The Cherokee called it "Valley of Death"...

... or at least so goes local legend. Apparently, when the Cherokee were around this area they got sick a lot. Mainly allergies and sinus problems. Speaking of sinus problems. I've had a mild sinus infection all weekend. So I didn't get to work in the garage. The cabinet is still ugly... I'll post pics soon. I have an idea for the door that may detract from the disgusting look of the legs.

Stained...

I finished staining the cabinet and legs this weekend. The cabinet looks pretty good. I hate the legs again. The legs came from a different tree than the cabinet and you can really tell. They look different. Not only that, they look distressed. I can see blemishes that I can't feel. I hate the legs. I took pics but am too disgusted to post them at the moment. Maybe later this week.

A good shellacing...

The cabinet & legs are drying in the sun at the moment. I did a light sanding of the first coat of shellac on the cabinet and applied the second coat. I put the first coat of shellac on the legs. Like I said, they're drying in the sun right now. I didn't bother with pics, cause that would be like watching shellac dry. The legs looked fine where they had gotten wet. We'll see how it goes when I put on the stain in the next week.

Oh yeah, I've gotten a few toys in the past 2 weeks. I need to take pics an post about them. Maybe later today.

Water damage...

Last week our washing machine leaked. No big deal, we had it fixed and now all is good. Little did I know, though, that the water had made it across the garage. All 4 cabinet legs wicked water. The legs had water marks between 3" & 5" high, the grain had raised and the legs were still damp in the center. I sanded the outside and it seemed to remove the water marks. I may end up having to amputate the legs at about 6" from the bottoma and make some feet. I got so disgusted this weekend I gave up and just hung out.

All day sand fest...

I spent most of the day sanding. By hand. I started around 8 am using 220 grit to put a mild round over on all the corners of the legs & apron. I cleaned up the glue squeeze-out as I went along. When I got the corners like I wanted I took a double-cut file and rounded over the tops of the legs. Then I sanded those too. Once the legs and apron were acceptable I started working on the stand-offs that attach the base to the cabinet. I ended up make three because I split one when drilling out the holes. I like the idea of having the base separated from the cabinet with the stand-offs. I don't think wifey cared for them too much, though. Maybe she'll change her mind when it's all finished.

Two observations:
1. Hand sanding detail is tedious and makes you sore.
2. The result of hand sanding detail is worth the time.


Oh yeah, and I don't absolutely hate the legs anymore.

Tapered the legs...

I got up early this morning to taper the legs. I wanted to have them kind of curve and taper, but they're a little to small for that. I ended up just going with a straight taper. I tried to make a simple table saw tapering jig, but that was going to turn out to be a bunch of work. So, I did a quick band-saw tuneup and cut the taper. The first cut didn't go as expected. At first I thought I had hit a really hard knot. Turns out the drill press was in the way. Mistake #221. After moving the drill press, the tapers went fairly quick.

Unfortunately, at this point I got pretty into what I was doing and forgot to take pics. Basically, I cleaned up the horrible bandsaw job I did to get the tapers. I used my No. 7 plane and got it down nice and flat, then I took my cabinet scraper and cleaned up the transition. They're by no means perfect, but they'll do.

Once I finished the cleanup, it was time for quick sanding and a glue up. Again, I was on a roll so the only picture of the entire leg & apron glue-up that I have is the one you see here.

While I was letting the glue dry I did a final sanding on the cabinet. I progressed from 100 up to 220 grit and put a 2lb cut of shellac on the cabinet, then set it outside to sun dry. Worked pretty well.

Here's the pic...

Here's a couple of pics of the legs. Notice that my mortises are so sloppy I had to use a band clamp to keep everything together. I'm still learning, though. I hate the legs. I don't know why. I'm hoping I'll like them more after I get the taper on them, but right now I just hate them.

Got the apron done...

I got the apron done today. Didn't have too much time in the garage this week. I'll post pics tomorrow maybe.

Legs...

In earlier posts you saw the legs were quite wide. At first I was
going to make them 1 3/4" x 2 1/2" x 36". Then I got to looking at them and that was just ugly. So, I decided to make them smaller & square. They're still 36" long but now they're 1 1/2" inches square. I spent most of the day making these legs. I was able to dimension them fairly quick. Then came time to make the apron. This is my first attempt at mortise and tenon joints. I'm actually quite proud of them. I did the first one entirely by hand with a small backsaw and some chisels. After the first I used the table-saw to cut the tenons, and the drill press to hog out material for the mortises. There's a pic in the list where you can see the comparison between the handcut tenon, on the left, and the tenon cut with the table saw.

I have a tenoning jig for my table-saw. Unfortunately, the cheek cut on the tenon was so small I couldn't use the jig. So I made the tenon the way I've seen Norm and David do it. I nibbled it away a little at a time. I always thought this would take forever, but it's actually very quick. Especially when the alternative is hand cutting the tenon.

Clamped up!

Glue-up first thing in the morning is awesome. I needed to get to work on the legs for this cabinet and gluing up the carcase was a good way to ease into the day. The clamps went on easy enough. I wish I had larger F-Style clamps, or smaller pipe clamps. 3/4" x3' pipe clamps are heavy. I used Titebond III for gluing up the carcase because I wanted a long open time. I thought I may need the extra time to get the carcase square.

Cabinet legs...

I got all of the leg blanks glued up for the cabinet too. In the first pic you can see 2 leg glue-ups after they were sanded. The second pic shows one leg that just came out of the clamps and the second one clamped up.

Lesson learned...

The stain job on the back of my cabinet didn't come out quite as well as I had hoped. It seems my sanding job was, well... it sucked. Notice all the scratches down the center line of the board? (The center line runs left to right). Apparently, in my haste I bore down on the ROS and gouged it the wood. So, now I'm making a "distressed" Krenov Cabinet.

Drying.

I made a drying table so the finish could cure. The fist pic is my drying table. In the second picture you can see the contrast between the stained poplar, on the left, and the natural shellac'd, on the right. The last pic is all of the pieces drying.

A lot done.

I hand sanded the last coat of shellac with 220 grit. Then I popped the top on a can of walnut gel stain. The staining process was a little easier than I thought it would be. It took a about 45 minutes to stain all the inside pieces.

Still cold....

too cold. In the low 40's so it's still too cold to do the staining. That's OK though, I started working on the legs for the cabinet. I sawed up some poplar and have one leg glued up. 2.5" x 1.25" x 36". I have another almost ready to glue up. Takes me a while to get lumber milled because I have to hand plane the faces. No pics, but soon.