2018 Summary

2018 was a busy year and as I was reflecting back I realized I hadn't posted any project updates this year. While I didn't complete any major furniture projects this year I did check off a number of smaller projects.

In January Lon, Mark, and I had a "shop weekend" as a Christmas gift from our wives and I started off the year learning to use the new lathe by roughing out a number of bowl blanks. once roughed out I stuffed the blanks along with a bunch of the wet shavings into paper grocery bags to help them dry slowly and evenly. Throughout the year I continued to rough out blanks as I came across log sections and stash them away to dry. By the end of the year I had roughly a dozen rough turned bowls that survived the drying process along with a few casualties. One lesson learned was likely leaving the blanks in the bags with the wet shavings too long as many of them started to mold so I started removing the wet shavings after a few weeks and then removing the blanks from the bags altogether after another few weeks to let them finish drying stacked on the shelf.

Laura asked for some help turning some scavenged cabinet door frames into wall mounted succulent planters. The planters turned out ok but the live succulents didn't fair as well so at some point they were swapped out with faux plants that are doing much better.

In April I swapped out my 2005 F150 for a 2018 model and so far I've been really impressed with the 2.7l EcoBoost. Hopefully this one is as reliable as the old lariat and with the aluminum body I shouldn't have to worry as much about the body rust that ultimately drove this upgrade.

At the beginning of the year I had set a goal to get Alexis into the shop to work on a project together so we found a really nice section of crotch walnut and made a cheese slicer. I didn't get any pictures of the process but this was one of my favorite projects.

One of the biggest projects of the year was planting roughly 200+ tree seedlings in a half acre section of the side yard now formally known as the forest. I ordered the trees through both Outagamie and Waupaca county tree programs (25 white pine, 25 white spruce, 25 red oak, 25 swamp white oak, 25 hickory, 25 black cherry, and 50 hybrid poplar) and also transplanted about 5-10 small silver maple, red maple, and walnut seedlings we found in the flowerbeds and neighboring woods. I planned out a trail around the perimeter and cutting through the middle under the big silver maple and used roundup to kill a 3ft section of grass for each seedling.

Supposedly the trees are delivered before the last weekend in April every year like clockwork but this year blizzard Evelyn dumped almost two feet of snow in mid-April which complicated things for the nurseries and pushed tree planting into early May. This wasn't a huge problem but it did mean the seedlings missed 3 weeks of heavy spring rains that should have helped them get established so I ended up spending quite a bit of time watering the baby trees during some of the hot dry weather that came early in the summer. We lost a few trees but 90% seemed to have survived the first year and the hybrid poplars were absolutely amazing with a few of them growing 7+ feet this first year. I'm looking forward to reflecting back on this picture in 10-15 years when trees should all be decently sized and this view will look dramatically different.

After seeing how much the boys enjoyed playing in the dirt of the flowerbeds we finally broke down and built a sandbox between the house and the workshop.

With Miles finally sleeping through the night consistently it was time for him to move in with Eli and free up the extra bedroom for an office. I had planned on building a new set of bunk beds but Alexis was also looking to trade her loft bed for a "normal bed" so we moved that into the boys room and added the bottom bunk for Miles. So far the boys are really enjoying being roommates.

Another upgrade to the boys room was a rack/garage for the growing collection of monster trucks. The frame is rabbeted and joined with pocket hole screws with a plywood back and the whole assembly is sized just right to hold the pattern of 3" and 4" PVC sections.

In June we added a Golden Retriever/Lab mix named Cosmo to the family and as he and Sofie teamed up the explore the neighborhood much more frequently we decided it was time to install an invisible fence. In order to run the antenna wire across the driveways I used a cheap circular saw and masonry blade to cut a kerf just big enough for the wire and filled the rest of the kerf with asphalt crack filler. While I expected the driveways to be the hard part with the rented EZ Cable Installer making quick work of laying the wire in the sod it turns out that machine just barely works in the hard dry soil in late summer and this ended up being one of the least fun projects of the year. In the end it was worth it as the dogs quickly learned their boundaries and can now roam the yard freely without us worrying about where they will end up.

One of the other projects was the replace the retaining wall between the house and the shop. The old one was made of wooden 4x6's that were rotting and caving in so pulled that out and put in a block wall with an additional drain.

