6 Drawer CD Chest Day 08

Work day begins: 6:15 AM Marie has some early appointments this morning, so we’re getting at it early today. A bunch more spam e-mail this morning. so I spent a little while tweaking our mail filtering rules to help take it away before I have to waste time on it. Lunch Time This morning we got the parts for the 6 drawer boxes made. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually a fair bit since we started with a rough sawn 5/4 poplar plank. Workshop closes: 5:15 PM All 6 drawer boxes are completed and await finish sanding and installation. This evening I have to take care of month-end books, invoicing web clients, and some web site maintenance chores that came in during the day today. Tomorrow is March 1st, and we will be re-opening our Gallery, Treasures of Appalachia, for this years season. I will, therefore be out all day. The girls will be here o keep an eye on things, but they don’t get much accomplished when I’m not here to direct them.  To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click this entry’s title. (Blogger seems to have disabled embedded external links) If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog, which is available from my profile page.

CD_Chest_6 Day 07

Work day begins: 7:15 AM I found another bid request this morning, but this on is a simple request: a TV Tray Table, so I was able to whip that out with no trouble while the workshop was warming up. Lunch Time This morning I’ve gotten the base shoe molding shaped, mitered and installed, and got the top plate trimmed to size, routed and sanded. I had to take a little time before leaving for lunch to fix the propane furnace that keeps the shop from freezing up overnight. I found it shut down when I went in this morning, although there was still propane in the tank. So I took it apart, blew the dust out and checked it over. The problem turned out to be a thermocouple line. It’s working again. Fortunately it didn’t get cold enough this weekend to ruin the finishes and glues. That would have been bad. Workshop closes: 4:00 PM This afternoon I made and attached the mounting blocks that hold the case top to the case, then mounted the top plate and sanded it for finishing. The case is now complete. Tomorrow we start on drawers. This evening after I work up the pictorial article for today’s work, I have some web site stuff to do and some computer-network maintenance to perform. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click the title above. If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog, which is available from my Profile page.

CD_Chest_6 Day 06

Work day begins: 7:00 AM Got another inquiry about a Deluxe Sewing Cabinet this morning, so I’m taking time to answer his questions while the shop warms up. Lunch Time I spent the morning disassembling and reassembling (with glue) the three main panel components we built yesterday. Workshop closes: 5:30 PM This afternoon I finished the casework joinery, cut the mortises for the T tracks, and assembled the case to test fit, then did it again with glue and clamps. There shouldn’t be any problems with the glue not wanting to set up due to cold… it’s been 85 degrees out there most of the afternoon. That was partly due to the bright sunshine and mid 60 degree weather, partly because I didn’t want the fire to die down too much while I left for lunch, so I tossed a couple scoops of coal into the stove. Whooee does that stuff put out the heat! And when the roof is hot from the sunshine, the heat doesn’t just sneak through the roof like it does when it’s cold. I probably could have let the fire die out, but at the time it was still pretty chilly in there. Dan, the fellow who was interested in a sewing cabinet, placed his order this morning so I need to process that this evening -- a very pleasant chore -- as well as working up the photo article and running the weekly reports so Marie will know which bills she can pay this weekend. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here. If you enjoy this Daily Shop Notes blog, you will also want to look at our Doug Bob blog.

CD_Chest_6 Day 05

Work day begins: 7:00 AM The wood stove is going, and there’s not much in the e-mail this morning. Chris, a programmer I’ve hired to help with the upgrade to our web site, is making good progress with the conversion. I’ll be entering all our information into the database soon. Lunch Time I got all the panel grooves cut into the rails and stiles, and have cut the mortises in the stiles for the left hand side panel framing. Workshop closes: 5:00 PM This afternoon I got the mortises cut on the other side panel, and the back panel. Then trimmed and sanded the panels and test fitted them into the completed frames. Looking good! Now it’s time to format the pictures, write the text and build the daily page for the pictorial article on this project. Then I’ll take care of any bookkeeping and e-mails that need attending to, and call it a day. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here.

CD_CHEST_6 Day 04

Work day begins: 7:00 AM I’ve got a fire started to chase the cold out of the workshop, but while I’m waiting for it to warm up I’m chasing a worm. It was detected by my weekly virus scan. Apparently our Norton Internet Security software failed to detect or block it’s entrance into our system, but my weekly scan with Avast! turned it up. Slippery bugger, but I finally managed to manually delete it and I just got a clean scan with Avast!. I don’t think I’ll be renewing my Norton subscription. Time to go make sawdust. Workshop closes:4:00 PM Today I got all the pieces glued together to make up blanks for 4 side panels, 2 back panels the case top and the blank for the 6 drawer fronts. I also got the grid work for the front made and glued together. I had a little time left over, so I did a little cleaning up To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here.

