New Testingstan

My mom had surgery yesterday, so I made her chicken soup:


Continuing on with my new tool chest, the lower cabinet:



The dovetails at the ends:


Still lots to do, like trim those dovetails flush. I need to put on the backs. I need to build the fall fronts. I need to add the casters and I need to put the lid on. Then paint everything and put the handles on.

Ohhh wish I could dovetail. I really should do an adult ed course in woodworking to freshen up my skills; finding as I've been getting into prop-making that I'm covering up a lot of sloppy work with filler.

Get a dovetail saw, a chisel and mallet, a square, a mechanical pencil and a t-bevel. That's what I use. (I also use a fret or coping saw to cut out the bulk of the waste, but that's not strictly necessary.)

Then buy some cheap lumber from the hardware store, layout your tails and cut till you can do a halfway decent job. That's how I learned.

Here's the method I use for laying them out: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techn ... -dovetails

Cheers for that, useful info. Biggest problem for me in probably in getting steady cuts. I can follow a line alright, but will almost always have to put in a lot of effort with a file to get the new edge flush. This doesn't seem like it should be the norm.

That's not really a huge deal, by itself. I use files sometimes if I end up out of square, though not as much as I used to, and I still always double check with a little mini square that I have. I just need to get better at fitting everything so that there's fewer visible gaps.

To help yourself avoid going off square, start with "Nibbling cuts" until you establish a kerf along your lines. Also, always advance along two lines, never just one, until that kerf is established. After that, you have to work harder to go out of square than stay in it (assuming you start in square).

Lower cabinet almost done:


The rear panel:


The beading I applied to separate the two pieces of the back panel:



I just need to square up the front lips (which ended up slightly out of square somehow...), build the lid and then paint the exterior. I may or may not shellac the interior.

Depends what you put into it I guess. I've got a hankering to try making a road case now.

I have created... GOSSAMER SHAVINGS!!!

Finished lower cabinet (complete with shavings from cutting rabbets into the fall front):

The back of the front, those slats help hold the front in place:

The rabbets on the fall front (I don't think I did a very good job actually...):


I'm going to finish building the main chest now, then I need to paint the whole thing. I may also add magnetic catches to help hold the fall fronts in place, I haven't decided yet if that's necessary.

Back is on the main chest:

As you can see I cut slots in the shelves so that my carpenter square fits in the chest:

View of the back:

The joints and beading I added (which aren't great, but they work):

Cleats for the chest bottom:

Fall front:

Slot for the fall front (there's another on the other side, of course):

Fall front on:

Stacked together:

With their fronts on:


I'll try to build the lid tomorrow. Then start painting it.

Lid's built:

What it'll look like when I attach it (It's just lying on top for the picture):


Next up: Painting.

Two coats of red and a coat of polyurethane:

First coat of blue:

Third coat of blue:


Next I need to fit the lid hinges and handles.

Hinges fit:

Handles fit:


Now to fill it with my tools!

Filled with tools:


It's a bit of a jumbled mess at the moment. Space ran out fast. There's also some wasted space, vertically, in the top.

I'll have to spend some time working out the best way to store everything.

Added pulls to the drop fronts on my toolchest to make them easier to open.


I'm also going to take another stab at the walnut side table I was working on back in May. I couldn't get the top to work out right so I'm going to try it again with a maple top with breadboard ends.

Oh, and the first back of Holiday Cheer 2014 is in the bottle and should be ready Sunday.

Homemade Paste Wax:

(Hot)


(Cooled)

Tung oil, carnauba wax and beeswax. I tried adding orange oil to make it smell citrusy, but the nuttiness of the tung oil completely drowns that out. I'll try it out when I get that table I'm building finished. Probably won't have time until next weekend or the next.

New drill press with added mobile base and (in progress) auxiliary table:

It doesn't look that stable. Doesn't it have a slight tendency to shake on its base?

It is very top heavy, as drill presses tend to be, but if you look close you can see that I've bolted it to the wood which in turn is attached to the base with screws and extra wide washers through the front, sides and back. I deliberately shook it once I had it attached to the base and it always went back to a stable point of rest. I also drilled a hole into a scrap piece and it didn't shake during that.

Way ahead of you, dude!

Drill Press Table done:

I may have to adjust the fence since it gets in the way of the feed handles if the table is really close to the drill, but we'll see after I use it awhile and what kind of work I end up doing.

Tray added to toolchest for layout and measurement tools:


Supports:


I also have a new batch of holiday ale in the fermenter, but it's not the usual holiday cheer (of which I still have two batches bottled). It's a porter with Christmas spices and it actually sounds really good. I'll know soon enough.

I rate it!

Mom's Christmas Present:


It's a candle box with integral candle holders. The top and bottom are walnut and the sides are figured maple. It was finished with garnet shellac and then rubbed down with my homemade paste wax. Which worked quite nicely.

Dad got three kinds of homemade mustard. I especially like the grainy mustard with its horseradish-like kick. There was also a yellow mustard and a sweet Guinness mustard.

Also, the Christmas spiced porter I mentioned back in November is delicious. It's like drinking Christmas.

So I haven't been posting much lately because I haven't been making as much as I might have in the past.

I'm working on a book shelf, but it's not ready yet. I also brewed a rye oatmeal double brown ale tonight. It'll be a close to a month before it's ready though. I also have a dunkelweizen in the bottle that'll be ready next Saturday. I also need to make a batch or two of strawberry jam and I want to try out some lemon jam.

Stay tuned!