I started by treating the glass retainer strips with wood conditioner. This is done by flowing on a heavy coat with a brush and working it for a few minutes to be sure the thirsty spots get all they can take in. Then, before the conditioner dries, all the excess is wiped off with a rag. The wood is to be wiped as dry as it can be, then left to cure for 30 minutes before staining.
While the retainer strips dried I put down plastic in the assembly room and got the cabinet back up on stands and vacuumed it to remove any dust that had settled. Then I began applying the conditioner. I worked in sections to be sure the solution did not dry out before I got back to rub it off. If it dries on the surface, it will leave a gummy mess that has to be stripped away with solvents and begun again.
Treating the cabinet took most of the afternoon because of having to work the wiping rag into all the small grooves and corners of the moldings to remove the conditioner. Then I went back to the glass retainer strips and stained them.
So far the color is looking very good with just one coat applied; a very nice “antique cherry” color. 
I start off by resawing some scrap maple from this project into thin boards. These I surface plane and cross-cut into stain sample blanks.
I sand a few of them – but this time I sand only to 150 grit to start, apply the wood conditioner, let it dry, then sand to 180 grit. And I’ll stop there.
Eventually I came up with two colors that I like. The one on the left is still a little purple; but not inordinately so, the other is more brown. One of these ought to fit the bill.
Today is our first experience with the Varathane Wood Conditioner, and I believe they left off a key element in their instructions for use. They say to apply, let set for 30 minutes and stain. This led me to believe that it worked on the principle of the first method mentioned above. The results however say something different. The board on the left in the photo was prepared with the Wood Conditioner according to instructions. It looks like that really should have been sanded again before being stained.
Also, the color sample chip in the Varathane color chart is represented on Red Oak lumber, we are using maple lumber for this curio. The difference in color between the woods will have an effect on the stain color as well, especially with just one coat applied.
Now, sanding is not the most exciting thing to do or to watch, but doing it well is essential if a good finish is to be achieved. How much sanding is required? During construction we use 60, 80 & 100 grit papers to shape, smooth and remove pencil marks. In the finish sanding phase, how much sanding we do depends on whether we will be staining, what brand of stain is to be used, and what finish will be used. On this piece we’re using a Varathane stain so we will be sanding with 120, 150, 180 and 220 grit papers to meet Varathane’s specifications.
Then I got back to work on Blake & Marilyn’s curio. Today I’ll install the floor and ceiling panels. So I start by roughing out a couple of pieces from a panel of ¼” thick, birch plywood. The first of these se I trimmed to exact size, sanded the edges smooth and test fitted into the bottom of the cabinet. It needed just a little more trimmed off of one end, sanded again then it popped right into place.
This cabinet is equipped with levelers at each corner, to compensate for any unevenness in the floor. To access them, a flat bladed screwdriver is poked down through small holes in the floor panel to engage a screw slot in the top of the leveler. Turn the screw clockwise to lower the foot. So I needed to lay-out and drill these holes, then sand the top surface of the panel smooth.
After applying glue to the floor supports and perimeter cleats I laid the panel in place and weighted it down until the glue tacked up.
While I waited, I trimmed up the ceiling panel and laid out the overhead light locations. These can lights mount flush to the ceiling panel, with their bodies hidden up behind the crown molding. I need to cut circular holes in the panel for the lights to mount in.
To mount the panel I flipped the cabinet upside down – enlisting the aid of gravity makes this job quite a bit easier. The can lights are mounted temporarily just to be sure they will fit properly. Once I was sure everything was OK, out came the glue and weigts again. While the glue tacked up, I took a break.
When it was ready I rolled the cabinet up on it’s side and bore a hole in the upper-back where the electric cord will pass through. I’ll mount the grommet shown in the hole to dress it up even though it will be in back and out of sight.
And that, friends and neighbors, completes the construction phase of this cabinet. I still have to install the brass shelf support sockets, lock trim rings, permanently install and wire the lights and of course mount the glass and mirrors; but all that has to wait until after the cabinet has been stained and finished. Then we’ll put in the finishing pretty bits.
But for now, this is as much as I can do. It’s time to send a note to Blake & Marilyn asking permission to run the third payment. They’ve been very prompt about responding to these before, I expect they will be again and I will be able to start the finishing phase in the morning.
This morning I started off with scuff sanding and re-coating Phyllis’ bag handles with polyurethane. In most cases two coats will be enough, but we’ll see what they look like tomorrow morning. Then I sanded Deborah’s wall hung stopper rack and applied a coat of hand rubbed oil. This too will sit until morning before I can do anything more with it.
Then I set up the table saw with a long fence. This fence is used in straightening boards that have developed a bow as they dry. By putting the concave edge to the fence and cutting away the convex edge, I can then put the now straight(er) edge to the fence and straighten the concave side. I usually allow for two passes on each edge to get to the finished width of the piece. These pieces will become the vertical or column trim on Blake & Marilyn’s curio cabinet. Once the stock is straightened, I ran it through the planer a bunch of times to reduce it’s thickness to ½”.
Now that the stock is roughed out, it’s time to set up the router table again. This molding uses another large bit that was bought specifically for this job. I set it up, tested the set-up then ran the two long sticks.
The router bit is made to leave a square shoulder on either edge of the shape – shoulders I don’t want, so I go back to the table saw mount a fine tooth blade and rip 1/16” off of each edge to remove the shoulder leaving just the rounded bead on either side.
