Covid 19 week 29 - What's going on!

We're in week 29 of our Covid lockdown. Things have been looking pretty good in NYS in general; however, I just heard on the news today that several boroughs of NY City have had a large uptick in reported cases. I haven't looked closer yet; however, I just got news last week that my company will not ask us to return to the office before January. That's not terribly far off but it is a wait an see type of situation. Also, it was announced just this week that President Trump has tested positive for Corona virus and has been taken to Walter Reed Medical Center. Me, my wife, my dog, and all three of my cats are doing fine.

Next, why haven't I posted anything in the last month? Well, first...  it is summer and I don't do very much woodworking in the summer so not a lot has happened in the last month to talk about. Also, my new Dell laptop broke and yes I could have used my old laptop but it's slow and getting kind of flaky.

I was picking up my new laptop when the processor fan started making a horrible grinding noise. I quickly shut it down but the next time I booted it displayed an error screen saying the processor fan was not responding appropriately. Fortunately with some emails, on-line chats, and phone conversations the Dell first tier support sent me a box for shipping my laptop back to them. About seven days later I got my laptop back in perfect working order. Very happy with the Dell service (even though their first solution was updating the BIOS).

Anyway, I have gotten a few things done in the last month. I decided I'm going to build a hand tool workbench for my winter project this year. I pulled out my trailer to pick up lumber for the project, fixed it, broke it, then fixed it again. I picked up lumber for my workbench project this year. I picked up general purpose lumber for my winter shop projects. I started learning how to use my Tormek. And finally I started working on a shop cart for my sharpening system.

Hand Tool Workbench

I've been wanting a hand tool workbench for a number of years. I've been trying to learn how to use chisels and hand planes but not having anything reliable to hold down my work pieces has been a hinderance. Eventually I want a nice hardwood workbench with a leg vise and a tail vise...  but that's what I think I want. Having no real experience with workbenches I just think that's what I want. My plan is to build an inexpensive bench that I can fit a front vise and a tail vise to and hopefully learn better what I want for my ultimate workbench.

Christopher Schwartz is a workbench aficionado and has written several books on the matter. He's also written several articles for Popular Woodworking while he was editor there. One of the articles he wrote was how to build a workbench for $170 and I decided it would do. Of course that article is several years old. Also, he lives in the south where he can get Southern Yellow Pine. I had to settle for Douglas Fir and since there were a fair number of knots I bought extra. All-in-all I spent around $200 on lumber for the project. I haven't bought any vice hardware yet so my final price tag will be a bit higher.

The only real drama that happened on the trip to get the douglas fir was someone else in the store who wasn't wearing a mask who for some reason wanted to stop and talk to me about my purchase. I managed to be polite while wishing he'd go away. Also, I was wearing my own N95 mask. If you aren't wearing a mask, don't go up to strangers and talk to them!

I broke down some of the lumber and carried it down to my workshop. The rest of the lumber I wanted to leave in my garage but I also needed to get it out of the way. I made a dozen or so quick supports I could screw to the 2x4 studs along the back of my garage and got the remainder of the wood up off the floor.

Trailer

I purchased a Harbor Freight 1720 Super Duty Folding Trailer several years ago when I sold my pickup truck. It has several good aspects and several unfortunate aspects. The biggest positive for me is that when I am done using it I can fold it into thirds and stand it on end. It fits into a footprint of about 2 ft x 5 ft. I have a niche in the back corner of my garage that it fits into perfectly and I can still fit my Forrester in my spot. 

The biggest downside is that it folds. It's heavy enough that when I am folding or unfolding it I am lifting weights that are within my ability to lift but if I slipped I would get hurt if it fell on me. It is also quite awkward for a single person to either fold or unfold. (The directions actually specify that it's a two person job and should not be done by a single person.)  I make it manageable by tying the back half the trailer to a rafter so I only have to lift the front half the trailer. However, this weight is also part of the problem. The amount of force to rip apart the trailer wiring is much less than the force to fold the trailer so if it catches on anything it gets ripped apart. I've had to fix the trailer wiring a half dozen times generally when the outside temperature is under 30 degrees F.

