Warped...

I finally made it down to the garage yesterday to work on the quilt rack.  Earlier in the week I found this beautiful piece of poplar, and yes I said poplar, at the local big box.  When I set it down on my workbench to start marking cut lines I discovered a problem.  The board is warped in two different directions.  If it were just bent, I could have worked with that.  It wasn't warped when I bought it, so I'm trying to determine why it's warped now.  Personally, I believe it's because of the heat in our house.  It's bee cold the last few days and the heat has been set to 76 degrees.  I believe there was more moisture in the air at the box store, and our central heat dried out the board and warped it.  That's just a theory.  I'm going to try to work the board anyway by cutting around the worst pieces of warp, and then planing down the rest.  I'll use this as a learning experience on how to work with what you have.

Next project...

Looks like it's going to be a quilt rack for my sister in law. Right now, I'm going to try and make it out of poplar, and stain it with pecan stain. If the poplar does not work, then I'll switch to maple. I'm using a plan I found on Lowes' website. I've attached a pic of my Sketchup model. I'm going to give wedge tenons a shot.

Weekend doings...

I spent Sunday sanding, quite literally. I started with 80 grit and worked up to 150 on the cabinet. Once I got it smooth enough, I put on a wash coat of Bullseye De-waxed shellac. I made up a 1lb cut using the unique and scientifically reliable method that The Wood Whisperer used in his latest finishing episode. Basically, I eye balled it. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up Bob Flexner's book "Understanding Wood Finishing: How to Select and Apply the Right Finish" and it has been a great resource. After reading most of the book, I realize all of the things I did wrong the first time I stained the cabinet. Wrong is not exactly right. I realize all of the things I did not do well. So, I got the cabinet & legs shellac'd this weekend. I've decided to use dye on the poplar instead of stain. There's 2 reasons for this. First, I want to learn how to use dyes. Second, I have some figured hard maple that I want to make the grain pop. From what I've read in Bob's book and seen on TWW, dye is the best way to do that.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Visit to the sawmill...

I went to the local sawyer this morning too. He hasn't been able to saw because it's been so cold lately. Water is used to cool the saw blade as it cuts, ans since it's been so cold the water freezes and the blade can't be cooled. Ironic isn't it? So, I still don't have my workbench legs, but I did pick up some very nice poplar for the legs of the cabinet.

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.

Forcast looks good...

So far, the forecast for this weekend looks good for woodworking. The highs are supposed to be in the mid 50s. I hope I'll finally be able to get the stain on the inside pieces of the cabinet. If not, I can at least work on the legs and base some more. I may have to go to the local lumber guy and pick up some clear poplar for the legs. I have about 30 bdft, but it's knotted pretty good and I would like clear legs at least.

Not only that, I can check on the legs for my workbench. He never called to tell me the walnut was done. Maybe he just hasn't gotten to it yet, but we'll see tomorrow.

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.

Finishing the cabinet...

I'm getting close to assembly for the cabinet, so it is time to start planning the finish. I know since the cabinet is poplar I want a dark finish to hide the green hues. I decided to finish the inside of the cabinet before assembly. I read an article in Fine Woodworking (membership required) about seal coating particular woods so they wouldn't blotch. Woods like, pine, poplar and cherry are notorious for blotching when stained. So, I used a 2lb cut of Zinsser Seal Coat (de-waxed shellac) for the inside of the cabinet. I got the first coat on, and it is ready for a light sanding before the second coat.

I also seal coated a piece of scrap poplar for testing stains. I applied 2 coats of the seal coat, with a light sanding after each coat. I then applied 3 different stains in 3 different sections of the board. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died. When I get batteries I'll post the test piece and let you know which one I chose.

Started the Krenov cabinet...

I finally felt industrious enough to start the Krenov cabinet.



I decided to use poplar since I had gotten 1/2" stock. The only power tool I have used so far is the table saw.

I used it to cut the boards to final dimension. I joined the boards by hand using my #7.








After joining the edges I face planed the boards. Apparently, I finally got my plane tuned up right. I was able to make some almost transparent shavings.


















I glued up a 3/4" piece for the top of the cabinet. I plan on having a gradual ra We'll see how that goes. While my panel was gluing, I cut the dovetails in the topWhen I finished dimensioning all of the stock, Idius. of the sides. They didn't turn out as good as I wanted, but oh well. By the time I had the talis cut and cleaned up it the panel was ready to come out of the clamps. I decided to go with half blind dovetails for the top. I started cutting them and got one side done before stopping for the day. You can see in one pic on the top where I had a knot blow-out while chiseling. I knew the knot was there but I took a chance and failed miserably. Hopefully, if I can get up early enough tomorrow I can cut the other side of the half-blind and do a test
fit of top & sides.

Some lumber...

I've been wanting to make a Krenov style cabinet. Nothing big. The thing is all of my current poplar lumber was 3/4" S4S. That's a little thick for a Krenov cabinet. And, I still haven't finished repairing the flat spots on my bandsaw tires. So, no re-saw capability, not that a 10" bandsaw has resaw capability. I made a trip out to the lumber yard and found some 1/2" S4S poplar boards that are 9" wide. I bought two of them and brought them home in the Ridgeline. Now, all I have to do is get to work!