Back at it on the entertainment center. That thing has taken over the garage for the past six months and we’re both ready to have it done. I’ve set a due-date of my birthday to have it completed (Sept 10 if anyone is interested) and should be able to do it (sans stained glass) on time.
I spent 2 hours applying the sealcoat and dye coat of the base stain for a total project time of 150 hours.
Cool scale satellite model made from wood.
I worked 4 more hours in the shop putting the dye and gel-stain on the left-hand bookshelf. It looks great! Total time: 148 hours.
I spent about an hour tonight putting the gel stain on the underside of the lid, then I gave the side bookshelf the first coat of sealer (shellac with denatured alcohol to think it out). Just the shellac looks really nice. Next up: red dye on the bookshelf! The time of commitment. Total time: 144 hours.
*UPDATE* HA! As my neighbor James pointed out, I didn’t “use denatures alcohol to THINK it out, but to THIN it out”. The alcohol part comes after I’ve been finishing for 30 hours. 
Over the past week I’ve put in another 4 hours or so on the entertainment center (total time is 143 hours). The construction phase is complete and I’m starting in on the finish. I’ve procured all of the supplies (about $40) and have started testing the underside of one of the bookshelf tops. I put on a seal coat of shellac (diluted with denatured alcohol) and then a coat of dye. Next I have to apply the gel stain and then wipe it off, then do a triple coat of finish shellac. It should look like the book case I built for Erin a few years ago since I’m using the same ratio of dyes (10% red, 90% brown), but I’m testing just in case. If all goes well I’ll proceed with the visible parts.
I’ve decided to finish each piece fully so I can move them inside after they’re done. I have a lot of hand sanding to do on each piece with 220 and 320 grit sandpaper and I’m afraid that I’ll just move the sanding dust around from piece to piece so instead of doing them all at once I’ll focus on each piece until completion then move it inside. Hopefully my dye ratio will remain consistent throughout the process so that the color is consistent. I estimate approximately 30 hours to do although work will get in the way. I hope to have it done by the end of August.
4 hours today, and all I did was sand. I’m a sanding machine! Got the doors sanded and ready for the finishing room (ha! like I have a “finishing room”). Next up: the corbels, then a massive sand-everything-again day, then begin the (drumroll) finish.
Total time: 139 hours (hi Mike)
Got another 9 hours in today for a total of 135 hours. I did the muntins on the doors, which was a particularly slow and arduous process of cutting 10 pieces of wood to act as window dividers. They’re not perfect, but I’m pretty happy with them. All I have left is a bit of sanding on the doors and muntins, mill up the corbels, and then start in on the finish!
I guess it happens to everyone, but I had a crummy day in the shop today. Part of it was the fact that I put in the other 40 pegs (total: 64), the other thing was that it’s getting so freaking hot out there all I can do is sweat and stew in said sweat. Not fun.
I got the hinges today and settled on the door hardware. I’m taking tomorrow off, though.
Total time: 126 hours.
Sorry if you’re getting bored of the shop updates, but I want to keep track of the total time and what I’m doing each day.
7 more hours today (123 total). I sanded the doors (gak!) and I installed the ebony squares in the corner of the door frames. This would have gone faster but my Porter Cable random orbit sander gave up the ghost halfway through. I was forced to go to Home Depot and plop down $75 for a new one. Now, normally I enjoy buying tools and bringing them home, but this one just stunk because I really liked that old sander. I’ll take it apart and see if I can fix it, but I don’t think I can return a lightly-used Dewalt sander.
After this was all done I spent a few hours installing the ebony squares into the left-side book case. Spec-tac-u-lar! I installed a bunch of small ebony square accent pieces today. It only took me about 4 hours. If you remember, when I built the music cabinet I made all of the holes by hand with a drill bit and a chisel (to square up the holes). This madness took me 3 or 4 days of eye-straining effort. This time I got wise and bought a piece of 3/8ths inch bar stock. I cut off a 2 inch piece and ground the end down to a gentle 4 sided slope, then used it to square up the 3/8ths inch hole that I cut with a forstner bit. Eureka! It worked brilliantly. Instead of 8-10 squares done today I got thirty eight done in just a few hours. Wow. I still have 24 to go, but I should be able to knock them out tomorrow. The carcasse looks really nice, but the ebony accents put it over the top. It’s really starting to look like a piece of Arts and Crafts furniture.