I've had a thing for fireworks since spending my allowance on bottle rockets as a kid and this year we picked up a mix of cakes and mortar shells for a backyard show on the 4th. Laura convinced me to try fusing together the pieces so I could light one fuse and sit back and enjoy the show and I was pleasantly surprised when everything went off as planned. The successful 4th of July show got me thinking about something bigger and badder for next year which led to building a set of mortar racks and making a wholesale order through Star Spangled Novelties in Mosinee. Being somewhat impatient we decided the boys combined birthday party in September was a great excuse to put on a show.

We applied for the necessary permit with the town and I setup a show consisting of 54 1.75" mortar shells and a dozen multi-shot cakes. I had choreographed the show and timed things out with various fuse lengths and speeds but the "quick fuse" ended up burning very slow and at some point one of the fuses to the finale caught fire mid-show which led to a slow start, a very impressive middle, and a few lingering cakes to finish things off slowly. I'm looking forward to giving this another shot for the 4th in 2019.

When I finally got out into the shop over the holidays I pulled out some of the rough turned bowl blanks to try my luck at finish turning the bowls. The first one was going fairly well when I took it just a bit too far trying to get a smooth surface on the inside and the bottom got too thin and reminded me why I wear a face shield.  

The next attempt was a piece of boxelder from a tree in my parents yard that I climbed as a kid. I made it a bit further on this one and was able to actually sand and finish the inside. I made a quick jam chuck to attempt to finish off the foot of the bowl and quickly realized this blank was likely doomed from the start by having the inside of the bowl dip down too far such that I'd never be able to remove the tenon and still have a enough wood to leave a flat bottom for the bowl to sit on. I tried anyway and ended up breaking through the bottom proving this whole bowl turning thing is not as easy as it looks on YouTube.

As I look forward to 2019 I'm hopeful to get at least one finished bowl out of the dozen or so rough turned blanks I have dried. I also still need to finish the walnut nightstands I started more than a year ago and Laura has requested a multi-tiered stand for the growing collection of plants in the sunroom and there are plenty of other projects on the to do list. 

Walnut Queen Bed - Part 4 - Complete

Persistence pays off. After nearly 3 years I'm excited to share the final update on the bed project.

After getting the new shop setup and heated after our move I finally shifted focus back onto getting the headboard assembled. I was happy that the main slab of the headboard had remained fairly stable but it wasn't perfectly flat so I resorted to a combination of a cabinet scraper, my block plane "mini-smoother", a card scraper, and some 220 grit to smooth the faces.

The edges were much easier in comparison and a few swipes with the smoother took care of the bottom while the spokeshave did a great job smoothing and evening out the curve at the top. This is also another great example of the versatility of the Roubo workbench... I can't imagine how I'd tackle tasks like this without it.

I gave the legs an initial smoothing prior to assembly but recognizing I'd need to touch up the faces after sawing the drawbore pegs flush I focused mostly on the side faces and the end grain of the angled tops which were much easier to work prior to assembly.

Once again, the drawbore pegs had picked up some moisture and were a bit to big to fit easily into their associated holes so I resorted to the food dehydrator "mini-kiln" discussed in the last update. Once the pegs shrunk back down I started assembling the headboard with clamps, liquid hide glue, and the drawbore pegs. Given the width of the main slab I applied glue to only the center mortise an tenon and left the drawbore pegs do the work on the outer joints to allow for seasonal wood movement I'm not sure if the heated drying made the walnut a bit brittle or the fact that I had used all of the best pegs in the footboard glue-up but I had a few issues with broken pegs as I drove them home this time, this despite having the assembly clamped up for extra insurance. Luckily I was able to drive the broke pegs out with replacements. 

Once the glue had dried I cut down the pegs with a flush cut saw using a business card for a bit of extra insurance to avoid marring the face of the post.

A few swipes with the smoother brought the pegs perfectly flush and smooth with the post.

One of my secondary goals for this project was to try out spray finishing so after touching up all the surfaces with the smoother and some 220 grit I setup a cheap harbor freight spray gun and did some practicing on some scrap.

Once I was somewhat comfortable with the gun I rigged up the pieces of the bed outside and sprayed on a coat of garnet shellac.

