OOTO...

... so wifey and I were out of town this weekend. We ended up in Franklin, TN. While she worked, I got to visit Woodcraft. I love that store. There are two within 2 hours of our house. So it's not easy for me to get to go. I spent about an hour and a half in there just looking and talking to folks. I did buy some toys tools. I only picked up a couple of small things, but I'll list them out.

1. 12" steel rule
2. Veritas Scraper Burnisher (can't wait to try & review this)
3. Magswitch Pro featherboard (another item for review)
4. General Finishes Mahogany Stain (oil based)

Yeah, that does it.

P.S. OOTO, just in case you're not familiar with it, is an abbreviation for Out Of The Office. A commonly used term around these parts.

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.

Retro project...

Here's another one from the way back machine. This is, pretty much, my first true woodworking project. I needed a place to hang up my guitars. They're not the finest instruments in the world, but I still take care of them. The boards are cherry, that Dad picked up from a co-worker. I sanded them smooth and used a router to round over the edges. Then I made the noobie woodworker mistake and tried to stain the cherry. Not only that, I stained it with "American Cherry" colored stain. Hey that was over a year ago, I wouldn't do that now. You can see in some of the pictures the classic "blotchy" stained cherry. From a distance though it still looks good. And yes, that's wood "stickered" on the guitar hangers. It seemed like as good a place as any. I used wood screws to attach the boards to the wall. Those boards are going nowhere. Then I attached the Herculese guitar hangers to the cherry. At least I was smart enough to drill pilot holes as not to split the cherry.

 
 
 
 

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.