Bottle Holder is Finished

Last night I Got the Hickory bottle holder done. After the last 2 coats of shellac had plenty of time to cure/dry I gave it a light sanding with some 400 grit sand paper and then applied a coat of finishing wax. I will try to get some pictures in better lighting.

Here you can see there is nothing holding it up, it's balanced.

 This was a fun project, I think its neat that this came from a tree I cut down.

 I recently picked up an insert plate to build a router table.  I plan on getting started building the router table top once i get done rearranging my shop.  I bought a large shelving unit and I am  rearranging  everything else to make it fit.

Bottle holder progress

I mentioned in the previous post that I had applied 2 coats of linseed oil to the hickory bottle holder, Last night I applied 3 coats of shellac.  Here is the after photo.

 This photo shows the color the linseed oil brought out in the hickory. Both of these pieces have shellac on them.

 Next the bottle holder will be sanded lightly with 320 grit and then I will apply 2 more coats of shellac.

While waiting between coats of shellac I worked on the marking gauge I am building. With a little more work I was able to get the beam to slide through the fence.  I decided to try tapping threads into the fence to lock the beam in place.  This worked out quiet well, I just need to get a brass bolt to replace the plain bolt I had on hand.

 Next I worked on getting the knife ready.  Its is a xacto knife blade that I filled and sanded some.  I need to figure out the best way to cut a hole in the beam that will allow the knife to be inserted and wedged into place.

#50 Spring has Sprung

This is my 50th post to this blog.  The last few months the Number of views has grow greatly.  I am amazed with the number of views, in less than a year there have been more than 2100 views.  Thanks to everyone who has visited.  I am enjoying sharing what I have been working on.

Spring official started on Tuesday, but we've been enjoying spring type weather for a little while now.  Trees and flowers are in full bloom, and the grass (weeds) is growing like crazy. I finished mowing the yard for the first time this year yesterday.  I plan on starting to apply shellac to the bottle holder tonight. Over the weekend I applied 2 coats of boiled linseed oil which gave the hickory a warm glow.

Pallets and a gift

I am going to try and build a cabinet for the back porch to hold my cast iron cookware and other grill related goodies.  I am going to try and used as much recycled/reclaimed lumber as possible.  Which means pallets need to be broken down to "harvest" lumber from them. I got one pallet taken a part and after cracking half the boards and wasting a lot of time I have decided to cut apart the rest of the pallets and not try to pull them apart.

I also spent a little time working on a birthday present for a friend. I had a chunk of hickory I milled out of a piece of firewood. My friend's kitchen is built from hickory so I decided to make a wine bottle holder.  It's a simple project.  I still need to sand it a little more and then apply some finish, but here is how it looks now.