Covid
I play board games. This isn't a great admission. It isn't like this is Board Gaming Anonymous with a twelve step unproven treatment for wayward board gamers. I play board games and recently I've been enjoying a card game called Sentinels of the Multiverse. The game has so much depth beyond just a couple of cardboard heroes and villains. The creators have been telling stories to each other for years (maybe decades) of super heroes and villains. Basically writing comic books in their stories. It really gives you the feeling that you are playing a comic book super hero.Anyway, a few years ago they started a podcast where they talk about different aspects of the game. Mostly they are talking about the back stories of the characters in the game, telling or making up the stories in the comic books.
The point? I'm getting there... I'm a bit behind in pod casts but I am catching up to the present. I'm caught up in all my science pod casts other than Astronomy Cast. In my fun pod casts (pretty much just Sentinels) I just got to March. They're just now experiencing what we all experienced four months ago. If made me a bit introspective about my blog. Anyone reading this not in real-time will be basically looking back on whatever I write with the benefit of retrospection.
Of course since the internet is forever, some researcher in ten years will find this blog and make it a data point in their paper. Some historian will find it again in a hundred years and then take some quote from my blog and then generalize it to "here's how people in the USA felt about Covid in 2020." I just want to:
a) apologize to those people reading this blog in the near future who already know what awaits us
b) say hello and welcome to both the researcher and the historian (Hi!)
Covid? Not much of a change from last week. NYS is showing a very slight rise in the incident rate. Governor Cuomo is talking about shutting down bars and restaurants. Most of the rest of the nation appears to have out of control Covid infections. Most of the states that aren't out of control are on the verge of going out of control. I am very thankful that our state is taking this serious and is taking measures to keep us all safe.
Me?
Gaming Console Console
I just finished my Gaming Console Console! I'm very excited. I texted pictures of it to all my woodworking buddies and other people who might care. Or at least care enough about me to say, "Hey dude, nice cabinet."Hobby Storage Cabinet
With the big project out of the way, I'm shifting into finishing up the small projects that I got started but haven't yet finished. I mentioned in previous weeks that I am putting the final touches on the drawers and trays in the hobby storage cabinet. I've got veneer and finish on four of the eight trays and am in the process of putting polyurethane on another two. This weekend I sanded the false fronts for the drawers flat, sanded them smooth and started putting polyurethane on them.Fitting the drawer false fronts got interesting when I remembered that when I was putting shelves in the cabinet I wasn't perfect. One side of the drawer opening is about 1/8 inch lower than the other. Since the drawers are level with the case bottom the bottom drawer front is rectangular. The top one needed to be fitted and have about 1/8 inch more taken off the left side. I thought about pulling out my tapering jig but instead I decided to mark a line and use a hand plane to shape it.
I'm not really a hand tool woodworker yet but I would like to be. I don't want to be a pure hand tool woodworker; however, some things are easier done by hand than spending 20 minutes to set up a tool.
It worked out great. I was very happy with the result and it fit great.
Those pieces are out in the garage getting finish on them.
Kubb
I also started putting an outdoor penetrating oil finish on my Kubb set. I was sloppy with the first coat. I debated skipping the second coat but it was nice out today so I put a second coat on all the pieces. They look a lot better.The first coat took most of a week to dry to the touch so I suspect the second coat will as well.
Gaming Table Accessories
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned previously that a friend of mine has one of those cool game tables that has a removable top with a recessed playing surface. These kinds of tables allow you to leave a game in progress but still use the table as a table. Anyway, the company that built his table went out of business and the accessories are no longer available. He asked me if I could make him a couple extra cup holders so I am.I've been working on this for probably six months or more. It was a bit lower on my priority list. In any case, I'm going to finish them now. This weekend I milled a groove for the latches that keep the accessories from falling out of the slot in the table skirt. I had to do a bunch of back routing so I took it very slowly.
I'm hoping to mill the latch pieces and maybe start gluing the latch covers into the accessories tomorrow night. With any luck this will go quickly from here on out.
