Okay, it's been too long since I've done a proper update. Mostly because work, travel and a sequentially sick family have all combined to kick my *** and keep me out of the shop save a few hours here or there.
But I'm clawing my way back to productivity.
When I was in NYC I ordered 3mm solid walnut edge band since I wanted to split the difference between walnut veneer edge band and the hand cut walnut that I was using on the bathroom cabinet. In the mean time I prepped some walnut for the cabinet doors. I wanted to make sure I matched the doors so I looked for the veneer joint.
Then I cut straight down the middle and measured from there to the outsides so that would be the middle where the two doors meet.
That Woodpecker square has been a great help in keeping things square. Anyway, once the doors were cut allowing for the 3mm edge that I'd planned I couldn't stain or drill the holes for the cup hinges until that showed up.
So with that on hold I used a few spare hours between obligations to try to organize the shop. With storage not finished many things lack homes and so they litter every flat surface which makes me nuts. It might seem impossible but my studios were always spotless, white and empty. I like that. While I don't want a shop like that I do want a "place for everything and everything in it's place". So I started making places.
First was the right side of the miter saw where I hung my dovetail jig and the Festool MFS 700 jig.
The the left side are the wings to the Kapex stand which also work as out feeds for the MFT table and the Parallel Guides and a speed square just for the heck of it. These are things that don't get used all that often and are awkward so this works well.
Making all the little holders was a bit of a pain and using the jigsaw to make small fine cuts was a pain. Whenever I run into a problem like that I immediately think of what tool would be perfect and in this case it would be a band saw. I've needed one for ages and coming up against a problem like this gets me looking in Craigs List. Well, this time the stars aligned in the form of a small bandsaw that seemed perfect for me.
No, not the baby blue metrosexual color - that's just a bonus. No, it's this little baby.
A planetary gearbox. That is what sold me. Wood needs a fast speed and metal needs a really slow speed and I found
this video online and saw how much the gearbox slowed the blade and I was sold. It's going to need a little bit of work here and there but it works as is and was a steal. And I'll be painting it gray of course.
Then the edge banding came in.
Umm, yeah, that's a heck of a roll of edge banding. So I decided to try it out by banding a scrap of walnut ply.
I glued it, then pinned it with the 23ga pin gun and then used tape to try to hold it down. It's a ***** on a few levels.
This taught me that glue, pins and tape aren't going to be the answer so I'm going to try Fastcap Speed Tape as I think that may be the perfect solution but I don't have any yet.
Okay, onto another project - the kitchen drawers.
In hindsight it would have been smart to make at least a few of the drawers the same size. Hindsight is 20/20 and so I have one drawer that's 838mm long and another that's 840mm - that can only be described as stupid. It's actually not that much extra work but still it seems like bad form.
While I've been doing very well on my measurements I screwed the pooch (seriously, where'd that expression come from?) on the back panel of the drawers.
But!
But I did it with
extreme consistency.
Every single back panel is exactly 1.5mm too wide...
While I was lamenting the thought of having to set up the parallel guides again to skim such a small amount I realized that my router table had a jointing feature.
Oh, Festool, how I love your fastidious features.
Yeah, baby. That's downright bang on the money. Nice.
So now I'm going to glue them up but I want to make some more squaring clamps or cut the bottoms and then use the bottoms to keep them square - not sure yet. Right now I've got to sand them all and joint the back panels.
Then I took on an important commission - my daughter kept stealing Judiaann's rings.
Daddy to the rescue! Some scrap aluminum, a 13mm drill bit, a few decorative cuts and a quick polish and my daughter got her very first ring. She loves it.
Okay, that's all I have for an update. Thanks for watching!
Gregor