Chasson Guitars, new shop (and house) on the way

[iim7V7IM7]

Fantastic Kent...

I assume you are building these in your "old shop" correct? I see both air and electricity and you are waiting on permits...😈

Originally Posted by Kent Chasson

Thanks again for all the kind responses.

Steve and Ken, do stop by when you're in the neighborhood. But Ken, don't wait until it's done!

Just a few more shots that are a bit more guitar-related. The wood, anyway.

I had some time while I was waiting for the permit to do some interior work.



Sapele front door.



Sconce from Sapele and Quilted Maple

[Kent Chasson]

Yep, the new shop is kind of like a dark, dank, dumpster at the moment.

[Chas Freeborn]

Nice looking building. I know the feeling of our long winters--- we're still under snow....
If I get up that way I'll give a yell.
-C

[gerberguitars]

What a beautiful door Ken! Will it see the sun? If so, I'm curious what you'll do to help protect it. Or will the sapele hold up nicely to the sun and weather? A while back I was considering building a solid wood front door, but because it faces the sun I was discouraged to do so. Was this bad advice? Looks like a fantastic house, tucked away in the mountain. What a dream.

[Kent Chasson]

Chas, yes, the winter has been a bit crazy this year. Wettest fall ever and it feels like the coldest. We have mini glacier creeping across the top of the driveway. Do look me up if you're up this way.

Thanks, Ryan. The inside of that door will see more sunlight than the outside. It's under an entry porch on the north side. The way I see it, you have 2 choices for nice wood that will be in direct sun. Spar Varnish with UV inhibitors can keep wood looking bright for a long time but it requires a lot of maintenance (re-coating every couple of years). The other route is to leave it bare or use something like Teak Oil and just let it weather. Woods with that interlocking ribbon figure (like Sapele and Mahogany) can still look really nice when they gray out.

Speaking of sun, if anyone is building or remodeling and wants to know what the sun is going to do in your guitar room, there are great 3D drafting programs around now that will allow you to model your project on a given site and plot the sun and shadows throughout the year. We used Google's Sketchup. It took the draftsman an hour to do a quick model and plop it on to Google Earth. I could then just push and pull the overhangs and ceiling/roof height until we got what we wanted. No direct sun will shine in the house at noon on the summer solstice yet we get sun half way up the north wall during the winter! Last time I built, we used formulas and protractors to get a vague idea.

The shop is still bare but the exterior is almost done...

[TomB'sox]

This is probably like telling a neurologic surgeon how to do spinal surgery, but I have found the Sikkens products to be among the best if not the best in UV protection. I had a log home that I treated with this (3 step process, lot of work for a log home, not so much for a door) and even the southern wall maintained it's color for the 10 years I lived there. I would recoat with the last step every 3 years or so, but this was quick. I have only used Sikkens since that time.