Most of this day was spent sanding. Sanding legs, sanding spreaders, sanding mount blocks for Ira's HD TV Tray Tables. Some of this was done with my big old Bosch random orbit sander, some with a sanding block, some with strips of sandpaper and elbow grease.
This is just the first round of sanding; what I call construction sanding, done with 80 and 100 grit papers. The purpose is to fair off any waves left by the planer or swirls left by the table saw, remove any small chips on corners as well as rub marks (shiny spots) left by all the machining steps these parts have gone through. I sand each set of legs, spreaders and mount block, then assemble them with just screws, no glue yet.
Here is why I’m so picky about making templates. When screws need to pass through one part into another it is a great thing when all the holes line up. We want the parts to fit together evenly and the screws to go in without imparting unwanted stresses on these parts.
The assembled leg set looks like this. It is not done yet. Once I’ve assured myself that everything will fit properly to the underside of the tray I’ll take the spreaders loose again and reassemble them with glue and screws, then plug the screw holes to help them disappear. I will also dismantle the leg pairs and the leg-mount block to pre-finish the areas between them. That way we won’t risk bare wood peeking out when the legs are in a certain position (something other than the position they were when I finished the tables.)I got all four leg sets sanded and assembled. Everything looks good so far. It’s Friday and time to get things cleaned up and put away for the weekend.
See you Monday.
Doug
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