Weekly Blog - May 1st

[john]

Went out and bought the wood to repair my lawn swing, started moving equipment from the basement to the garage so I could get going and then the weather turned cold and wet.

This forced me back inside where I finally finished the doll cradles about one week late. As luck would have it, the new stove bolts I bought for the swinging hardware have a slightly longer smooth area near the head than the last batch and this caused some difficulty in attaching the cradle bodies to the stands. I hope they hold together or I will have some unhappy customers. (The bedding in the picture is compliments of my wife)

For a change of pace, I also went back to working on a four dimentional tic-tac-toe game and two little VW cars that I had started months ago but put aside when I lost interest. I do that quite often, especially when a new WW magazine arrives with interesting projects. But that's what makes this hobby fun, so many different things to do.

So, is anyone else doing something interesting?

Happy woodworking!

John

[Gampa]

I spent Friday and Sunday at the woodworking show here in the Seattle area. Got to check out all the latest and greatest gadgets as well as take in a couple of the free classes on finishing and cabinet making. Naturally the "classes" were also part advertisement but some good info could be gleamed from them as well. Also picked up some new toys, parallel clamp, pocket hole jig, and the best of all a really good system for cutting plywood that doesn't leave any chip out. I was a little disappointed not to see Hawk there as I would have liked to checkout their Rotor table in person as someone here on the forum said it was the best and really disappointed that Shopsmith wasn't represented. All the equipment at the show looked so big in comparison to the SS I can't help but think a lot of people walked away knowing they didn't have enough room for all that equipment. Well I am going to try out the pocket hole jig on the porch swing I have been working on instead of drilling holes from the top, filling with plugs and then have to sand it back down.

[charlese]

John - I'm here to tell you that I really enjoy your Weekend Blogs! Lots of folks have joined in and your Threads help to make this Forum more of a community! Keep up the good work, John!

Your cradle project is very nice! It will offer positive play time for many years to come!

I'm almost afraid to fess up on what I have been doing this past weekend. In a nutshell - I've spent the time fixing a stupid mistake. Here is the story (admission) If you want to laugh - go ahead! Laughter is good for us!

I am finishing up on a corner china cabinet. My last steps (before final sanding and finishing) were to mount the hardware. Four doors - the lower two have panels - the upper two have muntins to hold six glass panes each. I had never made a multiple light door before, so this was new to me. When I completed these, I was very satisfied and proud. Boy, they looked good, and the glass sizes were right on - that is the same size glass could fit in each of the 12 spaces. Probably should have set up a jig to space the muntins, but instead, did it the hard way - individually. The two upper doors matched perfectly. Stiles and rails cut from the same board and later, after I had stained them, they turned out identical - not only in size, but grain and color. A real neat dark shade of oak. I put on the hinges - everything worked out great - level and equally spaced. Now I had one left and one right door. Isn't life in the shop wonderful?

When drilling the holes for the door pulls I was aware that one door was left and one right and I had to get the holes in the right spots so marked the proper places with masking tape and proceeded to the drill press. After drilling the holes for the right door I laid the left one on the drill press table. Here is where I space out and drilled the door pull holes on the left door near the upper end rather than the lower end. Didn't even pay attention to the masking tape on the other end of the stile!

So-- I made some 3/8" plugs for those holes and drilled two more in the proper place. After staining, there appeared little dark circles on the upper part of the stile. This not being satisfactory, I drilled out the plugs and tried again letting the glue dry overnight, hoping the glue surrounding the plug wouldn't take stain. Wrong! Tried this two more times (yes, I'm stubborn) Same outcome! Then got out a 7/16" plug drill (plan B) and tried again. Same results! - - O.K.! Time for plan C! - - No! not ready yet to build a new door! (plan D)

With the band saw, ripped off over half of the bad stile (Yes, I got the correct stile). Now for the big hunt for a piece of oak long enough for a stile and of the right color and grain. This took a whole day! At least, I hope the color matches, you never really know until stained together with the rest of the door. (That happens tomorrow) Tested small portions of the new piece and it looks close. In fact I test-stained four possible replacement stiles. - - After board selection - the glue up came out good. Can't say enough about good clamps. and sanding was minimal. Next - the project of routing the dado in the back of this new stile and routing the quarter round in the front. ---Don't forget the ends of the stiles - scary. After much adjusting got that done on my new OPR. If I would have thought a little I would have sawed off the old stile at an angle so any color change would have run diagonally up the stile. But any way, I think this will do! If not I'll have to think a while before making a new door.

[john]

Chuck:

First let me thank you for your words of encouragement.

The blog was intended to generate posts on what projects members are working and hopefully some pictures as well. I know these are popular on other forums and, as mentioned in another post somewhere, maybe would inspire some guests to go the Shopsmith way when considering woodworking tools. I know I really like to see others peoples projects and am amazed and often envious of their work.

As to your problem, you sure have a lot more patience than I have. If that were me there would have been a string of bad words, maybe some damage, etc., then I would have put it aside to come back at it after a long cooling off period. I also impressed by your posts regarding repairs and adjustments. Your posts and other's have given me some fine insight into how the various tools function.


Good luck!

John

[manvelar]

Chuck:

Your story reminded me of going to the doctor. In one of his examining rooms he has a cabinet with two doors on the front - nothing fancy. However. the door pull on one door is about 2 inches lower than the pull on the other - and the pulls are right next to each other. One visit I pointed it out to him and he confessed that he had never noticed. I thought about changing doctors. Goes to show you what an eye of detail woodworkers have that is probably never noticed by most people.

Keep making little boards out of big ones and so will I. This forum is great!

[Bruce]

I thought about changing doctors.

That's funny! :) Let's hope it's because he is so intent on you and your health to notice such things.