Day Seven-seventy-six: more hamper madness

When we left off the stiles were ready for sealing and much else needed to be done. Some of that happened. Down in the basement we're diligently applying our non-toxic sealer to protect the wood and add some depth to the color. The Kentucky coffee tree is a really nice wood but is somewhat pale when unfinished. Here's the sealing sweatshop in progress. We figured these would be much easier to work with before everything's assembled. So far we like our decision.

And outside we had to do some work on the redheart wood we're using for the legs. Mostly this consisted of uncovering the beauty in this wood with a lot of sanding. Here are some before and after shots to show you what we started with (probably reclaimed wood) and what was hiding beneath.

And here are all four legs done and ready to cut to size (24 inches) and router the dowel holes for the cross beams.

Day Seven-seventy: a post is born

So we know we're supposed to be finishing the laundry hamper but....we just couldn't let some mild weather pass without taking advantage to do an outside project. This was a project that we never had in mind until the last snow/ice storm made us realize how treacherous even a couple steps can be without a handrail. So we made one.

This is what we had to start with. Two steps and a landing seen from inside...

And from the approach.

But what sort of railing to install? We discarded wood as too big and clunky for such a small space. That left metal. Should we sink it into the ground? We thought it would loosen over time. That meant sinking it into the concrete, but we weren't thrilled with the idea of digging out a big hole that we would have to refill with cement around the post. Then we hit on it, why not attach something to the top of the concrete? Something like this?

When you thread pipe into it you get the basis of a nice post. As a bonus, we got to see the pipe-cutting and -threading machine at Home Depot in action. It's quite impressive if you don't mind the smell of industrial oil (to keep the thing cool).

With that settled we moved onto drilling out pilot holes for the lag shields and galvanized screws. With a Sharpie we marked out the drill holes.

The first one went alright, but the batteries died on our cordless drill barely into the second (left) hole. It has many advantages but staying power on a difficult task isn't one of them.

What to do? Fear not, our friends at the Depot have plenty of solutions for every problem. We opted for a corded drill that also has a hammer drill function, which is tailor-made for working in cement.

With this little beauty in hand we made quick work of finishing the first post.

And the second.

And even the third and fourth.

Now we have to attach the railings and paint the whole thing, because we're just not into the whole "industrial" look of galvanized steel. Stay tuned.

Day Seven-sixty-two

After a short hiatus we got back to work on the laundry hamper. We needed to get the 28 stiles ready for installation. First that meant making the last two and another to replace one that was too warped to use. That left us with a 7x4 stack.

Next up was to mark the centers as we had before.

And then it was time spent carefully routering out the center where the dowel rods will go.

This might not look like much but it took several hours to get right. Next up will be some parallel processing--inside we'll do the last step on the stiles by applying sealer and outside we need to dig out the channel to hold the bottom. After that will come cutting the bottom piece, cleaning the legs, routering matching holes in the legs and cross beams, making a ton more dowel pegs, attaching everything, sealing the other parts, and then figuring out the lid.

Day Seven-fifty-five: a shelf is born

About two weeks ago we left off on the little shelf we were building for studio two. After 3 coats of sealer to protect the wood and warm up the color a little (it's a clear sealer but that still livens up the oak) we installed the final product today. If we say so ourselves, it's quite a handsome addition to the room.

Wonder what else this little room might need....

Day Seven-fifty-one: a new year!

Welcome to 2014! A new year brings continuity with a couple ongoing projects.

The hamper is in "mass production" phase now, so we set up the table to plow through routering out the 56 holes in the stiles.

With everything clamped securely in place here's what the before shot looks like.

And here is the result.

We'd been testing along the way to ensure that the holes were the right size for the 1/4-inch dowel rod but wanted to demo everything, so we cut out a few pieces.

And everything seems to fit together well. Obviously it still needs glue and the other five stiles, but we're on our way.