When I went to unfold my trailer for this wood pickup I noticed that somehow the hinges on the left side of the trailer had gotten torqued. I figured I would still be able to use the trailer until I got the hinge fixed but like every time I get the trailer out the lights didn't work. It's kind of a pain to crawl under the trailer to debug wiring issues so I folded it back into its vertical configuration. I debugged and fixed the lighting problems and figured I'd be all set to go to the lumber store. I'd missed my window for Saturday as they close early but figured I'd go Monday after work. I tried to prepare ahead of time by unfolding the trailer on Sunday so I'd be ready to go right after work. In the process of unfolding the knot in the rope holding the back came untied and the back half the trailer came crashing down smashing the right rear taillight. 

It was a dumb mistake and it was my fault. Of course the lights I'd just fixed no longer worked. When I tried refolding the trailer to get to the wiring I found that each time I was folding and unfolding the trailer I was just making the hinges worse. I ended up needing to take the hinge off and bolting the front and back half the trailer together. Also, the lights were still broke so instead of going to the lumber store I made a trip to Harbor Freight to purchase a new trailer light kit.

I ended up replacing the entire wiring harness. This time I soldered all wiring connections, added dielectric paste and used heat shrink tubing around each of them. Also, I had previously purchased some 2-wire weather proof connectors that I used to connect the front and back half the trailer. My plan is to disconnect the two halves the trailer before folding it and reconnecting them after unfolding it. This will require going under the trailer but I also bought a mechanics creeper from Harbor Freight so it isn't that big of a deal anymore to get underneath the trailer while it's unfolded.

It was actually quite pleasant working on the trailer in 60-70 degree F weather vs the 100+ degree F weather I originally assembled it in and the 20 degree F weather I had to fix the wiring in. 

Oddly the second most annoying thing about the trailer is that it is all bolted together. This is mostly only a problem because the frame is also the ground. Most of my wiring problems were related to having an open ground because one or more connections were loose. Also, to get the original wiring job to ground I had needed to thread copper wire around several of the bolts to get the front and back half the trailer to make a connection.

Fortunately one thing making all the wiring easier is a test box I'd made that allows me to plug my trailer into a 100 v wall outlet to test the lights. It would have been a nightmare if I'd had to hook it up to my truck each time I wanted to test it.

All in all I think I spent about three days futzing with the trailer and it still isn't completely fixed yet. To get replacement hinges I needed to mail order them. The box showed up Friday but instead of sending me front and back hinges, they just sent me two sets of front hinges. This wont work because the back hinges have a bend to them allowing them to fit around the front hinge. Karen, the woman I talked to when I called them about the incorrect order, was very nice and put in an order for replacement hinges. I'm figuring there is at least a 50-50 that I'll get the wrong hinges again.

General Purpose Lumber

What's general purpose lumber? Well, I like keeping a small amount of walnut, maple, red oak, and poplar hardwoods and baltic birch plywood in my shop. It's cheaper to just keep some around than to need something and have to run to the lumber store. Especially if it requires putting the trailer together.

So, I bought enough maple to make several more magazine boxes. I also picked up a single board of red oak and walnut and a couple boards of poplar. I bought a couple sheets of 1/2" and 1/4" Baltic birch. I don't have plans for them but I'm sure they'll get used for jigs and the such. I wanted to pick up some 1/4" MDF but they were out. Apparently it is one of the things that is hard to get.

The Tormek

I started practicing using the Tormek on my old cheap chisels and a plane blade I'd ruined trying to learn how to use water stones. It was day two and I got to use what I thought was the funniest accessory they'd included in the box. When I was unpacking it I found a yellow plastic "wallet" that when I opened it I found it contained a dozen or so band aids. Hilarious...  Then on day two or three of using the Tormek I accidentally dragged the back of one of my fingers across the plane blade I was sharpening while reaching for something else on my workbench. It initially just looked like a little scrape but by the time I got to my paper towels I was dripping blood.

I wasn't too proud to use one of the Tormek supplied band aids. I did finish what I was doing, then when I was all done cleaned the wound and put on a better band aid. I'm not sure when it happened but at some point many years ago I got tired of never having an appropriate band aid for whatever wound I had so I have an extensive collection in my medicine cabinet.

Anyway, back to the Tormek...  I really need to write up an individual review for this but suffice it to say for now that I am liking it. It does tend to get water splashed around it. My 35" tall workbench is also too high to work at it comfortably. When grinding chisels and plane irons you need to be "above" the tool and since I am only 5'10" that means I need to stand closer to the tools and I kept bumping into it. It doesn't hurt, you can touch the wheel while it is spinning. I did get wet though and it felt awkward.

