Project Updates

I've been getting a fair amount of shop time in, but haven't felt like I have much to write about. I think its because I simply doing things I've already written about.

I am working on the larger section of bowling alley counter top. I have it colored and have started to poly it. his peice gets a hole cut for the sink. I cut the hole for the sink this week and still need to some trimming to make the sink fit right. Cutting a big hole like that into something I've spent so much time on really rattled my nerves, but it is done now. Once the sink fits the counter will get 3 or 4 more coats of poly.

The top after the first coat of poly

That is a big hole

The sink is really dirty from being stored outside. It is a old cast iron sink.

I've turned a few pens lately and tried some new style.

This bolt action 30 caliber bullet pen is my new favorite

A purple heart pen I made for my wife (no stain or dye used, that is the color of the wood)

Another bolt action pen in gun metal

My wife bought a dresser with plans of me refinishing it for her. I started by stripping the old finish off, and then sanding it back to bare wood. So far I've applied two coats of Dark walnut Danish oil. I am going try and darken it with some gel stain before finishing it with shellac.

Here is the before picture

After removing the old finishes and sanding

After two coats of dark walnut danish oil

I would like to wrap up the dresser and the counter tops this weekend so I can move onto some new projects.

Completed Knife block

Over the weekend I applied 3 coats of garnet shellac to the knife block and then a coat of wax. Once the shellac and wax were dry I began cutting the skewers, I bundled 100 skewers together at a time and cut them with a hand saw. I am very happy with the way the knife block turned out. Here are a few more pictures.

Cross Cut Sled and knife block update

Over the weekend I had a chance to finish building a cross cut sled to use with my table saw. I My last post I mentioned that I had the base cut and had laminated the fences. The first thing I did was true up the edges of the fences, and cut them to length.  I cut them 2" narrower than the base.  I used some oak strips as runners for the sled.  The runners slide in the miter slots on the saw top. After attaching the front fence and the runners to the base I cut through the base most the way to the back fence.  I then used a large square to square the fence to the saw kerf. After the initial squaring I used a 5 cut method to test the accuracy of the sled. I had to do the test twice, but I was able to get the fence dialed in. I also built a blade guard to keep the blade covered as it comes out the back fence.

I wanted to build the cross cut sled before I tried to cut the finger joints on the knife block, in the pictures above I had already used the sled to work on the knife block. I got the joints cut with the table saw and then cleaned them up by hand with chisels. Every wood worker knows you can't have to many clamps, and I need more.

I have already glued a bottom in place and sanded all the surfaces. Next it will get a coat or two of boiled linseed oil and then 3 coats of shellac.

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.

Experience and Mistakes

Back when I put together the first rocking horse which I called a prototype because it was not going to be once of the horse I was going to give as a gift.  That was because some tear out in the counter bores, I knew just plugging the screw holes wouldn't take care of the problem.  At that time the plan was to fill the holes and paint the rocking horse.Then I got the idea to distress the painted finished, but I didnt want light colored pine showing through the paint.  That meant the first step was to stain the parts. 

 After staining the parts I applied a coat of shellac to seal in the stain and to help keep from sanding through the stain while distressing the paint. But I couldn't bring myself to paint it.  I am sucker for wood and even this pine looks to good to paint in my eyes. That meant I had to do something with the torn out counter bores.  I went ahead and applied 2 more coats of shellac. I then used stain-able wood filler to fill the screw holes and once dry I carefully sanded the filler flush.

 I had experimented on a scrap of wood and found that since the wood had several coats of shellac on it that it was easy to apply stain to the wood filler with out changing the color of the wood around it.

 Here you can see how the filler took the stain.

 I painted all the saddle pieces with some paint we had on hand. The shellac, which had been sanded with 320 was a very good base for a nice smooth coat of paint.

 After the stain had a chance to dry I applies 2 more coats of shellac to the entire project.

 Here is the finished rocking horse.

While using the wood filler may not have been the preferred way I think it came out pretty good. Something I was thinking while I was working on this was how experience doesn't mean not making mistakes, but knowing how to hide them.

Get woodworking: Shellac, this beginners favorite finish.

It is "Get Woodworking Week" which was created by Tom from Tom's Workbench to promote wood working, and to encourage people interested in wood working to give it a try and  "Get Woodworking."

While I am not an experienced wood worker, I have done some, and have already learned a lot. In the past my projects were either left unfinished or were painted, but then I found shellac. Shellac can be brushed on, sprayed, or wiped on. It is also available in aerosol cans. Shellac dries quickly and cleans up easily with denatured alcohol.  Typically only 1 hour is needed between coats.

I have used shellac on all the rocking horses I have built. On the rocking horses my finish schedule has been to sand to 180 grit, apply stain, then apply at least 4 coats of shellac. Sanding with 320 between coats. I have been very happy with how the finish has turned out. 

So don't let finishing hold you back, give shellac a try and Get Woodworking!