Shaker Chimney Cabinet - Part 8 Applying the Finish

 With the construction now done, it was time to apply the finish.  I wanted to keep things simple and predictable.  As such, I used shellac.  Over the past 5 or 6 years, shellac has been my go to finish.  I find it easy to apply and like the way it looks.  For cherry, I like to make up a 1-1/2 lb cut of garnet shellac.  That would be for the outside.  For the inside, I wanted the cherry to be a bit lighter.  As such, I opted to buy Zinnser spray cans of blond shellac.  I've never sprayed shellac.  Given the size of the piece and that it is the inside where I worry a bit less, I thought it would be a good option.  Also, I decided I would do the back with the spray cans of shellac.  Again, it is the back.

To help avoid overspray, I covered the outside.  I sprayed outside with a respirator and used light coats.  After 3 or 4 coats, I denibbed and did another 3 or 4 coats.  I think I used 4 cans of shellac in total.  It came out good.  I definitely had a few runs.  I am sure if I did more spray shellac I would get better at it.  I removed the overspray coverings and applied 4 coats of garnet shellac.  From there, I lightly sanded and denibbed.  Then, another 4 coats of garnet shellac.  I like to wait 2 to 4 days after I've applied shellac before waxing.  I find the shellac hardens a bit more as the final traces of ethanol evaporate.  I waxed using a maroon ScotchBrite pad.  After an hour or so I buffed it out.  Installed the doors and carried it into the home.  It is going in the guest bathroom.  Finished.  

I had wanted to make this piece for a long time; before I was woodworking.  I felt a lot of satisfaction.  There are plenty of things that demonstrate by skill limits.  However, each project gets better and that's all I can hope for.  I did use the maker's stamp on this one that my wife purchased for me on father's day.  All in all a good project. Another relief, I have the blog series done on this piece.  I want to document my making.  Given how large of a project this was for me, I had some apprehension writing this up.  So much work to talk about and so many photos to sort through.   After a large project like this, I like to do a few smaller ones.  In the next post, I will outline a project that took 40 hours instead of the 190 hours it took to make this Shaker chimney cabinet. 

Shaker Chimney Cabinet - Part 7 drawers and top

 With the carcass, back, and front doors done, I'm down to items I feel confident in building.  I've done a fair number of boxes so drawers are similar.  I've done a fair number of Paul Seller's style clocks so I'm comfortable with round overs.  If I stay focused, thing should go reasonably well.

As for the top, it's mostly a matter of deciding the desired overhang and then doing round overs.  The top is an interesting piece.  Though it is big, it is up high so you really don't see much of it at all.  You mostly see the sides and overhang.  As long as they look good, the rest doesn't really matter much.  Sure, you will see the top from the inside but that isn't really visible.  As such, this part of build doesn't require the best looking wood.  Cutting and rounding over was relatively straightforward.  I made sure to sharpen the plane blades before I started.  Then, I just count strokes as I round over so it's consistent.  If I were to do it over again, I might do a bit more round over than I did on this.  To allow for wood movement, the grain is oriented the same as the sides.  I cut long narrow slots in the back and used some long washers that Christian Becksvoort "invented" that you can buy via Lee Valley.  The front is glued and screwed in place and the back part is just screwed so that it can move.

I really look forward to making drawers.  I like making dovetails.  Before I can make the drawers, I needed to put some "drawer runners on the side to account for the gap between the sides and front face frame.  I used some off cuts for these and ran the grain in the same direction as the sides and glued them in place.  As such, it should all move.  Getting it clamped was a bit tricky but I managed.

For the drawers, I cut from one board so the grain flows across the three.  Most folks won't notice this but it makes me happy.  I cut the drawers so they were sung length wise.  For the width, I took into account wood movement, time of year, and necessary sizing so they shouldn't bind. For the secondary wood, I used poplar.  I really like working with poplar.  To make life easy, the back of the drawer is 1/16th inch less wide and tall.  I also taper the sides from front to back that 1/16th of an inch.  That way, the only place I really need to worry about fitting is near the front of the drawer.  Construction was straight forward.  Half blind dovetails in front, full dovetails in back.  I used plywood in the bottom.  Glue up went well.  There were some gaps in the dovetails but the look reasonable.  If I had to do them over, I would have made the pins a bit more narrow than they are.  The cherry  knobs were purchased from Horton brasses and identical to the ones used on the doors.  For the drawers, rather than have them flush with the front, I decided to inset them in 1/8th of an inch.  Much easier to hide any variances this way.

All that is left is to finish the piece and that will be my last post on this series.

Productive Long Weekend - Shop Clean Up in Progress

 I had MLK off so that meant a three day weekend.  In late Feb I will be giving the woodworking club I belong to a virtual shop tour.  I'm excited about this.  I've used that activity as incentive to give the shop a deep clean and organization.  I will have a longer post about this when it is all done.  Below is a before and after of one area that has been a mess for 5 years.  The mess is gone and what remains on the smaller table is all going to be sold and the table folded up.  

