Sunday, February 4, 2018

Rob's Millwork Shop

I spent a bunch of time at my shop again this weekend, working on some projects for our cottage.  We got quite a bit of snow in the past week... about 6 to 8 inches... so the snowmobile should get out soon.  But, it's been really cold, with overnight lows around -25C and the daytime high temperature only making it up to -15C or so.  Seems there is always a breeze, making it feel worse...
On Saturday I picked up some plywood from the lumber store and took it to the shop.  I only grabbed three sheets so far but need to get back there and grab some more.  These will be cut up and used to make the body of the cabinets I am building.  This will be a vanity for our bathroom, a free-standing pantry, and the kitchen cabinets.  The plywood exposed on the interior of each cabinet will be lacquer finished.  On the exterior the plywood will be completely concealed by the hardwood that I will be using.  I ordered a small lift of "rustic hickory" which I will be picking up this week.  It is all still as rough boards so I will need to plane it all down before fabricating anything.
My work is somewhat at a standstill right now as I am waiting for several things needed to continue.  We haven't found any more antique windows, so I can not continue with anymore of the interior doors.  The first one is just about finished and I'm in the process of pre-hanging it into the jamb, and installing the door latch.
I bought a large slab of fir that is about 3" thick, 20" wide and 11 feet long.  This will make the lunch counter that will be installed in our bay window.  I can't really work on it yet either, as I need final dimensions after drywall in order to cut it to size.  Today I rough cut it to the 8 foot length that we will need, which left me a 3 foot long piece for our coffee table.  I can now begin work on finishing this smaller slab, but eventually need to come up with some sort of base for it.
I cut up one sheet of plywood and made all the pieces for the body of the bathroom vanity.  I had to stop at this point and can not assemble it yet.  I'm waiting for an order of some plastic laminate that needs to be glued to the inside floor of the cabinet, before I can go any further.  Even with this laminate material I can't proceed beyond basic assembly as I'm still waiting for the hardwood.
Over the course of this next week I should be able to round up most of what I've been waiting for and continue with my cabinet making.  But, if the weather improves we may take a spin out to the cottage, which would put this millwork on hold yet again...  Most of it isn't needed until later this summer.  I'm just trying to make use of these cold winter days and accomplish something so that I have less to do later in the summer.
We went out for brunch today to the Blue Chair.  The guitar teacher that Anna and I have been taking lessons from was playing there with a friend of his.  It was a really nice morning, and fairly busy.  The food was really good and we enjoyed the background music.  We didn't get a chance to talk to our teacher Gary, but will see him again tomorrow at our regular lesson.






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