Is anybody listening?

What with all the political stuff in the media these days, is there anybody who can hear the real issues that impact the world?

Enough of the character attacks!

Entertainment Center Project #3

Finally, the third entertainment center project is complete. This project was a custom maple piece stained to match the existing wood furniture in the room. Matching any existing or proprietary stain can be difficult but once you get a sample that is acceptable the trick is to make the whole thing look like the sample. In this case it took a 4 step process.

The steps I took are as follows…

After sanding to about 150 grit ( any smoother would prevent good penetration of the stain) I applied the first coat of stain, in this case a very dark walnut. I applied the stain full strength with a foam brush and let it sit. After about 10 minutes the stain was wiped off with a clean rag and left to dry overnight.

Step 2 was a tinting process. In this process I used some sanding sealer thinned to about 50% and mixed in some of the stain. This worked out to be about 70-30 mix (70% sealer-30% stain). With my spray gun at low pressure (about 20-30 psi) and with a wide spray pattern I evenly sprayed the pieces until the color was just right and matched my sample letting it dry overnight.

Step 3 was to coat with about 2-3 coats of sanding sealer making sure I get the edges sealed well so as not to sand through the stain, especially on any routed profiles that may take a little extra rubbing to get smooth for the topcoat.

And step 4 was to apply at least 2 coats of satin lacquer topcoat, lightly rubbing between coats. As always when doing stained pieces there will be some touch-up and it helps to have a small touch-up gun or air brush for this.

I pre-assembled the pieces in the shop for easier installation... see pics below..

. More pics below...

As always, any questions or comments are welcome.

A special thanks goes out to NASCAR Bud for having a house big enough to need all this millwork and a shop to build it in. You can hear his show on Thursdays at 7:30 am on QFM96 with Wags & Elliot.

Bar Top

I took time this past week to tile a friend's outdoor bar top. Check out the pictures...

Center inlay... very cool!

Bathroom Vanity

Here is the latest project... This vanity needed some updating and these folks wanted it at 36 " counter height. Rather than tear it out and start over it was simple enough to build up the ends 6" and laminate the whole thing.

Before pics...
Once it was laid out in CAD the doors, drawers, hardware, and laminate sheet could be ordered. The doors for this are thermo-foil laminated on MDF. These doors can be ordered in many different styles and colors and in this case it was white and there was a corresponding white laminate that matched. The drawers are custom maple dovetail drawers with vertical dividers in the large drawers and full extension slides so the drawers can be pulled out all the way. The two small drawer fronts under the sink are tip-out trays.


After pics....
As always any questions and comments are welcome.

Entertainment center project 2

As mentioned in a previous post, I was working on a second entertainment center. Well I finally shot some pictures of it.

This piece is made of cherry ply with solid cherry doors and drawers. The finish is natural (because cherry is beautiful with just a clear laquer finish).

The unit was made in two pieces (upper & lower) so it would fit in the room and it is on casters so it can be pulled away from the wall to make all the connections.

Let me know what you think and if you would like any tips or tricks as to how I went about building this. Unfortunately I wasn't able to record step by step construction due to time constraints.

See pictures below...

Fireplace Surround part 2

Now we are ready to mount the pre-fabricated pilasters and trim to the lower section. The pilasters were positioned and fastened with screws from behind and the trim pieces and applique were face nailed with finish nails. The nail holes are filled and everything is sanded for finishing. On the upper section there are 3 different trim profiles, a base (mounted upside down) and a standard crown on top of the base. For the top edging, a piece of square stock is glued on and the profile routed into afterwards.
Below are some pictures of the finished pieces. The finish used was a clear gloss polyurethane (about 3 coats). Final installation.
If there are any questions about the steps or methods use for this project (or any project), please feel free to send me an email and I would be happy to answer any questions.

Fireplace Surround

PROJECT: FIREPLACE SURROUND

This project involves the construction of an oak surround for a vent-less gas fireplace unit.

The first step is to create a measured drawing that accommodates the size and tolerances of the fireplace unit. These dimensions are usually include in the installation manual. Below is the drawing that was created. In this drawing I have excluded the trim components to show the dimensions of the cabinet only.

After gathering all the different materials needed I created a cut list for all the parts of the cabinet. In addition to the dimensioned drawing above I like to create a 3D model which helps me visualize the finished piece. This isn’t absolutely necessary but can be quite helpful to actually build it on the computer first in order to envision how it actually is assembled and even catch any mistakes that might have been overlooked (or cannot be seen) in the 2D drawing. The following illustrations show the full model and the cabinet exploded and how it should go together.

These illustrate using biscuits and pocket holes. In this way we don’t have any exposed fasteners thru the face of the cabinet. You might have noticed that the side panel on the near side has a panel cut in the side. This is to create an access to the interior in order to hook up the gas and access the shut off valve. This panel will be be held in place with a magnetic catch at the top, a cleat at the bottom and trim molding. (See Below)

The cleat is beveled slightly where it catches the edge of the cut out so it can be tilted out to remove it.

Next time we will attach the pre-fabricated pilasters and trim pieces on the upper and lower sections.