In doing this deep clean and organization, I am also getting around to little things I've wanted to do for a while.  About two years ago I skipped one of the two stairs when walking down them and took a good fall.  My wife had kindly bought me this more visible anti-fatigue skid mats.  Finally, I got them installed.

I also finished the bow saw project (future post written and set to go out in March), made a small cart to hold my handyman tools, and started making a long spatula for the wife for one of our tall big pots and got half way through that.  Just felt really good to get a bunch of things done.  I can't control the world but I do get a sense of peace when I know my shop is tidy and in order.  When I mentioned above a March posting, the obvious question is why so far out.  The answer is that I try to post just once a week (Sat 7 am PST).  It can be hard to write a blog; the woodworking is easy.  What I have been doing the last few weeks is forcing myself to write a bit each morning.  It seems to be working.

How My Carhartt Overalls Are Failing

I like my Carhartt overalls.  When not at work, this is what I wear.  I have no complaints about them.  I've probably worn them about 1,000 days worth so they have held up well.  Still, it's hard to find this kind of info so I thought I would post something about it.

What I have noticed is that they right around the knees there is a double seam.  I think I could stick from the instead foam knee pads in these (though I've never tried or looked into it).  This is where they seem be be failing.  The fabric just above both knees is thinning out here.  To extend their service life, what I did was apply some iron on patches on the inside.  Again, I've gotten at least 1,000 wearings out of them so they don't owe me anything.  I'm just trying to get another 3 to 6 months out of them.  I plan to buy a new pair.  

The reason I'm trying to get a few more months out of them is that for the last year I (and my wife) have been focusing hard on loosing weight.  Right now I'm down 167 lbs (my wife is down 136 lbs).  I have about 45 lbs to go so that I am on the low side of what is considered normal BMI.  Would like to avoid buying new clothes till then.  

I haven't talked too much about the weight loss and I will at some point.  From a high level perspective, I got sick and tired of my feet hurting all the time.  I'm in my early 50s and I could see where this was headed and I didn't like it.  My wife's cousin was on a program and a coach so we signed up.  No surgery.  With the 167 lbs lost so far, I feel fantastic and like I am in my 30s again.  Really.  I would say about 80% of the things I associated with getting older was in fact just getting fatter.  Loosing the weight has made me feel much much better.  

What's the trick to loosing weight?  Well, we all pretty much know what to do.  The hard part is getting your mind wanting to do it more than anything else.  If I could figure out a method that reliably would get a person in that mindset, I would be wealthy beyond all measure.  Alas, I don't know how to do this.  For me, it was my feet hurting all the time and then like Dave Ramsey (finance person on radio), I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.

In the first photo (I don't have that many photos of me in my blog - who wants to see me?!?) I am holding a Grammercy bow saw I just finished making from their kit.  The instructions were good on their website (toolsforworkingwood.com) and I am happy with it.  I like making my own tools and try and do a few each year.  The next one will be to make a Studley Tool chest mallet.  I was on Jim Bode's antique tool website and I saw a casting come up so I bought it.  Can't wait to clean up the casting and make the wooden mallet and handle bits.

Shaker Chimney Cabinet - Part 6 the front doors

 With the long vertical face frames attached, I basically have three major operations left - the cabinet doors, the drawers, the top.  On projects, where there are choices for the order of operations, I prefer to do the harder stuff first.  Of these three options that would be the doors for me.  On the mini ATC chest I made earlier this year (or was it last year .... it all blurrs), I had made a frame and panel door for the top of the chest.  As such, I was comfortable with the process.  Mostly I need to make sure the wood is square and twist free.  As such, I really took my time doing this.

I cut mortises first then tenons and fit the tenons to the mortise.   Not sure if everyone does the order of operations like this or not or if there is some pins vs. tails approach.  I don't think there is but honestly, I try hard to avoid reading those kinds of debates much.  I'd rather woodwork and try various ways to do something and learn when one way might be more applicable than another.

I used my tabletop mortiser and then cut the tenons by hand and got a good fit.  Before I could fully insert the tenons, I ran the grooves with my small plough plane.  I really like this tool and after this project I think I finally feel confident that I can make good grooves.  It took a while to get there but I think I finally feel good about that skill.  

The one error I made was cutting off the haunch on my tenons.  Grrrr.  Not the end of the world.  Filled the gap with plugs and then made flush.  Unless you are looking for it, it won't be noticed.

Cut the cherry plywood and used continuous grain from top to bottom pannels.  The glue up was uneventful.  Given the break out issue I had in the back, I was mindful of being sensitive during this glue.  Only minimal hand planing was needed to get the surfaces flush.  I was careful in using my reference faces and this really helped.

Since I had spent a lot of time on layout, there was only minimal fitting I needed to do after I cut the horns off.  I like using horns on frames and panels as it is traditional and helps minimize the chance for end grain blow out.  The hinges were done by hand and it was reasonably uneventful.  Bought both the hinges and cherry knobs from Horton brasses.  Knob installations was uneventful as well.  Before cutting in the final piece, I did try a scrap just to make sure I was getting the proper fit on the hole.  Closing in on getting the woodworking done.  Now, onto making drawers.