Tormek makes a stand that is currently selling for almost $800 (USD) on Amazon. But, I am a woodworker. I can make my own stand. I spent a number of weeks noodling around what I wanted in my stand and I came up with a final set of plans this last week. My stand is going to be 30" high (like the Tormek one). I'd originally thought to make it entirely of plywood but when considering the amount of water that might be around it I decided to wrap the top with white oak. After deciding to wrap the top in white oak I thought that I may as well use some of my leftover white oak from building my dresser to make frame and panel sides. The inside is going to have drawers on wooden (UHMW plastic) slides on the left half and shelves on the right half with a pull out tray where I could store the tormek if I wanted to.

This weekend I pulled out one of my leftover boards and turned it into two panels and rails and stiles. They're all milled but I still need to finish sand them and glue them up. I could use some watco danish oil to make them looked fumed but that seems a bit extravagant for a workshop project. Yes, I see the irony in saying that when I am using quarter sawn white oak. But I really didn't like the experience of working with it so that makes it scrap lumber and I may as well make something out of it rather than just let it sit taking up space.

In Summary

I've not necessarily been doing that much wood working but I have been preparing for being able to do a winter's worth of projects. I still need to get the trailer fixed so I can get my wife's parking spot back but if they don't send me the right hinges this time I'll figure out some way to get the trailer folded and make it work. I am really looking forward to having sharp hand tools and a workbench I can use them on.

Covid 19 week 22, 23, 24 - Walnut picture frames

 As I've been starting my blog posts with a covid update for the last five months, why not continue. Covid in the USA is still running rampant. There was the first confirmed case of re-infection reported this weekend. NYS is continuing to drive the infection rate to below 1% so we are actually reopening museums, schools, etc. Seems like if any state in our nation is in a place where schools could be reopened somewhat safely it would be in our state.

Week 22

We ordered some Korean week 22. I got the seafood pancake and my wife got Chicken Teriyaki. The Chicken Teriyaki may not be the most Korean dish (I think it is Japanese) but it's pretty tasty and it warms up well. This last weekend we ordered Italian from our local mom-and-pop restaurant. It was good but chicken Parmesan doesn't travel well and mine was a bit tepid by the time we got our food home. I didn't have to cook so that's good too.

Anyway to the more interesting things, I pulled a walnut board from my wood stack and cut two 24 inch lengths from it.  I want to make two 8x10 walnut frames to hold some water paintings we purchased on a trip to Saint Martin ten or more years ago. With a 24 inch length I could get an 8 inch side and a 10 inch side from each rip and have plenty of extra wood for my miters. 

After cleaning them up by jointing one side then running them through my planer I had two boards that were about 7 x 3/4 x 24 inches each. I'd not paid sufficient attention to the sections I'd cut out of the larger board and ended up with a large knot and some swirly grain in one of the boards. Fortunately, I'd also done some bad math. I'd forgotten I was going to go for a 5/8 inch rip cut which got me about seven lengths of walnut. Getting one piece of frame from each, that's not quite enough for two picture frames...  <---  and there was my bad math. I'd cut the boards to 24 inches so I actually had enough wood in one length for three frames (plus a little).

Enh, so be it. I put the knotty board aside and selected the two lengths with the most sap wood to make into a frame. I'd originally thought that I would make the frame 5/8 inch wide and 3/4 inch tall but after looking at it I decided to make it 3/4 inch wide and 5/8" tall. I cut the rabbets with two passes on my table saw then cut the miters using my new table saw miter sled.

Calculating the length of the frame is pretty easy. Each length needs to be the side's length (8 inches or 10 inches depending) plus twice the frame thickness. The frame thickness is the overall thickness (3/4 inch) minus the rabbet (1/4 inch) which gives me 1/2 inch thick frames. So my 10 inch side needed to be cut to an outer dimension of 11 inches plus 1/8 inch for wood expansion.  My 8 inch side needed to be cut to 9-1/8 inch.

The sample looked great.

It's summer...  That was pretty much the weekend.

Week 23

We ordered dinner out again this week. We ordered Italian from one of our local mom-and-pop restaurants. Again dinner was a bit tepid... I'm remembering why I never liked take-out pre-pandemic. It was still a nice change from our regular fare.

