3.31.2020

This morning, Jim installed the new door in the cabinet - it is a perfect fit!  So he'll be able to press on with the next stages of finishing.

His straightening experiment on the other door panel worked!  

That meant that he was able to continue on making the other new door without having to remake the panel as well.  Glued and drying...

Doing the millwork on the other panels...

Trying them out in the door assemblies...

After he got all the edges and surfaces sanded, time for a coat of primer...

Primed pieces drying...

High 45/Low 28

This sure has been an unbelievably difficult month for the entire planet - it's really hard to fathom the changes we have gone through just in the month of March.  Hopefully as we flip the calendar page tomorrow to April, we'll have better news for everyone in the coming days.  Stay home and stay safe until then!

3.30.2020

Last night we had a rare, but brief, thunderstorm along with marble sized hail.  It's always surprising to hear thunder here; it just doesn't happen too often.  We were happy that our vehicles were tucked safely inside and that the hail just bounces off our rubber roof!

This morning, Jim headed back to the shop to continue working on the cabinet doors.  He got edges primed...

Then he started doing the millwork on the remaining door pieces - all the groves cut...

He decided to set up this jig on his table saw to see if it would make cutting in the tongue portion a little easier.

Once he got it set up, it worked very well... 

 This millwork all done!

 Primer was dry so he glued the pantry door panel together...

Time to cut the panel out of the other made door...

Taking off the stile...

Then getting the panel out...

However, when Jim got the panel out and inspected it, it had a slight bow in it so it might have been the culprit that caused the door to bow.  Sigh...  He'll have to remake a new panel now.

The good part is that hopefully Jim can reuse some of these pieces - they're set aside for now.

But just to see what would happen, Jim is trying to over stress the panel and see if he can straighten it.  Can't hurt - we'll see what it looks like tomorrow!

 

And sometimes you don't have enough clamps!  Jim used all his clamps and was able to glue up three more door assemblies...

Next, he cut panels for the other doors...

High 44/Low 32 - on/off light rain

3.29.2020

We have really missed the turkeys and we are very gradually starting to see them a bit more, but just a few at a time, although we hear them gobbling in the woods in the morning.  There were two really big males strutting around the yard this morning as I was making pancakes.  Here's one...  You can also see that our snow is all gone except for the pile in the turnaround.  

 Jim made "feet" for the finished cabinet to sit on so that the bottom edges and corners wouldn't get any damage.  It looks so pretty!

Jim's new pieces for the door sit completely flat now...

He had already started cutting pieces for the other cabinet doors; today, he spent time sizing them and working to insure that they are also completely flat and straight.

That process involves lots of passes through the jointer and planer...

Doing some measuring to be sure...

Then starting to cut things to size...

Three door pieces all sized...

Time for some sadness - Jim had to cut the old finished doors so that he could remove the panels to be used again.  He had to make two cuts on the bandsaw...

Then he was able to break off the stile...

Then using his hammer, he was able to work on getting the panel out without any damage to it...

Once the panel was out, Jim sanded it to get it ready to use again...

Trying it in the new frame - perfect!

By putting one of the old ones on top of the new one and pressing the two sides together, you can see that there's just a very slight bow in the old one that caused the door to just not fit as flat as Jim wanted in the cabinet.

High 45/Low 37 - drizzly day

3.28.2020

With the first side painted, Jim prepared to paint the other side of the cabinet.  I should have pointed this out yesterday - in this picture you can see that he made a cradle for the cabinet to sit in so that it would be off the floor.  So today, he flipped it over and redid the plastic covering where need be.

That done, he moved onto remaking the stiles for the doors again since he wasn't happy.  He spent hours taking little bits off, moving from jointer to planer, to get everything as flat as possible.

Even doing that, you can see the far right piece ended up having a slight bow to it, so he had to make another one!

But finally he had four long stiles he was happy with so he made the rails and then did all the millwork...

Doing the glueing process...

Two assembled door pieces glueing...

Then it was time to paint the other side of the cabinet and do all the cleanup...

 
Since we can't go to Mass like normal, our priest has been recording Mass and having it available online, complete with our music ministry.  So we are off to church...in our living room!

High 49/Low 39 -
few drizzles in PM

3.27.2020

Remember the picture from yesterday and how beautiful the new pantry cabinet looked?  Well, Jim was not happy with the doors - even with all the straightening he does with both the planer and jointer, there was a slight bow to the door that didn't let them lay 100% perfectly flat.  No one else would have noticed but Jim just wasn't happy so he's going to remake the doors!  Instead of using soft maple, he had some hard maple (below) that he brought back from Ohio that he'll use to make the stiles - he should be able to reuse the panel.  

The pieces cut...

Using the jointer...

He's also pressing on with getting the cabinet painted - this required lots of prep time to get everything perfectly covered with plastic so there were no issues with the parts already painted.  The back view...

And the front all covered up...

 Time to paint...

With a little time at the end of the day while he couldn't work in the shop, Jim continued working on the old computer.  The guy who picks up the bags of sawdust cancelled last week and then we got snow this week so Jim had to take the bags back down to the bottom of the driveway today and the guy is going to stop on his way home from work.  Will be nice to get them out of Jim's car!

I actually ventured out of the house for the first time in quite awhile - I had to drop off a mailing at the post office and get milk and a few staples just from the little store in town.  Things seemed better stocked and everyone was practicing their safe distances!  Keep safe, everyone!

High 54/Low 24