The rest of the afternoon is spent carefully cutting the plinth blocks and the vertical runs so they fit snugly together, then gluing and clamping them in place. The plinth blocks are just short pieces of the same molding turned sideways with the ends re-shaped by hand to give them a nice finished look. The final step is to trim the embossed “leaf” molding strip to the right length to fit between the upper plinth blocks and glue it in place.
I started by dadoing the sides for Deborah’s bottle stopper rack. This uses a special jig that I built to be sure everything comes out square and properly spaced.
Then I sanded the parts and assembled the rack with glue and clamps.
Quite recently we bought a “chop saw” for cross cutting long boards and doing miters. I’m glad we did, for it was very handy on this job. 
I carefully laid out the miter locations, snuck up on the final cuts with the chop saw, test fitted them, drilled pilot holes for the small nails, then glued and nailed the crown moldings in place.
I started off the day by doing what I meant to get to yesterday and didn’t; installing the base molding on Blake & Marilyn’s curio cabinet. This took quite a bit longer than I anticipated because it required using my longest clamps, and I’d get one end in position, with a clamp pad under the jaw, go to the other end to position it, and the first end would slip out of alignment. I needed a clone today. But through the use of some spring clamps to help corral the far ends, I got the three base molding pieces glued and clamped in position.
Bag handles are one of those items that we can make from cut-offs left over from other projects, especially when we are making a small batch of handles. Here we have a collection of board ends that are ideally suited to this project.
Making handles in small batches also allows me to make the handles as matched pairs. By resawing the thick board into two thin boards, then keeping the aligned and sequenced, the handles will come out with their grain and coloring perfectly matching. This is exceptionally difficult to do when making a large batch of several hundred handles.
Then I moved on to Deborah’s stopper rack. I got the parts blanks milled out from rough lumber, and made the parts needed, but did not get the final shaping or assembly done. 
Then I got going on installing the wooden tray that supports the fixed center glass shelf. I used the molding strips I milled out previously and cut the mitered corners then carefully placed the pieces into the casework. 
The front and back pieces are glued to the front and back center rails, but the ends are “free flying” as the only case parts they could attach to would be the doors – and we can’t do that or the doors wouldn’t open! I reinforced the mitered corner joints with 2” long finish nails driven in from the ends.
I finished up the day by milling out boards for the baseboard pieces, routing an ogee on the upper edge and mitering the corners. 
Then I laid out the fancy cut-out shape on the lower edge of the front baseboard, cut that out and sanded it smooth. Sanding in the scrolls was done with pieces of sand paper stuck to a 1” diameter dowel with carpet tape.
The base boards are not yet attached, I need to cut out an opening in the skirt of the cabinet behind the baseboard scrolls. I’ll get to that tomorrow. I’ll also need to work on a couple of small projects that have come up. But we’ll get to those in tomorrow’s episode.
To turn freshly milled (aka green) lumber into seasoned hardwood suitable for use in furniture making, it can not sit in a pile like this for very long. The ends of the boards must be sealed to prevent the very porous end of the boards from giving up their inner moisture and shrinking faster than the rest of the board. This uneven shrinking is what causes a board to start splitting at the ends. Seal the end grain to slow the moisture evaporation and the whole board dries, and shrinks, evenly. Also, green lumber will want to cup, twist, bow, and warp – if you let it – as it dries. Again, this is often a result of uneven drying.
This pile is now just about as high as I am tall, so I shall be putting no more lumber on this pile. We have 3' & 4" thick Holly on the bottom, some ash above that then the new red oak in the nice neat upper tw-thirds of the pile. This pile will be left alone to sit for at least a year so the wood can season. This was all very pretty wood, it should yield some excellent lumber.
assembly; screws and GLUE. No turning back now. I started by attaching the lower end rails to the rear panel. That created a tall ‘L’ shape that will stand up on its own. Then I attached the two inside floor supports to the back panel. I’m not messing with the front panel yet because trying to balance both the front panel and back panel while I align and install the side rails is too much for me working alone. And because there is only 10” of inside depth between the front panel and back panel; not enough to use an electric drill to drive the pocket hole screws. By leaving the front off for now, I have plenty of room to work with these screws.
Then I turned my attention to milling and installing the cleats that run around the perimeter between other supports for the ceiling and floor panels. 
For the ceiling cleats I was able to use large spring clamps to hold the cleats in place while the glue tacked up, but because the lower rails are much deeper, spring clamps would not reach and I dug out my hand screw clamps. These relics are very handy things to have!
The afternoon was spent drilling countersunk pilot holes in the glass retainer strips and inserting 132 brass screws to secure the strips in place.
By mid-afternoon that was all done and I was able to turn my attention to completing the tool room floor. For those who have not been following along, we are renovating a large mobile home into more workshop space. The area designated to be the tool room, or Parts Creation Area as it says on the floor plan, used to be the living room, kitchen and dining room. This was all one big open area except that the living room floor was 6” lower than the rest. This was a nice feature as a home but is a serious safety hazard in a workshop, so I needed to raise that area to match the rest by laying in 2x6 joists and bridging decked over with plywood. This isn’t very pretty, but it’s sturdy. I will (eventually) use a tinted polyurethane finish to color the plywood more like the hardwood in the kitchen/dining area and help prevent dirt and debris from becoming lodged in the plywood surface.
