...and headed for home. Yes, another title with the dreaded points of ellipsis in it.
After the sandingfest yesterday, today was a day for glue-ups. Whilst the glue was drying, I started to cut the top caps for the sides of the crib as well as the decorative pieces. As you can see from the pictures, the contrasting walnut really stands out against the maple.
As you can see, the crib is really starting to come together. The hardest part of today's goings-on was trying to figure out how to set up the saw to create the decorative little pyramids that fit into the mortises on the top rails. After cussin' and swearin' for an hour or so, I emerged from a pile of wasted scrap cuts with the solution. And I must say, the walnut really makes the piece stand out.
Not shown, but almost complete, are the two caps that will be affixed to the tops of the sides of the crib, one of walnut and one of hard maple. I just need to do some final sanding to them.
This week I'll start working on the gates to the crib, which hopefullly won't take too long. It's time to start giving some serious thoughts to a finish for this project. At the moment I'm leaning towards a shellac finish...but there's always room for other suggestions.
First off, sorry, no pictures today...after four-plus hours with the random orbit sander, I don't think I could hold the camera still.
Today was a day of sanding. Sanding some more, and then sanding again. I finally finished cutting all the parts for the sides of the crib so today I took it upon myself to sand them all...boy, that sucked.
At any rate, one of the sides is glued up and in clamps. Tomorrow morning I'll glue up the other side...should be all downhill from there.
Is better than a good day at work. But a great day in the shop...well, that's even more better...
I took a much needed extended weekend, which unfortunately ends at 7:30 tomorrow morning. The sole aim, with the exception of setting up the Unisaw, was to work on Mike and Christy's crib. Yesterday and today I managed to achieve that goal. And all of you reading this should feel special as I only stopped for the night so that I would have time to write this so you would have something to read :)
The crib is starting to come together nicely. So far I have the legs done, the top rails done and the bottom rails almost done. Read on for pics...
I cut the mortises in the legs Sunday, which, never having made mortises before, was rather nerve wracking. They came out pretty well, if I do say so myself. I spent most of my shop time yesterday milling up the rails and drilling the needed holes in the legs. Today was spent making tenons in the rails (another new one on me) and mortising out the top rails for the decorative inserts to be added later. I know it may not sound like a heap of accomplishments, but given my...umm...attention to detail, (OK, I'll say it, I'm anal!) the setup for the different cuts took a while. I made sure to measure at least three times, tested my cuts on scrap, etc. etc. What it really boils down to is a lot of things I did today I had never done before so I wanted to take my time to ensure that I didn't screw up...after all, hard maple isn't the cheapest wood out there and having to recut parts at this point would suck.
At any rate, here's a pic of the dry fit of two legs with their rails. So far so good...still have to tweak the tenons a bit, but its coming along nicely.
I couldn't decide which picture I liked better, so here's another...sans heap of mess in the background:
Those who know me know that I hate being stumped by a problem...almost to a fault. After my last post, I sat on the couch for a while, fumed, went downstairs, looked at that damn saw, came back upstairs, fumed some more, then went back downstairs. After much manhandling and a few almost herniated discs in my back, I finally managed to get the mobile base turned around.
So there it is, the new Unisaw (no longer to be called "that damn saw"...at least for now) in all its glory. From what little of the shop you can see (or what little of the shop is left now) its easy to tell that, in typical Rob fashion, organization went to the wind as I started making progress. I suppose what I'm trying to say delicately is that the shop looks like absolute hell right now. There are no less than six empty Delta/Biesemeyer boxes scattered around and coffee cans with screwdrivers and other assorted tools occupying every horizontal surface in sight. Tomorrow will be a day of reorganization...
However, I must admit that I did have to sacrifice a couple of pieces of wood in honor of the momentus occasion. First to go was an unexpecting piece of 2x4 pine. Even with the Delta blade that came with the saw the pine was sliced in two like it was made of styrofoam. Next was a 2" thick hard maple scrap that I crosscut with no effort. If it weren't for fear of losing a few digits, you could almost close your eyes, turn the saw on and imagine you were standing next to Norm, cutting stock for draws and preparing for ahsembelee.
As a side note, I'm sure you all noticed that the blade guard and splitter assembly are not present in the picture...they were removed for demonstration purposes only. Seriously...I swear! :)
Oh, and that 220V outlet...its not lonely anymore.
I'd have no luck at all.
Made a trip to the local non-BORG hardware store this morning to pick up the needed bolt...exactly 28 cents (including tax) worth of machined metal that kept me from assembling that damn saw last night...or so I thought.
Deciding to be extra productive today, I made a trip to the Woodcraft to pick up a mobile base for that damn saw. Seemed simple enough to assemble, even read the instructions...twice. I figured getting that beast into the base by myself would be difficult enough once...I didn't want to have to do it twice. (And yes, folks, that is what they commonly call "foreshadowing".)
So anyway, I wrestle that damn saw (that's it's new name, by the way) into the mobile base. I'm pretty pleased with myself at this point. As I'm re-reading the directions for the base for the extention table I see the error in my ways...I've got that damn saw in the mobile base backwards! (Insert expletive deleted...ok, insert multiple strings of expletive deleteds here.) Getting that damn saw into the base wasn't too bad, after all, I had gravity working for me. Unfortunately, gravity is being a real bitch when it comes to getting that damn saw back out.
So, instead of finishing the assembly and making gobs of sawdust with that damn saw, I sit here blogging my woes while I wait for Mike to come over to help me out...again. I figure I owe him about fourtyleven favors by now...I just hope he decides to collect on them before I'm too old to help :)
All in all, I suppose the saying is correct...if you have a 50-50 chance of getting it right, 90% of the time you'll end up getting it wrong. Guess that's what I get for actually reading the damn directions.
