Even back in my early days of woodworking I like this tool, in fact it has been a favorite even before I had much else to use and it has stayed that way even to this day. I use to try and help my brother put his projects together, if you can imagine a 6 year old trying to nail things together as being much help. His physical disabilities and my ineptitude were the perfect storm in a lot of cases but we both lived through it and I learned a lot and found I loved working in wood.
So here is how today's project started, some simple sketches. Sometimes I go to sketchup but today I just wanted to savor the time and not have to go to the computer. With this design I went to my "special" wood pile. Only the most interesting and beautiful pieces of wood make it to this pile. I mean look a the gain and color of this piece:
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Next it was time to collect my tools. Sometimes I use only hand tools, sometimes I use only power tools, and most times a combination of both. I also have some tools which I reserve just for special jobs like this. I keep them in a special spot hidden away because I'm pretty fussy as to who I let use them, that being only me. Here is a shot of today's tools:
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Next came the layout. You always want to make sure you have enough wood and that there are no major defects in the pieces. Today the pieces were perfect! What a treat! What's more there was plenty of wood for the project. Layout was really easy, in fact it went faster then usual. Upon inspection the wood was just plain flat and already to work with, a rare thing to have happen. No jointing, no planing and with the layout done I was on to some of the more difficult parts of a project, that being the doing of it.
Layout makes the project easy to do. In just a few moments the parts were sized as seen here:
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I decided to make some fancy joints as can be seen here:
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Wow were they easy! Having the right equipment sure makes the difference.
Now it was time for a dry fit...... you know what I decide to just go to glue. I have this new glue that really makes the job easy, it tacks so the parts don't move and then drys quickly with almost no excess glue to run out of the joints. In my case there was totally no clean up needed. How do they do it? Here is a picture of the bottle:
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What was especially great was I got the glue free as in free.
Now you would think it was time for sanding, not so, the project was total smooth and perfect just as it was. I don't love sanding and it is more like I really hate sanding so this was a special treat today. I know if there isn't a picture then it didn't happen so here you go the picture:
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I'm going to take a break while the finish is drying. It went on so nice, just like you see on TV. I'll be back to finish the story and project in a little while.
Ed
