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.

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.

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.

Tractor Supply & Jet?

I had to make an emergency run to the local Tractor Supply yesterday evening to pick up 6 bags of oats (this is a story for a different blog). While walking back to the feed I noticed the word "Jet" out of the corner of my eye. It seems that our local Tractor Supply Company sells Jet & Wilton power tools. Tractor Supply had a few drill presses, a couple of horizontal bandsaws and a vertical bandsaw. I did some research on Tractor Supply's website but they do not list Jet or Wilton. So it must be a regional thing. I searched Jet's website and Wilton's, which by the way Jet and Wilton are owned by the WHM group, and they both list my local Tractor Supply as dealers. How do the prices compare? They're about the same. But if your in the market for a new tool and want to see it, maybe a trip to your local Tractor Supply would pay off.

Oh yeah, and from my research, Wilton is to Jet like Plymouth is to Chrysler.