Essential Oils Carrying Case part 11

Buenas noches from Costa Rica my friends

Well it is Sunday night March 15th. Had a wonderful day worshiping God this morning. Than an unbelievable nap in the afternoon. I always remember my father saying "naps are fun." As a kid I didn't understand that but now as I grow older I certainly do. Now I seem to have reversed roles with me saying that naps are fun and my children saying "no way, we want to play."

Well here we are back at it again with the carrying case. So now the carcass was just about ready to glue up but I wanted to give the inside a wash coat of shellac. I like to put 3 wash coats on. I put two on with out sanding in between and than sand at #400 grit between the 2nd and 3rd. Once that is I use a white scrub pad with some wax. I learned about the scrub pads from Charles Brock when I bought his kit on how to build a Maloof inspired rocker. It comes with a DVD, book, and full size patterns. I really enjoyed making and using his plans. I would highly recommend it if your interested. I just didn't have the money to take an actual class from him. Anyway, in his DVD he burnishes the wood with different grits of scrub pad. One is red, the other grey, and then white. It really makes a nice surface on the wood for finish. I don't know if it is needed to do this step but I like to do it. You can also see my new assembly and finishing table I built. Where once there was a table saw now there is just a table. I built it out of 1/2" plywood,nothing special but it serves its intended purpose.

 So after the insides of the parts were all ready it was onto the actual glue up. I did a dry run through and was glad I did so because the actual glue up went pretty easy with out any problems. I also said a prayer to God which I know helped a lot. I was using hide glue and was curious how it would do with such an open time. I had to glue up the tails and pins for one corner then glue up part of the back panel. Then another side with the back panel,and then the final side with two ends of tails and pins with one side of the back panel. Then when that was done the drawer runners and the bottom of the upper section. Once that was all glued up then I could put on the claps. It took some time getting there but the glue seemed to be able to handle the amount of time it took to get to the clamps. I didn't time myself,which I wished I would have but in the end it turned out. The clamping went well and I put some cauls on it and it actually came out square. That was always my problem once I got the clamps on that the box wouldn't be square. So you can see in these pictures how that went.

And here is how it turned out.

Then it was onto smoothing out the joints. As you can see my leg vise was pushed to the max but it worked well.

Next up was the front panel which I cut out but didn't re-saw down to 1/2". I left it at 3/4" to have a little more meat for the lock to go in. I am looking forward to installing the lock but at the same time a little nervous. So here you can see the front panel fitted and then glued up.

I did have a problem with this part though. Once I took the clamps off I did a rough sanding to smooth the joints all out (I know, sanding instead of smoothing with a plane, well I am just not there yet with my tools and their sharpness. Hopefully that will start to change soon enough, April 7th). It was then that I noticed a gap between the top of the box and the top of the front panel. It was on the right side only going about 3 to 4 inched in and was a good 1/16 wide on one end. I thought that is way to big to call Dr. Fill  in for help so I thought about inserting a thin piece of wood. I cut the wood and went to clear out the gap with a knife what I heard a pop and saw the whole top joint come loose. The sides and the bottom were firm but the top joint between the front panel and the top failed. I don't know if I didn't get enough glue in or not. One thing I realized I did was to first clamp the side and I think I didn't notice that the top joint wasn't completely together when I did it so there was a gap before I clamped the top portion and the glue wasn't enough to hold it shut. So I called on my good old friend Señor Yellow glue and squeezed in quite a bit and put some clamps on. We shall see tomorrow how it worked.

Once that was done I went to work on finishing the drawers. I sanded them smooth to #150 and then put a wash coat of shellac on all sides and the front. Once that was done I did a form of French polish on the front but toned down the shine to a satin finish.

One guy I really enjoy watching on YouTube is, and to be honest I don't know his name, the English Polisher. He has such a great no nonsense approach to finishing and I have learned quite a bit from him. If you have the change check him out.

Well that is it regarding the carrying case. Next up final sanding and then I think I will wash coat the whole care before cutting the top lid off. Once that is done then cleaning up the top lid joints and the inside, then it is on to final finishing and then installation of the hardware.

So on to another topic, my coffee roaster is up and running. I had mentioned that I was waiting for a rotisserie motor for my gas grill to arrive so I could try out my homemade coffee roaster. Well here it is.

