Oh, It's You...How Have You Been?

Surprisingly busy actually.Let's backtrack from where we left off and move forward to where I finished up today.

Last I posted, I had just figured out what to do with the upside down center divider: shims.I cut them out of scrap oak that I had from the project...problem solved, problem staying solved.

 I know that the two shelves on the right are lower, it just ended up that way. This single bookcase holds all of the books that were on the two old ones, plus a few.

After the bookcase was finished there was a short break. Next, I decided to re-organize the garage before I started building the cabinet for my router table top.

As you can see, there was a lot to re-organize. I think that I like the new layout a bit better. The only hitch is that the 240V outlet for the radial saw is on the opposing wall from where the saw is now. I think that I'll deal for the time being. 

I built the top for the router table almost two years ago and am just now getting around to building the rest of the thing. The idea was a cabinet with a compartment for the router that I can add dust collection to later and then a couple of drawers to hold the routers and accessories.

I cut two dadoes and a rabbet on each one of the sides of the case first (I had cut three of the case parts at the school a few weeks ago).

 I used the new router with the plunge base for starters. Second, I used an aluminum, clamp-on edge guide and a top bearing pattern bit. They worked all right, I suppose. I didn't like the pattern bit too particularly well with this set-up as it took some chunks out when I accidentally tipped the router a little.

The case ended up turning out all right all things considered. I put together a face frame with the Kreg Jig and attached it using the same method. It strengthened the case quite a bit.

Got the drawer slides installed, pilot holes drilled to attach the top. Got the top on and put it where it's going to reside when it's finished.

Not too shabby for a start. Tomorrow, drawers, faces and doors for the top. Oh, and the back too...

Crisis Averted

After laying on the floor in the office for a while after discovering my mistake and then sulking on the couch for a short while, I decided to call some people. First, my grandfather told me that filling in all the holes and then re-drilling was his solution. That sounded about the same to me as pulling everything apart. Dad then told me that I could likely figure things out and that he wasn't really sure but thought that the fiasco was kinda funny...this got me to go and sulk on the couch some more.

Finally, after a sufficient amount of sulking I had the brilliant idea that I could just make the shelf thicker on the end with the inverted shelf. It was decided that a 5/8" spacer on each shelf would do the trick.

The amount of sulking that took place did eat into my workable hours today. I did manage to get all of the shelves cut and the front and rear rails cut as well. Everything was sanded to 220 and I called it a night.

Backing up, the wife and I tried to get the bookcase into the office through the hall and it was simply too long. Fortunately, there is an outside door to the office. After carrying the bookcase outside and around the house it finally made it to its final residence in the office.

Big slips make for long days. The good news is that I should be able to have this one done tomorrow.

So I Need to Take a Class On Paying Attention

I was just in the office where the bookcase now resides measuring for shelves when I realized that I installed one of the center dividers upside down. Thinking time.

What a Day it Has Been

So about that top rail I replaced yesterday...I apparently like destroying them. I intentionally cut this one a bit too wide so that I could just flush trim it with the router once it was mounted. I didn't figure into this little equation the grain direction in relation to the router bit rotation. After a bit of kickback I had managed to split out a large section. After some choice words I had to run to the lumber yard for more stock.

Wasted minutes later I had the new one securely mounted to the frame as well as the case.

Previous to the top rail debacle, I had spent time sanding and oiling the back for the bookcase. This was only slightly more time consuming than I had planned and actually quite rewarding once I saw the veneer come to life under the oil finish.

During the process of attaching the trim on the sides to the case I ran into an issue with my compressor that I've just sort of dealt with until today. It's a really old, "on-demand" compressor from Sears that my Grandfather gave me a few years ago. It looks like it was purchased in the 1980's or possibly earlier. Anyway, from time to time it doesn't have the "oomph" to drive the brads or pins that I've been using for assembly. So I upgraded:

Twice the horsepower with an oil lubricated pump. This presents a bit more maintenance but the increase in pressure and decrease in decibel output is worth the titch of extra work.

