Gallery Wall in Shop & the Gate Leg Table

It has been a snowy weekend in the mountains, but that's to be expected during the winter in Colorado.

I have "had to" even plow twice...but it is more fun then work running the plow. Remember, I said this if I start to complain about plowing when we are up here full time.

Dusty the dog always gets a good run when plowing in that he tries to bit the plow blade. I am hoping that as he gets older he slows down and stops chasing it...although with more practice he may catch the plow some day.

Be careful what you wish for dog.

BTW, that little peak in the background above the barn roof is called Samson's ( the next one to the east is Delilah) and is ~9200' MSL.


Let me get to what I promised in the last post. Here are a couple of shots of the developing shop/gallery.

Derek seemed a little hesitant when I mentioned the shop as a storage facility for his sculptures once he moves them out of the studios when he graduates from Western.

He mentioned that they are being prices to sell, during his show the end of March.

The posters/pictures do add a little more character to the space...as if it needed it.

Wait until the phone booth/bathroom is put in this summer for some character.

On the top of the bench you can see the gate leg table starting to take shape. At that point I was dry fitting everything to make sure it worked.

Drilling the hole for the wood hinge and pin turned out to be less problematic then I actually thought, but fitting the swing out section took some finagling so that it cleared the apron the stationary portion is attached too.

Here it is glued up and with a first coat of stain/poly. I used the Minwax PolyShade product and as far as Oak is concerned I am sold on it.

For the second coat I wet sanded it after application, but before it set up. The surface is baby-behind smooth.

There will be at least one more coat before I am finished.

Setting the hinges into the bottom of the top surface showed off my lack of chisel technique. It took me a while but the hinge mortises are just right, and luckily when installed the chisel marks underneath will be hidden.

The edge also has had the same round over used on the folding join. Re-setting up the router to match the joint had me going through a few pieces of scrap to get it right. I did this on the plastic router table I picked up at Menard's a few years back for ~$25. It works like a $25 table too, but it was better then using the trim router and bearing.

Next weekend we are moving everything up to PR so there will be no fun time, but after that the projects will focus on getting the Truck Camper ready for the shakedown trip to Texas to visit Tom and Joy and Inks Lake State Park.

Wood Finishing Flow Chart

If you don't get this ezine, you should. One of today's items was a real treasure for me, since I am finishing challenged.

http://woodworkersjournal.com/Main/Articles/Skill_Builder_Finishing_Flow_Chart_5463.aspx

The sanding section alone was invaluable.

Thumbs Up on the Alston Shower Heads

I mentioned last Friday the installation of the Alston 1. 5 gallon lower flow water amplifying shower heads ( http://www.alsons.com/he-watersaving/showerheads/products/658.aspx ) that utilize pattern and droplet management, rather then air injection and we can now say that they work.

Water feels warmer due to larger drops, and the pattern makes you feel wetter (figure that one out), but now the flow rate has been reduced ~40%.

The Alston and Delta shower heads look identical, but Delta calls them H2O Kinetics.

Shop and/or Art Gallery

Due to the GPC (Great Pothole Controversy) during the Daytona 500 there was some time to fill Sunday afternoon. Not sure how long it would go on and not wanting to miss a second of what would become a 6+ hour race, I started through the closet under the stairs near the big screen.

In it was a pile of framed pictures, poster, etc. from days gone by, previous homes, artistic epochs....you get the drift.

Like piles of shoes these would not move unless they could be re-purposed or given to a charity for distribution in some third world local.

Somehow I could not picture a framed copy of the "1990 Olympic Festival" or vegtables soaking in a pot pretending its a hot tub, hanging in someones, home, hut, shack, shanty, abode etc., so the natural place would be the shop. Here everything literally flows down hill.

Luckily there was a wall with nothing on it (above eye level) screaming...actually mumbling for something.

Just like a "To Be Continued" episode on TV, you will have to wait till next week for the pictures.

As a teaser, let me just say it is very eclectic.

Daytona Delimma

Just got back from walk in a nuisance snow (more then flurries, but less then a light snow), and I am facing a dilemma, should I watch the Daytona 500 or continue working on the latest project in the shop? Now you may say these are not mutual exclusive, but in this shop they are, as there is no TV in it yet. We don't get broadcast TV up here so a satellite receiver and probably another dish will be needed.


Another project for the post-retirement life.


So, since this is the Superbowl of NASCAR, and since I got further along on the current project then planned yesterday, I am going to watch the 'Tona...at least for a while.

But let me tell you about the latest project. It is a table...again, but it is for the truck camper we got last fall. In the camper there is a wall with a mirror between the sofa and the dinette when the two slides are deployed. So this will need to fit the space and not get in the way when the slides come in. So what fits those requirements?


I found a few folding RV tables on eBay. One in fact was made out of solid cherry and when folded formed a cabinet. Alas, I was out bid, as normal when it is something I actually needed vs. just wanted.


