My little book.

This is my brains external hard drive, it fits into my pocket and is one of three items that are pushed into my trouser pockets every day. Ear plugs, Atlas Nitrile gloves, and my book. I have often thought it would be fun to take a photo of a page from my book and then accompany that with more photos and a short explanation connecting those photos to the list from the book. This page doesn't have a date but I know from surrounding pages that this was the first week of March 2015.

one of many little books

On the right is instructions I wrote down from a website by Antique Gas Stoves that explains how to remove the Oven Control Knob on our O'Keefe and Merrit cook stove and range. This is our second stove by this company and we are looking forward to using it in our home that we have been working on since June of 2006.

broken oven control knob

This TO DO list is just before a town day. I hadn't taken the truck to town in several months and recently I had to replace the battery. I purchased a new battery but still haven't installed it because I had robbed the battery from the Belvedere when the old battery stopped holding a charge.

1962 Plymouth Belvedere

The Cut List for plywood is for two kitchens worth of drawers made with Baltic Birch plywood, a kitchen sink cabinet for Ruthie and countertop material that gets covered with zinc.

Sink cabinet to replace.

The stools (or sills) are from the house, they have been covered by blue tape for at least a year to protect them from paint. Underneath the tape they were pretty funky, water stained and covered with dust, bird shit and bug droppings. I have know idea how the tape even stuck.

Window Stools Finished

Our water comes from a small pond dug by the old timers with  a rock wall stacked around it that I discovered last summer when I decided to pull plants out around the perimeter to enlarge the waters storage area. The 12 volt low flow pump sucks a lot of sediment in the summer when the pond can't keep up with the 1.8 gallons per minute suck of the pump. Becky discovered a neat drop down filter that is easy to clean out by just closing a valve after the filter and opening a valve on the bottom of the filter cartridge. This flushes out the sediment trapped in the filter and the filter is made of stainless steel. It is installed now but I haven't tried it yet, we aren't using much water at the house. However we hope to be moving in before summer, we only need to get our kitchen functioning. It is getting close, cabinet carcasses are installed and ready for the zinc. For plumbing we only need to plumb the gas line and get the old stove working.

Flush Down Filter

Finishing Wood

Finishing is not one of my strong points, although I have tried several different products and also have read numerous articles and books on the topic. It seems that my finishing techniques are constantly changing. When I was an apprentice in my early twenties I was taught to use General's tung oil finish applied with a sponge brush and then wiped off if there was any finish left on the surface after twenty or thirty minutes.

Soaking with tung oil/urethane.

Then water based finishes starting to emerge so I began experimenting with those. I didn't like how you couldn't go back over what you had already brushed on, I was used to applying the finish heavily and then going back over it with the brush to even it out. I remember using water based urethane on a set of nine sliding doors for a house in Oregon. I am sure that this finish didn't hold up because a decade later I went back to using water based finishes and noticed that the finish didn't seem to stay on the wood for very long at all. It was almost as if the finish itself just evaporated away. I discovered this by using it on three different kitchen cabinet projects and seeing for myself how what seemed like a well covered finish when the cabinets left the shop, only a month later seeming like raw wood with no protection at all.

I read a book given to me by Alex Cockburn called Adventures in Wood Finishing : 88 Rue de Charonne by George Frank,  about a French chemist who worked as a wood finisher in the early 1900's. He made his own finishes and being a chemist experimented with many different chemicals. I followed this path for a bit making my own linseed oil mix and even using a double boiler to make a wax and oil finish. Sam Maloof also talks about concocting finishes this way in his book Sam Maloof, Woodworker. It was messy process and the finish took a long time to dry.

I discovered how to make my own shellac when I took some summer classes in Fort Bragg at the fine woodworking program started by James Krenov. I bought shellac flakes and had a concentrate that I would thin and apply with a rag. I did this for a few projects but the super thin coats took too long to build up and I longed for something more durable, long lasting and non-toxic. I used fast drying polyurethane for a bit but the toxic fumes were unbearable. I tried spar varnish but it seemed impossible not to have drips.

I went back to using water based finishes after our neighbors used a w.b. finish on their floor in their newly constructed cabin. I liked that it didn't have a particularly bad smell and it dried really fast. I got used to just going over the wood once without doubling over what I had already applied until after it had dried and was sanded. This is when I used water based urethane for the three different kitchen projects I already mentioned.

Finishing carcass parts before assembling.

