The sharpening station is officially finished. Almost!
I had a long weekend this week. Last Wednesday I put the last coat of polyurethane on the door. Thursday morning I attached the hinges then attached the door to the cabinet. Then I added the handle to the door. It might have been smarter to add the handle before putting the door on the cabinet but that's not the way I did it.
With the door back on the cabinet I lifted it back down to the floor. Once on the floor I waxed all the drawer runners and drawer runner grooves. Sliding the drawers back into the cabinet was night-and-day compared to pre-waxed. They glide so smoothly and easily. I have to admit I slid them in-and-out for a few times each just to enjoy the nice fit. I'm very happy with my shop-made slides.
After appreciating how pretty my piece of shop furniture looks I moved onto measuring and cutting out the back. I used some of the remainder of the 1/4 inch Baltic birch to cut out a back, sanded it at 120 grit sandpaper. I didn't bother starting at 80 grit and I didn't bother jumping up to 180 grit. It's the back, it'll be fine. The biggest benefit of sanding the back was that I "erased" some of the scuff marks and dirt.
So, why the "Almost!"? Well, I'm still trying to decide if I want to put a shelf on the right hand side or perhaps some more drawers. I don't have a lot of desire for more full extension slides. I have some but there's an opportunity cost to using them and I can not think of any use cases where the value add would offset the cost. There's also a door latch. The door is not swinging around loosely so I'm not certain a latch is needed. I have several choices in my parts bins but I'm not sure it is needed.
I think in both cases - shelf and door latch - I will take a wait-and-see approach. If I have problems with doors swinging around as I move the cabinet I'll add a latch. If I find something that could be stored on a shelf or drawer in the cabinet I'll add the shelf or drawer.
So, done for now. Maybe more drawers or shelves later as I find a need to store things with my sharpening station. But project complete!
