05 January, 2015

Holidays are done, time to get back into the shop!

First off, Happy New Year, and welcome to 2015!

I must apologize for being away so long, I have had a complicated couple of months, but basically my lovely bride has been working me to death over the holiday season decorating this that at the other thing, testing and fixing light strings, putting up the tree, blah blah blah... You get the idea... And on top of that, I have been dealing with some health setbacks. It would appear that the flu shot that went out this year was worthless for me, and I managed to aggravate existing back issues. So I have spent time healing, and honestly, I kind of let things slip my mind...

Now that the new year is here, and I am feeling MUCH better, it is time for me to get back into the shop and get some things done...

An overdue gift to my wife is refinished kitchen cabinets. I am hand sanding down the original doors, and door frames, easier said that done... The profile detail of the originals is a real son of a gun to sand without killing the profile...

I started out the process by using Citrustrip. and maybe I misread the instructions, but it DID say to rinse the stripper off, BAD idea. I ended up with warped wood, and delaminated plywood panels. Good thing the new owner of the home 2 houses down was replacing the cabinets with new units. He was kind enough to give me a couple of the doors from his cabinets that matched mine to replace the doors too far gone to fix...

So in lieu of stripper, I am now manually sanding, a time intensive operation. But it IS going well...

I have all but two of the doors from the overhead section completed, one just needs a fine sanding, the other the detail areas need to be sanded and then the whole thing needs to be fine sanded, then it's cleaning / dust removal, and stain / poly coats for these doors!

Once the doors are done, I move into the kitchen and sand those face frames, those should go fast, and then stain, poly, and finally, attach the new soft close hardware and doors, then move to the lower cabinets...

I think I FINALLY found my leak. It appears the faucet sprayer from the kitchen sink has been leaking, which saturated the particle board base of the cabinet. I will have to cut out that piece, make and install some cleats for a new panel to sit on, and then cut / fit the new panel in 2 pieces and attach. Will pre-paint it and make certain that it is sealed... Will be using 1/2" ply for the panel, and 3/4x3/4 stock for the cleats. Going to go all Norm Abram on these and attach it with glue and brads...

Time away from the shop has been well spent though. I have picked my bass guitar back up and been playing / practicing, and realizing I set that down too long, so I am going over the educational material I used before, I had to order one of the videos in a new copy on DVD as I no longer have a VHS VCR to play back the old tapes... But I am coming back pretty fast. Doing a lot of slow ballads, and quarter note stuff. It's coming along nicely.

For my back sake, I did ask for a new amp instead of tools this year, and I replaced my old Crate BX100 amp (67 lbs) with a new Fender Rumble V3 500 combo amp (36.5 lbs). My back is MUCH happier with me now!

1 comment:

  1. I agree! New year brings new work, which doesn't seem to stop. At least you'll get a cool gain along the way, such as the stuff around your house that are finally getting fixed. All the best with that! Thanks for sharing!

    Helene Raymond @ Trade Squad

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