  The cage is built from two metal pencil holders I purchase at Office Depot here in C.R. I put some aluminum fins inside to help keep the beans moving to expose all side to  the heat. I built the fins from a turkey roasting pan my wife had. It is one of those throw away one shot pans, which she had many lying around. I cut some aluminum out and folded it to a thickness I was happy with and then made a sort of L bracket. I then riveted them in the pencil holders. To secure the two cages together on one end I used a small nut and screw and on the other end a longer screw to keep the cages from twisting apart. But I needed a clasp to keep the whole thing shut. One day in our church they were replacing the oscillating fans and I asked if I could have one of the older ones that they didn't want anymore. The clasp used to hold the fan covers together worked perfect. I simply drilled out the rivet and re-riveted it onto one of the cages. Then I poked a center whole in the bottom of each cage for the rotisserie rod to go through. So I loaded  the cages up with some green coffee beans and sealed it up and put it to work. It works really great, although it is slower than the hot air popcorn popper. I think I had the heat up to high because the roast come out a little inconsistent with some beans being darker than others. I think that was also due to the speed of the motor, which is naturally slower for a rotisserie. One thing I ran into that later I realize I didn't need to do was the cooling part of the roasting process. With the popcorn popper I have a strainer I pour the roasted beans into and swirl it around to let them cool off. So when the roasting process was done I was trying to get the beans out to put in the strainer but boy did I have a time with that. The rotisserie rod was so hot that I couldn't hold it even while wearing my welding gloves. So it made it a bit difficult trying to get the beans out. Then today a "duh" moment came to me, why didn't I just turn off the heat and let the rotisserie motor keep going. With the lid open the heat dissipates really quick. Just so you know I did roast the beans with the lid closed and listened for the first and second crack. So next time I will do that. I have to admit I am quite pleased with the results and look forward to roasting some more beans soon enough. My coffee plants are starting to bloom and I can see I am going to have quite a harvest come November.

Well my friends, I hope you enjoyed the post, I know I certainly did.

Take care and as always God bless
Mark

Do you have a story to tell?

Buenas días from Costa Rica my friends

Well it is another sunny day here in C.R. but the clouds have been increasing over the last few day and it isn't dew to the change in seasons. Volcán Turrialba, which is one of many volcanoes in C.R. has been erupting the last few days spewing large amounts of ash into the air. On the 12th of March the airport had to shut down because of low visibility. As my family and I drove through San Jose we saw clouds in the sky but it really didn't look different. What we are experiencing are soar throats from breathing the fine ash in the air. Fortunately this volcano is not near any populated area and is well east of San Jose.

On another note this last week has been a whirlwind of activities that didn't have anything to do with the project I am currently working on. Monday I went with my wife, the pastor's wife, and his daughter to San Jose to shop for curtain fabric for the church. On the way back our car overheated, which it had been doing quite often lately. Fortunately I had a number of empty plastic soda bottles filled with water and was able to limp back to Gracia. So Tuesday we spent the day with the pastors daughter, whose husband is a mechanic, trying to get the car fixed. I guess the radiator had a leak in it. So Wednesday we were with out a car and so my wife and I decided to leave the kids home with the young lady staying with us to help with homeschooling and go to church on our own. We have a Wednesday night prayer service. We only live 6 miles away from our church but it takes us about 15 to 20 minutes to drive there. Since we didn't have a car we took the bus. It took over an hour to get there and almost 2 hours to get back home. Most Costaricans ride the bus because it is so much cheaper than taxis and to own a car can be rather expensive here, gas is about $5 a gallon. So Thursday comes and still no car, but we had an appointment to go to immigration to renew our youngest son's passport, he was born here in C.R. so he has dual citizenship. That trip normally takes about 3 hours total, going, doing what you need to do and  returning, by car, but since we had to go by bus it took almost 8 hours. I was truly exhausted by the end of that day. So Friday comes and the car is fixed. The pastor's son-in-law only charges us $200 for the fix and labor, but that intern put a quash on my purchasing a shoulder plane. Oh, well everything has its priorities and believe me I would rather have a reliable car than carrying a nice new shoulder plane on a bus. I can truly say that I am so thankful to God for providing a car for us. Having four young kids creates quite a scene when traveling by bus. So that was my week in a nutshell.