Tomorrow: more accents and I start making the window muntins. We’re also going by Woodcraft after church to look at hinges and hardware. I really like these.
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.
Spent 4 hours yesterday milling up the wood for the doors. I got the rails made on the router table but ran into a problem trying to make the stiles. Long story, but the two jigs I built didn’t work and I was getting frustrated. So I cut my losses and put the tools down for the day. No sense working around sharp electrified things if you’re not in a good frame of mind.
Back at it today for another try. 104 hours total time.
The main sanding on the entertainment center body is FINISHED! I spent 3 hours in the shop today for a total time of an even 100 hours on the entertainment center. I put the whole thing together today and laid the top pieces on the carcasse, then put all three pieces next to each other. I then stood back and took a good look. Magnificent! When I look at a big project sometimes I’m surprised that Something can come from Nothing. It’s a really great feeling.
Next up: the doors! That’ll be a long and painstaking process. Then I have to figure out an easy and effective way to lay in 36 one quarter inch square ebony pins on the carcasse and another 32 or so 3/8th inch ebony pins on the doors. I figure it’ll take me several eye-busting weeks doing that. Then the finish- which I have no idea about yet.
Hey, one thing at a time. But I’m past the 100 hour mark! That makes it my biggest project to date (except for the studio build, which was a ton of little projects)
9 more hours done in the shop today. It was a great day to be outside. Around 80 degrees and slightly breezy. We won’t have many more like that for awhile.
I got the face frame for the cabinets all completed and installed and gave the bookcase faces their main sanding, and that’s about it. Yes, it really takes 9 hours to do that when you’re being really careful.
I also changed the design just slightly, but more on that later.
Got another 6 hours in today. More sanding (koff!), as well as some more face frame construction. I would have had another three hours but an unexpected call let to some unexpected audio work on a film next week that’ll go a long way toward paying for the ent. cent. Yay!
Tomorrow I tackle the face frame on the main center section, then figure out a good way to attach all three frames. After that it’s time to move on to the doors, then the ebony inlay.
Total time is 88 hours.
The list of reasons why everyone should start a business, and why the home is a great first frontier for many of those businesses, is long. Here are some examples:
1. Because of online and communications technology, you can start many businesses at little or no cost.
2. You can start a side business without foregoing your “secure” day job.
3. You can spend more of your time doing something you’re passionate about.
4. You can make a little extra money, and maybe eventually ramp up to replacing that day job.
5. The biggest companies now have many free or inexpensive solutions available for small business making it easier than ever to start and grow.
6. If you have a family, just imagine what a positive impact it could have on your children as they watch you toil, create, breakthrough, tough it out, and demonstrate how to take control of your life and live passionately rather than being a cog in the wheel.
7. Outsourcing enables you to streamline your activities (and the physical footprint) of your business so that you focus on doing the work you love and farm out the other stuff.
8. Home-based business is generally accepted - even preferred - as a mode of business in the marketplace these days (whereas before there were credibility issues).
9. Tax write-offs are often available.
10. You take control of your destiny rather than relying on someone else to make the right decisions for your future.
I spent 8 more hours in the shop today for a running total of 82 hours! Had to run back to the lumber yard for three more pieces of QSRO. Hopefully the final bits of solid wood I’ll have to buy. Came home and spent a quality 90 minutes in front of the planer driving my neighbors nuts with the noise. I got everything planed up and the rest of the day was spent gluing up one final panel (this one will be the main surface directly underneath the TV) as well as making the face frame for the left side bookcase. A funny thing happened whilst doing this. I had very carefully measured all the pieces and pocket screwed them together. Perfect 90 degree angles between them. The bookcase also has perfect 90 degree surfaces. When I applied one 90 degree surface to the front of the other one…..
everything was crooked.
