Okay, I'm not done with the linen closet but perhaps an update will help me along.
The space I'm working with is the little opening right behind the white on the right side. It used to be the chase for the chimney for the boiler. We took out the chimney and ran the intake and exhaust for the hot water heater in the space. I figured I'd finish it out so I sheet rocked it and then left it.
I started out thinking the best way to do finish it was to make a box that would slide in and that way I could drill the sides for adjustable shelves. I did that and, big surprise, it wouldn't slide in. Framing just isn't square and trying to make something fit inside something that isn't square is an exercise in futility.
That was week one. Down the drain.
Next up I decided to be smarter and make some measuring sticks and just build in the sides. I used some left over track and fittings in my "hold down/track/fixture" drawer.
This got me two sides that were not square to match the sides that weren't square. I figured if I could get two sides that would fit I could reference them off the bottom and then drill the holes with the LR32 system for the shelves and then just fit a bottom and top.
I used the track and the LR32 cradle to route my dados for the back as well. Around this time I realized that the single light (a high hat in the ceiling) wouldn't light up the close save for the very top shelf. This was annoying and I've had closets like this before and it always strikes me as a sloppy "whatever" solution.
This is where the closet took a dark turn and became a two week affair. The solution was to not use the high hat but instead use lighting that put light into each shelf. I could use LED's on each shelf bottom but then they would never be adjustable... really. I needed light on both sides but that would also allow shelves to be slid in and out.
I researched the hell out of LED strip lights (and I'm still learning) and bought a reel (which in the LED world is 5m long) then decided to route out a dado for them. Of course the LED's aren't really attractive so I wanted to make them more slick. At this point I'm considering the closet a test bed for the LED's that I want to put elsewhere in the house so I'm trying to do a good job.
I source a 10.3mm router bit and cut a channel to fit the LED and a slice of 1/8" milk white (translucent) plexi.
I tested the idea with a piece of scrap and it seemed like the way to go.
I soldered up one of the strips.
One of the things I learned from my time the high end audio world was soldering. One of our tricks was to use 5minute epoxy to cover the leads after testing them and then, when the epoxy was still liquid, to slide over the jack barrel or cover so that the epoxy provided stress relief. In this case I used a little hot glue on the wires and while it was curing slid over some shrink wrap and heated it up. This will keep the wires from stress breaking.
Cut it to length (all LED's can be cut at every third LED - as you can tell from the picture).
And then test fit the two strips into the dado's that I cut.
It's here I wished for a table saw. The router made a pretty decent channel but the track saw wasn't the best way to cut the plexi strips. There was enough variation between them (less than .5mm) that a perfect press fit wasn't happening so I set up the router table to skim them strips where needed.
After a lot of fussing I finally got the plexi strips cut and fit as a press fit over the LED's. There's no clearance but the LED's aren't very hot but I guess this is my test of concept. I have the sides in but need to now conceal the power supply and fit a switch so they only turn on when the door is open. Rain this past week has prevented me for getting the parts finished.
So that's where I'm at.
In other news I have found myself at the steel yards a lot this past week and bought myself a pizza "stone" as we have started back up our tradition of making homemade pizza. If you haven't tried making your own pizza I encourage you to do it. It's so easy to do that it's a crime to buy pizza. For the cost of one large pizza you can buy pretty much all you need. My research on "stones" led me here where I got the idea for scrap steel. For $10 I got a piece of 1/2" 12" square steel.
The recipe that we use is from the pizza place Roberta's that's a few blocks from my studio in Brooklyn and a place we go to frequently. It's very easy, takes very little time and yields the best pizza I've ever had. Do it!
Lastly, it's been another year and my boy's birthday is tomorrow. I wanted to make it a tradition to make him a tool and last year I made him a very small hammer so this year he's getting a slightly larger one:
Each year I can see my machining improve with the things I make and this year the hammer is much nicer than the one last year. J suggested that I make him a tool box for the hand made tools and that's a great idea but it's for down the road.
Hopefully I'll finish the closet this week and post up some photos but at least I got this post out.
