The Woodshop Shed

Making a B-17 serving tray

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Making a custom Boeing B-17 serving tray for a good pilot friend. The Red Oak tray features a B-17 with the inscription "hell from heaven" and "398th Bomb Group- Heavy, 601st Squadron" which is where my friends grandfather served as a lead navigator. After everything was cut out on the FoxAlien 4040 XE-PRO, it was filled with Alumilite clear cast resin. The tray was sanded to 1000 grit and 3 coats of Waterlox Gloss was applied before wet sanding and a final coat.

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Bandsaw Blades - Source & type

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What is your current source for bandsaw blades?

Also, I'll be doing a considerable amount of re-sawing on hickory to make cabinet door panels. What blade would you recommendto use on a 14" Rikon 10-325 for that?
I've done this before on the same bandsawabout 7 years ago. I don't remember what I used, but it was probably just whatever was the cheapest3/4" bandsaw blade I could find and I got by okay, but this time around I have probably 3x the amount of re-sawing to do.

thanks

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RIP Steve AKA Barnowl

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I spoke to Steve's wife two nights ago.

Steve passed away not long after his posts about installing an elevator in his house.

I met Steve a few times, including a couple where he was gracious enough to invite folks to his shop.

Steve was well known here as a Moderator, woodworker, frequent poster, and one of the ones who made the Christmas Auctions and other charitable ventures successful.

I was pretty broken up speaking to her on the phone, and can't find the right words even now.

I did tell her that If she found herself needing ANYTHING that Steve had a strong network of friends here both locally and across the US and Canada that would find a way to help.

Once this thread has run its course, I intend to print it out and send it to Allison.

For those wishing to send cards, PM me for an address. The cards will be forwarded from that address as mine was.

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1,497 and counting

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That is the minimum number of parts going into my kitchen remodel project.

That includes-
all plywood parts for the cabinet boxes
all hardwood parts for the face frames, doors, and drawers
all drawer slides
all concealed hinges
the two 5x12 sections of laminate for the countertops
and the sink and faucet
does not include the shelf pins, screws, dowels, or loose tenons.

On the surface that minimum count feels a bit overwhelming, but it's mostly just a bunch of rinse and repeat until it's all done and installed.


As the old adage goes - how do you eat an elephant?

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4H Project 2025

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Gotta brag on my son and his last 4H project ever. He's a 10-year 4H'er and this year he got Grand Champion and State Fair Entry. Really happy I got to spend some time out in the shop helping him build this. Great memories and I don't spend as much time as I used to building things these days so it was bonus to spend time with my son AND get to engage in some WW-ing. This was based on Norm Abrams' Secretary Desk project, and it's double bonus that my son has become as big a Norm fan as I am. The only reason we changed anything is to make a few of the operations a little more approachable for my son, and Norm used pine. We used walnut because his grandpa milled this up from a tree he cut down at someone's house. Who doesn't love free walnut from Grandpa, right?

  4h 2025-4ss.PNG (Size: 934.52 KB / Downloads: 81)
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  4h 2025-2.PNG (Size: 786.24 KB / Downloads: 80)
  4h 2025-1s.PNG (Size: 862.51 KB / Downloads: 78)

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Woodworking on a grand scale

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Got a once-in-a-lifetime experience yesterday. We are in the market for a new front door (42X80) for our moderately up-scale 35-YO house. After reviewing the existing one and our wishes (mostly LOML's), we got a quote for around $18K for a custom Signature door with leaded-glass inserts This, of course, almost made me throw up, but spouse pursued further and found out the Signature Door Company is in Altoona, PA - about 3 hours from us. She called and made an appointment with "Denny" since both of us were interested in what went into such a price. So we made the trek yesterday.

We show up and found out "Denny" was the President of the company, who spent time discussing our wishes and then took us on a near-three-hour tour of the whole shebang, discussing raw material,big processes,little details, and finished productsforunitshis 47 employees were currently making. Holy Cow! Never had I ever seen such massive machines, like an oil bladder veneer press, a sequential6-belt sanding operation and CNC machine with about 30 turret-mounted bits being auto-selected. A lotof the big stuff is computer-controlled but hand-operated and there were lots of typical glue-and-clamp operations. Every single product is custom-made-they don't use anything mass-produced and don't have an inventory of any product. Their preferredwood is Sapele but they can use just about anything else, and they prefer to use laminations with weather-resistant products on the exterior. There were monster racks of most commonly used species.

