Building the base plate was my assignment for the day.  I had planned to get it completed today, but things popped up that needed attention and I did not get quite as far as I had planned.

 I started out by making up a mess of screw hole plugs using a scrap of lumber from the rockers.  This will result in a good color match and these will be face grain plugs, not end grain like nearly all commercially made plugs.  Besides, have you tried buying screw hole plugs in Ash lately?  Forget about it!

 Then I selected a couple of boards, cut them into rough-length chunks on the chop saw then used the jointer to flatten one face and one edge.  Doing this also makes sure the edge is square to the face.  This will be important in making glue joints.

 Then I run them through the surface planer, jointed faces down, to smooth the rough face.  This also makes the two faces parallel to one another.

Finally I trim the rough edge off on the table saw.  This makes the final edge parallel to the jointed edge and, if I have my saw set up properly, square to the two faces.  I'll joint this edge in a bit just to be sure.

 I lay the boards out and play with them to get the best match in color and graining.  These are all center-cut boards (quarter-sawn) so the grain runs almost perfectly vertically.  This type of board will have very little tendency to warp over time, making it great for this base plate.

When I'm happy with it, I mark the joints to keep the alignment and run the sawn edges that are involved in glue joints through the jointer just to remove what little saw-swirl is there.

 I have found over the years that if I start with dry wood and superior glue joints, dowels or fancy edges are not needed.  For a long time I doweled every glue joint, then I tried a glue-joint bit that makes tongue & groove type edges to increase gluing surface, but abandoned them both after I got my big jointer because they were no longer necessary and added labor and time to the project.

Because this plate is 15½" wide (or will be when I trim it) and my planer is 15" wide I'll glue up just one joint now, then surface plane the pieces to nearly the finished thickness (making one perfect joint) glue up the second joint, and smooth the whole panel with the wide drum sander. 

 I put all three boards into the clamps so the clamps will press against the outside edges, not edges that have been jointed for gluing.  The outside edges will get trimmed anyway, so light dents won't matter.  Ash is almost as hard and dense as hickory, but I'm protective of those glue joints.

I'm about out of time now so I'll pick this up again tomorrow.  Thanks for popping in!

 This morning I continued picking through the ash lumber I brought in from the lumber shed previously and sorting it out so I know which boards I want to use to make what parts.  This has been here for 4½ years, so it is good and dry now.

 I'll make the rocker assembly first, so I take the board earmarked for that and lay out the cuts.  Then I use the chop saw to cut the board into blanks for the two rockers and the spreader.

 The spreader come from an end piece that is kind of wormy, but I can cut away the bad parts to leave a large enough piece down the middle.

The scrap pieces will go into the firewood box.  I'll need to save a piece from which I can make screw hole plugs, but the rest will heat our home

 While jointing the three parts blanks I am reminded that the bed of the jointer has been "draggy" lately, making it harder work than necessary to joint the boards. 

So I break out my can of paste wax and give the jointer bed a good coat, applying the wax with fine steel wool.  Once the wax flashes I take an old towel and buff it off.

Much better!  I joint one face and one edge on each part blank

 Now that the surface planer is fixed it's a simple matter to get the blanks completed.  The boards are all well over 1 inch thick, so I plane off a fair amount of stock to make the 3/4" thick parts, but that's OK, it just insures that even if the board started out a little bowed or crooked I can flatten it. 

 When the blanks are prepared I bundle the two rocker blanks together with masking tape.

Then I line up the top of the rocker template with the jointed edge and trace around it to transfer the shape to the blanks.

Most of the shaping process will be done with these two boards fastened together to insure they are the same shape.  This is especially important for the rocker bottoms so they rock smoothly with no wobble or wiggle.

 I cut them out on the band saw.

 Then smooth away the rough edges and do the final shaping of the outside curves on the stationary belt sander.

 I use a drum in the drill press to dress the inside curves.

 Then pretty up the rockers by rounding over the edges on the router table.  I leave the top edge square of course: this will mate up with the bottom of the cradle.

 Then I lay out the screw holes that will attach the rockers to the spreader.  I drill the pilot holes and counter-bores into the rocker faces then set up the drill press to drill matching pilot holes in the ends of the spreader.