Gregor
The space I'm working with is the little opening right behind the white on the right side. It used to be the chase for the chimney for the boiler. We took out the chimney and ran the intake and exhaust for the hot water heater in the space. I figured I'd finish it out so I sheet rocked it and then left it.
I started out thinking the best way to do finish it was to make a box that would slide in and that way I could drill the sides for adjustable shelves. I did that and, big surprise, it wouldn't slide in. Framing just isn't square and trying to make something fit inside something that isn't square is an exercise in futility.
That was week one. Down the drain.
Next up I decided to be smarter and make some measuring sticks and just build in the sides. I used some left over track and fittings in my "hold down/track/fixture" drawer.
This got me two sides that were not square to match the sides that weren't square. I figured if I could get two sides that would fit I could reference them off the bottom and then drill the holes with the LR32 system for the shelves and then just fit a bottom and top.
I used the track and the LR32 cradle to route my dados for the back as well. Around this time I realized that the single light (a high hat in the ceiling) wouldn't light up the close save for the very top shelf. This was annoying and I've had closets like this before and it always strikes me as a sloppy "whatever" solution.
This is where the closet took a dark turn and became a two week affair. The solution was to not use the high hat but instead use lighting that put light into each shelf. I could use LED's on each shelf bottom but then they would never be adjustable... really. I needed light on both sides but that would also allow shelves to be slid in and out.
I researched the hell out of LED strip lights (and I'm still learning) and bought a reel (which in the LED world is 5m long) then decided to route out a dado for them. Of course the LED's aren't really attractive so I wanted to make them more slick. At this point I'm considering the closet a test bed for the LED's that I want to put elsewhere in the house so I'm trying to do a good job.
I source a 10.3mm router bit and cut a channel to fit the LED and a slice of 1/8" milk white (translucent) plexi.
I tested the idea with a piece of scrap and it seemed like the way to go.
I soldered up one of the strips.
One of the things I learned from my time the high end audio world was soldering. One of our tricks was to use 5minute epoxy to cover the leads after testing them and then, when the epoxy was still liquid, to slide over the jack barrel or cover so that the epoxy provided stress relief. In this case I used a little hot glue on the wires and while it was curing slid over some shrink wrap and heated it up. This will keep the wires from stress breaking.
Cut it to length (all LED's can be cut at every third LED - as you can tell from the picture).
And then test fit the two strips into the dado's that I cut.
It's here I wished for a table saw. The router made a pretty decent channel but the track saw wasn't the best way to cut the plexi strips. There was enough variation between them (less than .5mm) that a perfect press fit wasn't happening so I set up the router table to skim them strips where needed.
After a lot of fussing I finally got the plexi strips cut and fit as a press fit over the LED's. There's no clearance but the LED's aren't very hot but I guess this is my test of concept. I have the sides in but need to now conceal the power supply and fit a switch so they only turn on when the door is open. Rain this past week has prevented me for getting the parts finished.
So that's where I'm at.
________________________________________________________
In other news I have found myself at the steel yards a lot this past week and bought myself a pizza "stone" as we have started back up our tradition of making homemade pizza. If you haven't tried making your own pizza I encourage you to do it. It's so easy to do that it's a crime to buy pizza. For the cost of one large pizza you can buy pretty much all you need. My research on "stones" led me here where I got the idea for scrap steel. For $10 I got a piece of 1/2" 12" square steel.
The recipe that we use is from the pizza place Roberta's that's a few blocks from my studio in Brooklyn and a place we go to frequently. It's very easy, takes very little time and yields the best pizza I've ever had. Do it!
_________________________________________________________
Lastly, it's been another year and my boy's birthday is tomorrow. I wanted to make it a tradition to make him a tool and last year I made him a very small hammer so this year he's getting a slightly larger one:
Each year I can see my machining improve with the things I make and this year the hammer is much nicer than the one last year. J suggested that I make him a tool box for the hand made tools and that's a great idea but it's for down the road.
Hopefully I'll finish the closet this week and post up some photos but at least I got this post out.
Gregor