CD Chest – 6 Day 03

Work day begins: 7:05 AM I’ve got a fire going. It’s raining but warm this morning, so staying warm won’t be such a challenge today. This morning we will begin construction of Jon’s CD Chest. Lunch Time I’ve got most of the casework parts roughed out. I also got Wayne’s stopper rack boxed up and ready to ship. Since it’s going USPS, I’ll have to run that into town tomorrow instead up putting it on this afternoon’s UPS truck. Workshop closes: 4:15 PM This afternoon I got all the case framing parts cut to finished size, re-sawed and planed the pieces to make the side and back panels. Then I did a little cleaning up and putting away. This evening I need to get my notes in order and put together a shopping list so I can buy what’s needed when I go into town tomorrow to mail Wayne’s stopper rack, and I have some bookkeeping to do, then I need to get the progress article caught up so I can post these shop notes. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here.

Stopper racks complete

Work day begins: 7:05 AM I’ve got a fire going. It’s warmer this morning, so staying warm won’t be such a challenge today. Nothing much in the e-mail, so I’ll occupy myself with some bookkeeping and Admin chores while the shop warms up. Lunch Time I discovered a problem with the custom stopper rack and have to re-make it. At this point I have the body cut out and glued together and the shelves milled and sanded. I’ll install the shelves after lunch. Workshop closes: 4:00 PM Wayne’s stopper rack is done and ready to ship. I’ve got a little bookkeeping to do and I’ll call it a day.

CD_Chest_6 Day 02

Work day begins: 7:15 AM This morning I have some bookkeeping to do and will finish up the re-design of our 6 Drawer CD Chest to suit Jon’s requirements. I completed re-doing the drawings last time, no I just have to take off the parts list . It will be warmer later on and through the afternoon, so I’ll get to work in the shop a little later on. Chelsea will probably be around, but I don’t expect to see Dolly; she’s been pretty unreliable lately. Lunch Time I’ve pretty well got the CD chest design worked out, and have another set of shelves glued onto a bottle stopper rack body. Workshop closes: 5:00 PM The 3rd stopper rack is assembled, all three have been drilled for pins and Jon’s rack has been pinned and sanded. Time to send him a note. I also went over the CD cabinet design one more time and feel it’s ready to start production. But that will wait for tomorrow. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here.

Valentines Day

Yesterday, Feb 14th, was not only Valentines Day, but Marie's birthday as well. Yes, it's true, she was born on Valentines Day! And rightly so, for she is a true sweetheart. So it was my turn to whisk her away for a day of fun and celebration. Therefore the shop was closed.

Stopper Racks continue

Work day begins: 7:00 AM It’s cold this morning: mid 20s, and we got quite a bit of snow over the weekend. The snow may work out to be an advantage as it tends to insulate the workshop roof and help hold in the heat. At least until the heat from inside melts the bottom of the snow and it slides off. The work order for the day includes working some more on the bottle stopper racks that we started last week and re-drawing the design for our 6 drawer CD chest to accommodate Jon’s requirement for drawer size. Once I know what size the parts will need to be I can start picking lumber from the standing stack in the shop and cutting billets. Workshop closes: 4:15 PM So far I’ve gotten all three stopper rack bodies glued up, pegged and sanded, milled the 3 self sets and back straps, and glued one shelf set glued and clamped to it’s rack body. Now it’s time to re-work the design on Jon’s CD Chest.

YESTERDAY (2006-02-08)

Yesterday was my 50th birthday and Marie decided that we should close the workshop and celebrate my having been around for a half century. She’s the boss! We had beautiful weather and enjoyed a road trip to Sevier County where we had lunch at the NASCAR Café – always a unique experience and took in the Ripley’s Aquarium. Because of our involvement with the Cocke County Tourism Council, the Tourism Director got us a pair of free passes. We were particularly fortunate in that Sevier County – normally bustling with tourists – was practically deserted. Traffic was very light, and the attractions we visited were so empty it was (almost) like having a private tour. The aquarium is something to see! We picked up a couple new DVD movies, and watched one at home that evening. After we got home, it started snowing, and we got our first real snowfall overnight. It’s just beautiful this morning.

Cabinet_Doors Day 01

Work day begins: 4:15 AM We had a dog party earlier this morning and I haven’t been able to get back to sleep, so rather than laying there staring at the ceiling I’m up and getting some things done. In a couple of hours I’ll go out and start a fire to warm the workshop. I pulled lumber for this project – and Jon’s CD chest -- last week; some very pretty red oak. My task is to make 3 doors to go on a kitchen island. Tommy will do the finishing, I’m just building them. I’m waiting for some info from Tommy right now, so I decide to start on Wayne’s stopper rack while I’m waiting. These are both small projects that I can get out quickly before getting started on Jon's CD Chest. Besides; I have to rework the design to accomodate his drawer sizes. Lunch Time The morning session was spent milling the stile & rail stock to size and making sure it’s good and square. Workshop closes: 4:30 PM This afternoon I routed the inside profiles on the rails & stiles – this includes the fancy joints at the corners, milled out the billets for the raised panels, jointed them and glued & clamped them. They will set overnight to let the glue harden well before I start working them. This evening I’m working on the SMW web site and handling some correspondence. Now that this is all done, I’ll post these notes.

