Desk Drop's Leaf for Fall- pt1

My parents own an old drop leaf desk that recently moved with them to their new house.  Late in the fall the leaf split in two and gently drifted to the waiting grass below to be plucked up with a rake. i.e. it broke in half and landed on someone's foot.

The front of this desk is a panel made up of several smaller boards and between the move to the new house and the age of the piece the glue holding the drop leaf panel together started to fail.

I took the two pieces intending to drop a few biscuits into the panel and glue it back up.  No problem!  That's too easy for G's Wood Shop though so instead I made a big project out of it and took weeks to return the piece instead of the promised few days! Naturally I photo documented the process so I'd have a good story to tell when returning the panel late.

Here's where I started with two boards nicely cleaved down the middle (I left the bruised foot behind):

I cleaned up the edges with a hand plane so they'll glue back together nicely.

The pencil marks let me see when I've got the entire edge flattened.

Next I clamp the boards flat to the surface of the bench...

...and cut some biscuit slots.

And the desk should be fixed by applying some glue and a few clamps.  Here's the dry run of the clamping.  Some vertical clamps at the ends with some cauls to make sure the panel stays flat and some horizontal clamps to put pressure on the joint.

With rehearsal over the clamps are placed within reach and glue is applied.

The clamps go back on.

Meh...maybe a few more clamps.

There was quite a lot of glue that squeezed out so I removed that with some knives.

And then I let the panel sit to dry for several days before I could get back to it.  In theory the journey should have ended here.  But where's the fun in that?  Anyone with nine clamps and a biscuit joiner could have gotten this far.  Around here we've got to get good and lost when on a journey!

-G!

Wall Clock

Our new spare room is decorated much like the spare room in our condo.  There's a Paris theme with lots of French stuff.  But there's almost three times as much wall space in our new house and that left us a large gap over the bed with nothing to fill it.  My wife really wanted a fancy clock to go there but I was too cheap to spend hundreds of dollars on the one she wanted.  Instead I threw this together for under $20.

The first step was to make a template.  The template gets screwed to the middle of a square piece of half inch MDF.  With a router inserted into the holes, rotating the template cuts the circles.  The other holes were used to make a keyhole slot on the back and to drill the holes to mark the hours.

I then used Minwax Polyshades classic black left over from refinishing a dresser to finish the MDF.

The Minwax worked great on the MDF and I would use it again.  The problem was that the shop was far too dark at the time and I couldn't see to get an even coat on.  The camera flash exaggerates the unevenness but in person it's not so bad.

Creating the template took much longer than making the clock.  I should probably grab another piece of 1/2" MDF and make another one with a cleaner finish and use this one on the wall in the shop.

-G

Super Pooper 2.0

Proper royals needs a throne in all of their homes.  Bun Bun is one well traveled bunny and the original Super Pooper is located at one of his vacation villas.  The new throne is meant for his primary residence.

The original Pooper is made from hard maple and a piece of cedar for the carrot top.  SP 2.0 is also hard maple but the carrot is made from padauk.

Original Super Pooper:

Super Pooper 2.0:

    

  Bun Bun:

-G

A gift given- Shoji Screen Japanese Floor Lamp (JFL 10)

The lamp has been delivered.  Here it is in it's new environment.

Cheers!
-G!

Screening is for movies and Japanese Floor Lamps (JFL9)

Well, this post has been sitting in draft for a year now.  It's fully fermented.  Let's get it out there so everyone can taste it's smooth single malty goodness.

We start off with the fully assembled lamp being given a final sanding to 220 grit.  The next step is to cut the paper shades.

The green tape on the crafting counter is the measured length the paper will be cut to.

A thin scrap piece of the Jatoba makes a decent straight edge since I don't have one long enough.  A paper cutting wheel will be used for the slices.

The Mulberry paper came from Curry's.

The paper gets taped to the bench to hold it flat.

It's adjusted to be square.

Rip cut!

Double sided fabric tape is used to secure the Mulberry paper to dowel rods.

The paper can then be rolled up like a scroll.  All of the rods are custom fit so they labeled T or B for top and bottom and numbered for a corresponding side of the lamp.

The dowel rods fit into the slots cut at the top and bottom of the lamp.

The paper rests in the routed channels on the verticals.

The dowels can be twisted to tighten the paper and remove the slack.

The thought was to make the paper replaceable so when tiny dogs or children chew holes in it, the screen can be repaired.

Boiled linseed oil and shellac are applied for a smooth finish.

Now for delivery.  This lamp barely fit in the back seat of the truck.  If it was one inch taller it would have had to ride in the bed.

-G!