An excellent, US-made alternative is Apple Ply. No, it's not made with apple tree wood. Originally, it was alder layers with various exterior appearance options (oak, birch, maple etc).
http://www.appleply.com/
States Industries use to make it in Eugene but that was years ago.
I forgot about appleply - I shouldn't, as a photographer we use "
apple boxes" all the time in the studio. They're just simple boxes that you use to stack props and it wasn't until I found apple ply in the plywood section that I put two and two together to realize they're named after the type of wood they're made of.
Closet progress report:
I'm beginning to wonder if it wouldn't have been easier to just build them from scratch. Sure it would have taken much longer but...
That's the pile of chips you get when you plane 1/2" maple boards down to 8mm. I chose maple because it came in 1/2" already and I wasn't about to plane 3/4 to 8mm and because I figured it's hardness would work well and the color would also match.
Test fitting a scrap shows that the dimension is correct and from there I rip widths to cover all the faces.
To fully build in the closet I rip 2x boards to fit the sides and then screw them into the studs and use cabinet screws through the closet to screw into the 2x to further reinforce the assembly.
As a small detail, and because I just like my chamfer bit, I give all the maple facing a small chamfer before glueing and nailing the trim into place. Now the closet is fully faced and the next step, and probably the most difficult and important, is to cut the plywood for the doors and drill them to accept the euro cups. I'm positioning the hinges at the same measurements from top and bottom so that the doors will be symmetrical and the drilling simplified.
---------- And now a machine tool intermission ----------
Restoring the notcher went well and the stand for it had room for another tool on the back side but I wasn't sure what that would be. I bought a Greenerd No.2 press ages ago for $20 and always considered it a stop gap until I could get a No.3 which I considered more useful. Perhaps because I only paid $20 I never took it seriously but over the years it's proven to be very useful for small jobs so I figured I'd show it some love and give it a home.
It, like most old tools, had been repainted numerous times and was cream colored - another reason I didn't care for it. Tools are gray in my world. Just are.
While working on the drawers for the closet I painted it with stripper and kept scraping off the old layers.
The last coat of old paint came off with the pressure washer and as soon as it dried I gave it a coat of Rustoleum primer. The casting it rough and very well suited to the heavy leveling of a brush applied enamel.
My daughter was home sick for a few days and very much wanted to help daddy in the shop. I bought her some small gloves and
turned her loose. She's pretty good about "staying in the lines" and this isn't exactly a very detailed job.
From there I took the moving parts and chucked them up in the lathe and used some scotchbrite to remove the rust patina and then replaced the old washers with some custom turned spacers of stainless.
Since I can only find Rustoleum in smoke gray I mixed it 50/50 with white to get a lighter gray. That will be my default color mix from now on as I like two different grays on machines. I think because I have a few Rockwells and they traditionally use a light and dark gray and I like the way that it separates the parts.
Fixing up the tools in the shop is like taking baby steps toward the idea of a "completed" shop. When I first found this site it was through
Jacks garage and then I found
Andy's meticulous and minimal garage. More amazing to me than their attention detail is that they achieved something that seems inconceivable (you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means) and that is that they
finished. They finished their garages and all that was left for them to do is to enjoy and work in them.
Some day, some very distant day, that might be me. For now I'm taking small steps, eating the elephant one bite at a time.
Gregor
