I absolutely hate painting with a passion. I will pay obscene amounts of money to never do it again. But painter’s (painters’ ?) tape might be my favorite shop tool. The only other thing close is my glue stick (an old dowel rod that I use to apply glue). Here I’m using the tape on the inside of a buffet to clamp some decorative pieces to inside of the cabinet. If I’m applying decorative pieces, I must be close to finishing this one. Right?
My big pile of cherry lumber. Finally starting to work my way through it. In its rough cut state it certainly doesn’t look like much. Shockingly the retail price for that stack would be way over a thousand dollars. Thank god for Craigslist and people that have trees fall down… To give you a sense of what it looks like after going through the planer, take a look at the second picture which has a before and after piece side by side.
Just finished a quick test of the lamp before final assembly (in my head I said “assembly” in my best Norm Abram impression). Looks like everything is working as expected. Time to insert the final 4 screws and call this one finished.
Finally getting to some finish work which is exciting, but that means an ungodly amount of sanding over the past 48 hours. Started sanding with an 80 grit sandpaper progressing through to 220. In the picture below are a variety of boxes that will house some small stereo gear. In the background is the base for the Edison lamp I’m building. The box in the foreground hasn’t received the oil urethane blend yet. Hiding somewhere is a poster frame which also reached the finishing stages this weekend. After this first coat of finish dries it will be a rotation of four aught steel wool and oil urethane until I’m happy with the finish.
I decided to class up the living room stereo a little bit. In the picture is the partial dry fit of the woodwork. It’s only partial, because I still need to figure out how to pull apart the small box that I put together to test fit and dimensions… In front of those pieces are the individual parts of the two boxes that I’m hoping will fit together. Through dovetails all around on these pieces.
Today’s projects are a random mixture of items. The walnut box with all of the clamps will be the base for an Edison lamp. The poster frame is sitting in my sled to cut slots for the splines in the miter joints. Fortunately these are both small projects so hopefully they will move to the finished furniture category next weekend.
Well it’s taken a lot of sanding but the drawers are taking shape. Sorry if the picture is a little blurry. Combination of still shaking from sanding and using an iPhone doesn’t always make for the best picture quality. Up next is the carcass of the cabinet and then fitting the drawers to the opening…
There’s an old adage that you can never have enough clamps. Personally I’ve never been fond of adages; I generally find them to be a shortcut to actually thinking. I almost uttered “you can never have enough clamps” when finishing this glue up. But I have plenty of clamps left over so that can’t be a true statement. Instead I was left wondering why I seem to have no more than 4 clamps of any size or length that match. Good news is that the drawers are almost done and I can start on fit and finish shortly.
Half blind dovetails… How I love loathe thee. Through dovetails are a lot of fun, but the half blind type for drawers can be a little trying. The good news is that hopefully soon this piece will move from the WIP to the finished furniture category.
Finally started to tackle the drawers. It’s amazing how much lumber is required to build a drawer. The planer is in for a workout today. These will certainly be heavy, but the walnut maple combination is worth it.
Claremont Designs 