Parts, Pieces & Priming

Sanding

All of our parts have been sanded with the spindle sander that really cleaned up the edges. The Epicor layers of the plywood has some fuzzing depending on how the grain was aligned where the compression spiral bit hit it. Sanding removed some of it but not all since it is so light it flattens and avoids the sanding grit.

Primer Coat

Meranti plywood is a very porous material so to prevent it from drinking up all our paint, we need to prime our parts. We were hoping to try KILZ Clean Start Primer because we want water-based with zero Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Our local home improvement store didn’t carry it so we went with KILZ Premium Primer.

To test the primer, we just brushed the tops of a few parts. One coat covers well without noxious fumes and dries in a few hours. Success!

The next step is assembling the parts so they can be primed where the paint will be applied. We are using Gorilla Glue but add some mechanical fasteners to hold the parts in place while the glue dries. Screws are also for safety in case the glue lets go. These pieces will be suspended from the ceiling over people’s heads after all.

The original idea was to use 1.25”, 2” and 3” coarse drywall screws. The plywood is actually 0.70” thick so the screw lengths line up with the number of layers thick. In the photos below, the screws were attached through the front of the parts since we got the assembly out of order.

Next Steps

Piece 1 & 2 are ready for priming. The third piece needs a few more parts attached and the fourth piece needs complete assembly.