Completing Tray Panels

Today was spent surface planing the four half panels, jointing them and gluing them into full panels. Once the glue set up I sanded them, filled any pits and sanded them again.

This process used up most of the day, but left quite a lot of time in between steps; while waiting for glue or filler to dry. During those gaps I found a variety of things to do.

One of those things was to resurrect a product we used to offer, but removed because of problems we had with it. It was our over the sink cutting board.

If you’ve been following along, you may recall that we made one for Don just a few days ago. Don had ordered one before, and so had been indoctrinated (trial by fire) in making a template that we will use to make his board. Since we sent it to him just yesterday, he hasn’t gotten it yet so I don’t know for sure if it will fit properly. I hope so.

While Don’s cutting board estimate was living in our Accept A Bid section, Anne found it and asked if we would make one for her too. I reluctantly admitted that IF she can provide us with a properly fitted template, we can produce a board that will fit her sink.

In the past this has been the Achilles heel of this product. Too many times we’ve had to make a board two or even three times before it would fit properly because the templates we were supplied with were sloppily made (or upside down).

When we were making these things before we did not have a digital camera. Now that we do -- it occurred to me -- we could post a pictorial tutorial for making a proper template. Perhaps that would help folks know what we need and how to get it right the first time. So I did.

I spent part of the afternoon making an actual template for our shop sink, photographing each step, and writing text to go along with it. I posted it [here]. Then I updated the item page, converting it from a bid page to a product page, and posted it to the Non-Furniture Items category. That is available [here].

Then I wrote this thing, now I’m going home. Tomorrow is my day to shop-sit at Treasures, so I'll make up the time on Saturday, but won't post again until Monday. See you then.

Doug