Thanksgiving Week Projects

During the last week I had the opportunity between the beginning of the Holiday activities to finish the headboard in bedroom furniture project and start the finishing on the laundry room built-in cabinet.

The headboard project in the end turned out to be one of the most satisfying wood working projects undertaken so far, because it started as a Ponderosa Pine tree here at Pinon Rock that had been killed by Mountain Pine Beetles and had to be taken down. Once down, Marlys and I sawed it on our sawmill, and the then there was the work of turning the slabs into furniture grade wood. The blue fungus spaling adds real character to the wood. To some it looks like very old reclaimed (silvered) wood was actually used.

As with many of my projects this one did not start with anything more then the measurements of the mattress width and height. Although, I thought of drawing up a set of plans using Google Sketch-Up, I was confronted by the need to see what the wood would give me, before settling on the design. As you can see from the picture in keeping with the rustic look and feel it is pretty simple with only the addition of rails and stiles and an arched top.

The joinery was straight foreword also in that the top and bottom stiles were joined to the posts using mortises and tendons and the panels used tongue and grooves. All in all it is pretty sturdy and it passed the “Marlys inspection”. The remaining pieces in the bedroom project, e.g. side tables and dressers won’t get started until the laundry room project is done and we mill a few more beetle kill trees.

The other project has become problematic.

the cabinet carcass and door was accomplished in a few hours over a Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Pocket screws were used for building the face frame and tongue and groves for the door rail, stiles and panels. But, as in the case of the cowboy sideboard the finishing because it includes staining has been a pain.

Maple, like the Poplar used in the sideboard is a softwood and is prone to blotching, especially when being stained. I thought that I had learned how to do this, but alas, I guess not.

The Maple in this case needs to be stained a dark Chestnut to match the kitchen cabinets. I thought I had prepped the surface well by flooding it with pre-conditioner (varnish-based in this case), but once the stain was applied, it was pretty clear I had done a poor job of sanding and the pre-conditioner (as in the sideboard) didn’t work so well.

So, the sanding began. After consulting my Fleener on finishing guide I next sealed it with shellac. I was letting it dry when we left yesterday, hopefully next weekend it will get stained.

BTW: when we left yesterday Pinon Rock was in the sun, but windy and cold, little did we know that the trip back to Parker would be a five and half hour slog through the snow starting at Woodland Park (on Hwy 24 above Colorado Springs).