Category: Projects

Everything that I set out to do has been done. I have put in 12-14 hour days over the last week to get there, but here we are.

I learned a lot and I got some good practice in. I had my ups and downs in terms of making mistakes and recovering.

• I learned that I couldn’t force my will on some boards with knots and checking because it was good work wasted with split boards as a finished product.
• I found that the pressure on tight rips through the tablesaw tended to cause the edge of a board to skew up and not end up with at straight edge (something I will have to solve in the future).
• I learned that not all cheap bandsaw blades are equal, I basically did all of the resawing using one blade even though I tried three different blades through the course of the project. One straight out of the box just didn’t cut. The first one spun off and hit the metal covers, I just threw that one out after that and didn’t try another cut.
• My jointer is not square. I think that the blades do not sit parallel to the outfeed table. Confession – I have never changed them and that is the way they were set when I bought the tool, used in 2005. But basically, the more passes you make on a wide board, the more it takes off of the outer edge and the shape becomes more of a rhombus. The fence is square to the table, so you have to rejoint the first edge after doing the face.
• On glue-up, I need to make sure each individual board is against the clamp face. I ended up with some wavy and curved panels because I was not paying enough attention when I did it.
• It is hard to ‘sand out’ unevenness. It takes a lot of work and the results are not as good as a good panel.
• Mistakes take a lot more time to correct than doing it correctly the first time. That is easier said than done, but knowing how to correct them is a long way toward a better end product. Doing a side profile drawing would have saved me making the broom cabinet incorrectly and having to build a cap (which I did twice 🙁 ).
• I have been loading my 18ga. brad nailer incorrectly since I owned it. The brads load to the front of the magazine, unlike the Porter-Cable which load to the back. This caused a lot of jams and general dissatisfaction with performance until I figured it out, this week.

By now, you have probably nodded off to sleep, so I will stop now. It just goes to show that I have a lot to learn. So, what is next? I have vehicle problems, I have a rental that needs rehab and Coronavirus mania is picking up. I have a follow up on my political story as well.

The end is near… probably not near enough to finish by the end of this week, but maybe if I work into the weekend then I will be done. I am hoping to have the final cabinet assembled tomorrow. I still have the face frame to build and paint as well as the final attachments and painting.

I am going back out to the shop to paint again. Talk to you tomorrow.

I thought that I would make a video how to make lumber from a rough sawn board. I did some experimentation this time by merging two video streams: one from the phone and one from a Go-Pro. I can say that I probably need a little more work on the Go-Pro side of things because it is hard to see what you are actually filming and the lens has quite a bit of curvature too.

As you can see from the volume of my posts, I am enjoying this project and this process. Hopefully tomorrow I will be installing the bandsaw blade guide upgrades and I will be in the business of wrapping this project up. Probably two weeks more of solid work.

I got the base cabinets in place last week. My first motivator was to get them out of my way, but I wanted to see how they fit.

The first thing my ‘customer’ said was that she wanted the cabinets white (along with asking some questions about some minor flaws). Now, I have spent quite a bit of time on the finish already and I was trying to match the other cabinets in the house at least in look. But, after some sharp disagreement from me… I will be painting them white tomorrow.

I don’t know if you can see the first major design mistake I made, but I am not going to disclose it now. I will talk about it when I get done, I think that I have figured out a solution.

I have almost all of the lumber milled up for the upper cabinets, but I ran into a serious snag today. The thrust bearing on the upper guide is seized up. So, to replace it, I ordered a Carter guide bearing setup. I am hoping for a significant improvement in performance. That will probably get a review this week after I get it installed.

Finally, I have some auto maintenance to do this week, which I will also talk about later this week.

I am not at home and giving this a shot. It appears that it is not too difficult using the phone browser.

Number three is in progress now.

My first cabinet is assembled. It is the most complicated one. Hopefully, the rest will go quicker. In fact today I did all of the millwork to go from rough lumber to panel glue up for the second cabinet. With any luck that one will be near completion tomorrow.

Here are five tips I have learned by building this first cabinet.

• Bandsaw setup for re-sawing is critical. This is an area that I have really struggled with. I have tried to get half inch boards from 1 1/4″ and ended up with firewood because the blade wandered so badly. Make sure the blade is tensioned and the guides are tight. I have also learned my saw better and know how much allowance I need to make a quality cut.
• Dust collection saves time and gives better results (usually). I have never really used dust collection preferring to cleanup the mess later. After hooking a shop vac to the tools, I believe that it improves precision (in re-sawing) and productivity.
• Mobile bases on tools in a small shop are worth the cost. I don’t have mobility on all of my tools and what I notice is that instead of moving machines to optimum positioning, I will suffer with less than desirable results rather than milling a new piece. That will be in the works for the next project
• Water-based polyurethane is a great product. It is a little pricey at $50/gallon but you save tremendously on clean-up and I can get six coats on in a day with a serious two hour dry time. I still prefer the warm look of an oil based product, but it is really hard to argue with the performance of a water-based.
• Pitch still runs after 15 years. When you hit a pitch pocket that hasn’t been exposed to air, it drips out and makes a mess of everything. I have some paint thinner on hand to wipe it off, but usually after it gets all over.

I am technically nearing the end of week two on this project and there are still lots of things to do, but I am enjoying the process. The next update will be after I hit another milestone.

A few days before Christmas, we had a problem. It was a big one. The supply line for the toilet had been leaking and it caused the ceiling in the pantry to collapse. Of course I had no idea that was going on and the kids said “oh yeah, the floor is always wet”. Days before Christmas we had a ruined pantry, a leak, a mess and to top it off we were leaving for two weeks.

Fortunately, we have a friend that has done some work for us before and we were able to get him to work on the repairs while we were gone. After fixing all of the damage I started looking at the empty pantry and thought, this would be the time to make some changes if I wanted.

I talked to my wife about the situation and she was game. So I started thinking about what I wanted to change. I didn’t like how full it was or all of the clutter, brooms and mops blocked the dryer door when carelessly stowed. I wanted to add a wine cooler (mini fridge for now). The bank of drawers were largely useless. The shelves were added as an afterthought and were at risk of tipping over or collapsing when pressure applied.

At first, I wanted to do this the tyical way. I was going to use prefinished plywood and build cabinets quickly. But, my wife didn’t want the expense so we compromised on this idea that I had always had. Back when we moved into this house, there was a Douglas Fir that we had removed. I hired a portable mill to cut the lumber and it has been dried and stacked, waiting to build a project that belonged to this home. So, that is what I am going to do.

It wont be the fastest way to get this done, but in the end, I think the story will be worth it. Stay tuned for updates, I estimate this will take six weeks or so to complete.