I took the rest of my frame pieces and went through much the same process as I did with my sample pieces with one minor difference. My sample pieces have square edges and I wanted to soften them a little bit. I took a couple of hours and a sanding pad and cleaned up all the faces and also rounded over the corners. To be honest when I started I thought it would be quicker than it was. Looking back I probably should have put a 1/8 inch round-over in my router table and zipped them through there.

After rounding the corners I cut my miters on my spiffy new table saw miter jig. The cutting process went fine; however, my corners were not nearly as nice as the prototype. This kind of thing happens to me a lot. It is a natural progression. The first samples I take a lot of care and the pieces come out fine. On the second batch I must be taking less care or it is that I am moving from cutting a single piece to making batch cuts.

Out of my second batch of three frames two came out okay and the third was bad. I was using blue painter's tape to hold the frames together while the glue was drying. After pulling the tape I figured we could use two but the third was bad enough that I decided to pull it apart. A trick I learned a few years ago is that if your glue is set but not necessarily completely dry you can throw you project in a microwave to reheat the remaining water in the glue which allows you to pull the project apart.

After pulling the third frame apart I scrapped whatever glue I could from the frames. Then after giving the glue over night to set I trimmed about 1/64 inch from each end of the frame pieces and reglued the frame. It still didn't go together quite right so I am wondering if maybe the frame pieces might be slightly twisted or warped.

Miter joints really need to be reinforced somehow. Professional framers used to put a nail through the corner and then fill the nail holes with wood putty. Now days there are cool staplers that will hammer a waffle cut piece of metal through the back of the frame across the miter. The easy way for a home woodworker who doesn't have that kind of tool is to cut a spline in the corner. There are many ways to cut miters and many types of jigs to hold the work piece while making the cut. Mine is a table saw jig that rides on my fence. One side is set up for cutting tenons and panels, the other side has a V-shaped fence that holds my miter pieces at the right angle for cutting a spline.

So, I set up my jig and cut slots in each corner of all my frames for holding splines. I went ahead and cut slots in my just glued up frame as well even though it was still being held together with tape. It seemed to work just fine.

The next step was to cut the splines. In the past I've always just set my fence really close to my saw blade and used my narrow push stick to complete cuts. This is a non-ideal way to cut thin strips as it is more difficult to control work pieces. This time I made a thin strip cutting jig. It amounts to a piece of plywood that can run between the fence and the blade with a "heel" the pushes the wood through. This eliminates the need to keep resetting the fence as your board gets narrower and gives more control over the off-cut by moving it away from the fence. 

Mine worked out fairly well but there was still a tendency for the spline to want to rise up. I think I might add an adjustable strip of wood that will act as a hold down.

I used a 45 degree table saw jig to cut the long lengths of spline into shorter pieces appropriate for gluing into the frames. By cutting the splines at a 45 degree angle I was able to get more pieces out of a strip. I'd cut off one spline then flip the strip over to cut off a triangle shaped spline. I cut my strips to be slightly thicker than needed and then hand sanded each spline to fit the groove in the frame.

Unfortunately while my freshly glued frame survived having the spline slot cut it didn't survive me trying to wedge the spline into the groove. I was already disappointed with the frame so I just shoved everything together and hoped it would come out okay.

Week 24

Did I order takeout again? Yes I did! We had Thai. It was tasty.

I didn't get a lot of stuff done in the workshop this weekend. I started trimming the splines using my new flexible flush cut saw. It's a short flexible pull saw where the teeth have no set. This allows you to run the saw right against a finish piece without scratching it up. To be honest, since my next newest handsaw is probably 25 years old it was really nice to use a sharp saw.

After cutting the splines short the next step is to trim them perfectly flush. The way I've seen this done on TV is using a super sharp chisel to slice the end grain of the spline flush. I have chisels but they aren't sharp and sharp chisels are a must for this operation. 

Sharpening is my huckleberry. I have a slow speed grinder. I have oil stones. I have water stones. I have diamond stones. I have sandpaper...  I'm just not very good at it. I've been saving tool budget money for a while not and decided to get a Tormek T4 sharpening system. It's a wet grinding wheel on one side and a leather honing wheel on the other. The benefit of a wet grinding wheel is that you don't have to worry about the steel over heating. With the slow speed of the wheel and the addition of the water it is literal impossible for the steel to overheat.

