Office Built-in . Paintgrade Maple w/ finished desk top

Here is a shot of an office built-in I just installed this week. The room was 11' wide with 9' tall ceilings. All the cases are paintgrade Maple. The bottom cabinets are 16" deep on the left and right. The PC tower is 28" deep and the drawer cabinet has 2 5" drawers and a file drawer below. The desk top is solid Maple finished in Minwax's "gunstock". The upper cabinets are 12" deep. The install went pretty well took about 10hours working alone. With the holidays coming up I'm going to take a little break from larger projects and focus on some small things for family. Maybe even continue to organize the shop at home. Maybe?

Completed Kitchen Installation

Before...


























After.

I spent some time working on the mortise and tenon joinery for the legs/aprons. This is my first attempt with this joint. I drilled out the mortises with my $50 Mortiser that has been collecting dust in the corner of the shop. Next I had to decide whether to tackle the tenons with the tablesaw or my own 2 hands. I really want to involve more hand work in this project so I carefully marked my cut lines and got out my handsaw. I have to say it was quite enjoyable, it really takes you back to the way things used to be done. I took my time and it was quite relaxing actually. I'm so used to rushing around and having to worry about time. That is why this is my vacation project. There is no clock or someone else standing around checking to see if I'm done yet. Just me, some nice cherry wood, and my handsaw. Here are the results from my first mortise and tenon joint. I only had time last night to cut the one side of the Apron. I don't think it came out that bad, did I mention I can't afford to make a mistake since everything is grain matched for continuity around the piece? Should be fun!

Vacation?

I'm technically on vacation this week so what will I do? I've been really busy at my "real" job and doing alot of side jobs lately as well. I finished phase 2 of the kitchen remodel. Somewhere in the past fews weeks I started and finished a 6'x 6' Oak LP record cabinet. I have phase 3 of the kitchen job to build, have finished, and installed by Thanksgiving. Oh and an office built-in, including a desk that also has to be installed by mid November. So I ask, what should I do while on "vacation"? Well, I'm going to be selfish and take a little time to myself. I'm going to finish building a little side table that I started designing (and redesigning) a few months back. It's a small little table standing about 24" high, 20" wide, and about 10" deep. All solid Cherry. I've had the top cut out for some time now, I've rough cut the Apron and drawer parts. Last night I cut the shape for the legs out of 1 3/4" cherry. The leg has a nice curved side to it up at the top and then a taper down to 3/4". I also machined the mortises for the side and back aprons. Today if time allows I plan on cutting the tenons in the aprons as well. We shall see, after all I am on vacation.

Spinning out of control

Man, I wish I had more "free time". My mind spins out of control going over and over and round and round. There are thousands of ideas for things I want to build, new design ideas, new ways to organize the shop, etc etc. But I have to get some work done. Maybe I should spend less time in front of the monitor and more out in the shop. Good point Brian. I have some work to do. I need to start making some more progress on phase 2 of the kitchen remodel.
Phase 2 is the refacing of the base cabinets. There are only four so it shouldn't be that bad. I already have the doors built. So next I need to re-saw some maple down to 1/8" for the refacing material. I just installed my Carter bearing set on my band saw and have everything tuned up and ready to go. That step shouldn't take too long.
The next part is making the new drawer boxes and pullout trays. Again, there are only 3 drawers and 3 pullouts. Not too bad. I think the hardest part is going to be the actual installation. It's so much easier when you can throw the cabinet up on your bench instead of trying to jam yourself into a cabinet that is already installed. I will definitely take before pictures to show you how out of whack the cabinets are. Well I just spent 10 mins of shop time sitting in front of the computer. Maybe I should stop complaining about a lack of "free time" and get to work...

T-shirt Idea

I was thinking about having some t-shirts made. Let me know what you think???

Make custom t-shirts at CustomInk.com

Make custom t-shirts at CustomInk.com

Make custom t-shirts at CustomInk.com

Severe Tornado watch???

Something about making a mess to clean one up? I dunno what happened here. I don't recall any weather alert about a tornado touching down in my shop. I just finished up the 2 corner cabinets and started a serious reorganization process when I snapped this picture. I think I'll print it out and hang it on the wall as a reminder as to how bad it can get.
I work in a small single car garage. What's that, somewhere around 250 sq. feet? If you don't put something back when your done, it becomes a safety hazard. It's been about a week since I took the picture and things are definitely looking up. Especially when you look down, you can see the floor!!! baby steps, right?
I have a few jobs I'm getting ready to start so I'm taking the next week or so to finish my cleanup, reorganization, and tune-up of the shop. One of the first things I'm going to tackle is installing my Carter bearing set on the bandsaw. I've had it for a few months now, and with a job that definitely requires some resawing, it's time to get it on...

Let the sawdust fly...

I've decided to add a new feature to my website. They say "Pictures speak a thousand words", but you know what else does? Words! I can post pictures of every project I work on but I wanted to go further than that. I want to talk about the process involved in the projects. I want you to know what I'm thinking and feeling when I'm working on a project. Some of you who I'm doing work for may read this and see maybe today I didn't feel like ripping down 400 linear feet of lumber for your project. Well don't take it personally, I'm not going to hide my feelings. Some days I want to spend 12 hours of the day in my shop. Other days I don't even want to bother turning the lights on. I'm not sure if this will be a daily post, maybe weekly, let's just let the sawdust fly (or not) and see what happens...

bt