Deluxe Sewing Center

Since we've used up all the stock we had prepared, we start the day by planing some more boards to the proper thickness, which also makes them nice and smooth.  Some of the parts we'll be making today will be in hidden areas, so we'll use regular white oak for these and save the expensive quarter sawn stuff for more visible areas.

Once the boards are surfaced, I cross cut them to lengths that are slightly longer than their finished size, then trim the edges to form glue joints.  Finally I arrange the boards to create a panel that will stay flat.  This part will become the surger shelf, so it is Quarter sawn oak.

After tweaking the glue joints to perfection and applying high strength glue, the boards are carefully aligned and clamped.  After about an hour the clamps can be removed and used for another set.  So, we just keep repeating this process until all the parts we're making are done.  When they come out of the clamps I trim the part to finished size on the table saw and sand it with 60 grit paper to level it and 100 grit paper to make it nice and smooth.  Later I'll hand hand everything with 120 grit paper before staining.

To hold the panels in place, I drill countersunk screw holes.  After drilling the holes, I remove the panel and elongate the pilot holes on one end to allow for movement of the board due to atmospheric humidity; one end will get glued and screwed firmly in place, the other is held with just screws so it can float a bit.

Today is August 1st, and it's a warm day today; the thermometer on a post in the shop shows 102°, and that's with the big door opened up and both fans running.  But the humidity is down today, so it doesn't feel all that hot.  We have a fridge full of cold bottled water in the shop and we're out of the sun, so it's not so bad.

It has been a long day today, with periods of inactivity while we wait for glue to tack up.  Although these aren't really inactive times, just non-billable times.  I'll take advantage of these periods of waiting to do some mowing or work on the web site.  Today we don't close up the shop until 9:30 PM, but when we do, all four filler plates and the surger shelf are in place and looking good.

They are mounted only with screws, because we will need to remove them again in order to take off the upright sides to mount drawer slides.

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