So in searching the Internet found something called a gate leg table, So the search was on for some plans that could be used as a starting point and that is where I found this.


I mentioned that this was going into a camper so some adjustments were needed and that is what the chicken scratching is on the sheet.


This also lead to another project that is on the list, a Fibonacci gauge. I will let you google/wiki that one.


After the head scratching (different from chicken scratching), I came up with the overall dimensions of 26" tall, 18"/6" deep and 24" wide. When the wing is folded down the sofa slide should be able to pass the table, which will be attached to the wall under a window. With all of the interior pics of the camper I don,t have one of this area, but here is the area from the outside http://picasaweb.google.com/PTCaulfield/OkanaganTruckCamper117DBL#5396911027761780034 the table will go under the window between the two slide outs.


I need to pause for a minute here as we are coming up on the boogity, boogity, boogity moment, e.g. start of the race.


Ok, a clean start, so back to the blog. Which lasted right up until I started typing.


As you can tell from the dimensions, the top will not be round and in looking at how to do this I went to a source used on many of these projects Highland Woodworking's website and their tips page http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/free-woodworking-tips.aspx which gave me a formula on how to figure the table radius. I will bring the edge to the line using a belt sander.


This table top because of the ability to fold had an interesting technique between the fixed and folding wing in that one edge has a cove and the other a round over, that caused me some real fine tuning on the router table before I got them to match up. BTW the top is upside down.


Before closing up yesterday dry fitted the legs and aprons. What looks like a spare leg is actually the gate leg. I need to cut a wood hinge in the front secondary apron on which it will be attached.


The legs are tapered from 1 1/8" to 7/8" on the inside faces.

In order to do all of the table saw work I need to build a new zero clearance insert...because I dropped the current one on the floor and broke it. Here again I used a spare cherry drawer front in the cutoff pile.


This also brought back my wounding of the table saw top when I made the zero clearance face for the circular saw that was needed for cutting the office work surfaces. The carbide tipped saw blade cut right into the cast iron top. I filled the wound with epoxy.


I need to go back to the race.

After a Snow Shower

Waugh looked kind of interesting after a cold front induced snow shower went through at sunset.

Small Projects

Friday when we arrived I was able to get a few small projects done.


The first got rid of a blanket that we draped over a Doolittle print we have to keep the Sun from hitting it.





Last weekend the novel and revolutionary (to us) idea of hanging a roll up shade behind the glulam that could be pulled down when we aren't in resident (here).


The next project is one that those of you using wells and cisterns may appreciate. It was the installation of low flow shower heads. Now I have seen these before and had no interest in a dribble shower. Over the last few year fixture companies have experimented with ways t0 reduce flow without reducing the flow...how can that be you ask, well it has to do with "apparent" flow experiments. The two methods used currently are air injection, similar to the jets on a hot tub, but this tends to cool of the water. The other is pattern/droplet control. This is the way we went. Read up on the Delta H2O Kenetic's and Alston.






The last project had to do with door stops. I don't know if you have problems when the windows are open and the wind is blowing with doors slamming shut, but up here it is pretty regular. We have installed a number of these magnetic door stops around the house. The also have a cushioning spring built in. Initially I had to buy these at jobber hardware stored, but Lowe's now carries them.

I am retiring

February 28, 2010 will be my last day.

Now it is time to get to the growing list of things, e.g. projects, trips, beers, races, etc.

The Office Comes Together

I know, its been a few weeks since my last post. But in the last few episodes I have talked about the office build out using the excess cedar form the house build back in 2006. The 6x6 timbers say outside beside the shop for a number of years waiting for me to come up with a project for them.
The timbers were sawn into 5"x 1 1/4" pieces on the sawmill back in August and allowed to dry even more in the shop for the last 5-6 months.

Last mentioned here I was edge gluing them into 30" wide slabs and getting them ready for the install. Well I finally got a round to cutting them to fit the office.

I started by setting the height at 26" ( a compromise between Marlys and me, but well within the acceptable work surface height). I used a tool that has come out only a few times...the laser level which worked nicely in running a line around the room. Then I marked the studs using a finder in order to attach the wall brackets.

The rough lengths were pretty good in that they were long enough to allow me to fine tune, but short enough that I could get them into the office without marking the walls and ceiling too badly.

Once on the brackets I could check the angles and shave off (if you could call using a cir saw shaving) the excess. I used biscuits at the joints to make sure the heights aligned and pocket screws on the under side to draw them together. I tried to get the joints as tight as possible by putting a 5 degree back cut on the ends, but there is still enough room to slip a piece of paper into.

Next the surfaces were taken out into the garage for finishing, where we attempted to blow up the house by applying the BLO/tung/poly blend while using a propane open flame heater. This situation was frowned on by the local retired fireman (Bart). I think the fumes had me addled because once he brought it up it was kind of a duh to me.

They have turned out pretty nice. Now it is on to the shelving for the corner area, that and the printer will serve as a hard boundary between Marlys area and mine, since she is a noted sprawler.