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
Nice job Mark!
ReplyDeleteThe case looks great~