Memento Display Shelf

[Belle City WW]

Very nicely done sir!

 

[wtnhighlander]

11 hours ago, Belle City WW said:

Very nicely done sir!

 

Just wait until it is actually finished! 

Assorted illnesses (mine and other family members), a week of extreme heat & humidity, followed by an extended period of much longer than usual hours at my 'day job', have prevented me from darkening the door of my shop for almost a month.

[Coop]

Hope all of you are feeling better. 

[wtnhighlander]

After almost a full month, I finally got back in the shop today. Proof:

Final sanding before finish. Like many, I scribble a pencil on the surface and sand until the lines are gone. Unlike many, I use carpenter pencils, almost exclusively. They are easy to hold, don't roll away, the lead makes a bold line, yet can be shaped to a fine point, and rarely breaks inside the wood when dropped. The thickess and width are convenient dimensions to gauge things with, and being flat, they are easy to clamp to a stick for use as a beam compass. Their width is great for gripping if you need to scribe along an irregular surface. All in all, I find them much more practical to keep in the shop, since all my joinery marking is done with a knife, anyway.

Anyone have a marking instrument they prefer?

Next step in the project is the ebony stain 'under layer'. Tune in tomorrow to see how THAT turns out!

[treeslayer]

2 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

have a marking instrument they prefer?

Glad to hear you’re back in the shop Ross, I used to use mechanical pencils of different sizes but I switched to the Pica pencils from Woodcraft, I have one for regular lead and one with the white lead for dark wood, I really like them, built in sharpener, narrow barrel for getting into tight spaces is nice

[Coop]

Do these come with a GPS dealily where you can find them with an app on your smartphone? 

[Chet]

On 8/6/2021 at 6:09 PM, wtnhighlander said:

Anyone have a marking instrument they prefer?

I use the same drafting lead holder I had in high school some fifty years ago.  Also has a bold line but you can get it extremely sharp, I have the injuries to prove it.

 

[wtnhighlander]

8 hours ago, Coop said:

Do these come with a GPS dealily where you can find them with an app on your smartphone? 

Here ya go, @Coop: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/shop/gps-tracking-tags

[wtnhighlander]

So, I got an early start on the finishing process this morning. Here is a 'before' shot for reference:

The formula for this step involves these ingredients:

The bare wood soaks up too much of the ebony stain, so the pre-stain conditioner is applied liberally to each part, using a foam brush. While it is still quite wet, I use a cotton rag to wipe on the ebony stain. A circular application helps work it into the deep grain pores. As each side is covered, I immediately wipe it back with a dry rag or blue paper towel. The idea is to enhance the grain pores, but not darken the wood too  much. This is my target shade:

If there are smudges or heavy spots, a clean rag moistened slightly with mineral spirits can remove the excess, even as it starts to dry.

Once each piece is coated, I carefully prop them in a corner to finish drying. Small shop space makes this a bit dicey.

By late afternoon, I hope to proceed with assembly. The final color can be applied after, but I feared that it would be impossible to get the excess ebony out of all the corners, so chose to do this step first.

[Chestnut]

On 8/6/2021 at 8:09 PM, wtnhighlander said:

Anyone have a marking instrument they prefer?

Marking knives and wheel gauges are great. Call me a, "insert four letter word" millennial but i prefer a mechanical pencil. It's what I'm used to.

[wtnhighlander]

After a couple days away from the shop, celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary, I decided that I wasn't happy with how some of the long grain joints had set up. I suppose some alignment aids, dowels, biscuits, etc... would have prevented slippage, but I didn't use them because no strength would be gained. My bad.

Anyway, the small misalignment on the back just looked a bit "unprofessional". Probably, no one else would notice, but I had to fix  it anyway. Too large to rest in a stable fashion on my small workbech, I lay the piece on the floor and braced it against the wall. A few minutes of planing made all right with the world.

The refreshed ebony undercoat is drying, so actual color may start tomorrow.

[Chet]

On 8/9/2021 at 7:58 PM, wtnhighlander said:

I decided that I wasn't happy with how some of the long grain joints had set up.

The stuff that bugs us and no one else sees. 

[wtnhighlander]

8 hours ago, Chet said:

The stuff that bugs us and no one else sees. 

Tell me about it. The shift is absolutely unnoticable from the front, and the back is planned to go against a wall. But it bugged the crap out of me, so I fixed it. 

No shop today, the heat index was 107f, no way the tiny window A/C would ever catch up before bedtime...

[wtnhighlander]

Well, I got some shop tome this weekend, but it was mostly wasted. I must have failed to note a step in the application process when I made the sample, and the stain was far too heavy 

So, all the surfaces I covered now need to be sanded back to start over. While sanding, I noticed an odd splintery flake start to develop in one side frame. Turned out to be an internal crack. Peeling it away left a big gouge.

Filling that just wasn't an option. Trying to replace the frame now would risk damage to several other parts, so I decided to try a veneer fix instead. Reason #742 to keep your scraps until the project is done. I found an off-cut perfectly sized to let me rip off a thin piece for veneer. 

A few strokes of the plane smoothed it out nicely. I made a simple MDF platform to support the router while I nibbled away the surface of the damaged piece.

A little chisel work on the ends, and a few passes with a small block plane made it ready for glue.

I used many clamps, but probably would have better results using a clamping caul.

Next step is to finish sanding an re-do the color.

[Coop]

Good recovery with the veneer. Sorry to hear about the color redo. 

[Chet]

About all I can say is that just sucks.

[Mark J]

What Coop and Chet said.

[Chestnut]

Nice save, this has been a great project to follow. My scraps usually hang around until the project is done, and then the following 3 or 4 projects. Then I usually start drowning in scraps before i get frustrated and start a fire.... . So at my pace they last a couple days.... .

[wtnhighlander]

Only had a few minutes to work this evening, but with some planing, sanding, and a judicious application of Timbermate, I think the patch came out pretty good. Looks better than the original surface, truth be told. Straighter grain.

[treeslayer]

Wow Ross I wish all my saves were that good, well done sir!

[Coop]

Ross, you said the stain was way too heavy as in color or application (too thick and didn’t dry, blotchy, etc.)? 

[wtnhighlander]

1 hour ago, Coop said:

Ross, you said the stain was way too heavy as in color or application (too thick and didn’t dry, blotchy, etc.)? 

Yeah, I think in the month that passed between making the sample and coloring the piece, I forgot a step. I thought I recalled painting the stain blend on with a foam brush, so that's what I did, and the piece was very blue-ish / purple-ish when it dried. Subsequent experiments indicate I must have used a very light wipe-on application instead. That method looks very much like the sample.

[wtnhighlander]

So, after hours of sanding, much of it by hand, I'm finally back to where I staterted. No pics because ... sanding.

Perhaps I'll get back to the coloring stage tomorrow.

[Mark J]

2 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

because ... sanding.

Yeah.  I've realized that every piece I make is 50% sanding and 50% design, planning, block prep, turning, carving and finishing.

[wtnhighlander]

Well, even with 7 hours of interruption (day job problem), I have finally managed to get a couple coats of topcoat on this thing.

Anyone with GF High Performance experince have a suggestion on how long to wait before using the piece? I plan to scuff and coat once more tomorrow morning, hoping I can deliver tomorrow evening.

Sorry for the distorted image. Maybe I can get a clear shot after I move it out of the tiny shop.