So I read the instructions...  yeah, I know...  But it's a power tool and misusing it could hurt the tool, my chisels, or even me. Then after setting up the Tormek I started practicing on my older cheaper chisels. These chisels have been used hard and one of them got dropped on my concrete floor by a workshop guest. Yeah, I know... I try to be more discerning who I let use my tools now days.

I haven't actually finished sharpening them yet. Still trying to learn how to use the tool. But I almost cut myself on one of the chisels after flattening the back. I figured it wouldn't hurt to see how it would do in walnut end grain so I pared all my splines flush. Now I just need to go back with a sanding pad and clean them up.

What's next

I'm heading into a four day weekend. It is Labor Day here in the USA and with a little paid time off I am getting a four day weekend. I'm hoping to finish learning the basics of using my Tormek and maybe get my hand tools sharpened. I also want to get the walnut frames sanded and painted. I also want to get a shadow box made to display some old circuit boards I have currently sitting on a shelf.

My winter project this year is going to be a traditional hand tool workbench. I need to get my plans made for that, figure out what wood I am going to build it out of and get that purchased. However, that's probably not going to be this weekend.

I still owe my blog a write up of my miter jig. I may as well add some pictures of my spline cutting jig while I am at it. I'll have another write up for the picture frames I am making.

[Edit 2020-10-04 I'm not going to bother doing a write up for my miter jig. Michael Alm already has an excellent video on his latest version (posted this weekend) so if you are interested, just go watch that.]

Covid 19 week 20, 21 - Rando projects

On the Covid front...  I had my first take-out in four months these last two weeks. Last weekend we ordered and ate some buffalo wings. They were good but not as good as I expected them to be after four months of no fried foods. While stopping by my local Woodcraft - more on this later - I also grabbed a couple of caramel frappachinos. Today our pork chops didn't thaw in time for dinner so we ordered Thai from a local restaurant. It was pretty good.

Woodcraft

We have several fine lumber yards in the area. Some of them carry finishing supplies but when it comes to specialized woodworking tools Woodcraft is the best place for me to go. I needed some poly - General Finishes Oil and Urethane is my go-to here - and  I also picked up a Tormek T4 sharpener for sharpening my plane blades and chisels.

Is it excessive? Maybe...  I've tried learning how to sharpen my chisels and planes by hand. I've use oil stones, water stones, sand paper, etc. (no, not the scary sharp method...  yes I know about it... no, I haven't tried it). The nice thing about the Tormek is that it has jigs for properly sharpening all kinds of tools including kitchen knives.

My wife and I are quarantining all items coming into our house for three days so I just got the box out of quarantine this weekend and pulled the manuals. I'll let you know what I think of it after I get it fired up.

Woodworking

I finished my gaming console console but I'm still doing woodworking. Mostly I am trying to finish up small projects I started but didn't finish. As I said in my last post these projects include the hobby supplies storage cabinet I built for my wife and the gaming table accessories for my friend.

Last weekend I completed putting the finish on the drawer fronts and two more of the trays and got them in place. I'm not exactly happy with the spacing I got on the drawer fronts but it'll look fine from my house. Yes, I realize it is in my house but it's in my wife's hobby room and I almost never go in there.

Last weekend I also finished milling the parts for the gaming table accessories. I got the slot covers glued in place and found some 3/16 inch steel rod that I cut into 3/4 inch lengths to act as handles to the lock mechanism. I got all the pieces sanded and out into the garage last weekend but I didn't start putting polyurethane on them until this weekend. I've got two coats at this point so given that my technique needs many coats I figure I'll have the finishing completed sometime late this week. It is supposed to be hot over the next couple of days so depending on how hot an humid it is in the morning it may take longer. We will see.

My next "me" project is picture frames. We've been accumulating art over the last fifteen or so years and I always say that I'll build a frame rather than pay someone else to do it for us. Well that's a long standing "small" project I am going to get done. The nice thing is it won't take much wood so I won't have to risk going to a lumber store.

I've got a couple of 8x10's water color paintings that we bought in St. Maartin ten or so years ago. I think they'd look really nice in a black walnut frame. My wife has a small 5x7 ink drawing of a cat that I think would look nice in a black frame. Neither one of the frames need to be bulky so they'll be a good start.

