Christmas Project PICS 2006

King size Cherry pencil post bed with Fiddleback Anigre (an African Hardwood) veneered headboard, custom mixed stain. Started in October and finished in early December. The finish is eight coats of brushed laquer (Deft). The frame and posts are solid cherry. The octagon posts are two 6/4 boards glued up with four sides tapered with bandsaw, the other four hand planed. Finishing hardware from Horton Brasses.

Side view with bed clothes. Need to add dust ruffle and tester to the top with canopy. Will do that in January and match curtains.

Pedestal Chess Set made with the left over Cherry from the Bed and Oak for the tiles. The dark ebony stain bled when I added the top coat so I had to re-finish and use a sharpee marker to get the black. Next time I will use a darker wood for the tile and top coat it natural. The finish is brushed laquer (five coats) and I added leather to the feet.



Jewelry Box (Cherry) with Red Mahogany Stain. Blue felt lined with a personalized silver inlay plate. This came out nice for her.



This is a demilume shelf made out of MDF with a Satinwood and Zebrawood veneered border. The apron is three sheets of MDF cut in semicircle stacked and glued with Satinwood veneer over top. I decided to make two more smaller ones and use them as guest room night stands. Pics to come.

Next two January projects are a valet cabinet to hold all of my guy things like ties, cuff-links, watches, wallet, belts, etc... then a demilune secretary with a separate organizer unit on top.

Christmas Presents

I decided to build my children a present from me. My son loves chess so I built him a chess set and ordered hand carved pieces. Since I only had a few days to do it I made the board out of what I had (Cherry) and the tiles are made of oak. The board is a pedestal style with a singel drawer and seven coats of laquer. For my daughter I built a jewelry box. All made out of the cherry I had left over from the four poster bed I did. Here are some pics with more to follow.

November Beer Session

Next brewing session at a friends Friday, November 10th. I chose to brew a Smoked Peat Porter Extract from Northern Brewers and I bought the XPA All Grain Kit. I'll be brewing both, Greg and Tim will be brewing extracts and we invited another to come around and check out what brew night is all about. Pictures to come....

Furniture Making II

It is now November and the bed is slated to be done by Tuesday, November 14. I have to go to Richmond to get cherry hardwood plywood for the headboard.




Used brushing Lacquer to get the finish I wanted. Two coats for the posts, four for the siderails. What started out as a quenn size bed has now been promoted to a king size after showing the wife how nice it is.
More to come.....

Beer Making

Making beer is easier than you might think. After you invest the time and energy in learing how to do it, buy the equipment an all the books you too can enjoy the fruits of your labor and stumble into the hall closet, drop your drawers in a drunken stupor and piss into the hall closet (thinking it is a bathroom). A very rewarding thing. You can start easy with the syrupy stuff and (if you prefer) graduate to all grain brewing like I have. I have acquired three 15 gallon kegs and have modified them to include in my all-grain setup. The stainless steel kegs have been modified with their tops cut off and weldless fixtures mounted to drain the kegs throughout the process. Keg 1 is my lauter tun (Holds heated water at about 175 degrees F), keg 2 is the mash tun (holds the beer ingredients to form the basis of the beer) and the wert (the boiling vessel). After experience with Ales I plan to do lagering next and will modify my freezer to maintain the colder temperatures.

October 01, 2006 Furniture Making 101

I am a consumate tinkerer. I seem to seek out things I have never done, get hooked, learn it, then move on to the next thing. My latest addiction: Furniture making. So I decided to build my own queen size pencil bed. Revelations included the need for more power tools, hand tools, techniques and a place to buy the raw lumber. I found a jointer at Sears for $400, too much for a hobby I am not sure of. Then a friend told me about Harbor Freight. I got a chinese made jointer
for $250 and after 5 hours of assembly I got to ruin my first piece of wood. The saying goes "You get what you pay for" is a correct one, but, the tool will do with some minor adjustments. Once I learned how to adjust the jointer knives my first bedpost came out. I got the lumber locally from a place called Northland Forest Products in Troy, Va. I bought a wood workers magazine and got some ideas. I decided to do the octogon corners with a hand plane. What a beautiful tool. ($10 at Harbor Freight)The finish comes out so smooth that even the finest grain sandpaper could not match. As I said, I ruined the first post but keep it around as a test piece to pratice on. The second piece is perfect. I needed a way to cut the angles into the posts so I found a bandsaw on sale at Sears, $140. Not too bad and it works great
My jointer cleaned up the angles enough to get rid of the gouges and the rough cuts. I used a hand plane to cut in the remaining 4 sides to make the octogon.

I plan to connect the side rails and footboard with mortise and tennons. The headboard will float in a mortise. All sides will be connected with bed bolts. The finish is 1/2 part Olympic Gel Stain (Cherry) and 1/2 part Minwax American Brown. Top coat is Deft brushed lacquer.




Wood:
All American Cherry
(3) 5/4x9" by 8' boards ripped to 2-3/4" boards for the Posts. ($120)
(2) 5/4x8" by 8' boards ripped to 7" boards for the side rails. ($80)
(2) 4/4x10" by 6' boards ripped to 9" boards for the headboard. ($44)
(1) 5/4x10" by 6' board ripped to 9" for the foot board
($45)
(1) 5/4x8 by 8' board ripped to 7" for the headboard rail.
($40)
Bed Rail Fastener ($25)
Bed Bolts ($25)
(8) Bolt Covers ($48)

Total unfinished Price: $427
Comparable New Chinese made bed: $1200
Pride from doing it myself : PRICELESS

A view of a mistake corrected. Made the mortise too long and had to plug the wood.



Stained and unstained side by side.


Lacquer application jig



Good color shot of two coats.

View of Tip -> Long and skinny ;)