Kitchen Tower

[Chestnut]

My most recent project was a kitchen tower to allow Hazel to get up to counter height in the kitchen. I used the wood whisperer plans to make this. While they are not quite guild level the plans do an excellent job to make a successful project.

I made the project out of butternut. I've been wanting to work with this wood for a while now and recently had the fortune of purchasing some off craig's list for a reasonable price. It was requested by Megan to construct the tower from a ligher weight to make moving it easier. Butternut is a great choice as it's a very light weight wood a lot of softwood species are heavier. The downside is the wood dents very easily but that's acceptable in this situation. The construction is basically what Marc did on his plans and video, my only changes were to use larger home made tenon stock.

All of the parts got a heavy round over for durability as well as comfort.

The finish i used was Shellac. I really like using it for projects like this as it's protection is relatively good, it's easy to repair, and all evidence points to it being non-toxic if consumed. Another HUGE benefit was being able to get all the finish applied in one evening.

Start to finish the project took me about a week, it was fun to get a nice fast useful project done. The client was all smiles and giggles. I got this done about a week ago and Hazel regularly walks to the kitchen and climbs in.

This has been an awesome benefit to being able to prep food without having a toddler hugging our legs.

[Ronn W]

Fantastic.  I made 2 similar ones for the grandkids, one for my daughter and one for my wife.  The kids still like to help in the kitchen at 8 and 11 years old.

Great project.  How was the butternut for workability?  I have not had a chance to use butternut.

[Chestnut]

1 hour ago, Ronn W said:

How was the butternut for workability?  I have not had a chance to use butternut.

It was a bit more difficult to work because of it's softness. That may seem counter intuitive but that's my observation. The boards i got were rough and when planing if I messed up the grain direction the soft nature of the wood lead to odd fuzzy tear out that was difficult to address. Normally tear out on harder woods like cherry and walnut is very minimal with my tooling but this time it was not the case. It's kinda hard to explain.

The wood overall sanded well but the sanding dust got kinda gummy and stuck to the project parts. Compressed air removed it easily enough but it was an odd observation so figured it was worth noting.

[Chet]

That came out real nice, Drew.  I always enjoy seeing the pictures that are posted after this type of project is complete and a "little one" is using it

On 9/14/2023 at 7:41 AM, Chestnut said:

and all evidence points to it being non-toxic if consumed.

When it is made from flakes it is considered food safe.

[Chestnut]

14 minutes ago, Chet said:

When it is made from flakes it is considered food safe.

I used Zinsser Seal Coat. Looking at the SDS the use the same solvent as typically available shellac reducers. Typically 75% ethanol mixed the other *anol.

I really need to buy some flakes and go that route.

[Coop]

Now that’s really cool! 

[wtnhighlander]

Awesome Drew! Man, Hazel is growing fast!

I really like the grain & appearance of butternut. The only item I've used it on was a simple plaque to display a katana, but it has a shimmer like no other species in my (admittedly limited) experience.

[treeslayer]

great work as usual Drew, and i'm sure Hazel loves helping out in the kitchen. i've worked with butternut a lot and it's an awesome wood, the "fuzz" is sometimes a problem but nothing that can't be dealt with considering the final result

[Chet]

On 9/14/2023 at 10:07 AM, Chestnut said:

I really need to buy some flakes and go that route.

I find it a lot nicer to work with than the product off the shelf.  You can make as much or little as you need.  I use WellerMart Shellac  They are quite a bit cheaper then most.