Tuesday – Column Molding

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.

Running long pieces through a router table to produce moldings is a bit trickier then running shorter pieces. The biggest thing it to be sure I keep the lower edge of the molding dead flat on the table at all times. If either end lifts a bit, it will cause a wave in the molding that will ruin it. If I ruin it, I start over. I didn’t ruin either of these.

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.

And that pretty well takes care of today. Tomorrow I’ll build the cabinet floor and ceiling with it’s lights, then we will be done with the construction phase and will be ready to move into the finishing phase as soon as the third payment is received.

So join us again tomorrow.

Doug