Thursday, March 29, 2012

Scattered showers

Boy, it has been a little bit.
I feel all lost in a time changing, weather changing jumble of distracting, disconnected mess!
Also the part-time has been demanding more of me as we have been short handed for the last couple weeks.
Well, I certainly haven't gotten much done, feels like close to nothing, but I did get to veneering the top and bottom panels of the cabinet. Also got some leg shaping done.

Come on spring, lets get this fling over with so I can move on. I feel like it's going to take a few more weeks, bah.
Hope others are having more productive time(s)! Or perhaps enjoying the weather rather than being overwhelmed ha.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Cabin Fever 2012

Are you interested in fine craft, but perhaps more interested in furthering cancer research?
Well, you may be able to hit two birds with one stone at this year's Cabin Fever event in Rochester, MN!
 I have donated a Frame-Top Pedestal to be in the silent auction included in the event!
Please go to the event's website to see the goings on.

March 17, 2012
Clarion Inn - 1630 S Broadway, Rochester, MN
Making a donation to Cabin Fever furthers cancer research being conducted by the Mayo Clinic, U of M Cancer Research, and Hormel Institute for Cancer Research.


Monday, March 5, 2012

Cabinet Beginnings


Finally back to some woodwork.
This being a veneer constructed cabinet, one of the first things to do is get substrates together. Here I'm laminating a few thinner sheets of plywood to make a thicker plywood. Sometimes I do this so that I can add an extra sheet or two of veneer to achieve a thickness I can't readily get or to just better control my materials and make a flatter sheet of ply than I often see stock.

While that/those cook I got on veneer duty. I'm using a plank of Walnut I've been hanging on to for a couple years now. I found this plank at the local commercial lumber yard and nabbed it without a project in mind. You may see why when looking at the end grain pictured above! Such tight grain! Such deep color, for a kiln dried plank. It has a a few small knots and one big one at one end, must have been shunned from a veneer auction or something. Well, now I have it and I am going to cut veneer out of it. I welcome a bit of that character that makes the wood "more" organic and breaths more life into the typically stale veneer we've all seen.

After veneer was cut I got a move on the "stand," which feels odd. The stand usually comes after the cabinet. Because of the kind of integration between cabinet and stand here, I'm needing/wanting to make the stand first. It still feels strange.

Got the stand joints dry fit and am continuing the mock-up to see how it works/looks.
The legs perhaps look a bit fat, even though a little will get cut away I may slim them down a hair. I actually have extra legs this time! So I can do a pretty exact mock-up with those.
I'm also a bit torn between open legs and adding lower stretchers. I think I'm going to have to get the frame and panel doors represented to better feel/see the kind of weights going on and to see how "line-y" it all gets.
Hmm.