From: badboy@netcom.com (Jay Keller)
Subject: Re: Hey! Lets have a survey....
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 07:26:59 GMT

In article <WOODWORK%93012212041503@IPFWVM.BITNET> HUNTRESS GARY B 
<HUNTRESS@NPT.NUSC.NAVY.MIL> writes:

> ...  I'd like to hear about the projects that everyone is
>working on, just finished, or is planned for the future.

My daughter Diana turned three a couple of weeks ago and I built her a big doll
cradle, using the plans that come with the little Delta bandsaw.  It was my 
first real bandsaw project since I bought the thing 4 months ago. 
The ends were cut out of blanks 16"x22" (poplar), glued up from a 1x10 and a 
1x/8.  Just for fun, and to practice planing with my newly sharpened blades
(I just bought the Veritas sharpening jig), I hand-planed about 1/8" off of the
faces of the end blanks before cutting them.  The plans called for using 
the bandsaw to bevel the edges on the bottom of the cradle, but I used the 
table saw.  I also beveled the sides so the edges are parallel to the floor 
when the cradle's at rest.

Someone asked about bright-colored stains, sorry I forgot who, but I hope
he reads this.  I went to Home Depot and got a stain by Deft which was tinted
to a nice pink ("Rose Quartz").  Lots of other colors were available, mostly
pastels.  I played with scrap wood and decided that 4 coats of stain was about
right, really pink but still letting the wood grain show through.  Then I
coated it with a Deft lacquer-based clear gloss which is supposed to be non-
toxic when dry (but it's about the foulest thing I've ever smelled when wet,
I had to do it outdoors to survive the stench!).

The cradle was completed the morning of the birthday, that's cutting it close!
My mother is a seamstress and she provided a beautiful set of mattress, pillow,
and quilt.  Diana was thrilled and for the first time ever she didn't want
her dolls to sleep with her ("No, daddy, they have their own bed now").

My current project was started yesterday A.M. and is nearly finished tonight.
It's a table for the kids (I also have a 5-year-old son), out of oak.  I
guess I undertook this as practice for a maple table I want to build for
our kitchen appliances (I'm fairly new at fine woodworking, although I've
hacked together a few nice things over the years).  

I glued up two oak 1x10's, so the table top is 19"x36" (this table is going
to against a wall in the kids' room, for art projects and such).  I rounded the
corners with a jig saw and rounded-over the top edge.  The skirts are 1x3 oak
with 1/2" thick by 3/4" deep tenons which I cut on the table saw.  For legs,
I bought 4 oak stairway balusters, square on each end with turnings in-between,
and I cut off one of the square ends.  These make perfect legs for this child-
size table.  To mortise the legs, I built a router-jig (similar to Tage Frid's
jig in "FWW on Joinery" and used my new Bosch plunge-router, then squared them
up by hand.  The tenons had to be beveled to clear each other in the corners.

The frame is all glued up and tomorrow I can screw on the top to complete the
table.  I'm experimenting with some grain fillers, I'd like to make the top
surface as glass-smooth as possible, under polyurethane.  Maybe I'll try
some kid-chairs next.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the participants of this group for
all I've learned here, it's definitely a valuable resource.

Regards,

Jay Keller
Sunnyvale, California
badboy@netcom.com
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