Category: Power Tool Woodworking

The Finishing Room

It took a lot long that I thought it would, But i now have all the legs and aprons finished. For now they’ll set in my spare bedroom drying until I’m ready to assemble them.

The finishing line

I haven’t posted in a while, but with summer almost here, I’m finally able to spend a lot more time in the shop. After thinking about it for longer than I want to admit to, I’ve decided to pre-finish as many components as I can. My main reason is because the the bottom panel is hardwood and not plywood and thus will move with the seasons. I don’t want witness lines , and the only way to avoid that is to pre-finishing.

While pre-finishing will guarantee the tables look good, it means I had to tape off all the mortise, tenons and dados. I’ve coated everything with a coat of boiled linseed oil, & I’ve started applying my wiping varnish. If my tests are representative, it will take about a week and a half to apply the finish, because it will require 8 coats. While some people will scoff at finishing taking that long, I think the quality of the final finish is definitely worth it.

random orbit sander adapter

I purchased a new Porter Cable low profile ROS last week to replace my current one that’s about to die. Just like with my last one I had to make a custom hose adapter for the shop vac.  It only took a few hours to make, but I still wish someone made a universal adapter.

the blank

Finished

epoxied into the end of the hose.

The lost bits

I’ve been thinking about making a holder for driver bits forever.  Last weekend I finally got around to doing it. I used some scrap Bubinga, and got a little carried away with the profile. A 2×4 would have worked just as well, but I wanted something pretty.  I used a 5/16″ forstner bit to drill the holes, and finished it with some natural Watco Danish Oil.

I think I can, I think I can

It’s been almost 6 months since my last post, and I don’t have much to show since then. I do have a better excuse, than the dog ate my homework though. Shortly after my last post, I severely strained a muscle in my back by, and that  put me on the sidelines for a good month and a half. By the time I was fully healed The heat of the summer was upon us here in central IL. The stat I heard was in August, we had 27 days with a high over 90 degrees. I know that doesn’t sound that bad, but my shop is usually 10 to 20 degrees hotter than the outside temperature during the summer.  Right as the summer started to subside and getting back into the shop seemed like an enjoyable experiences again, I cracked my ribs in a mountain biking accident.  So after again being sidelined for almost two I was able to start working on my end tables  mid December. Hopefully 2013 will bet better for woodworking than the second half of 2012 was.

With all that being said, I have made some progress.  I have started gluing up sub-components of the end tables. I have the front and back of both end tables  glues together, as well as the both the bottom shelf’s. I have even one of them finished. The finished i used was one coat of Boiled Linseed Oil, and then 8 coats of  satin Pratt & Lambert 38 varnish deluded by 50 percent with Mineral spirits so I could wipe it on.  Finally I learned another valuable lesson from this project, 1/4 sheet sanders will never be completely be replaced by random orbit sanders, because they are much better at sanding complex curved surfaces.

A finished bottom shelf

A front sub-assembly wiped down with mineral spirits.