Still Working....

The job that pays the bills has been getting in the way lately but I have made some progress.When I assembled the spice chest the first time, I must have been tired or in a hurry because it was out of square big time.

So....I had assembled it with hide glue and decided to test the reason I used hide glue by taking every thing apart. It worked! Sort of. I had one side of dovetails that I did not soak enough in hot water and a couple of tails broke.

As luck would have it, they were on the top and the most visible. Well if the mark of a good craftsmen is hiding his mistakes, I must be getting close to being one because I think I did a fair job.I grabbed my new Bosch Pin router and routed away the tails and inserted patches. The sides will be covered by the trim so I only had to worry about the top 1/4 inch or so. The router made short work of everything.

I made the trim the other day using my new Bosch router and a bit that I had laying around, plus the table saw and my shoulder plane. Although I would have liked to have made the trim with hand tools only, time is running out and I had to make do. I am fairly happy with the results.





Another job I tackled was making the tongue and groove back for the Spice Chest. I used Eastern Pine because I like the smell of it.

I used my LN 1/2" T and G plane for this task. There is a learning curve to using this plane. I found out quickly that the proper way to plane is to begin at the far end of the  work and work backwards. This creates a grove or a tongue, depending which part of the joint you are working with, for the plane to track. Otherwise it is easy for the plane to drift off and ruin the joint.

Yesterday my son and I made a trip to a new lumber yard, The Wood Yard, ran by Rick Wood. His store has been up and running in Griffin, Georgia for about 2 years or so. This was my first trip. I was not disappointed. He has a good selection of exotic and domestic woods and has everything arranged so that it can be easily picked through. I was looking for curly maple and I am pretty sure he has the largest selection I have seen in the Atlanta area so far. We took our time there looking and talking to Rick, who not only sales wood, but is a woodworker himself. I came home with the curly maple I needed (I almost bought more than I needed!) and a board of curly maple with a fungus on it that I plan to use book matched for the door.I plan to head back to The Wood Yard as soon as I can because I spotted some exotic wood I would like to try. First, finish the Spice box. I gotta keep focused.