Rolling On

I dug out the template set for the wall hung stopper rack, enough walnut to make the project and reviewed David P.’s specifications.  His is a custom rack not only in the sense of it being all walnut, but also the number of shelves, the hole sizes and the height of the top “ears” are all to be made custom.  We can do all that with little fuss.  The only thing that gets messy (thus expensive) is if we are to change the spacing between the shelves.  The complicated looking device in the upper right of the photo is the jug that holds the side pieces as I cut the slots for the shelves into them.  It took me about a day to design and build that.  Changing the shelf spacing means building another jig set up for the different spacing, thus investing several hours at the shop rate.  Unless the new jig is expected to be used for other racks this cost gets billed back to the customer.

In searching out the parts I have on hand for Donald’s TV Tray Table, I found that the parts I have made up are for an all cherry table, not a classic.  “Oh, Rats!” thought I.  Then it occurred to me that when I  built our first pair of classic tables -- for photographic purposes -- one of them ended up in service in our living room as an end table.  Where did the other go?  I found it tucked away safe and snug in storage.  I’ll crawl up into the loft of the lumber shed this afternoon and get out one of the custom boxes we had made up for shipping these tray table sets.  Of course, Don only wants one table, so I’ll cut the box down some to reduce the unneeded bulk (and lower shipping costs a little).

I’ll go ahead and package Donald’s table – just to insure it doesn’t get banged up lounging around in the workshop – but will wait to ship until both pieces are ready – FedEx charges us a fee every time they must come up the mountain to our shop for a pick-up.  That should be before week’s end.

Then I will turn to the 12” x 18” x 4” memory box that Brian O needs and of course, back to David B’s trailer.

By Day's End

I have the table securely packaged and ready to ship.  I have not run the label yet because the software expects the package to be picked up by the next day and when it's not it starts popping shipping exception reports.  Besides, it will send Donald a notice that his order has been shipped - and it hasn't.  Not really.

I also got the parts for the stopper rack roughed out.  I was a little concerned about being able to use a router bit to round over the upper edges of the holes - my usual bit for that has a 3/4" diameter guide bearing and the smaller holes are only 1/2" diameter.  That won't work.  But I scrounged around in a drawer of old 1/4" shank bits and found a bit with a 1/2" diameter bearing and about the right radius of round-over.  I'll use that and everything will be just hunky-dory.

Time to clean up and head for home.