Friday, June 28, 2013

“ A good day for a hanging”

Tuesday was a great day.  Jean came over and spent the night.  Today Wed. the weather is fabulous and  Jean is such a joy to be with plus uncle Trevor and E-Chiban uncle Andrew are here  to play, bonus round…. photo

Friday morning, off to Sara and Sean’s home to hang some doors. Here we are: doors installed and Jean approvescdc2c. .. My last project for a while, not counting building a Table Saw base unit (finished it before I hung the doors) .. I’m off to China on July 3rd. Long trip planned finishing on Oct 16th.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The Hanging Pair: Part III

Having aired and dried overnight, we enter the home stretch.  Locate and mount the simple Face Frame European style hinges.

Using a fixture locating the hinge centers is a snap.  Fixture made from 1” 8020 and a gusset plate.Check the hinges for pocket depth .. all Ok.Align the hinges, drill and pre-set screws in place (makes door install easier) . .. remove hinges and clean holes … On to applying the finish. Finish applied, … next step is hanging these two new doors.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The swinging pair – Partie Deux

Fully assembled and edge beveled .. ready for:  sanding and finishing.  Ended up being a long day with one thing and another.

Another day dawns .. and all is new.  Sanded both doors and fitted the Pocket Hole Plugs – To be sanded smooth after they set-up Remove the bulk of the waste: I use both my Japanese and  FatMax saws. Use a very thin piece of scrap to protect the door stiles.cda5 Sharp chisel to clean up before sanding. The tone after applying the Clear Stain is very pleasing: … On the back side the plugs are barely visible. Once hung and in use, they will never be seen. fin .. end of part two.

Zero Clearance Throat Plate

A 12" Sliding Compound Miter Saw with Adjustable Laser, since 2001,  is the backbone of my stock preparation and when fitted with a: 96 Tooth Ultra-Smooth Crosscutting Saw Blade gives cabinet grade fit and finish.

The only down side are the: Adjustable Throat Plates.  It’s  two  plastic inserts that come up short for fine work, 100% functional in general .. but I want to improve it.So now we have a hardwood, one piece Zero Clearance plate.  The dark hue hardwood will help contrast with most of the lighter wood I prefer to work... Life's Good.  Note: on  Jigs – Fixtures and zero clearance inserts,  coat them with a good quality paste wax. Nice small project while the glue dries on the cupboard doors: ..

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Custom Doors – Cupboard Matching Pair

A set of custom doors.. Solid Oak Rails and Stiles with Cabinet grade Oak plywood for the inset panel.  Overall dimensions: 22” wide x 35 1/2” – 1” x 3” Rails & Stiles, inset panel 0.200” thick – inset 1/2” on all four side.

Pocket Hole joining is a well tried and tested system, ideal for internal cupboard doors of this size.  Glue and screw .. Golden Rule .. Clamps and More Camps before sending the screws home. TIP: on hardwood use “Fine” screws and soap the threads and HAND tighten !! The setup to joint the Hinge Rail to the Top and Bottom Stiles. The black clamps are specific to holding Pocket Screw joints .. Clamping the rails and stiles flat to bench .. provides the best option for flat and tight joints.  This dry fit sorts out the show faces and best figure match. Just holding the open end of the stiles flat. Two sets of door components are routed for the inset panels.  Always identify the parts as to loading in the router !!!!  The stiles have a through dado, while the rails have a top and bottom stop dado. Two passes with an 1/8” edge banding bit .. gives me a 0.210” slot .. perfect for the 0.200” panels. End of part one ..  Tomorrow we build the doors and probably a couple coats of clear stain on the red oak just to even out the body grain and enhance the figure.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

French Cleat ? “Quoi ! ”

“What” a French Cleat .. Could be a Freedom Cleat … This is a highly effective, adaptable and customizable mounting systems.  At its heart a board with a 45 degree bevel is mounted to a Wall / Supporting surface and a board with an opposing  45 bevel is mounted to the object to be hung.   Jump on Youtube and search; French cleat, a few good videos that show this system in use.. or Google it.french cleat schematic  I mounted 2 parallel cleats to my shop wall .. 3/4” thick x 3 1/2” x 10 feet,  3 1/2” Deck screws mounted into the studs.  Custom mounts for: Toys – Lumber – Tools and Whatnots .. Easy to: Rearrange – Customize etc .. I like this system.

Tea and Biscuits' anyone?

A beautiful sunny summer day in So. Cal ..I set up outside to build a new workbench for the shop.   I’m thinking some tea and biscuits would go down a treat.

Looks like we have plenty of #20 biscuits ???

We even have a new batch of; Taiwan High Mountain Oolong ( Tim, thank you brother) and a hand painted tea mug .. Thx to Jim’s Mom.

This is more what I had in mind .. Pu-Erh and snacks: …. life is good. The #20 Jointing Biscuits were used in building the Leg Frames for my revamped workbench. 1 3/4” x 30” x 72” solid Beach Top .. Surface: 34” off the floor Conventional 2”x4” and 2”x6” lumber ..28 biscuits to joint the Legs and Stringers .. 5/8” Through Dados to strengthen and joint the long side Runners.  I’m thankful the boys came over as I could not lift the bench as assembled .. Solid and very stable.

A nice relaxing project that only took 2 hrs. (stretched to 4Smile)

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Best Father’s / Grandpa's Day .. Sunday 16th. June 2013

What a great day … Jean spent Saturday night with us,  the kids came over this morning. Sara made the best ever cards for Father’s day and a fabulous Grandpa's collage.   We all went out to the Irish Fair at Irvine Lake, where Sara was playing the Harp.   Ironically, I was in the workshop when the kids came over with the cards ….

Friday, June 14, 2013

Tea Room update .. June 14th.

I’ve started to move some tea and related items into the corner unit .. much more convenient .. still a work in process.

Sunday, June 09, 2013

Japanese Lamp “Inspired” Display Stand

Starting off to design and build a Japanese Lamp for the tea-room  soon took a detour.  Having completed and installed a new corner unit behind my tea-table gave me an idea to change the lamp into a display unit for my “Twin Golden Dragon Seal Pu-Erh Tea”

The commemorative Twin Golden Dragon Seal Package.
From the: First Yunnan International Pu'er Tea Expostrade Fair;
September, 22nd. -26th. 2006
Seven Cakes at 150g each.
I purchased two of these presentation sets in December 2006, for 900¥ (RMB, yuan 元) each.
Selling price: May 2007: 3,000¥ (RMB, yuan 元).

Using select lumber from my plethora of remnants got me off to a no material cost  start.  Drafting a 1:1 scale drawing provided a quick and easy method to determine an aesthetically pleasing design.  Approximate basic dimensions: 3/4” x 3/4” stock .. 9” square .. 18” total height.

Test fit of the Dragon Seal Tea Container.  a few days to finish up and out-gas should see it complete.