As much as I love my power tools, sometimes the hand tools are just a little easier to use. In this case I was trimming a walnut strip that I put on the front of a drawer runner. Granted once I got it dialed in it was over to the wide belt sander to get all of the runners cleaned up and the same thickness. The walnut might be overkill, but I don’t want the maple to show when the drawers are shut.
Part of the way through a dry fit on a cabinet. The primary woods in this piece will be cherry with some nice looking dark streaks running through the wood. There will be some walnut used as a secondary accent wood in the piece. Between the through dovetails, dados for shelves, resawn lumber glued on edge for doors and the back, and then an intentional gap running around the perimeter of the piece; the dry fit will be crucial to get all of the measurements right.
Rather uneventful day in the shop. Turned a few styluses to get started and then spent the rest of the day planing, jointing, resawing, sanding and generally creating a mess. The pile in the picture below is a mixture of cherry, maple and poplar shavings coming out of my planer.
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.
It’s almost criminal how much people are charged for custom poster frames these days. Now I realize that the people making/selling the frames aren’t likely millionaires, so they have to charge what they do based on the volume of business that they do… Below is a cherry frame that I built for The Kills concert that I went to at the 9:30 in 2011. The piece was constructed from a scrap piece of cherry lumber that I found in the shop. I basically put it together between other projects at the shop (or more likely to avoid spending the time to clean the shop). The mitered joints are reinforced with contrasting walnut splines. Some might debate the value significance of concert art, but I’m thrilled that this piece is now in a one of a kind frame. Original artwork (“Operator Put Me Through”) was done by Third Alert Designs.
The Edison table lamp is a simple box that features through dovetails. The box is built from scrap walnut that I had lying around the shop. While fairly easy to put together, the wiring and alignment of the light sockets managed to kill most of my time in the shop today. It will be a great addition during the winter months, because those bulbs put out a lot of heat.
If anyone is interested in buying this lamp or one similar I’ve just listed this on Etsy for sale.
Finally finished a few pieces this weekend. In these pictures are dovetail boxes built from walnut. The boxes house a DAC, preamp, and 4 mono amps from Pro-Ject. The idea behind the boxes was to both improve the look of the stereo components and to strategically position the pieces to hide cables (unlike magazine shoots all of the pieces are actually hooked up). You can also see my Pro-Ject turntable and one of my Linn Tukans (on a custom built speaker stand in walnut and cherry).
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.
Claremont Designs 