Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Another project done

Well, here is another project completed. I am still working on the antique desk. I will be spraying my clear coat tomorrow. But this desk was done for a friend of mine, Shane Grammer, of SG Studios http://www.sgstudios.org/

This is a check in desk for a children's center at a church in North Carolina.



Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Long time coming...


Well, this post has been a long time coming. Much has happened since the last post, but I now want to look forward to the future!

Lately, I have been doing some restoration work for a relative who owns a furniture shop in Chico. I am doing sub work for him, as he wants to get out of restorations, and focus on new builds and commercial furniture. Here is a sampling of what I have been doing.

This old chest was very rusty and badly tarnished. The patina on the tin was very thick, and took a lot of scrubbing to get it down to a clean surface. I wanted to maintain an antique look to the project, so I decided to not paint the side areas as was original. I sanded and wire wheeled everything, and gave everything a good coat of boiled linseed oil (after I sealed in the rusted areas with a rust neutralizer /converter). I am pretty happy with the results. I am also working on an old desk, and will post those pics later this week when that gets finished.



Wednesday, June 30, 2010

New Website!

Well, it has been a while since I have done any new posts. I have been busy @ work (a good thing) and got very sick (a bad thing). But I am better now, and am working on some new items. I haven't been in the shop for a couple of weeks, and am suffering from withdraws. I have a couple of new project ideas that I am really excited about, and just need the time to work on them.

Tomorrow I have to go finish the small remodel I have been working on in West Sac. I am 95% done with the sheetrock mud work. I need to finish skimming a few seams in the AM, and then shoot the texture. I did get the final payment today, so that is a really good thing.

Other big news, I bought a domain name for my business website!!! I am thrilled. I have a temp site up, but will be meeting with a web guru soon to get some better design, etc. I look forward to having the portfolio online, which will make it a lot easier to show potential customers what I can do for them. The website is www.everbuilder.com. I plan on linking the site and this blog together also, which will be cool. I want to be able to have my customers follow the blog while I work on their project in real time. I think that would be a fun thing for them.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Finished and installed!

This is a bit late in the game, but I did finish and install the BBQ Island. My customers were pretty happy with the result, so that makes me happy too! Check it out!



It matched the patio cover very well (another project by me). I figured I would post a pic of that as well for full perspective :)




























Well, now I am on to the next job, a small remodel in the city. A little framing, and little sheetrock, some plumbing. I have a small woodworking job to do as well, a collection box for the church. I also have been doing some more work in the shop. Got a remote switch ran for the Dust Collector, now I just have to finish piping for multiple locations. Spent some time today fine tuning some hand planes, but didn't get completely finished on those. Always something to do, but not enough time/energy/money to do it! Oh well. :)

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Tired out

Well, I am tired. I am almost done with the BBQ Island. I stained everything today. I have just a few more things to wrap up and then the install on Monday. The first coat of Minwax Dark Walnut stain looked good, it just didn't look like wood I was trying to match it to, unfortunately. I kind of expected as much, as the original stain was not a transparent oil stain, but a semi transparent water based oil emulsification exterior deck stain. After listening to my wife, I then used the other stain (Flood exterior semi transparent deck and siding stain-good stuff) and now it looks killer! I haven't taken any pics yet, cause I'm tired, and dinner is almost ready :) I will take some tomorrow and post then. Now I just need to figure out how to get it into my truck...

Monday, May 31, 2010

Coming together


Well, today I did my glue up. I got all my draw bores drilled and my pegs cut and tapered. And then the glue up. This is an interesting glue up due to the fact that everything is so BIG! Doing tenon and mortise joints with 4x4's has its own challenges, but on the whole, everything went together very well. I am really happy with the performance of the draw bores. I have 2 more ply panels to cut and install, and then to start the doors and drawer construction.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Busy week, good week


Well, I had a pretty successful week on the BBQ Island project. I got all my tenons and mortises cut, all the wood textured, and got the drawbore situation figured out. I am ready to glue up and the start sanding, staining, etc. I also went on a bid for a remodel, finished a large bid for another customer, and really just enjoyed my time in the shop. Thank you Jesus for a good week!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Pics as promised




Here are some pics that I promised. There is the beautiful Lie-Neilsen Scrub plane. It works great. I am really looking forward to the effect it will add to my lumber for the BBQ Island. The other is the Jet AFS 1500. That was a bear to put up. But it is done, and I won't have to do it again!

The new project

Today I start the BBQ Island for my customers. I have to go pick up my kiln dried doug. fir 4x4s and start the mortises and tenon. I am very excited about this build, however, I also need to clean the shop up before I can even start. My weekend did not lend itself to any great length of shop time. I was out there for a couple of hours on Sunday, and did get a few things done. I need to get some misc. hardware to hang the Jet AFS, which is very important, as it is laundry day for Sarah, and I don't want all that fine particulate going in the house or in the clean clothes as they come out of the washer. Also on today's list, finish the radiator flush and check for leaks. I can tell it is going to be a busy day, and I am late.

~John

Thursday, May 20, 2010

New plane!

Today I got my new Lie-Nielsen 40 1/2 scrub plane in the mail. I was very excited!!! I also picked up a Jet Air Filter, the Jet AFS-1500 from a Craigslist posting. All in all, a good day of getting new toys! Now I just got to get the AFS mounted, and my garage will be dust free! hopefully :)

I will post a pic of the beautiful scrub plane later.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

New blog for all my fun projects!

So I decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon for building things. I read a lot of wood working blogs, and I thought, "Why not do my own?" At least I will like what I read, hopefully. Anyway, this will also be a portfolio of sorts for projects I have done, and also projects in the works. I hope it will be a useful tool in my business. BTW, my business is building. And so much more than that. But it is a good and simple start to this blog.

~John