On another topic or story as this post is so titled, I had an interesting event happen last week that really brought a smile to my heart. Life is always changing and never stays the same. Look at your own life especially regarding the friends you have had and currently have. When we were kids the friends we grew up with we thought we would spend a lifetime together. By the time we reached high school many had moved on. Today that is even more so. How many families still live in the same town they grew up in? The world has become much smaller in one way, but in another it has become bigger as distances between parents and children expand. Once we graduated high school and went to college we found new friends that once again we thought we would spend a life time together. After graduation each one went on their separate ways to pursue their career's and the friend became new again. Marriage and starting a family changes the scope of one's life to a whole new set of friends and acquaintances. Careers that cause one to move create changes in one's life quite often. I being a missionary have now lived in 10 different houses over the course of my 15 years of marriage. Throughout your entire life as you look back at the changes that have occurred and the friends that have passed through your life it is always quite enjoyable to reminisce over special times and memories. I truly love growing older and has life begins to slow down I find my thoughts drifting to times past, events in my life interacting with other friends, smiling at what a wonderful time we had together and wondering what they are up to now. I also look forward to making new friends and memories which is what this story that I want to share is all about. Last year we started working with a different church in the town of Grecia. We had spent six years helping a church here in Sarchi, but came to a point where we realized it was time to move on. This new church has a pastor that is 73 and he needs a lot of help with the ministry. It has been a real joy getting to know the people and open our house to them. We love to have people over for homemade pizza. We all gather in the kitchen to make it and have a wonderful time talking with each other. We had the pastor's entire family over a couple of weeks ago and the men we checking out my shop. They also saw the cabinets I built for our kitchen as well. The pastor's son Rolando and his wife Sonia asked me if I could replace their cabinets that had been destroyed from water damage, they were built with MDF. So I measured them and calculated the cost of the material for them. I told them I don't charge for my labor because this is a hobby and I want to use my talents to be a blessing to others. In the course of the conversation Rolando asked me if I had a table saw. I told him I had sold it and just cut the wood with a hand saw. I don't know if he understood me that I chose to sell my saw and go unplugged in my shop or not, but the other day I had to go to his house to re-measure the cabinets. It was a Sunday evening so they wanted us to stay for dinner. They had been gone in the afternoon to a car expo and when we arrive they hadn't returned yet. Their oldest son was home so we went in and I finished measuring the cabinets. Once they got back we had a wonderful evening together. As we were leaving Rolando gave me the money for the material and said they had another surprise  for me. We went to his car and when he opened the hatch back there was a new contractors table saw.

I din't know what to say I was completely speechless. On one had there was no way I was going to say to him that I didn't want it because I don't use table saws anymore, the smile on their faces knowing they were able to help out a missionary was incredible. On the other hand it was a small Black and Decker contractors saw that really wouldn't handle sheet goods of plywood for the carcass of the cabinets, but I still wasn't going to say that to them. Out of their love for me they wanted to help me out and went and purchase a saw that cost roughly $300 here in C.R. So I took it home set it up and found a spot for it in my shop. It has a small footprint compared to the saw I once had. I will probably use it for quick rough cuts just like I am using my bandsaw for. One thing is for sure I will cherish that saw until I die. Every time I look at it it reminds me of Rolando and Sonia. And so there my friends is another story now stored away in my memories to reflect back on and enjoy. Who knows if Rolando and Sonia will still be in our lives in another ten years but I will always have the saw and the memories.

Cherish every moment my friend because life is but a vapor and is gone before you know it.

Take care my friends and as always God bless
Mark

Essentials Oils Carrying Case part 10

Buenas días from Costa Rica my friends.

Enjoying another glorious day here in paradise, but I have to admit it has been rather hot here these last days. But I will still take this over below zero weather knee deep in snow anytime. Well these last few days have been a whirlwind a ministry activities to where I had forgotten exactly what progress I had made on the case in comparison to what I had posted. So in part 9 I dovetail the carcass which went well, but I have been having a lot a breaks along the groove for the back panel. near the pins.

So the next step was to make the drawer runners, the bottom of the upper section, and cut the grooves in the sides and back for each. Here you can see I got the drawer runner parts cut to width and re-sawed to 1/2". One thing I noticed on re-sawing is that my saw seems to handle well widths up to about 4 to 5 inches. Anything more and I tend to get a noticeable bow when cutting. I do like my frame saw though and will keep it for use on less wider material. Once the pieces were cut then I moved on to the sides and back to scribe and cut out the groove for the runners and bottom part of the upper section. What I did was assemble the carcass, put the bottom drawer to use as a reference to draw a line on the sides and back showing where the bottom of the runners should go. I then scribe a straight line on it using a straight edge and my marking knife.