Yesterday -- Intermission – Work day begins: 7:00 AM Being that I’m between projects, I’ll take care of the loose ends that have been piling up before diving into the next one. That means a trip into town this morning, doing some bookkeeping, and a few phone calls. I’ll try to arrange delivery of Iliff’s chair – I need to get that out of the shop so I can get started on the next project… and getting paid would be nice too! Lunch Time I’m nibbling on some left-over pizza as I keep after the Treasures tax paperwork. I had to stop for a bit and fix my scanner/copier. Got the chores done in town. Managed to get hold of Iliff and make arrangements for payment and delivery. Tommy will be showing up soon for some help working on a special project. I have to get this tax stuff finished before then. Workshop closes: 3:00 PM Tommy’s project took only a half hour to complete, and I’ve got the chair loaded in the truck. I’m heading out to catch Iliff at his office in Newport before he leaves for the day. I connected with Iliff and got the check. Marie won't be done with her stuff for a while yet, so I am sitting in the Community Center hot-spot with our notebook computer uploading new pictures to our web sites. It’s going well… 5 times faster than I could do it over my BellSloth dial-up connection at home (on a really good day, 50 times faster than on a bad day at home.) When I finish here I’ll go pick up Marie and we’ll head for Parrottsville to deliver Iliff’s chair to his Ranch House. It will be late by the time we’re done, so we’ll stop for dinner on our way back. A few more details to finish before bed. Our I-net connection is bad tonight, can't post the notes. Will try again in the morning.

Day 08 of Mission Rocking Chair Work day begins: 7:00 AM We won’t need a lot of heat this morning, it’s 53 degrees outside this morning – but the weather report is for a possibility of show showers, so I want to get this done early. The first coat of lacquer is on and I’m waiting for it to dry so I can scuff sand it. I sent the girls away this morning because lacquer fumes are deadly and they refuse to wear respirators. I have scuffed and re-coated the chair. Time to Abandon Shop and give the lacquer a chance to harden up good before we handle it. So it’s time to break for lunch. Workshop closes: 3:45 PM I spent part of the afternoon pulling red oak, poplar and walnut off the lumber piles for the next few projects. After closing up the shop I’ll go on with updates needed by several web site clients. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here.

Mission Rocker Day 07 Work day begins: 7:15 AM I’ve got a fire going to heat the shop and have checked e-mail: mostly junk this morning. Today we’re going to assemble the parts we’ve spent the last six work days making. If no problems rear their ugly head, we should easily accomplish this today, and have time to clean up, put up and vacuum the workshop so we can spray lacquer tomorrow. Lunch Time I’ve got the majority of the assembly done, but now must pause to allow the glue to set up sufficiently to hold when I proceed to the next step. So this is a good time to break for lunch. Workshop closes: 4:45 PM Everything is assembled and the finish sanding is done. We’re ready to spray lacquer tomorrow. Well, almost, I still have to vacuum the shop and tack-off the chair. No point in doing those tonight as there is a lot of dust in the air that will settle out overnight. We’ll do that first thing tomorrow – while the shop is warming up to a workable temperature for lacquer. I did get all the tools put away before closing up, so it’s just the wood dust we’ll be dealing with in the morning. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here.

Work day begins: 7:10 AM We’ve got the start of a beautiful day. Quite cool this morning but headed for a high in the mid 50s. A fire is going in the workshop heat stove, and I’ve checked e-mail. Today will be spent sanding. That’s pretty much it; just sanding. All of the parts we’ve made need to be sanded with 100 grit paper, then sanded again with 150 grit. It’s important to get most of our sanding done now because of all the tight spaces that will make it difficult to do after assembly. It’s also easier to knock the sharp edges off now. So that’s the mission for today. ‘Taint glamorous, but it’s got to be done and done well if are to get a good finish. Workshop closes: 4:45 PM Sanding is complete. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here.

Work day begins: 7:15 AM Just a little e-mail to handle this morning, including a bid request for a custom doll house display table. A fire is going out in the shop, so we will be warm despite the grey, cold, rainy morning. The radio says the rain may turn to snow as temperatures drop off during the day. Today we’ll take another stab at completing and fitting the tenons on Iliff’s rocking chair. Lunch Time Things are going well. The back assembly is trimmed and dry fitted. This is the most complex assembly. No great challenges or disappointments so far. Workshop closes: 4:00 PM We got all of the tenons trimmed and the dry fitting done. The whole chair fits together nicely, and I see no problems to correct, so I’ve knocked the chair back apart and tomorrow we’ll proceed to the first sanding. Now I need to go update the project article and post these notes. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here.

