The Big Think

I’m back in the saddle in the shop. I put in 4 hours yesterday and 8 more today! All-told that’s 116 hours (but who’s counting?). Progress is slow since I started working on the doors. Since I’m doing faux divided-light style doors I have to think quite a few steps ahead to make sure I don’t glue things up before they’re ready. I ordered the glass today, but can’t install it and glue the doors up until I do all of the ebony trim squares. No sense whacking on the door frame with a hammer if the glass is in the door.

Which means that the door build is going to happen in several stages (11, to be exact). I sat down last night and came up with an order for the steps so I don’t forget anything or make any boneheaded mistakes. My QSRO pile is shrinking rapidly and I literally had exactly the right number of pieces to make the rails and stiles of the doors. I’ve got a small pile of thin sticks that I’m going to make the door muntins out of. When I’m done with the whole build I’ll probably only have a half-dozen or so short cutoffs and a dozen thin sticks. Not too bad. Well, and two trash cans full of sawdust. No kidding.

Tomorrow is my favorite part- sanding! Ugh. But this should be almost the last bit of major sanding on the whole piece. I’ll still do some minor stuff, and will probably give the whole thing a going-over with 220 grit and 320 grit to get rid of the minor shop dings it’s incurred over the past few weeks, but the major sanding is done. I hope.

After sanding is done I get to install the ebony then glue up the fourth “side” of each door to trap the glass. THEN I get to install 30 more ebony squares on the carcasses.

I also did some minor trim work on the inside of the center case behind where the TV is going to be. I milled up some small pieces (1/4 inch by 1/2 inch) to put along the interface between the walls and the sides. Looks very nice.

“For dealing with the blessings which come to us from outside we need a firm foundation based on reason and education; without this foundation, people keep on seeking these blessings and heaping them up but can never satisfy the insatiable appetites of their souls.”

Plutarch