I assemble the rockers to the spreader and check to be sure it all came out square and even.  I'll take it apart again to sand the parts, then reassemble them with glue in the joints.  Then I'll glue in screw hole plugs and sand those smooth.

But this completes the construction of this assembly.

Next time we'll mill out the cradle bottom.

Have a great weekend!

 Yesterday (Thursday) I completed the stopper racks by attaching the hangers with #4 brass screws after having let the lacquer set up overnight o be sure it's good and hard.

Then I packaged them into boxes we order specifically for these stopper racks.  Once the boxes are all taped up I move them into the storage area and post them to the web site as available. 

They are now ready to ship.

I got started in the cradle but things went wonky on me and I got called away to take care of some other issues.  Life is like that sometimes.

 Yesterday evening the UPS truck arrived as I was closing up shop and left a box on our shipping dock.  I thought it was kind of hilarious that they used such a big box for this one little bar of metal.  This is all there was in there: no packing, but I guess packing wasn't really needed.

This is the "part" I've been waiting for so I could fix the surface planer.

This morning I cut off  piece of this bar (machine key stock is the official name for it), filed the ends smooth and slightly rounded, and reassembled the big planer.  One of the tools  I needed for this was something we had to buy special: these Monster Channel Lock Pliers.

Once it was all back together I fired it up and it sounds fine again.  Now we should be all set to get started on Gary's cradle.  But for now I tuck it back over in it's corner, I still have some things to take care of first.

I set up the finishing room, don my protective gear, and get started shooting lacquer on the first of the wall hung stopper racks I've been building.

I look like something out of Star Wars, don't I?

I'll give the rack two coats, scuff sand it and give it a third.  Then all that's left is to attach the hangers and it'll get boxed up and be ready to ship.

 In between lacquer shoots I locate the template set I'll need for the Heritage Cradle I'll build for Gary.

I check the included notes to see how many board feet of lumber I'll need to pull.

 Then I'm off to the lumber shed and my stack of Ash lumber.  Or ash pile!

The first couple of layers I pulled were pretty wormy and split, and I was worried for a bit, but then I remembered that this was the first time I've gotten into this pile. When I stack a new shipment of lumber I always toss aside the really rough stuff so it doesn't get counted in the bill I pay to Tommy.  But he has no use for the scrap, so I put that on top pf the pile as added weight to help keep the lumber straight and flat as it dries.  I also add concrete blocks.  Now that it's three years dry I won't need that added weight, so I can cut up the scrappy stuff for firewood.

I bring in the scrappy stuff and enough good stock to build the cradle and stack it all on the floor where I can get at it easily.

It's a very nice day today, but it may well rain the rest of the week.  Having all the lumber I'll need in here will make things more pleasant.

The ash is the white stuff in front, the walnut is for our entertainment center that I've been working on in my "spare" time for the past 3 years.  Sigh.  One day I'll have all this floor space clear again.

I'll continue finishing stopper racks for the rest of the day and get started on the cradle tomorrow morning.

Thanks for watching!

Today I get "down ta bidness" on parts-making for the wall hung stopper racks.

Yesterday, being Monday was spend doing my radio program, maintaining web sites for my clients and catching up on some bookkeeping.

I start by boring the holes through the shelf bundles I made up last Friday.  I use a Forstner bit chucked into the drill press because this bit makes very clean, smooth-walled holes with little tear-out.  If I'm careful.  If I rush and force the bit through the wood too fast, tear-out will happen.

Once all the bundles are drilled I remove the tape and separate the shelves.

Now I use a round-over bit in the router table to ease the edges of the stopper holes.  This is mostly decorative, but can help prevent "denting" corks that are a bit larger than the holes.

I drop each hole in the shelf over the bit and give it a swirl (a bearing on the end of the bit prevents the bit from cutting too deeply), lift, move to the next hole and repeat.

I also round-over the front edge of each shelf, but I want to do this in a very precise manner so the rounded part does not creep into the groove in the side piece, making a pocket that will have to be filled.  I want the "ear" on the shelf to just touch the front edge of the side when the backs are flushed up.

To do this consistently I set the fence on the router table behind the pilot bearing of the round-over bit just enough that the bit starts cutting around the corner.  The shelf then rides out on the bearing to trim the long front edge and drops back at the end of the run.