Anotherimpressive part was the cut glass operation - intricate designs for bevelsand curlicues going into leaded-glassinserts.

Essentially, we got the "Cook's tour" even more detailed than their videos and, as it turns out, a door like we want would be more in the $10K range. Still a lot but I am almost willing to spring for it just to support the idea that quality stuff CAN be and IS made here in the USA. Interestingly, the very first question on their quote sheet is "Does this need to be hurricane-proof"? I asked Denny what sort of investment is involved and he said "A lot", then showed a quote for a new machine they were considering with a price tag of $350,000.

If you want to spend an hour or two with Denny (who was the National Sales Manager at the time)going through the whole shebang, here is the link:

https://signaturedoor.com/media-center/

Click on the selections labeled PCN Tours. And the About Us section on their home page gives the interesting history of the company.

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Clear Vue dust collectors out of business@

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Just found out (maybe old news) that Clear Vue is out of business.
I guess the owners are retiring.
Phone Number that I had is already reassigned and the website is gone except for a page saying they are retiring and that they would sell the business.

I just bought a cyclone about 3 years ago.
I hope I don't need anything that I can not get elsewhere!!

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Tightbond cold press veneer glue.

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I usually use UniBond 800 glue when gluing shop cut veneer or laminations.
I ran a little short on this project so I picked up some Tightbond CPV glue.
I have never used it before.
I did a couple of door panels this morning and put in my vacuum press.
The directions said they should be pressed45 min to 2 hours depending on conditions.

Two hours later I release the vacuum and as I was taking them out I notice that the squeeze out glue was still wet.
I put them back in the press.

Was the glue still wet due to being in a plastic bag?
Is the veneer bonded even though the ends are wet? I wouldn't think so.

Anyone had this problem?

The bottle also stated that the press pressure should be 100-150 PSI!!
That surely is a misprint.
My vacuum pump will generate up to 25 or so inches of mercury.
At 20", it is equivalent to about 10 PSI.
100 PSI is over 14,000 pounds per square foot!!

What seemed like a simple solution might turn out to be a bad decision!


TIA

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22 drawer on a 21 Blum drawer slide?

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My original kitchen plans were to build 22 deep drawers, but Blum under mount slides jump in size from 21 to 24. There won't be room for a 24 deep drawer so I ordered the 21 and just planned to make 21 deep drawers.
However as I was looking over the 21 drawer slides that were delivered and I thought that maybe I could still make 22 deep drawers by just setting the locking clip back by 1 with a spacer and of course the drawer slide would have to be set 1 deeper into the cabinet as well. That means that the last 1 won't extend outside the cabinet frame, but I don't see that as an issue and I'll have an extra inch of depth to use.
But I've never installed these slide types before so I'm not sure if there's an issue with this idea that I'm overlooking.
Would this work?
Thanks

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More French Cleats! (for nail guns)

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It took a while but I set up more French Cleats, this timein a corner that was not good for much else. I made hangers for 4 nail guns and have room for more stuff. Probably drills, routers, and associated bits. This was my nail gun cleat design:


https://youtu.be/3UUExkf4S6A?si=-Hga7wnK2ZFn8v5i

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Drawer slides best for the buck

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I'm sure this has been asked a million times in these forums, but opinions and experiences change so with that said -

If I go with undermount slidesI maximize the drawer width butlose up to 1" in height and if I go with side mount slide I lose 1" in width, but maximize the drawer height up to 1".
I have about 30 drawers and pull out shelves in my kitchen plans, so obviously, as always, I'm looking to get the best bang for the buck.

I've gone cheap on side mountslides before and wasn't happy with certain things like having to pull too hard to open a drawer and self closing mechanisms wearing out.
I've also paid a little more for better slides a few times and was happy with those.
Unfortunately I don't remember with certainty which brands those were. It was like 7 years ago anyway.
ButI also don't want to break the bank over top-priced drawer slides that I suspect are not going to add 2-3x the value for 2-3x the price.

I'll need 22" full extension with soft close and a few 24". Overtravel is nice, but not necessary.

I'm expecting that the recommendations for undermount will be all in favor of Blum Undermount, but if you have another recommendation I'd like to hear it.
But as for side mount drawer slides, what would you recommend today? again, best quality for a mid-priced slide.
Also, where best do I go forbulk pricing. I'm not sure if 30 pairs (maybe a few more) qualifies for bulk pricing, but in case it does ...

thanks!

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