Doorbell Cover #3 - Finishing

My last few projects have just been finished with Watco Danish Oil.  This one I wanted to try and get a bit more of a match to old Craftsman furniture, as that is the next big project I have.  I found a recipe from Robert Lang on Stickley finishes and followed it.  I couldn't find any of the finishing products in my local home centers in Canada, but easily found them at Home Depot when we were in the US.

Step one was to sand it.  I did most of the sanding as I was building the project.  I used a random orbital sander to smooth out some of the joints before I added the top.  A bit of hand sanding with some 220 grit and easing the corners with some 120 grit and this piece was ready for some finish.



Step two, an oil based finish, wipe on, wait 10-15 minutes and wipe off.  I'm using Minwax Dark Walnut.  A fresh bundle of rags and latex gloves from Lee Valley made this step easy.  The drywall scrap sits on a lazy susan.

 

Step three.  After waiting 24 hours, back to my favourite finish, Watco Danish Oil, Dark Walnut.  Again, wipe on, wait 10-15 minutes and wipe-off.



Step four.  Another 24 hours and time for the finish coat.  Robert Lang says to thin the shellac, but I just applied it straight from the can.  I only used one coat here, but if this piece were to going to be handled I'd do multiple coats with some light sanding in between.

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Last step, hang it on the wall.  I couldn't dig up any hooks in my workshop, so I just put a couple of screws into the wall and set the cover on them.  It hasn't fallen down yet, but I should probably do a bit better job.  I'll pick up some kind of hanger the next time I go to Lee Valley.



I'm very happy with how this turned out and my wife has already said it's coming with us to the next house.  Hopefully that's a long, long, long ways away.

Doorbell Cover #2 - Cutting Wood

This is a pretty small project so it went together very quickly.  I dug through the wood pile and found a nice looking piece of quarter-sawn white oak.  A bit of milling on the jointer, planer, tablesaw and mitre saw and I had the basic parts.

One of the reasons I picked this easy project is that I wanted to finally try using my mortiser on a real project.  I had picked up the used Powermatic 719A mortiser a long time ago and had yet to use it on a real project.  My lovely assistant Lauren helped me cut mortises in the rails to receive the stiles.  It went pretty well, though on the first cut I thought something was wrong as I had to pull way to hard on the lever.  Turns out I'd left the depth stop tightened too low.  Oops.  After that it was just a matter of remember which handle to turn to shift the piece sideways before making the next cut.



I ran the stiles through the tablesaw with a mitre gauge to cut the tenons.  I just used the combination blade on the saw.  In retrospect I should have done a few things differently :

1. Moved the fence back before the blade to avoid potential kickback
2. Use a dado blade or the delta tenoning jig to get smoother tenons.

I had to clean up the messy tenons with some chisel work.  Next time I'll use the tenoning jig that I bought a long time ago and haven't used yet (there's a theme here).

 

After cleaning up the tenons, everything did fit together well.  Here's me testing the fit of the first joint.



I glued up the rail and stiles, and while that was drying I cut the side pieces.  I could have used mortise and tenons to join these, but just went with a simple butt joint using pocket screws instead.  No one will see this joint and it's quick and easy to make.



I clamped the cover together and then drove in the pocket hole screws.  Once that was done, I added the back sides, just glued and clamped, no screws necessary for this joint.



And every last, the top and bottom pieces.