Floating Shelves, Lumber Yard, Earrings, and Volunteering: Friday Update
When one project ends another begins. The circle of shop life continues. This week I complete the black walnut, live edge floating shelves, make white oak KB Teardrop Earrings, and buy new lumber for the piano roll display cabinet.
Before we jump in, I want to share a public safety announcement about black walnut. I published an article, Black Walnut is Toxic for Dogs. I have been working with so much walnut recently I wanted to tell the story of my dog Ginger getting sick from exposure. It’s a good reminder to keep your workshop clean. Okay, now let’s get started.
Floating Shelves
On Sunday I completed a project for my clients who wanted to use these beautiful black walnut boards, milled from the family tree, as floating shelves. What a transformation.
Before
After
The hardest part of this install was the bracket placement. This wall used to house a pocket door, which meant there were not traditional studs. On the left side there were many studs supporting a large header, but after that to the trim, nothing. They had the pocket door removed, but its framing was left in place.
Luckily, I was able to take advantage of the horizontal pieces in the wall making up the pocket door frame. These were slats of wood behind the drywall which I found and used to install the right most bracket into.
From there, the process is simple. Put the shelf up, mark where the holes for the metal rods sticking out of the brackets need to be drilled, drill those out and mortise a space for the surrounding bracket. Then slide them in place. I did follow it up with a screw through the inside of the cabinet into the front of the shelf. These aren’t light, nearly 25 pounds each, and that extra front support kept everything stable.
Apologies for the lack of pictures. I was working and did not document what I was doing. If you want to know more about floating shelves and how they work, leave me a comment or contact me through my contact page. I’d be happy to connect and share what I know.
Piano Roll Display Cabinet
I also started the piano roll cabinet, officially this time. I went to the lumber yard on Saturday to pick up a few new boards and some plywood. That was an adventure with the remnants of the snowstorm still upon the city. I didn’t have any trouble, but a fellow parked behind me did. He was stuck with a truck loaded down with wood, so I helped him out by giving him a little push to release him from his icy prison. Okay, over exaggeration. We were at a lumber yard, they had sawdust inside and I’m sure he could have borrowed a bucketful to get some traction if he was alone.
I returned home with one sheet of 3/4 walnut plywood, one 1/4 inch sheet of walnut ply, 18 board feet of walnut, and 19 board feet of beech. The beech is for a future project.
Behind my stuff, against the garage door. That’s the only clear space I have to store plywood. Don’t worry, I locked the door so it cannot accidentally be opened.
But before I started to cut, an important step in starting a project is patience. When you bring wood into a new environment it will soak up moisture from the air or release moisture if the air is dry. As moisture is exchanged, the wood moves. This process is known as acclimation and if you have ever had hardwood floors installed you will know all about this because the installer likely dropped off a bunch of wood and stored it in your living room for a week or two.
If you rush, the wood will acclimate after you mill it, causing your perfectly flat boards boards to bow, cup, or twist. It can happen anyway as material is removed and stress is released, but it is safer to let the wood acclimate first, reducing movement later. So I started the project by doing nothing on the project, other than finding a spot to store two 12 foot long boards, a 10 foot long board, and two four foot by eight foot sheets of plywood.
White Oak Teardrop Earrings
Since I had some extra time on my hands I decided it was a good time to make some White Oak versions of my KB Teardrop Earrings. I have listed on my shop Sapele, Walnut, White Oak, Maple, Apple, and Cherry. Maple, Apple, and Cherry are next up on my make list so I can round out that product with pictures of all varietals. Then I can move on to making a new design. Don’t worry, I have ten or so drawn on paper.
The big test for me this week was finish. I really like the finish I put on the black walnut earrings. It was two layers of acrylic nail polish which I buffed in a two step process starting with steel wool and finishing with a microfiber to flatten, smooth, and satin the sheen. The finish looks and feels great, but it was a lot of work.
So I decided to test out two different finishes to see if I can speed up the process. I want to continue to hand buff each piece, but the application of the nail polish was a pain. So I opted to test two spray options. Lacquer and acrylic.
There are pros and cons to both.
The lacquer dried smoother, but required more coats to achieve the feel I wanted. I had to be very careful when buffing the lacquer to not burn through it. The other problem with lacquer was it’s self wetting properties. Lacquer, as it goes on, softens the previous layer and bonds together as it dries. This is how it stays so smooth, but in doing so it can self wet and glue itself down to the surface you are spraying, in my case a piece of cardboard on my workbench. Then I needed to pry the earrings off, ripping the finish requiring another layer to fix the problem. Initially I thought lacquer would be the way to go given how smooth it was. I thought I could save buffing time, but I was wrong.
The acrylic, the same finish as nail polish, built up fast with fewer layers as it is thicker and was easier to buff. It does require more buffing as it does not go on as smooth. I like them both, but for a hand rubbed look I’m leaning toward the acrylic.
Now I haven’t had a chance to take final earring pictures yet, but I will and you will see those next week!
Tigard Playschool
I nearly forgot, I also fixed the Tigard Playschool’s gate this past week. It was not closing well so I bolted on a board to extend the existing pole so the latch had a place to sit and hold the gate closed with. It also closed the gap between the gate and the pole. Now there’s no space for the tiniest of kids to find their way through.
