An unusual desk project Part II Sylvania Ohio

Ive made all the new pieces for the desk, and Im doing all of the staining and finishing that I can do up front, in the shop.  Here are the legs, bullnose, and drawer face on the table...

Ive made a dado joint to connect the two legs together...

Here is the drawer box, with a coat of polyurethane...

And here is the desk top extension.  I have attached the transition pieces already, by using biscuit joinery and glue.  It will work well for this application.

Next week is the big week to split the existing desk.  Sometimes I wish I had a magic wand, but this will be a test of my skill.  Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Read More

A Rack For Her Glue Gun Part III

After shaping with power tools and rasps, the glue gun rack was left with a very coarse surface. I struggled with this surface for a while. I tried random orbit sanders. They didn’t work. The sculpted surface was too irregular and the pads didn’t rotate properly. I tried hand sanding. This was too much like work.

Not the smoothed finish right off the grinder.

Thankfully, Paul Lemiski of Canadian Woodworks came to the rescue with his recommendation of using my Rotex with 60 grit paper in Rotex mode set to speed 1. It took the rasp marks off better and quicker than any other method I’d tried.

The work horses of my sanding regimen.

Once the surfaces were smooth, I sanded it up to 220 using a combination of my RO 90 and sanding pads.

With the final shaping and sanding done, it was now time for finish. Rather than shellac - which has become my go to finish as of late - I used General Finishes Arm-R-Seal and the method explained in The Wood Whisperer’s Simple Varnish Finish DVD. I used gloss for the first two (2) coats and semi-gloss for the third. I sanded between coats with 00 synthetic steel wool and the final coat with 0000 synthetic steel wool. This left a warm and deep tone to the Walunut.

The last step was to insert the tile. To do this I squeezed a bit of silicone marine adhesive on the back of the tile and pressed it into the recesses I’d made before the glue gun rack was assembled. After spending a night under a clamp, it was done.

Just waiting for the glue to dry.

I presented it to my wife as a gift on our 11th anniversary. She’s taken to using it, and the desk and rug are now glue free.

The finished Glue Gun Rack (poorly photographed).

Additional:

Glue Gun Rack Photos

Glue Gun Rack Posts

Dont forget about the +Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast. We talk woodworking with Guests from around the world of woodworking every other week. Subscribe to the RSS feed or iTunes today.

Read More

New Deck Part 4

The guys got the stair rails installed today.  They look great. 

Apparently the company is aware that they need better instructions for the stair rails.  Today I studied the situation and think I can write up something that will work.  The company admitted to the contractor that they knew they need new instructions and are "working" on them.  Guess Ill send them what I come up with.

Tomorrow they will put up the lattice and once again we are waiting for the rest of the materials.

Part 4.5
Part 5

Read More

Sharing the Wealth Part I

James and Jenny decided they wanted to work on some projects and I was glad to provide the shop and assistance. We’ve been having a great time of it!

Our first meeting was dinner and design. James decided to make a folding book stand and Jenny is making a necklace holder based on a shaker “key board” design. After dinner, we went out into the shop to get a little hands-on time with the tools and techniques they will be using.

Last night we were back at it, and the actual projects took flight! It was great getting to spend shop time with younger people (not that Im old or anything...) interested in learning to use handtools.

Here they are laying-out their pieces. James is using squares and a knife to mark his pine board for the chiseling and sawing that will free the two interlocking parts of his book stand. Jenny is using a marking gauge to get ready for re-thicknessing her Doug Fir with a scrub plane.

Here Jenny is scrubbing down almost to the gauge mark, and then she will finish up with a jack plane.

James is chopping and paring the hinge joints in his white pine.

And we ended up the night with Jenny doing some resawing – something she needed to do to get two parts out of one, and a small preview of James’ next step.

We had a great time, and I can’t wait until our next evening in the shop!

Read More

A House In The Trees Part XIV

A few weeks ago the Tree House suffered a major setback when one of the main support bolts broke. After some immediate triage consisting of temporary supports to hold up the unsupported corner and supplement the two (2) bolts which hadnt broken yet, Ive finally managed to restore the sagging tree house deck to its original position.

Finally, a jack setup that works. The deck is going up.

By using a house jack (or two) and ultimately learning that I needed to brace the jack stand against the tree and screw it together to prevent it from toppling under the weight, I was able to raise the deck back to its proper height today. Its now held there with two (2) temporary supports.

The 4" x 6" which will make the new permanent supports are ready to go. Next weekend Ill begin digging out for the posts. Once theyre attached - hopefully this month - well be back on track to paint the sides and install the decking.

Read More