The new compressor was able to attach the back to the case without any issue whatsoever. While attaching the back I was posed with the question of how to locate the center dividers through wood that I was unable to see through, even with my x-ray specs. I ended up using some rare earth magnets. Put one on each side of the thin back and I was able to slide both right next to the divider. This gave me a great picture of where the divider was and where I needed to put the brads.

After the back was attached, oil was applied to the non-nice veneer side and it was ready to move indoors.

I had really hoped to have this thing done today, but it just wasn't in the cards. The good news is that the shelves should go relatively quickly tomorrow so it should be in the office with books on it by tomorrow evening. I'm looking forward to having this one done!

Progress...Still

Today was productive. With the exception of putting two screws too far into the face frame and having to make a new piece for the entire top, things went well.

The new trim router and rabbeting bit were great for rabbeting out the back for  the rear panel. I used the Dremel Saw Max to cut the 4x8 sheet of 1/4" oak plywood to size. I was happy with the ease of use. Cut quality wasn't the best but it got the job done fairly efficiently so I won't complain too loudly.

Got the face frame attached with pocket screws and the additional supports for the bottom cut and installed as well.

I think that I could have been close to finishing today. Hitches were an interview I had to conduct for a coaching position at the school and we had guests come in for the evening during the interview. Phenomenal people, my wife's friends from college out from Pittsburgh.
Hit it hard again tomorrow and I might have this thing done before church on Sunday!

So Close...Still Working

Today was both more productive and less productive than I had imagined.

The replacement center divider ended up taking almost an hour to cut and drill. The up side to this is that I've been using some tips that I've read in woodworking magazines and they are working. One such tip is using painters tape over cuts in veneered plywood. The painters tape peels off easily after the cut and it also helps to keep the veneer from splintering out too much.

This was also the first time that I got to get a good look at the full size of this project. I'm always astounded by the size of many of the things that I build. I'm able to crunch the numbers in my head fairly easily, but the perspective is always amazing to me. The first glimpse I got of this was with the dry assembly after I finished the second center divider.

Dry assemblies like this are useful for several reasons. First, they allow the opportunity to check for squareness and find out where clamps will need to be placed. For this bookcase, it made me realize that I'd need to put some supports underneath the bookcase to keep it from bowing. It also gave me a feeling for how big the entire thing really is...huge. I think that this will be doing a far better job of holding all of the books that we have in the office.

After the dry assembly, it was time to sand. Before sanding, I decided to make a "finish test board."

I always threaten to make these, but rarely end up doing so because I know what I want already or am just being a titch lazy. Essentially what this is is a piece of scrap from the project I'm working on that's been finish sanded and then had several finishes applied. I ended up using pure Tung Oil (top right). It buffed out well and I'd only need to do a couple of coats to get it finished the way I wanted.

Next was sanding...lots of sanding. Then trying to apply tung oil with the kiddo running around at my feet.

After letting the oil cure for a few minutes, I added glue and assembled. I did end up using my two pneumatic nail guns to reinforce the dadoes. I used 18 gauge brads for the dadoes on the bottom and 22 gauge micro pins for the sides and top.

After cutting some of the solid oak trim and getting the miters close, I decided to call it a night. I brought in the remainder of the supplies from outside and wrote a to-do list for tomorrow to finish things off. Hefty but doable. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this thing in the morning so that it can be done by the time guests arrive - this seems to be how I'm coming to do things around here...

Lots Done/I Hate to Work Frustrated

Got into the shop this morning and set straight to work. I wrote myself a list of things to get done in order for the bookcase to begin with and then just started cutting parts. First the cut the top, then the ends. Rout dadoes into the bottoms of the ends for the bottom.

A video on how I "sneak up" on dadoes with an undersized bit is here.

Drill the pocket screw holes into the tops of the ends. Next measure and cut the bottom. After cutting the bottom I clamped it all together to check for size and square using some home made cabinet corner blocks.

Rout the dadoes into the top and bottom for the center dividers, then measure and cut the center dividers. Finally drill 360 holes into the center dividers and ends for shelf pins. This is when I found out that it was time to stop for the evening 360 holes earlier...