It was like suddenly we didn’t live in Euclidean space-time any more. It was the weirdest thing. I could measure 90 degree angles all over the place, but the face frame was “slanted” by as much as 1/4 inch between the top of the case and the bottom. This utterly flummoxed me until I took the face frame apart, reconstructed it (with the same wood and the same screw.. in the SAME HOLES), and it worked. Amazing. I think I’ve discovered a unique quality of wood: it has the ability to bend spacetime.
So anyway, that’s how I spent my 8 hours today.
4 hours yesterday (total of 74 hours!) on the entertainment center. I planed up a bunch of thin pieces and glued them to the back where the TV will be mounted. This is so, when you look at the surface the TV is mounted on, you’ll see solid hardwood oak and not plywood (yuk!). I only applied solid wood where you’ll see the back around the edges of the TV, and not over the whole back “wall”, so right now I’ve got a roughly 16×9 TV “space” layed out. Looks kinda funny.
I also started in on the face frame but ran out of wood. Well, I have more QSRO, but it’s not the same color and I want to make sure the color match is right, and that I’m using stock that has consistent grain and ray-flecking:
Back to the lumberyard today for more wood.
So yesterday I spent another 4 hours (total time: 70 hours) on the ent. cent. I didn’t do much but cut the tops to final length and sand, sand, sand. If you’ve ever wonder why the iPod was invented, it was so woodworkers could stand for three hours in one place while sanding.
Speaking of sanding, I always wear earmuffs and a face shield, but I can’t use the inexpensive filter that I bought several years ago. It’s really uncomfortable and since I have a beard, it has small gaps around my face that let the dust in anyway. I’ve been considering the purchase of a much more expensive and effective dust hood but can’t quite bring myself to pull the trigger on it. After all, there are better things to spend the money on (like, say, nothing at all), but I figure that I can spend a few hundred dollars on this now, or several tens of thousands of dollars later on when I get chemo for the lung cancer that’s brought on by inhaling fine wood dust for a few decades. Or maybe the Hodgkin’s disease. Oh joy. (cough, cough). I do my best to keep the exposure to a minimum by sanding outside with the wind behind me, but there’s only so much I can do.
Yeah, yeah. I’ll probably just buy the stupid thing. It’s a new product and I’m waiting for the first round of reviews to hit. Dropping almost four Benjamin’s on a ventilated face shield isn’t my idea of fun, but neither is an arm full of bleomycin.
Back to the shop. Today’s I start on the face frames. Then more sanding…
This is becoming a (very enjoyable) habit. Yesterday (monday), I spent 6 hours in the shop, and pulled another 7 today. 66 hours in total on the ent. cent, and it’s starting to look like a piece of furniture! I think I could probably speed things up by at least 50% if all of my machines and stationary tools had permanent homes. As it is, the table saw is the only thing that lives in one spot. Each of the other major tools (band saw, planer, jointer) have to be moved to one particular spot in order to be used. I only have one tube from the dust collector so if I want to use the band saw I have to move the planer out of the way, or if I want to use the jointer, I have to shift the planer aside. It makes for a whole lot of moving and shifting, and a piece of wood might have to visit every machine before it gets glued into place. Then the whole dance has to start over again. I’ve gotten pretty good about looking ahead and doing as much as I can on one tool, but I often have to complete one piece of wood before I can move on to the next.
I love my shop. It’s a nice big 2 car garage. I’m not complaining. Indeed, I have a friend who works out of a very small 1 car garage. It’s ridiculous how little space he has in there. Still, one of these days I’m going to build me a big place where all the tools can be bolted to the freaking floor, never to have to move again. With their own dust collection and outfeed tables.
What the hey, as long as I’m wishing, I want a pony.