Setting this up is a trial and error process: I start shallow and sneak up on a perfect fit.  Once it's set I lock everything down and run all the shelves I've made.

Then I sand.

I use blocks for the flat surfaces and wrap a piece of sand paper around my thumb to sand inside the holes.  This takes a while. 

I'll sand the five shelves I need for one rack now and move on.  I'll come back and sand the rest after the first rack is done.  I only have an order for one rack, the rest will go into stock.  No rush on them.

Then I set up the dado head to cut the dado in the side pieces that will house and support the shelves.

A stacked dado head uses a circular blade on the outsides of the stack and one or more winged chippers in between to remove a swath of wood the proper width.  The width of the cut can be fine tuned by adding shims between the cutters to achieve just the right cut width.

This too takes some time.  I practice on scrap stock, cut a dado, fit a shelf into the cut and see if it is too tight or too loose, add or remove shims to adjust.  Repeat.  It has to be snug enough the glue will hold, but not so tight I have to force the joint together.  Aligning the parts with glue in the joints will be much harder if the joint is too tight.  Too loose and it may one day fall apart.

Once that's done I cut all the side pieces.  To do that I use a special fixture I built.  It uses a stationary bar which barely fits into the dado I just cut to space the next cut.  I use a special spacer on the first cut to get the top shelf positioned, the rest are self spacing and automatically squared.  I took a mess of pictures, but it's difficult to see what's happening in them, lets try a video...

As you can see it is a quick and painless process when done using the fixture - I just need to remember to make opposing sides or I'll end up with all right sides or all left sides.  Not Good!

When this is done I sand the side pieces.  One more piece to make, then we can assemble the rack.

 I like to get a bit fancy with this skirt in the bottom.  To start with I cut down an undrilled shelf blank to fit snugly between the sides.  A good fit here is critical, so I'll make the first cut just a bit long and sneak up on a perfect fit.

 To do that I use this little trick.  If you have a micro-adjustable stop on your saw, you don't need this.  If not, pay attention.
The teeth on any carbide saw blade (or as steel blade for that matter - because of their "set") are just a smidge wider than the saw body.  To shave off just a few thousandths of an inch, lower the chop saw blade (don't turn it on) and *lightly* press the end of your part against the body of the blade - avoid all teeth.  Press down hard to hold the part in place, raise the saw, start it up and bring it back down.  This will remove wood equal to the difference from one side of the  teeth to the blade body.  Repeat as needed to get the fit you want.

 Now that it fits perfectly, I use the template to draw the arch on the part, use a band saw to cut away the waste, leaving 1/16 to 3/32 of an inch of wood outside the line.

Now I set up the router table with a flush trim bit and adjust the height so the bearing runs on the template (above the part).  The cutter removes the wood below so it ends up exactly the same shape as the template.  The template is made with a pocket that holds the part securely so it doesn't shift while trimming.

 A little sanding and I'm ready to dry-fit the rack.  I pull the joints snug with clamps and check the fit everywhere.

If it looks good (and it does) I take one side off, apply glue to the end of the skirt and inside the dadoes, put it back in place, remove the other side, apply glue, replace and affix clamps to hold it snugly together while the glue tacks up.

While I'm waiting I'll sand another set of parts and get them ready to assemble.  When I'm done I'll have three of these racks assembled and ready for finish sanding and lacquering.

We'll get to that tomorrow. 

Have a good evening and I hope to see you back here again tomorrow.

Making parts blanks was my task of the day.

 I started by thinning and sanding the shelf pieces as I discussed yesterday. That took a while.

Next came trimming the lumber for the sides and shelves to finished size and shaping the side pieces with the band saw and stationary belt sander.  The shelves had their ends trimmed and squared then I bundled up enough (upper right corner) to make the three racks that are in progress.

After bundling, they get punched to locate the centers of the holes that will hold the stopper corks.

This much actually took all afternoon because of the lack of a surface planer. 

