Category: woodworking

So, um, remember that woodworking class I take sometimes? Class has actually been in session since September but with all the craziness of getting ready for our trip to Korea I didn’t get a chance to post any pictures of my progress (Also, I forgot to take my camera to class a few times which didn’t help.)

So to refresh your memory: I’m in the middle of building a spice cabinet with a rather fancy door. (Here are updates 1, 2, 3, and 4.) Here’s some of what I’ve done so far this semester.

Glued the diamond panel into the middle of the door and trimmed the edges of the door to size.

Hand sanded the door, the cabinet box, and the cabinet backing.

It took about an hour and a half to do a good job on the sanding. First I sanded everything with 80 grit, then 100, 120, 150, and 180. By the time I was finished my hand was numb and cramped. But if you don’t sand thoroughly sometimes you’ll see track marks after you apply lacquer to your project but by then you can’t do anything about it. I’ve put in so much time on this cabinet that I was going to make sure I did a decent job on the sanding.

Glued strips of solid mahogany onto the front edge of the shelves. After I stuck the strips on with glue a used an air gun to tack the strips down with tiny little pin nails.

The strips will give the shelves some stability and to provide a lip so the spice bottles won’t slide off the shelves. I also think it looks better.

The cabinet box and backing. The backing will be glued on after the cabinet has been sprayed with lacquer.

I didn’t get any pictures of it but this last week my wonderfully understanding instructor sprayed the cabinet door, box, and backing with several coats of lacquer for me. Going in the spray room and breathing in the fumes is a no-go for me since I’m pregnant right now so I really appreciated his help.

Next week I’ll glue on the back of the cabinet and install the hinges. We only have two weeks left of class but I think I’ll also be able to finish up a Christmas present I’m making for my dad. I have pictures of it in progress but I’ll probably post them after Christmas so as not to ruin the surprise.

The people who run the community education program where I take my woodworking class wanted students to submit photos of past projects to their website. I was going through my photos and realized I didn’t have any of the crib I had made (it was from before I started this blog) so I ran upstairs with my camera to remedy the situation.

(Sorry I couldn’t get a full shot of it–E’s room is teeny and I couldn’t back up any further.)

Close up of the lacewood medallions.

So far E seems to be a satisfied customer.

The crib is made out of solid walnut with lacewood accents. It took me three semesters to finish but I wasted a bunch of that time redoing things I messed up on and sitting around waiting for help (it was back when I was more of a beginner). If I were to make another one now (not that I have plans to) I could probably finish it in two semesters. I bought my plans and a hardware kit (the spring support for the mattress and the rails for the sides to slide up and down on) online.

Look back now there are a few things I would do differently. The slats ended up being a touch thinner that I wanted them to be and in the back of my mind there’s always a small worry that E’s going to kick though one of them, but so far they’ve been fine.

It was a really fun project. If I ever make another one I’ll probably customize the plans in some way like other people have done. All things considered I’m happy with how it turned out.

Yesterday was the last woodworking class until fall. I knew there was no way I’d be able to finish the spice cabinet in one night so I wasn’t frantically racing around the shop trying which was actually nice. It was the most relaxing last-day-of-class I’ve had in a long time. But I still made some great progress.

The piece of mahogany for the rails and stiles (sides and top/bottom) of the cabinet door.

The rails and stiles cut to size. (I taped them together before cutting so they would be exactly the same length.)

This is how they will be put together. The panel of diamonds will go in the middle.

I used the router to cut the inside edges of the rails and stiles to create a groove for the panel to fit into and also for the rails and stiles to fit together at the corners.

A close up of the cut profile.

And lastly, me with my long-suffering instructor.

I’m sad that woodworking is over until the fall but it’s nice to have more time to hang out with N during the summer months. And I have a list of projects to do around the house which should keep me plenty busy.

(Previous spice cabinet posts here: 1, 2, and 3.)

I made some good progress at woodworking last night. My friend Kristin is taking the class with me but she was sick so I was on my own.

I finished cutting the dadoes into the sides of the cabinet for the shelves and the back of the cabinet.

This is how the cabinet will fit together. It still needs to be glued.

Sanded smooth the diamond panel for the door.

I was a little disappointed I didn’t get the cabinet glued up last night but it should be pretty easy to clamp it up first thing next week. It will be nice to see it come together next week.

(Spice Cabinet updates 1 and 2 are here and here.)

Sorry for the picture dump: woodworking class is already over halfway over (I missed two weeks of class when I went to WA) and I since I haven’t posted about my project yet I have a lot of photos.

This semester I decided to make a spice cabinet. I was inspired by this cabinet which has hung in my parents’ kitchen for as long as I can remember. Objectively speaking it’s not exactly my style but over the years I’ve grown fond of it and its folksy illustrations.

My mom’s cabinet has handy spice charts on the door but since I don’t have any charts for the door I decided this would be a fun opportunity to use some fancy woods.

On the left is some African lacewood I had left over from the jewelry boxes I made last semester and on the right is a piece of zebrawood I bought specifically for this project. I’m going to be making a diamond pattern out of these two woods for the cabinet door, similar to what I did for the jewelry boxes but on a larger scale.

I cut the boards into one-inch strips and glued together the lacewood and zebrawood in an alternating pattern. (This part of the process is also similar to making cutting boards.)

Then I cut this board into one-inch strips across on the table saw.

Next I flipped every other strip and glued them together.

This makes a checkerboard pattern.

When I saw how busy the woods were together I started to get a little nervous that the pattern might be too much but I think rotating them 45 degrees so they’re diamonds instead of squares will help. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

We had a low-key weekend. On Friday we met up with Elaine and her husband for some Korean food again. It was a lot of fun. You can see a picture of us (me looking awkward and Elaine looking stylish as she is wont to do) in her post here.

Woodworking last week was a mixed bag of emotions. I made a lot of great progress but didn’t get everything I wanted to finished, mostly because I had forgotten that I needed to chisel holes (or mortises) for the hinges to sit in so the lids would lay flat when they’re closed.

The lids trimmed down to size and sanded most of the way smooth.
(Seeing how these turned out were the highlight of the class for me.)

I drew where the hinges would be placed on the back of the boxes.

Pre-chiseled boxes.

The mortises I chiseled for the hinges to sit it. It was pretty interesting to carve them out by hand with just a chisel and hammer, Noah’s ark style. You can kind of see where I went a bit out of the line and split a little bit of wood off. I was hurrying and took too much off. *Sigh*

Not pictured: the giveaway cutting board I got trimmed and mostly sanded!

I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get as far I had expected. The time it took to chisel out the mortises by hand really threw off my plans. But at least I got the cutting board trimmed to size and mostly sanded. My instructor said that I might be able to come in to the shop during the day to lacquer the boxes, so we’ll see how it goes. I need to sand the cutting board by hand and put mineral oil on it and then it will be ready for the giveaway.

I’m planning on taking the class next semester again so if I don’t get the boxes finished in the meantime I should be able to get them done in the first week or two of next class.