One of the things that I'll need to be able to do is cut the pieces accurately. I do have a 45 degree table saw jig but I remembered seeing a video by Michael Alm a few weeks ago where he had a better jig (you could skip to the 3 minute mark but it'd be better to watch the full video). Since I could be more sure that a new jig would cut a better mitered corner I figured I'd build my own version of the Michael Alm jig (though, I'll bet he got his idea from somewhere else).

I finished mine today and cut my initial test frame. It looks pretty good especially considering it was cut out of scrap.

The last thing I got done today was making a setup template for my Kubb set. It's basically some paracord with loops tied in it that when laid out it forms a triangle making up half the pitch. It's explained better on the Kubb blog post. At first I thought I was going to need help and a long tape measure but then I remembered I'd already made one. I just laid out the one I already had in the yard and used it as a template for my new one.

In Summary

I had a couple of pretty relaxed weeks. I got a few hours into the workshop and made really good progress towards finishing up a couple of projects. I got some photos of my new table saw miter jig but I'll save that for its own post later this week.

Covid 19 Week 19 - Finishing projects is fun!

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.

Gaming Console Console DONE!

My Gaming Console Console is done! Yes, I am extremely happy. I'm happy it is done. I am happy that it came out as well as it did. I am happy that I tried a couple of new things and they all worked out.

New cabinet all loaded up

New cabinet shelves

I'm pretty sure I mentioned in a previous post debating between glass and plexiglass and finally deciding on glass. You can see in the photo immediately above that the glass is a little shimmery. That's due to the bubbles in the glass.

If you are wondering why something looks a little off, it's probably the pull on the top drawer. When I bought the pulls from Lee Valley I bought the Mission style knobs that are on the bottom two drawers and the door and I also bought some pulls called "Rio". I really like the styling on the Rio knobs but they are just too large for the cabinet. One of the Mission style knobs was miss-threaded and has been sent back to Lee Valley for replacement. The Rio knob is standing in until the replacement arrives.

How is the Lee Valley replacement process? So far, it is super easy. They have a PDF you can download and fill out itemizing the parts being returned. They'll refund shipping if you ship the item back yourself. Alternately you can print a shipping label that includes postage. I went this route. I think it was Wednesday that I put it into the mail. I'll let you know how long it takes to get a replacement.

Prototype on the left, new one on the right

Yeah, there is some dust on the glass in the above photo. I'd just brought the door up from my workshop. 

Installing the glass was interesting. This is the first time I've made a door with glass in it. I was a bit worried about hammering nails into the glass stops but then I remembered that the glass only cost $15. If I break it I can just buy another piece. As it was, everything went fine. I found some 18 ga wire nails that were 5/8 inch long. I put some tape on my smallest drill bit to mark it about 1/2 inch long, just shorter than the nail. I pre-drilled all the nail holes through the glass stop and into the frame just shorter than the nail. The holes were a slip fit for the nail so I hand pressed them in as far as they would go then just tapped then home with my smallest hammer. I didn't bother using my nail set to recess them.

Since I'd mounted the door in the cabinet once already for fitting, mounting it this time just required putting the hinges on the door then putting it in the cabinet. To add the spring catch I figured about where I wanted to mount the male part on the door, marked it with a white pencil, transferred that mark to the cabinet and inset the female part approximately as deep as I thought it should be. Turns out it was just about perfect so I left it as it was.

The last thing I had to do was take the shelves to my router table to route a recess into the bottom to lock the shelves to the shelf pins. I used a 1/2 inch (or was it a 5/8 inch) bit to make a 1/4 inch deep recess. I was fortunate in that my shelf pins were spaced exactly the same in the front and the back so the same router table setup allowed me to route all four recesses. The only downside was I needed to back-route two of the recesses on each shelf. It worked fine, I was just super careful to take it slow and make sure the shelf didn't get away from me.

Anyway, it is done. I looked back through my blog and it looks like I started it just about the same week that Covid became a concern here in NY. Let's call it about 20 weeks from start to finish. These kind of projects always feel like they should just take me a weekend or two in the beginning; however, I never end up spending full weekends in my shop so the projects stretch longer (much longer) than a couple of weekends. But as I started this paragraph, it is finally done.