I then put my router plane with the 1/2" cutter up against the line and used the cutters width to mark the top portion of the groove. And once again scribed a line in the wood. I really like my Stanely 71 1/2. I got it on ebay really cheap because it didn't have a cutter. I then bought a 1/2" cutter from Leevalley and it seems to work fine. I really love the writing on the router.

So I just started to slowly route out the material. As I got lower reaching the bottom of my scribe line I would just use a 1" chisel with only hand pressure and re-cut the scribe lines making it easier to remove the material.

 So here is the finished grooves for the drawer runners. I really enjoy using the router plane, it is so peaceful.

On the side drawer runners I half lapped them on top of the front and back ones to give it some support.

 Once I finished the groove for the runner I went on to cut the groove for the bottom piece of the upper section following the same procedure. I forgot to mention that the side were stopped dados 1/2" back for the runners and 3/4" back for the upper section. I did 3/4" for the upper to give me more material for the lock I am going to install. I wanted more material because this will be the first time for me to try to install one of these locks.

Well my friends I hope you enjoyed this post. We are nearing the end of this project. Next up the front panel. Then prepare for glue up. I was able to purchase the hardware today so it will be here in the 7th of April. Once this project is finished I will move on to two more that have recently be requested of me to build. One is some kitchen cabinets for another church member and the other is a music stand for the guitar players in our church.

Take care my friends and as always God bless
Mark Hynek

Essentials Oils carrying case part 9

Buenas días from Costa Rica my friends

Well, it is another glorious day here in Paradise and the carrying case is coming along quite nicely. Only 3 weeks and my honey and I will be vacationing alone at an all inclusive resort here in C.R. Can't wait for some alone time with my wife. I love being with my kids but there is nothing like spending some quality time with the one you want to spend you entire life with. Hopefully later this fall we will be able to take the whole family.

Well, in the last post the carcass parts were rough cut, smoothed out, re-sawed to 1/2" thickness and cut to size. Today is dovetail day for the carcass and cutting and installing the back panel. I think I might have mentioned in the post when I dovetailed the drawers that I really like how Rob Cosman and Tom Fidgen teach dovtailing, especially with regards to layout. No measuring just dividers and a dovetail marker, which makes it so much less complicated. One thing I always had a problem with was when cutting the tail board I could cut the line straight to the bottom but staying perpendicular to that line was where I would mess up. Watching one of Rob Cosman's videos on youtube helped me out when he suggested to put a board behind the tail board and draw the lines not only on the tail board but on the scrap piece behind it as well. That way the line is longer and helps you stay perpendicular to the angle line you are cutting. It is more wood to cut but really helped me in my attempt. I decided to go with larger pins just because I am still developing my dovetailing ability. I know smaller tight pins look nicer, but I just wasn't ready to attempt it. Overall I think the dovetails turned out nice. Not as many gaps and I did need to pare down the tails and pins to get a nice fit.I am actually liking the exposed joint on this project.

So once that was done it was on to the back panel. As you can see in the photo I decided to go with the grooved panel.

So once I got the dimensions for the back panel I had to flatten it out. As you can see there was a bit a wind in the board. I use 1/2" angle iron for my winding sticks. I learned that from Chris Schwarz a few years ago.

As so the board is now flat.

Then it was on to re-sawing. This was my most challenging piece being the biggest and widest of them all. As you can see in the photo my saw is pushed all the way up on the other end and so I only have about 6" of saw stroke to work with. Short choppy strokes for this one. Oh well, maybe some day I can get a Badaxe one. As you can also see I have my waste side marked out to remind me how to position the board. One thing I had learned from Tom Fidgen when he was demonstrating re-sawing larger planks was to angle your cut on each side so you are in fact cutting less wood than just one continuous cut when cutting level. That actually helped in preventing the blade from veering off and so this plank turned our quite well compared to the carcass planks.

So here I started to make the rabbet for the back panel using my Stanley no. 78. this time it actually worked quite well and I was able to get a nice looking rabbet.

