Tuesday, July 22, 2014

intermission


now that the dining room is nearly complete
I'm left with an overwhelming sense of absence
I no longer have something to work on
inward I turn


my bench was the first thing I made
and it has been set up backward since the beginning
I'm not a lefty
but my bench is

my future father in law had given me a pair of steel bench screws
one of which just begged to become a leg vise


I made the chop from a length of 2x6 in the corner
and the guide from a bit of walnut that happened to be the right dimensions
it creaked like the smoothly polished floor of an old house
the bench moaned as it experienced new forces never before fathomed
but the chop kept tightening, but never enough
it flexed so much I feared for its future
the top eighth of an inch no longer touched the bench


this just wasn't going to work
so I pursued alternative materials
a nice chunk of maple
some much needed revisions to the design
a good crank on the screw
and

maple's hard...

holy crap!
cranked down tight a test piece in the jaws was immobile
but peering around the side I saw the leg of my bench deflecting nearly an inch!
now I feared for my own life
I slowly backed off the screw
and headed back to the lumber yard


basically the whole contraption is now self contained


bolted to the front of my bench


and only passing through the structural members


I fear the dawning realization that I have begun the ball rolling
this will amount to a new bench in the end
till then; everything I've built has been on this bench
and it's still not over $500 yet


there's still the matter of an end vise of some sort


Tuesday, July 8, 2014

fruition


seriously, what do I write about finishing

~*o*~ Oh! today I put the fifth coat of oil urethane :)
tomorrow I'll sand it at 400 till it's dull :P
then I'll alternate three hour stints of polyacrylic ;&
and 600 grit till I collapse from exhaustion ~*o*~

I've exhausted more Borg store packets of sand paper than I'd care to admit

I've encased


no
mummified this top


that was a few weeks ago
life happens in between


the table is done
so far
like the chairs
everything needs another coat
maybe someday I'll sand every surface of everything I've done and give it another coat


or not


my friend stopped by and together we moved the table to its
for now
final resting spot


the cats approve