Happy Halloween!
I assume everyone has carved out their Norm-o-Lantern this year again? I think I will make this a Halloween tradition!
Photo provided courtesy of Andy Hobbs and his lovely wife Angela.
And if you are in a ghoulish mood, check out this quiz posted over at ToolCrib.com.
And I know I posted this a couple months ago, but it is much more appropriate now. The Zombie Whisperers:
Happy Halloween and be safe. — Marc and Nicole
King Size Headboard - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Mike in Orlando, FL. Let’s check it out:
“Since the birth of my daughter ten months ago, my woodworking days are few and far between. So when my wife mentioned she had bought a king sized bed from a friend of a friend I figured I might be in for a wood working task or two. Sure enough, when I went to pick up the bed, I saw that I would indeed be up for some refinishing, and even creating a new headboard inset. The headboard contained a metal lattice inset that really does not go with the decor in our master bedroom so I decided to replace it with something more to our liking. Still a newbie woodworker, I knew this task would be a bit of a challenge but one I felt I was ready for. After getting the bed into my shop (which is nothing more than my carport), I decided that I would sand off the old stain instead of using harsh chemicals. I did manage to convince the Wife that I needed a random orbit sander to complete this task, so I bought a Porter Cable :-) Honestly, getting that sander was worth the work required to refinish the bed. The bed had a coat of light colored stain or glaze.”
“It was pretty easy to sand off the old stain on the larger flat pieces but a real pain along the joints and anywhere the wood had been carved. In hindsight I should have used some type of stripper on some of the more detailed parts of the bed. I spent a lot of hours hand sanding those parts and honestly never got them quite as good as I would have liked. I worked from 80 to 120 grit sandpaper then finished with 180. Once I got the head and foot boards looking pretty good I had to figure out what to do for an inset. I had some birch veneer plywood left over from another project so decided I would use that for the inset. In order to span the width of the bed I would have to glue (3) 2-foot wide sections of plywood together plus an additional 4.5-inch section. I knew these joints would be weak so I sought Marc’s opinion on how I should join them. He recommended that I rout a slot along the plywood and use some scrap for splines to assist in alignment, giving the joints a lot more strength when glued together. Once I got the plywood glued up and staine, I got busy with the rest of the bed.”
“I’ve enjoyed woodworking for only a little over a year, so every project is a learning experience. Here are some things I learned while working on this project:
1) I really dislike pine. It’s cheap but that is the only thing good I can say about it. Even with pre-stain conditioners it takes stain unevenly and blotches no matter how careful I am. No more pine for me!
2) Do not use different types of wood on the same project unless that is your intent. The bed is pine, the inset is birch, and the finials are maple which boils down to different woods taking stain differently.
3) When refinishing it’s OK to use a stripper! I thought I would go without using any harsh chemicals so opted for sanding only. I think it tripled my time in removing the old stain and I still had some stain in the nooks and crannies I could not sand away.
4) When using certain types of Wipe-On-Poly (black and gold container) do not follow the directions on the can. It says to sand lightly with 220 grit sandpaper after your second application. I did that and ended up removing some stain off my headboard inset. I was mildly upset to see my near perfect stain job marred by following directions on the can. I really hate that!
5) In regard to 4 above I recommend using the Watco brand polyurethane. It’s a much better blend in my opinion, is thicker, easier to use, and most importantly you can sand after your second application and it won’t harm your stain job.
6) King size beds are for king sized rooms! Walking around our room now is going to take some getting used to seeing how we upgraded from a queen size bed with no head/footboard :-D We’ll also need to get rid of some of the other furniture in the room too, but that is OK because that means I will have to build a dresser to take the place of existing dressers we’ll get rid of :-)
Overall I had a lot of fun working on this project plus I got a new sander! I think my next refinishing job will be a bit easier from what I learned on this project. And thanks to Marc for his advice on how to join up plywood for the inset. It worked like a charm!”
69- Gadget Station (Pt. 12)
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Well I finally made it to the finish line. This episode covers the hinge installation, pegging the tenons in the doors, making custom ebony handles, and finishing. I end the video with a justification of my design.
If you are interested in the Gripper system I showed for cutting small parts, you can pick one up in our Amazon.com Store. And if you are looking for the finishing DVD I mentioned, you can find that right here.
Links:
Gadget Station (Pt. 1)
Gadget Station (Pt. 2)
Gadget Station (Pt. 3)
Gadget Station (Pt. 4)
Gadget Station (Pt. 5)
Gadget Station (Pt. 6)
Gadget Station (Pt. 7)
Gadget Station (Pt. 8)
Gadget Station (Pt. 9)
Gadget Station (Pt. 10)
Gadget Station (Pt. 11)
Greg’s Woodshop - Shop of the Week
This week’s shop belongs to Greg from KY. Let’s see what he has to say:
“Here are some pictures of my shop, formerly known as our two car garage. I am lucky to have a wonderful wife who has let me pursue my hobby and has been willing to park outside for the past sixteen years. Our four kids do have one corner, but the shop has taken over the rest. We moved last year from AL to KY and the moving company wasn’t going to move my lumber which is mostly oak, cherry and walnut because my new company would not pay to move lumber. I finally came to an agreement with the moving company and they moved “312 pieces of garage shelving:)”.
Ahhh Youth…..
Age is just a number right? After all, I am frequently seen as “the kid” by many of my woodworking brothers and sisters (and I’m 31 with my fair share of gray hairs!). But despite being told how young I am in this industry, I always wish I would have experienced the world of fine woodworking earlier in life. With the way things are going in our school systems these days, one has to wonder if kids will ever have a chance to be exposed to the hobby/craft/career that we all know and love. The good news is that if a youth has even a vague interest in woodworking, and they take a look on the web, they will be met with a thriving community of people willing to share what they know.
I like to think that is exactly what happened when Aaron Molloy and Denis Rezendez decided to explore the world of woodworking online. I have been in contact with both of these guys for nearly a year now and I am continually impressed with their motivation and willingness to learn. And these two aren’t just sucking it all in, they are actually giving back. Both are active on Lumberjocks: Aaron at http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/aaronmolloy/ and Denis at http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/teenagewoodworker/ , and Denis even has his own podcast called The Teenage Woodworker. And to make this whole thing even more “new millennium”, Aaron is from Ireland! Man, I didn’t even have a pen pal when I was a teenager, lol.
So I received an email the other day from Aaron and I was pleased to find out that these two energetic guys have co-created their own blog. Its relatively new, but I am sure we can expect great content from these two. So check out The Teenage Woodworkers and be sure to tell them what you think. I think they are both off to a great start with the blog and with their woodworking careers. I hope that 40 years from now we’ll all be reading the next iteration of their blogging endeavors, “Middle-Aged Woodworkers”. Better buy that URL now!
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Happy Holidays!
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