thought about how hard it was to carve in beech, and that oak is harder than that, and decided to skip the carving step.
I’ll probably start cutting wood next weekend. We’ve got other plans for this weekend.