Shopsmith Forums

Berry, not much more you can do then except give the person what they want to the best of your ability.

Whatever you do get your money up front and don't take a check. Almost any dog will be out of that crate in less than 30 minutes. I had a toy poodle that could chew through anything wooden that was in her way of going where she wanted. Had a Doberman that would gnaw down small trees for something to play with. Had a rat terrier that chewed through a garage door to go visit the ladies.

The biscuits will be more than enough. They will most likely exceed the strength of the wood. For piece of mind just do a test piece with two biscuits and glue well and then put it in a vice and stress test it. You will be amazed at the strength of the joint. Usually the wood will split before the joint gives way. When you assemble do yourself a favor and use blue tape on all the joints which will allow you to use plenty of glue. Screed it off and then remove the tape. This will give you an amazing joint with no glue mess to clean up.
Paul

berry wrote:

ERLover wrote:I did not mention this but thought about it when I made my first post here. Having many dogs, but they were kenneled and always 2 or 3, play mates. I know this is a commission job, but some bored/grated dogs want to chew, so I would not make a grate for a dog that was going to be in it for more then a few hours out of wood, unless I knew my dog was not a chewer. I guess thats the owners call though.

I've had labs forever and warned the customer that a 'chewer' and a wooden kennel was a recipe for disaster and urged him to purchase a wire or plastic unit. He insisted he wanted a kennel to match his kitchen decor. Further, I warned him that painting the inside of the unit was not a good idea, again because of a 'chewer'. He did accept my suggestion that we add a thin sheet of acrylic on top of the pw bottom, in the event of a biological accident.

Berry, be sure you get all that in writing if you haven't already.

Extend the dowels 'through' the rail/stile and into the frame.

Glad to see you've got a paying customer berry.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice. In the end I used biscuits. Here's a couple of photos of the completed kennel. It was my first attempt at spray painting using a HVLP sprayer. I tried to take some pictures that would show the surface but failed miserably.

Looks good.

berry wrote:Thanks to everyone who offered advice. In the end I used biscuits. Here's a couple of photos of the completed kennel. It was my first attempt at spray painting using a HVLP sprayer. I tried to take some pictures that would show the surface but failed miserably.

Kennel 477.jpg

Kennel 481.jpg

Kennel 485.jpg

It looks great in the photos. So in words, then, what did you think of the HVLP sprayer? I've got a really-big finishing project coming up, and I'm leaning in that direction.

BuckeyeDennis wrote:

berry wrote:Thanks to everyone who offered advice. In the end I used biscuits. Here's a couple of photos of the completed kennel. It was my first attempt at spray painting using a HVLP sprayer. I tried to take some pictures that would show the surface but failed miserably.

Kennel 477.jpg

Kennel 481.jpg

Kennel 485.jpg

It looks great in the photos. So in words, then, what did you think of the HVLP sprayer? I've got a really-big finishing project coming up, and I'm leaning in that direction.

I have the Earlex 5500. My bottom line is I thought it was great. Yea there's lots of prep work, thinning the paint etc. and clean-up, but the paint goes on really fast. I had lots of 1/4" scrap pw to practice on and I think I should have spent more time experimenting with distances from the work and the speed of my passes. Painting the slats was really easy. I spent time making a spray booth but for this project there wasn't much overspray at all. I used a standard 20" box fan to exhaust air and opened a window on the other side of the basement to add air.

There's an instruction DVD that comes with the unit that's pretty good and I had Jeff Jewitt's book and video too (recommended by someone on this forum) and well worth having for the beginner.