After I had finished drilling out the second center divider, I set it onto the "done" stack and noted that it was longer than the one I had drilled previously. After an expletive, I grabbed a tape measure and started measuring. Finding that I had not cut the second piece too long (what I was hoping for, simply fixed by cutting it shorter) but I had cut the first divider too short. 1" too short.

This "short"coming means that I'll have to cut another piece tomorrow morning and drill out holes for shelf pins before moving on. This eats up around fifteen minutes of work time that I had hoped to spend doing other things.

Despite the mistake, I'm fairly close to having the case completely cut out. Trim, shelves and finishing to go after that.

I'm just glad to have retained all of my fingers. Time for some Athletic Director work, then bed time.

Moving On/I Have a Problem/Catch-Up Projects

Hi, my name is Aaron, I have WWADD. (Hi, Aaron)

Let's back up a bit.

The bunk beds are finished. At least as finished as they are going to be until the lumber has completely dried out.

Kenny, Jenne and the kiddos said that they were fine to sleep on, so I'm not too worried about that project.

More recently, I took a bunch of stock into the school to make some rip cuts on the table saw. I can rip using the radial saw at the house, but it's about 1 degree out of square and I'm not really looking forward to figuring that one out. So anyway, the stock was ripped for the oak bookcase, a wall mounted cabinet for the garage/shop and the case for a router table that I want to build as well.

Got all of that loaded onto the trailer at the school and brought it home only to throw it into the garage for the night.

Today I woke up, took the kiddo to daycare, walked into the garage to work on the bookcase and built two drawers instead.

Now, in all fairness, the drawers go to a cabinet that I built for the garage months ago that was never finished. The drawers have reduced the cabinet top clutter. They have made it such that dust has a significantly harder time entering the cabinet.

The fact of the matter is, that I walked into the garage this morning with one intention, and ended up doing something completely different.

Since I built two drawers today, I may as well go into how that was done.

First off, the stock for the drawer sides and back was ripped months ago at the school so all I needed to do was measure the depth for the drawer and I'd be off to the races.

Now, I didn't make all of the measurements and go from there. I didn't draw up plans and work from them either. I did what cabinet makers and furniture makers used to do...measured and cut everything to fit as I went. This allows me to make something that's truly custom, and allows me to slack just a bit.

As I said, I cut the drawer sides first on the miter saw and then set up a router to cut rabbets on the ends.

I use the cheap, aluminum depth/height gauge from Sears for setting the height of my router bits. It was inexpensive and it's also fairly accurate. I went from there to setting up my edge guide and then "sneaking up" on the fit of the rabbets with a piece of scrap that was once part of the drawer sides.

Once these were done, I clamped them into the cabinet and measured for the fronts and backs.

From here I was able to cut the drawer fronts and backs, cut dadoes in the bottom edges of all of the pieces for the bottom, and then measure and cut the bottoms. I did a dry fit of all of the parts before putting them together with glue and nails, and I'm somewhat glad that I did as my measurements for the fronts and backs were off by about 1/16 of an inch. With all of the parts cut, I sanded up to 220.

Now for assembly:

I only add glue to the rabbets. This allows the panel for the bottom to shrink and expand with humidity changes within the dado. You will see the pneumatic nailer in the picture above as well. After I glue and clamp, I use the nailer for the final joint structure. It also allows me to take the clamps off of the work.

With this done, I set the drawers on the slides and attached the fronts. To attach the fronts, I put the drawer all the way in, set some shims on the top of the door below, and then carefully pulled out the whole drawer and then clamped the front to the box with a couple of f-clamps.

I opted to use my new Kreg Jig to attach the fronts to the boxes. The Kreg Jr. is the one in the photo, but I used the full size guy on a couple as well. Fairly pleased with the job that the Kreg Jid did.

Drawer fronts attached, I pulled the slides out with the drawers and attached them to the cases with screws and then attached hardware.

Final step was adding stuff to the drawers.

I did make a jig to cut the dadoes on the bookcase today however. So I've started.

Anyway, time for some sleep. The cabinet is almost done, I'll need to cut some trim for the edges, but other than that, I'm done with another project.

I think that I can have the bookcase finished by Friday. This works well as we have more company coming for the weekend!