Alternate activities

[AlanLichty]

I have been lucky to have a project to keep me entertained for the last month or so with my woodworking hobby and have finally made it to the point of being able to see what the result is going to look like. I bought the rough cut lumber for this last January and assumed that I would be only working on this in bits and spurts in between trips through the spring but have ended up working on this daily instead. Its a 10 drawer dresser made using big leaf maple for the cabinet top and sides with ambrosia maple for the drawer fronts. I still have to sand and finish the drawer fronts as well as the outside of the cabinet itself. The inside and the drawers are already finished and I just finished fitting the drawer fronts this afternoon.

Anybody else doing something interesting to pass the time?

 

[Ben Egbert]

Beautiful work Alan.

My other hobby is gardening, and I did some landscaping work, including moving a yard of rock by wheelbarrow yesterday.

I am basically done for the year other than pruning and upkeep.

 

[JimFox]

What a cool project. Woodworking is certainly fun, though your work here is lightyears beyond what I remember doing in woodshop.

 

[Jim Dockery]

That's gorgeous Alan, classic and clean. I'd like to see it once you get it finished.

Like Ben, I've been working in the yard. I have a sandstone walkway that curves around and back. I loved it when first installed 20+ years ago, but the color got washed out to a dull grey when I tried to keep it clean of mildew. My original plan was to reorient a couple stones and remove the rotting mortar from the whole walkway to redo that with some polymeric-sand. When breaking out the mortar I looked under one of the stones and found the original color still intact! I flipped the whole thing and washed it off, then had to redo the puzzle to fit the stone edging. I just finished all that, but now have to wait for a few nice dry days to do a final cleaning before laying in the dark charcoal polymeric sand. After that I'll apply some pricy sealer that is made to inhibit mildew and mold. This is the center piece of our back-yard, so I'm very psyched to have it looking so nice.

 

[AlanLichty]

Wow - the walkway looks really nice Jim. Even better that you didn't have to buy new stone.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Beautiful work Jim. Love your back yard too.

 

[AlanLichty]

An update to an old and yet current thread - @Jim Dockery requested some shots of the dresser I was working on once it was finished and in spite of my best efforts to stretch it out forever I did finally install it yesterday. I used a Super Blond shellac to seal the big leaf maple sides and top with several coast of clear urethane and a straight clear urethane finish on the ambrosia maple drawer fronts since I wanted to have a contrast between the different types of maple I used. I got a bit carried away on the drawer fronts and gave them a full rubbed finish.

Side view:

Front View:

 

[Ben Egbert]

Wow, this shows real craftsmanship, love the finale look of it.

 

[MonikaC]

Those are beautiful, Alan! How's your shoulder doing with all than manual work?

 

[AlanLichty]

Those are beautiful, Alan! How's your shoulder doing with all than manual work?

Thanks Monika. I have a limited part of the day I can do things which often ends around the 2-3pm range. I have trained my left arm to do most of the work like hand sawing, wood planing, and all sanding tasks which helps stretch out how long I can work in my shop. Tools that vibrate are only used left handed.

From what I have been able to observe photography actually pushes my right arm much harder than woodworking. The other side to photography is that we want to shoot when the light is good so there are consequences for when we want to shoot vs. when your body parts say "meh?". When I work in my shop I am not trying to budget my efforts to include a sunset shoot and maybe some astro time after that.

 

[Jim Sanderson]

Wow, I want one.

 

[Trent Watts]

Thanks for this link Alan. The chest of drawers is beautiful. I like the match of the Ambrosia and Big Leaf Maple. I’m happy you shared this with me.