 It was a little bit more difficult cutting the stopped dado on the carcass pieces. I tried my Stanley no. 45 but just couldn't get it with that. The 45 did help me mark out the dado though. Instead I just slowly, using only hand pressure cut a knife wall, that is how Paul Sellers would put it, with a wide chisel. Then took my Lie-Nieslen small router plane and slowly carved out the groove. The small router plane has a 1/4" blade in it which was perfect for what I needed.

It worked out pretty well and I really enjoyed my time working on the rabbet and dado. I would have to say the router plane is one of my favorite tools to work with. I am sure there are many other ways to cut a stopped dado, maybe quicker too, but I prefer the router plane for a number of reasons. It is peaceful work. You can sit there listening to some good music and just enjoy yourself. It is slower work which brings a sense of calmness to the shop. Any chance I get when cutting dados I reach for the router plane. 

So here is the back panel partially installed. Again I think it turned out quite well based on my ability. So far I have really enjoyed this project and hope to be able to do more like this in the future.

Up next is the drawer runners, bottom panel for the upper section and the front panel. Then all the parts for the case will be completed ready for assembly prep as well as finishing. Hope you enjoyed the post my friends.

Well, take care and as always God bless.

Mark Hynek

Essentials Oils Carrying Case part 8

Buenas días my friends from Costa Rica

Well it is still March 2nd here in C.R. I have quite a bit of information to get out regarding the carrying case but wanted to separate it into shorter posts. In the last post I had rough cut the pieces for the carcass. Today I want to talk about re-sawing the parts. The sides and the top are roughly 12" x 8 1/2". I built my frame saw on my own based on Tom Fidgen's design in his second book. The only problem I had was that I didn't have the funds to purchase the saw plates from Bad Axe tool works, of which I am praying that someday I will have them. Anyway, I set out to build my own with materials I had available to me here in C.R. I went to the local hardware store and bought a inexpensive Stanley rip saw and cut my frame saw plate from that. The length I was able to get for the plate was about 21 1/2" leaving me about 18 1/2" of actual blade to cut with. So if you factor in roughly 9" wide boards I had about 9" of cutting stroke. Bad Axe offers a 31" blade which would have been nice, but this worked out well. I just had to take my time on cutting.

So here all the parts are kerfed out and ready for re-sawing. I sure am glad I built the kerfing plane and the frame saw. The wood that is available to me here in C.R. comes 4/4 or larger so instead of trying to plane the material down to size re-sawing comes in really handy.

So the situation I ran into with my frame saw, and I am sorry I didn't get any photos of it, was that my frame saw seemed to always want to track off to the right once I got down into the wood a bit. On the drawer pieces, which were 3" wide I didn't seem to have that problem but at 8" something was causing my blade to veer off. My natural instinct, although flawed for this application, was to try to direct the blade back towards the kerf line. Problem was when I began to push the blade back to the left it was only occurring on the side I could see. On the far side it would actually track further to the right or left depending on which side your viewing from, which would be the natural direction the blade would go when I pushed it to the left on the near side. So then when I notice the far side was tracking right I switch side, still cutting in the same direction, but pulling instead of pushing the saw. Then I tried to push the far side back to the kerf, which again cause the other side to track back off the kerf. This back and forth attempt to compensate resulted in a bow effect with the blade. So the blade ended up cutting on a curve instead of straight. Once I got down to a point to where I needed to saw from the other end I would cut down to the meeting point only to find the actual kerf that was cut was way off the intended kerf thus creating a step in the wood. I think the photos can explain it best thought.

As you can see the one on the left as I planed it down there was still quite a bit in the center due to the bow effect. On the right you can see the worst example of the four. What I did notice though is that the blade always seemed to drift to the right and at the time the was the good side not the waste side. Therefore I concluded that the waste side always needs to be on the right so if a bow does occur, the side I need will actually have extra material instead of less. It is always better to remove material instead of having to add.

So here are the pieces after planing them flat. It took a little work but I think they turned out okay. Fortunately I re-sawed them at 5/8 and was already planning on having to plane to finish thickness. So after this experience I wrote on my frame saw on the right side "Waste Side" to always remember which side should be where. I don't know if this has to do with the tension of my blade or something else. But this is the process of knowing your tools and how they work.

So here is how the pieces look next to the drawers. What I am most please with so far is how straight and square the pieces are coming out, with out any twist in them.

Well, next up dovetailing the carcass and building the back panel. Hope you enjoyed this post and the journey of building this carrying case.

Well my friends, take care and as always God bless

Mark Hynek