Final assembly of the rack is what I have on the docket for Tuesday.  Although I did not get this posted last night, I got nearly all of it done.  That was partly due to the fact that I spent some time over the weekend in here working on the candle rack so it will be possible to deliver it Thursday morning - they need it for a service Thursday evening.

I started by routing a generous curvature on the upper edges of the front and ends of the shelves.  Except for sanding, this completes the shelves.

I also milled the parts for the toe cap, the legs, the leg spreader, and the leg mounts.

Over the weekend and Monday evening I also glued all the front baffles and the toe cap in between the front legs.  That was a lot of fun, let me tell you!  The rack is almost 4 feet wide and holding both ends of the baffle in perfect alignment while I installed a long bar clamp to press the sides (legs) in position against the baffle ends, without smearing glue all over everything, and doing this single handed, took some rather clever arrangements of clamps to position the parts while I placed and tightened the bar clamps.

With the body of the candle rack assembled I can do my construction sanding and first rounds of finish sanding.  I use my random orbit sander for the large open areas; a block and detail stick for the tight corners. 

I'll save the final round of finish sanding for after the candle rack is assembled to be sure I take off any rub marks or pressure spots left by clamps.

Then I drill the screw holes and counter sinks in the leg parts.  I'll use a simple screw-pivot for the leg-to-mount joint and the spreader is fastened to the legs with 2½" long wood screws, since the screws are passing through the legs and going into end grain in the spreaders.

I sand all the parts and prefinish the areas inside the pivot joints.

I assemble legs to spreader with glue and screws and assemble the pivot joints of legs to mounts, then attach the leg mounts to the top of the front legs.

While the glue dries I'm sanding the outside surfaces of the shelves.

When the glue tacks up well I stand the rack up, square up the back legs and mount the leg stays.  These fold up to allow the legs to lay in flat behind the front legs for storage and transportation, but lock the legs in position when open to prevent anyone from bumping the rack and causing the legs to scoot and ending up dumping flaming wax all over someone's church.

That would be a bad thing!

The final step of assembly is to attach the shelves to the candle rack body.  I apply glue to the tops of the steps in the front legs and the baffle below the shelf and to the lower front edge of the baffle behind the shelf.  I use clamps to press the shelf back against the baffle and legs (most baffles took on a little bit of bow either inward or outward, the clamps make sure everything lines up properly) then drive brads down through the bottom of the shelves into the sides and front baffle.  Once the brads were in I can remove the clamps and move on to the next shelf.

The top cap gave me some trouble that I did not get resolved before I was called away for the evening, I'll finish that up Wednesday morning then get into the finish sanding and shooting of lacquer. 

It rained all day Tuesday and is expected to do so again all day Wednesday, the high humidity makes things like wood filler, glue and lacquer dry much more slowly than it would on a dry day, so these will be long days since I HAVE to deliver it Thursday morning.  Just one of the joys of custom furniture making.

See you next time!