January 1, 2016......

Another year done. A new one starts in about 6 hours for me but I won't usher it in. I think the last time I stayed up to watch the ball drop was over 30 years ago. Twenty years in the Navy will do that to you. Any day is just like any other when you are out in the middle of some ocean.  To my left field thought processes, I think the winter solstice should be New Year's day. This is the last waning day and the first one where it starts increasing. Makes sense to me that this would be a good place to start a new year too.

To all the readers of my blog Happy New Year and may the new year be better then the last one. I hope that I can continue to write my blog and you will keep reading it. Good bye to 2015 and hello 2016.

bookcase is done

I got a good idea for taking pics from Stefan. I have tried for several weeks to buy a single flat sheet. Actually two flat sheets. I wanted to sew them together because that would provide a large back drop for when I snap pics of my projects. I found a place on Ebay but I could only buy one sheet. There wasn't anyway that I could find to increase the order. On the other side of the coin, trying to find a set of flat sheets (without a fitted one) has been a bust too. I'll keep looking.

left side

I didn't fill any of the slight gaps in the through mortises. Nor did I sand and feather out the chips around them neither. I left it as it was, warts and all. In spite of them I think it came out pretty good. I am overly critical of my work and I tend to magnify tiny hiccups into a UN security council issue. My wife and daughters noticed none of what I saw as glaring in your face boo-boos.

top with the drawer open

I like this and my wife doesn't

This is a solid something of which I have no idea what it is but it looks good to me. There aren't are voids or depressions in it anywhere. I really like these and it is a shame to hide something that nature made. There is a lot of visual interest here for me.

got one on the bottom shelf too

my total book storage area

I can a put 12" high book on the bottom shelf and a 10 3/4" high book on the second shelf. When I googled shelf span calculators I was surprised to find there is a science on book shelves. There are lots of formulas for the number of books per linear foot of shelving along with weight calculations. There was an estimator too for determining how much shelving you need  based on your number of books.

it's new home

I thought my wife was going to complain about this not looking like the buffet or the dining room table. Instead she asked me why I didn't put any knobs on the drawer. She said it needs two of them. She may get her wish because I need the top shelf to be taller and I can get that by cutting down the width of the front.

I have two piles of books in here already with 3 more to go. A lot of the books are tall-ish and I may cut the drawer down and do the knob thing tomorrow. There is one book on the top shelf that barely clears the bottom of the drawer. And the drawer stop is another potential hiccup.

ends roughed out

I thought about this today and how to best do this.  This isn't like my last one which was basically a rectangle. This one has two angles with the front one being more important than the top one. The front one is where I will layout for the bottom shelf so the two ends need to be the same.

I down shifted into anal mode and checked the edges I did yesterday. I had to re do the bottom on both because they weren't square to the sides. Once I was satisfied with that I put them together and checked that the back edge and the bottom were flush all the way. I was happy with that so I used double sided tape to put them together.

I thought of doing them one at a time and planing to a pencil or knife line. I thought it was a better idea to tape them together, saw and plane them as one. I band sawed it staying on the outside of my lines. I then planed it and kept checking it for square as I went. Once I got the 3 edges smooth and square I stopped.

My layout lines are still there and I got the edges flat, straight, and square to the sides. Being proud of the lines doesn't matter to me as the measurements aren't carved in stone. I would rather be a little bigger than smaller.

this is a bear to remove

I had to use 3 putty knives to get this apart. It's the only gripe I have with this double sided tape. Once you apply pressure, this stuff is damn near impossible to pull apart with your hands. You could use this stuff to hold the Grand Canyon walls together.

I didn't bother with the cutout on the bottom while the ends were still taped together. I saved the cut offs from it and I'll use them to sand it and smooth it out.

I shouldn't have any problems finishing this up tomorrow. My first project of 2016 will be a bookshelf for the last project of 2015.

accidental woodworker

trivia corner
What were the names of the two robbers crucified next to Jesus?
answer - Dismas and Gestas (from the Gospel of Nicodemus)

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