The parts I ordered from Grainger should have been here by now: it's been over a week.  I logged into their web site to check on the order.  I used order number from the printed receipt, date, and item number, but they kept saying "Order not found".  Even my order history showed that I made no order - even though they sent me three (count them: three) emails confirming account set-up, order and payment.  In other words, I'm not getting any machine keys from Grainger.  So I started my search all over again.  My second choice was Fastenal.  They don't sell individual keys, but a 12 inch long stick that I will need to cut to length.  I called the store in Morristown hoping they'd have them in stock.  They don't.  Neither does the Sevierville store.  Maybe the Knoxville store, but I'm not spending half a day (or more, depending on the traffic) driving to Knoxville and back for a $2.00 part.  The guy at Fastenal said he could could still get an order in for shipment today and have it drop-shipped to me here. I should have it by Monday, Tuesday at the latest.  That sounded good.  I'll let you know on Tuesday if that worked out.

I hope you have a GREAT weekend!

We absolutely have to get this memorial candle rack delivered to SMHH&H's Newport office today so they can get it to their Morristown office for a service this evening.  Therefore I was out before dawn to wrap and load it into the truck so Marie could take it with her when she goes to work this morning.

I received confirmation later in the morning that the hand-off went well and it was on it's way to Morristown.  I always feel better when a piece arrives safely.

I got right to work on those cherry wall hung stopper racks.  I selected the lumber and passed it over to the shop ghost for jointing.  He made one face and one edge smooth and flat and square to one another.

All the lumber we use comes in the door as rough sawn, log run lumber.  Rough sawn is, just as the name implies: rough lumber.  This board was cupped and the part in the middle planed down to smooth wood, I took this shot so you can see the difference between rough and dressed lumber.  The rough lumber is fuzzy, often has ridges and swirls from the saw blade and makes it pretty difficult to see the color and pattern of the wood below.  It is also eager to poke splinters into your skin, gloves are recommended.

After dressing the lumber (jointing one face and one edge, then surface planing the second face) I cut the lumber into parts blanks, working from the jointed edge so the rough edge gets cut off and discarded.  Shop scraps too small or ugly to use in the shop go into the firewood pile.

I need two dimensions of lumber for this project: the thick side pieces and thin stock for the shelves and skirt.  These boards are thick enough that I can resaw them and get one of each from the same board, wasting much less wood than I would if I simply planed the thick lumber down to reach the sides dimensions.  I like to reduce waste wherever I can.

If you've been following along you know that the big Grizzly surface planer chewed up a drive shaft key and is convalescing.  I've been using an old Delta planer as a stand-in, but that too has been making some ugly noises.  Today it popped a circuit breaker and smelled of melted electrical insulation.  I think it's done-for.

Parts for the Grizzly have been ordered but until they arrive I'm pretty much sitting on my thumbs.  I can't dress rough lumber without a surface planer.

Fortunately I did get all of my heavy surfacing work done before the Delta died.  I was working on the resawn pieces when it croaked.

The longer pieces were side/shelf parts and need only a little wood removed to dress them out nicely.  The shorter pieces were split in half to make two shelf blanks and they need to have about 1/8" taken off.  How can I keep working?

My Jet 16-32 drum sander can serve as a thickness planer, but it will only take a few thousandths of an inch off with each pass.  The other tools use cutter heads with knives in them, this uses sand paper.  However, if I take most of the excess off the short pieces with the jointer, I can then run them through the sander to take off the last bit and make the second face parallel to the face I originally jointed.

The jointer will remove excess wood and smooth the second face, but would do nothing toward making sure the piece is a consistent thickness throughout the piece.  Since the shelves mount in grooves cut in the side pieces making them precisely the right thickness and a consistent thickness is very important.

Thanks for watching, I'll see you tomorrow!

Shooting lacquer was the primary order of the day.

With the issues I ran into yesterday resolved I attached the top cap (had to set the thing on the floor because it was too tall to work with while up on the work bench) and began the final round of sanding.

Then I move the candle rack into the finishing room and shoot the first coat of lacquer.

The rack will get three coats with a scuff sanding between the second and third coat to smooth the finish.

While I wait for lacquer to dry I dig out my template set for the wall hung stopper racks and sort through my short lumber stash.  I'm going to whip out a few of these rack because I have a request for a cherry rack and making three or four of these will go quickly if done in a batch.  Then it's on to Gary's Heritage Cradle.

When it's done, this is what the candle rack looks like.  I only have one of the candle cups, but it should hold 252 of the candles.  Hopefully that will be enough to serve their needs for a while.

I have to go clean up the finishing room before I go home.  Thanks for watching, and I'll see you tomorrow.