Next, it is summer time. I've still got some small projects to finish. I also have to start thinking about what I want to build next winter and start my planning. Maybe doors for my dust collector closet. Maybe a real workbench. Maybe more magazine boxes. We'll see...

Stay safe everyone!

Covid 19 Week 18 - Gaming Console Console Assembled

I decided! I decided to go with glass for the gaming console console door. The only glass my glass guy had that wasn't just clear was glass that has some bubbles in it. It's much more clear than I was hoping for but I'm hoping that it breaks up the outlines of the game consoles inside the cabinet. Mostly I'm getting to the stage where I just want the project done. I don't have a stream of people walking past my consoles every day to remark on the beauty of the glass in the door. Also, since I am using glass stops I can always easily replace the glass later if I change my mind.

Speaking of glass stops, I milled them out of one of my off cuts over the weekend. My glass stops need to be about 1/4 inch square and I need about 60 inches of them. I took one of my straight grained off cuts and resawed it twice (three times?) to get four pieces. The pieces were so wibbly-wobbly that I used my drum sander to clean them up and thickness them. This worked pretty well.

Our weather has been pretty nice (highs of the low 80's) over the last few days so I've been able to get two or three coats of polyurethane per day. I gave them about six or nine coats. They're going to stand a little proud of the inside of the door.

I had enough pieces of the cabinet finished to start assembly so I did. I started by adding the top to the case. That wasn't too bad. I just had to be careful to not drill through the top when drilling pilot holes. I flipped the top upside down on a pair of saw horses (actually two pairs of stacked saw ponies), set the case upside down on top to get it centered and squared up then drilled pilot holes using the holes I drilled in the top rails way back at the beginning of this project. I wrapped a piece of tape around the drill bit to act as a depth stop.

I'd previously fit the drawer fronts before finishing them. I was smart and marked the drawer fronts and the drawer boxes so I'd know where they fit in the stack of drawers and so I could match up the false fronts with the appropriate drawer box.

Unfortunately I was too smart. I'd made my marks on the faces that would be screwed together so after fastening the fronts onto the boxes I could no longer tell which one was which. Figuring that really they just needed to look good I decided to just go trial and error rather than taking them apart.

A little trial and error and I got the top two drawers looking right. Unfortunately somehow I'd misaligned the false front on the bottom drawer. I really don't know how this happened but it was extra frustrating because now that I had the top and back on the case I didn't have easy access to fix it from the top or the back. I had to awkwardly reach in from the front. Especially annoying since it took me two tries redrilling and setting screws to get it right. All is well that ends well, right? Well, if the extra holes inside the drawer bother me, I can just make a new one.

The next crisis came when I went to add the pulls onto the drawers. One of them didn't go on straight like I had cross threaded it but when I double checked I'd threaded it correctly, the pull was just mis drilled/threaded. Fortunately I had a spare. Well not a spare, but I had the pull meant for the door that I could use, and I did. I'll have to contact lee valley about getting a replacement. I've never had to use their customer service before so this'll be a first for me. I'll let you know how it goes. I'll use a spare knob on the door until I get a replacement.

The last thing I noticed when sliding my shelves into place is that they are very slippy. They're not likely to get a lot of forces other than gravity acting on them just sitting in the cabinet but I can just envision the top shelf slipping for some reason (moving the cabinet maybe) and crashing down on the middle shelf and then having a mess of shelves and game consoles smashing through my glass door. To mitigate the risk I'm just going to mill some detents into the bottoms of the shelves so they'll have a positive stop.

So close to being done. I need to install the glass in the door, drill a hole for the door pull and install a temporary pull, install the door and latch, and finally cut some detents in the shelves. That's a long list of things but they're all relatively small.

That's where I am at with the gaming console console. A few hours this weekend and it should be done-done. Well, except for the door pull which probably wont be here by then.

I did get a bit of other stuff done over the weekend. I got two more false fronts glues to the trays in the storage cabinet. I got enough coats of polyurethane on them to call them done and put them into the cabinet tonight. Tomorrow is supposed to be thunderstorms and it is also a workshop night so I'll probably start another two.

I put also put a coat of outdoor finish onto my Kubb set. It was really hot in my garage when I applied it. Hot enough that my wife came out to check on me to see if I'd passed out. It was also a pretty messy job. I managed to not get the finish all over everything but I didn't do the neatest job on the set. I haven't decided yet if I am going to put the second recommended coat.