Overall the spraying went reasonably well and I really like the color that the garnet shellac added to the walnut. My lack of skill with the spray gun led to a couple runs that I had to deal with. Luckily shellac is fairly easy to repair and rework so after going through more than a half gallon of denatured alcohol, some very careful 400 grit sanding, and multiple touch up coats of heavily diluted shellac I was finally able to even out the color enough that it was difficult to find the challenged areas.

I was initially considering using another coat of two of amber shellac as the final top coat but given the challenges I had to work through with the garnet coat I decided to play it safe and put on two coats of satin Arm-R-Seal instead.

After much debate and input from the WoodNet community I decided to use the surface mounted bed rail hardware from Woodcraft. I ran into some issues with two of the cheap Menards #10 screws snapping off but with them breaking a half inch or so into the post I was able to drive in replacements at an angle.

Overall this hardware was easy to install and it seems fairly sturdy so far.

And here is the finished project shot that has been long in the making. Matching nightstands are now fairly high on the to-do list.

While this project did take much longer than I anticipated the timing did work out fairly well as I finished up the bed just in time for our 5th "wood" wedding anniversary.

Walnut Queen Bed - Part 3





It has been almost two years since my last update on the bed project and even longer since I started the project in September of 2014... what in the world is taking so long?

Well I did make some progress last winter but didn't get around to posting an update. I smoothed the faces of the bed rails and squared off the ends on the shooting board.  



 

I then ripped the long pieces that will be added to the inside of the rails to form a ledge for the cross boards to rest on.

To simplify the glue-up process I drilled and chamfered holes to screw the pieces to the side rails.

Next drilled the drawbore holes in the corner posts and the matching offset holes in the headboard and footboard. Due to the width of the pieces I made sure to elongate the outer holes to allow for seasonal expansion and contraction. I then had some fun experimenting with different smoothing techniques on the footboard. The cabinet scraper worked well but I also setup my Veritas block plane as a "mini-smoother" with the knob and tote kit and a high pitched blade which was more effective on this large piece that was far from totally flat.

At this point I was ready to assemble the footboard but when I checked on the drawbore pegs they had picked up too much moisture and no longer fit into the pre-drilled holes so I threw them into the food dehydrator (aka mini-kiln) overnight to shrink them down a bit.

The next day the pegs fit once again so I proceeded to assembly the footboard with liquid hide glue only on the center tenon to allow the outer tenons to float as needed with the seasonal changes in humidity. In theory the clamps weren't needed but after I experienced a bad blow out drawboring my workbench legs I felt the extra insurance was warranted. In the end the pegs pulled the assembly nice and tight just as they should.

After drying out the drawbore pegs there were actually slightly undersized within the holes and there were some slight gaps so I dabbed some water onto the end grain in an attempt to get them to swell up a bit to close the gaps. I also wiped off a bit of excess glue on the footboard before it set.

At this point (March 2016) all progress on the bed stopped as I shifted focus towards our search for a new home and finishing off a basement remodel. We ended up finding a new home (with a detached 26'x30' garage) and moving in May of 2016. Since the move all of my free time has been spent converting the extra garage into a real workshop.

The first priority was to get one wall re-wired, insulated, covered with OSB, and painted so that I could setup my lumber rack. 

Getting the lumber off the floor freed up enough space in the shop to allow me to work on the rest of the wiring, insulation, and OSB.

As I was getting most of those items wrapped up in the fall the priority quickly shifted to getting heat setup for winter. After an extensive analysis of options (mini-split, LP tank, gas line from the house, etc...) I made the call to WE Energies to install a new line with a separate meter. 



I then ordered a 75kBTU Beacon Morris unit heater and a separate combustion/concentric vent kit. Unfortunately by the time the vent kit arrived our mild fall was gone and I had to work through bitter cold (-30F wind chills) while cutting the hole for the vent and the rest of the heater installation.

Now that the heater is up and running I am forcing myself to get the walls and ceiling painted before I start setting up the rest of my tools. 

One other curve ball is that my wife surprised me with a G0766 lathe as a birthday/Christmas gift this year so I may end up taking a slight detour to turn some sort of token of thanks for my wife before jumping back in to finish off the bed project.