Off topic: working with wood

I've recently become interested in woodworking. It all started in 1986 when Susan and I thought we'd like to build a cherry fold-top bar cabinet from a kit. A friend had made a couple kits from an outfit called The Bartley Collection, and they looked good, so we mailed off $300 and received a very heavy package. We opened it, looked at all the lovely cherry pieces and the directions, and put it back in the box.

Thirty-two years later, in 2018, the box had moved with us to our current home where it spent 21 years in the garage. Susan felt it was time to get it done. I thought it was time to donate it. But I lost that argument so I unboxed it all again, read and reread the quaint typewritten directions, took several deep breaths and got started. Very slowly. I had no experience assembling furniture other than IKEA, and this wasn't cheap particle board: it was beautiful solid cherry.

Around that time we were thinking about the antique three-quarters bed in one of our guest rooms. A three-quarters bed is midway in size between a twin and a full, and very uncommon nowadays. Susan's mother had slept in the bed as a child, and so had Susan. The mattress and box spring were falling apart and I couldn't ask guests to sleep on it. So we reluctantly shopped the bed around to our local antique stores. They all said the same thing: "Has it been converted? No? No thanks." "Converted" means widened to fit a full size mattress. Buying a three-quarters mattress isn't easy or cheap, so I understood. I wondered if I could do the conversion myself.

Google led me to kits for exactly that purpose. They are simple metal plates that screw into the headboard and footboard so the side rails can be moved out. Easy! But a closer look at our bed burst that bubble. The bed is a solid wooden box with nice, permanently joined corners. No way was I going to take that apart, especially given its vintage. Now what? It occurred to me that foam mattresses don't need box springs. We sleep very comfortably on a foam mattress on our platform bed. Maybe I could build a platform to sit on top of the bed box and just hang over the sides a couple inches, then buy a foam mattress and be done.

That's what I did. I used a good grade of one-by-fours to make 13 slats, then made side rails of finish grade poplar. I screwed and glued the slats to the rails and put a beeswax finish on the rails. Platform complete. I didn't want to just let it float on the bed box...things could shift if someone sat on the edge or if occupants got bouncy...but I didn't want to make a lot of screw holes in the original wood either. I settled on using a single two-by-four rail running down the center of the bed box and supported by joist hangers on the inside of the headboard and footboard. The platform is screwed to the rail, and the only holes in the original wood are for the joist hanger screws.

That was a fun project and I learned a lot. For one thing, I knew I couldn't cut thirteen slats all exactly the same length by hand. I bought a relatively inexpensive compound miter saw and learned how to rig a fence extension with a stop for cutting all the slats the same. And I learned how nice it is to have a ping pong table as a large flat assembly surface.

Meanwhile the cherry cabinet needed final assembly with dowels and glue. The dowels didn't fit and had to be sanded to a smaller diameter. The assembly involved 10 dowels and six panels, all of which had to be glued, fitted and clamped before the glue set. I rehearsed that process more than once, using a ratchet strap from the garage as a clamp. I breathed a sigh of relief when that was done. But now finish needed to be applied. I decided to use a "satin" (i.e., not too shiny) polyurethane finish. Again I consulted the internet about applying polyurethane and found that opinions vary. It was winter and our garage was cold, but I don't like using solvents in the house so I gave it a try in the cold. Fortunately I started on the interior shelves. They came out a complete mess. 

I waited for warmer weather and also bought a space heater to warm up the garage. Finally all the poly coats were done, and the flaws are small enough to live with. Two projects, one simple and one not, were done. Yay!

Susan enters the picture again. She's been an artist forever. In college she loved wood carving. Some of her pieces grace our home. Three walnut logs left over from college graced our garage, too, until one day she decided to let them go. "We can burn them in the fireplace" says she. "Umm", says I, "could I try making something from them?" I had recently purchased an angle grinder and watched people on YouTube carving wood with them. Scared but intrigued I bought some mean-looking wood grinding disks and started making a lot of dust.

It's been fun. I carved a log into a small plant stand, then made three bowls. I've learned to use (and sharpen) Susan's wood gouges and a plane I forgot I had. I've tried different finishes. I've spent a LOT of time with sandpaper. Having read this far (thanks) you've earned a couple pictures.

Walnut plant stand

Three walnut bowls, plus onion

Bed conversion platform

Cherry cabinet, in process