Anyway, that's all for the last week.

Covid 19 week 16 & 17 - More Console, plus, plus

Oh my gosh, it's been two weeks since I posted last. Well, it isn't because I've been busy doing woodworking and it isn't because I got sick.

Let's do the Covid update...  New York State is doing fine. Our infection rate across the state is between 1% and 2% fluctuating by the day and week. We're still not fully reopened; however, on the rare occasion I've been out of the house you wouldn't be able to tell that we were all practicing safe distancing by the number of cars on the road. After all, they must all be going somewhere.

I had to go to Home Depot to pick up a wax ring for one of my toilets that started leaking. I figured if I had to be there anyway I may as well pick up some other supplies that have been on my list. Apparently everyone else also thought Friday afternoon at 4p was the time to go buy paint too. Well, other than an older woman who didn't understand distancing it all worked out okay. At least so far...

Anyway, I've been putting my standard wipe on polyurethane on my Gaming Console Console. It's been going a bit slowly because we had about four or six days of 90 degree F weather and at best I could sometimes put a coat on in the morning before work. Even then there were some mornings I skipped it due to the heat and humidity.

Even with the hot weather I was able to finish the polyurethane on my case, door, drawer fronts, and shelves. The last - sort of - step is to get some polyurethane on the case back and then assemble. I say it is sort of the last step because I still need to get some glass for the door and then put it in with some glass stops I haven't milled yet. I'm still waffling on whether to go with glass or frosted plexi-glass.

Over the weekend I only put a few hours into the workshop. It's summer and we had a couple of beautiful days to spend outside. Well, we got some rain too but the weather cooled down to bearable temperatures. What I did spend time on this weekend was some shop cleaning and trying to get some of the small projects that built up out of the way, or at least moved forward.

Remember the hobby storage cabinet I made for my wife? The plan was to put some 1/4 inch hardwood veneer on the trays and 3/4 inch hardwood false fronts on the bottom drawers. Aren't they all drawers? Sure, in a way. But I have drawer slides on the bottom two and the top eight are just loose fit and sit on a shelf. It's also convenient to distinguish between the two types by calling them drawers and trays. The trays are also a lot shallower.

Anyway, I finished ripping my red oak into 3/8 inch panels and planed them down to about 1/4 inch and sanded them to 80 grit. Next I needed to mill 3x5 card holder slots. The current trays have 3x5 cards clipped to them using a binder clip. It's unattractive and wont work after I add the 1/4 inch oak. So, the idea was to cut out a window slightly smaller than 3x5, then route out space on the back of the veneer to slide the card into.

I made a template.

I used this to trace out the window shape that I then cut out using my jigsaw and band saw. I used both tools because my jigsaw set up enough vibration in the thin veneer that it was causing the oak to splinter and break. So I used the jigsaw to make the vertical cuts and the band saw to clean out the waste at the bottom. I then used a rabbeting bit to clean out the card slot on the back of the veneer.

Then it was just a matter of sanding up through 180 grit with my random orbit sander and rounding over the square edges with my sanding block.

Since the cabinet is fully loaded we just emptied two trays, a 4 inch and a 6 inch which I added the veneer to and then while I was putting polyurethane on the gaming console console I also put some on the veneer. I didn't bother putting poly on the actual trays.

So, two trays are now done and I have another 4 inch and 6 inch tray in the workshop ready to have veneer applied to the front. I've also glued up two 3/4 inch thick panels to turn into fronts for the drawers. I really like the look of the two poplar drawer handles I made but I think I'll probably make two new ones out of red oak so they match. Or maybe I'll make them out of a contrasting wood like walnut if I still have any.

The other thing I worked on over the last two weeks were some cup holders for a friend's table. He has one of those gaming tables with a removable lid that has a channel along the skirt that accessories can be locked into. What I was working on this last week was making the slot to hold a peg that is used to lock the holder in place. I've had this project in progress for much of the last six months to a year. Time to get them finished.

This coming weekend? Glass in the gaming console console door and mounting it in place. Finish those cup holders for my friend. More tray and drawer fronts for the hobby supply cabinet.

The Gaming Console Console is almost done. Hopefully it'll all be done this week.