I decided to try something new, I browsed the finishes at Pierson's Building Center, our local hardware store. I started using a penetrating tung oil by Deft. I really liked how the finish soaked into the wood and the smell was much better than Watco's oil finish. The only thing I didn't like was how it took so many coats to build up the finish.

A woodworking friend told me that he had read an article about someone who used the pre-mixed shellac by Zinsser, by cutting it one to one with denatured alcohol. I decided to try this out since I felt I still had not discovered the ideal finish for my work. I liked this very much, it dried fast, left a solid finish after two coats on wood and smelled good. I started using it on everything, however my wife felt that it might not last and needed to be more durable especially for outdoor applications like windows and doors.

Thinking back to all the articles and books I had read I decided to add the penetrating tung oil to the wood that was first sealed with two coats of shellac. This is what I do now, what a beautiful result! Of course there is more to finishing that just applying the product, there is sanding. Who likes to sand? I like to sand as little as possible, it is just another particle that could damage my lungs.

Redwood Door finished with two coats of shellac and two coats of Deft Oil.

Before applying the first coat of shellac I sand to 150 grit, if it is plywood I only sand once with 150 on an orbital sander. If it is wood I will start with 80, then 100, then 150 grit. Apply the first coat of shellac with a sponge brush, it dries fast and raises the grain. Then sand with 220 grit with a palm sander, hitting the corners and edges by hand. Apply the second coat of shellac. Then sand with 320 grit with the palm sander and this is the last time I need to sand. With a sponge brush I apply a liberal amount of Deft penetrating oil, let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes and use blue paper towels to wipe it down. One (or better two) days later I rub the wood with fine steel wool and use an air compressor to blow away the steel wool particles as I wipe it with a cotton rag. I apply one more coat of the Deft oil, wipe it off after 30 minutes, a day or two later rub it down with steel wool again and buff it with a cotton rag. The result is stunning. For plywood carcasses I only use shellac and four coats are applied.

Back to Work and Baby Goats

This week we had two baby goats born from two different moms a day apart. I heard a goat crying as if something was tearing it apart, I grabbed my jacket and ran out to the stable, as I got there the baby was already half way out of the white mama and then the rest of the kid slipped out before my eyes. I have seen this before and every time it reminds me of watching the television show V when I was a child when a woman gave birth to a slime covered lizard like creature. In the stable the slimy creature suddenly popped to its feet looking to nurse... it amazes me every time. The following evening I had already put the newborn and its mom inside but I heard a baby cry that was outside the goat shed. I thought that maybe the baby had slipped through a crack in the barn siding so I grabbed a torch and investigated. Just outside the stable was a different goat and another baby, just a day later, I guess the phase of the moon was just right. A waxing crescent was the phase of the moon, about a week before a full moon.

Baby Goats

The kitchen cabinet carcasses are all down at the house now, except for one because I ran out of 3/4 plywood and one of the shelves needs to be doweled to the inside of the face frame before the back can be attached. These cabinets have taken me much longer than I expected, I guess because I didn't have a helper and doing all the figuring, cutting, joinery, sanding and finishing took a considerable amount of time. It is time to get back to work so I have several small projects lined up.

Carcasses in their new home.

Tomorrow I will be measuring for drawers for a kitchen that was built by the patron. I plan on building the drawers for our kitchen at the same time. I haven't advanced my skills to making kitchen drawers out of wood with dovetail joinery. Instead I use baltic birch plywood and use a tongue and groove joint that holds the pieces together. I have always made drawers for kitchens this way, it is fast and fairly simple. I don't mind the way the baltic birch edges look either.

Patron built kitchen.

Another project I will be measuring for tomorrow is a sink cabinet for a neighbor of the drawer patron. She is embarrassed for me to come over because her house is a wreck and she says she lives in squawler and is ashamed of it. Her current sink is funky and she is ready for an upgrade. She has another sink I can use somewhere out in her field.

Sink cabinet to replace.

Last night I was asked to repair a broken window that a different woman's cat had broken from the inside. I guess the window is double paned and it happened last April. She told herself that she would at least ask me before it had been a year since it had been broken.

After driving around measuring for projects I hope to permanently install our kitchen carcasses so that they will be ready for the counter top installation. We are doing a zinc top that will be glued to two layers of 3/4 plywood. As soon as I have my measurements for several different projects I will take the truck to town to get rid if trash and pick up materials.