Work day begins: 7:00 AM This is Day 5 for the Mission Rocker project, and today we will be cutting the long tenons on the seat rails and fitting them into their mortises in the legs. But first, I’m replacing the florescent tubes in most of my light fixtures. We made a supply run to Morristown on Saturday and found a good deal on good tubes. I made a mistake when I set up this workshop: I needed to add A LOT of light fixtures and didn’t have a whole bunch of money to spend on good florescent fixtures, so I bought a whole mess of ShopLight fixtures – because they were cheap. Hey, a florescent light fixture is a florescent light fixture, right? Wrong. The problem is that the tubes made to go in these fixtures are only 25 watts. Two tubes per fixture means it only gives out 50 watts of light, which is kind of dim. Regular tubes are 40 watts, 80 watts per fixture – much better. But most regular tubes say right on the box, “Not for use in ShopLight fixtures”, and if you use them anyway, they light up well – for about a week, then they burn out. Replacing them every week is costly. Lowes had some 40 watt tubes that say “For use in all florescent fixtures”. So I bought a bunch of them and will give them a try. I would have been better off to install good fluorescent fixtures as I could afford them than to get in a hurry and try to light the shop adequately all at once on a shoestring budget. I have since learned that if I choose fixtures with an electronic ballast, I can avoid the problem of the lights flickering and putting out low light levels in cold weather. Once regular ballasts warm up they work just fine, but in severe cold, this can take hours. Electronic ballasts however provide full power to light the tubes even in the cold. I was in the process of replacing the tubes when the power went out. That’s why I’m spending so much time blathering on and on about light fixtures. With no power, there’s not much I can do. It’s dark in there. But our computers have battery back-ups to protect them against power outages and I can type by the light the screen gives off. We get a lot of what I call power blips: the power goes out for a second, then comes right back -- just enough to mess up the alarm clocks, telephone, VCRs, and our computers if they’re not protected. Sometimes, the power will go out for a longer period, but usually not more than a half-hour. Today is one of those longer periods. If it runs true to form, it ought to be coming back any minute… And there it is: almost exactly a half hour. So, it’s back to work for me. Well, this turned out to be one of “those” days. I’ve had visitors dropping in all day long. One of them wants me to make the doors for a large kitchen island that he’s building for a client, so we spent a considerable amount of time discussing design details, trying to match stain, and producing a sample board for a color for which I had no sample board on hand. I was setting up to make 10 stain sample boards for a fellow in Massachusetts, so this was good timing. The power went out again this afternoon, then kept popping in and out – totally flubbing up any chance to get anything done with power tools. But I did get to finish the stain boards. In the afternoon there is enough light coming through the side window to see by, and all of my finishing was done by hand and with aerosol cans of lacquer -- no sprayer required. Then a weather front came through with a vengeance: very strong winds that were making the girls really nervous, so I relented, closed the shop early and we all went in the house. Workshop closes: 4:30 PM I have a few small web site chores to tend to, but they won’t take long. Then I’ll post my notes and head for the shower. We’ll just have to go for a do-over on Day 5 of the chair. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here.

Work day begins: 6:15 AM Getting an early start to work some more on this shopping cart problem. The problem seems to be exclusively with PayPal, all other payment forms work fine. The easiest solution would be to give PayPal the boot and not accept that payment form any longer. It’s quite cold out this morning. So I have to go get a fire going in the workshop if we are to work out there. Today I got all the mortises cut and most of the tenons made. Still have to cut the tricky tenons on the ends of the aprons, but all others are done and ready for final fitting. Workshop closes: 4:00 PM I’m still working on that PayPal bug in the Treasures shopping cart. I’ll work on that until dinner time, then quit and watch a movie with Marie. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here.

Work day begins: 6:45 AM Today I spent the day roughing-out the blanks I’ll need for parts. To start with I cross-cut the full length boards into smaller, more manageable pieces sized according to what part I planned to make from them. Then I surface planed the chunks to the proper thicknesses, edged the boards and rip sawed then into slightly oversized pieces; one for each individual part. I also jointed, doweled and glued up the seat blank. Tomorrow I will begin on the process of actually producing finished parts. This afternoon I also did some more work on those cherry trays that are in for repairs. They should be done now, as long as sawdust didn’t get into the fresh polyurethane. And I did some photography work on a couple of new products for the Treasures store. Workshop closes: 4:00 PM It’s a little early, but this is a good stopping point… and my back is still bothering me from re-stacking all that lumber yesterday. So I’ll go get my notes together and ready to post and work on web site stuff for a while. To view the detailed construction article on this piece, click here.