Doesn't it just freakin' figure...
After almost three weeks of waiting, I finally brought the Unisaw home today. My brother, Mike, and I started the assembly process. Everything was going nicely until we started to assemble the fence...that's when we noticed that the nice folks at Delta shorted us exactly one bolt. One freakin' bolt. And unfortunately, without this bolt, the fence is useless. And, as we discovered this at 9:15pm, the BORGs were closed, so any hope for finishing up tonight were dashed. Needless to say, I'm more than just a tad pissed off at the moment.
Yeah, so the title of this post is lame...deal with it :)
Got a call yesterday from the folks I bought my table saw from...it's ready to pick up. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait until Friday to get it, but at least it's close to being here. I'm sure I'll have pictures of the unveiling and all that good stuff posted Friday or Saturday, depending of course, on how many hernias need to be treated.
OK, actually last night and today, but that would have made the title of this post entirely too long.
After a crazy week at work, last night I finally got the opportunity to get back out into the shop to continue work on the crib. As I'm waiting for my mortising machine to arrive, I didn't want to start working on the rails for the sides of the crib as, if I remember correctly, you should always make the mortises first...that way if you screw up the mortise you can cut the tenon to match. So anyway I decided to skip ahead to cutting the slats for the sides of the crib...the plans call for 46 of these things.
As I'm looking at the blanks to be ripped into the slats, I'm trying to decide the best way to rip them without having a chunk of hard maple (which is exactly that...really hard...and heavy) flying back at me. The last thing I wanted to do was to start off the weekend making an example of myself. As I eyed the table saw and, being the eternal pessimist, thinking of all the things that could go wrong, I turned around to the bandsaw. Figuring that ripping the slats using the bandsaw would greatly reduce my chances of injury, I set up the fence to rip my slats 7/16" wide...they were to be cut a bit wider then I needed so that I could plane them down to remove the saw marks.
So I get started...jointed and planed four 30" chunks of maple down to 1 3/8" and commenced the rippage. I was having a good ol' time, rippin' and jointin', when suddenly it dawned on me...I never checked to see what the actual thickness of the finished cut was...
Now, on to the first lesson...never believe the measuring rule on the fence. (My sincerest apologies to those who were waiting to hear about the self-amputation of a digit...no dice, still counting to ten). See, I'd never used the fence on the bandsaw for ripping anything, so I had no idea that it was off...about 1/8" off, to be exact. So instead of ending up with a bunch of slats 7/16" wide, I ended up with a bunch of slats a hair under 5/16" wide. And as the plans called for slats 3/8" wide after being cleaned up, I was left with a pile of kindling. I'm sure I'll find some use for them sooner or later, but nevertheless, I was rather, well, pissed and promptly called it a night. I had truly ruined enough wood for one day. Luckily, however, I didn't finish ripping all the too-skinny slats...only about half.
Headed back out this afternoon to resume the festivities. After last nights bandsaw debacle, I decided to make a test cut on the table saw, just to see if I could do it without launching said maple across the shop. The table saw actually did the job quite nicely, which brings me to the second thing I learned today...Forrest table saw blades are everything they are cracked up to be. I had what I thought was a fairly decent 40 tooth blade that worked pretty well on thin stock, but after trying to use it to mill the blanks for the legs of the crib, it quickly got put on the shelf. At first I thought that maybe my saw wasn't capable of dealing with stock that thick, especially hard maple. So I decided to try out the Woodworker II. Went through that wood like it was butter. And that blade (and the old saw, for that matter) earned its keep today as I was able to rip everything you see below...and yes, I'm still counting to ten. And I am quite happy to report that no wood was flung in the process.
Tomorrow, however, will most likely be a wood-ruining-free day...the Daytona 500 is tomorrow and all...
One last thing as a post-script...no, I have no affiliation with Forrest Blades or any of their resellers. I just think their blades kick ass.
(Yes, I know, two posts in one day!)
My brother and his wife are expecting a baby sometime early this summer. So, I thought a great gift for the little one (don't tell anyone, but I'm hoping for a boy!) would be a crib. I thought it would be a little more personal than something from Toys 'R Us or wherever.
I actually tried to start this project about a month or so ago with the acquisition of the plans and hardware for the crib. There was a slight mix up with zip codes and shipping and such, so I didn't receive the plans and hardware until last week. This week, the fun began...
As you can see here, there is a large quantity of hard maple waiting to be made into something useful. This is the stock from which I am building the crib...a whole bunch of 8/4 stock and some 4/4 stock. There is a piece of walnut in the pile somewhere which will be used for some accent pieces.
So anyways...I got started today milling up the legs for the crib. Nothing special right now, just four pieces of wood on the bench...but its a start. I was going to start cutting up the slats for the crib also, but thought better of it. That will give me something to do tomorrow.
I'm hoping to really get cranking with this project when the new saw arrives. My main problem right now is that my current saw isn't exactly pleased with the task of having to cut this 2" thick hard maple...it's doing it, but complaining quite a bit.
Thank God I have until May or so to get this done :)
Yes, I know it's just an electrical outlet. But its a lonely electrical outlet.
Why is it lonely, you ask? Well, last week at the Atlanta woodworking show, I broke down and bought...technically, paid for...a new table saw...not just any table saw, but a new Delta X5 Unisaw (insert Tim Allen grunting noise here). Only problem is, I don't have it yet. I was told when I paid for the saw that I would be able to pick it up the following week. The plan was to pick it up today and get it set up, but alas, the people I bought it from haven't received it yet. Needless to say, I'm bummin'...