Here is an update to recent activities. Warren’s Nanny Rocker is done and we are awaiting the end of the month, after which we are supposed to ship the rocker to his daughter; they are away from home right now. The cutting boards are done and will be shipped out today. To view recent activities on that project use the links in the previous message. I am about to start on Thomas’s order for walnut Tray Tables. Most of our Daily Shop Notes activity has been moved In-House. I will provide links to those postings when new projects begin. The reasons for this change are discussed on the Mountain Man Wannabe blog. You may Click Here to go read that.

Today we’ll be working on Step 4 for Charlotte’s Over the Sink Cutting Board and Step 5 on John’s board, which is making the hole through the board for disposal of scraps. Click those links to view the details, or Click Here to start the story at the beginning.

Hope you have a great weekend! Doug

This morning I attached the loop hangers to Philip’s Wall Hung Bottle Stopper Rack and packaged it for shipment. It will go out on today’s UPS truck. Today we’ll be working on Step 3 and Step 4 of our Over the Sink Cutting Boards. Step 3 is gluing the strips we cut yesterday into a board blank, Step 4 is surface planing the halves of each blank to smooth them and bring them to finished thickness and gluing the halves together into a full board, which we then trim to finished size and shape. Click those links to view the details, or Click Here to start the story at the beginning. Because I'm working on two boards for two orders, they are each in a slightly different stage of construction. Blogger is crashing when I try to post photos again so, please go to the web pages to see them. Sorry... it just does this sometimes. See you tomorrow! Doug

Karen’s two tier bottle stopper rack got packaged up and shipped today.

Phillip’s oak Wall Hung Stopper Rack got finish sanded and lacquered. In the morning I’ll attach the loop hangers and package it up for shipment.

The rest of the day was spent working on the two Over Sink Cutting Boards. Today I milled out the strips of maple that will become two cutting boards.

CLICK HERE to view the full details of this days cutting board activities.

See you tomorrow!

Doug

Today I didn’t do anything with Warren’s Nanny Rocker except to move it out of the finishing room and onto a table in the assembly room. The rocker itself is done, I’m just waiting on the bedding. We’re waiting for the mattress Marie ordered to arrive so she can make the fitted sheet and mattress pad.

I completed Karen’s two tier bottle stopper rack by installing the wooden pegs. Once they were all in I sanded the whole rack and shot it with two good coats of semi-gloss lacquer, scuffed between coats. This photo was taken right after scuffing. This order is now done and ready to be packed up and shipped once the lacquer hardens well and the silicone “feet” are applied. I’ve found that the feet tend to fall off in shipping if I apply them too soon. It appears that solvents evaporating out of the lacquer even after it’s dry to the touch soften the adhesive backing on the feet and cause them to come loose. By giving it a few hours extra the problem is completely averted.

I also milled out and assembled the parts for Phillip’s oak Wall Hung Stopper Rack and it is currently in clamps for the night. I’ll sand and finish it tomorrow.

To finish out the afternoon I surface planed the maple I will be needing for the two Over Sink Cutting Boards that are next on the agenda.

See you tomorrow!

Doug

Pressing On

This was another early morning. Not as early as yesterday, we needed to get the truck in to a repair shop for maintenance. Once I got going, I started by setting up the bandsaw with a ¼” 10 TPI band and cutting Don’s over the sink cutting board to shape. You may recall that my final task last night was to trace around the pattern Don had sent to transfer the shape into the board blank. I cut a hair outside of the lines so I could sand down to the line and remove the saw marks. I did this with a stationary belt sander.

I use a marking gauge to make another line ¾” in from the edge along the under side of the outside edges. This is how far I need to cut a set-back or relief that will hug the two sides of the sink, allowing it to sit over the sink without falling in.

Next I set up the router table with a bowl bit to cut this relief. The long, third side: the hypotenuse of the triangle, for the mathematically inclined, remains square on the under side to encourage liquids to drip down instead of running along under the board. I form the relief by making multiple passes and setting the fence back a little on each pass until I reach the line I drew.

Finally I sand the entire board with 150, 180 & 220 grit paper then take it into the finishing room and apply a heavy coat of mineral oil, work it in with a cloth for 5 minutes making sure no dry spots develop, then wipe the excess oil off with another rag and buff the board to a soft luster.

That finishes up Don’s cutting board. Tomorrow I’ll package it up and ship it to him.

Now; back to Ellen’s tray tables. Today I will glue up two halves of a ribbon panel. To do this I take one of the panels I arranged and taped together yesterday and snip the tape along the mid-line. The full panel is about 15” wide, our surface planer will accommodate 13” widths, so I have to make them in halves, then join the halves. But we’ll get to all that later. For today, I apply glue to the joints between the ribbon strips using a fixture I built the lay the panel in a set of clamps. I carefully check the alignment of the ribbons as I snug up the clamps. I have only 1/16” extra wood to remove in smoothing the panels so they have to be pretty close to start with.

These will sit in their clamps over night. The rest of the afternoon is spent tending to some upkeep and cleaning chores.

Doug

Beginning Board & Tables

This morning I came in at the crack of dawn to get started on the bookwork so I would still have a good work day left. Actually I came to work at the crack of dawn because Marie had an early meeting in Newport and I didn't see any sense in sitting around the house killing time until my usual start time rolled around. But the opportunity to get some extra time in wasn't wasted.

My primary objective for today was to get Don’s cutting board made up, during the down time I would work on roughing out parts for Ellen’s tray tables.

I brought wood for both projects inside last week so it would acclimate. To start off with I ripped the maple into strips on the table saw, then used the chop saw to cut the strips to length. That done I arranged them and checked to be cure the pattern Don sent me would still fit on the blank properly. It does, so I mark them for alignment and take them to the assembly room for glue-up and clamping.

While the glue dries on that I get out my template set for TV Tray Tables and start cutting out parts for Ellen’s tables. The trickiest parts are the ribbon strips for the tray panel. Here the ribbons are laid out to see how they will look, but not yet glued. I’ll do that tomorrow.

Once the glue in the cutting board is set up I remove the clamps and surface plane both sides smooth. Then I tape the pattern in place and draw around the outside edge. Tomorrow I will use this line to cut the blank to rough shape.

Then it’s time to clean up the shop and head home for the night. See you tomorrow.

Doug