More woodworking

It’s been an exhausting year! I’m feeling kind of at a loss about what to write so instead of trying to come up with something I think I’ll just give an update on my woodworking project along with some photos. Overall I’m happy with how things are progressing. I’ve got the frame almost completely glued now and I’ve cut some of the wood for the front as well as the wood for the top.

This is my first real woodworking project and I’ve learned a lot along the way about what to do and how to do it. Not all of my joints came out as tight as I wanted, but I did manage to get a few that I’m really proud of. For example here’s one that I did that came out nearly perfect. Ignore the glue stains and the pen mark, those will get standed away before I start assembling the rest, but the joint fits well together and creates minimal seam. It has me excited about the rest of the project.

The joint is a 3 way half lap joint (technically one of the cuts is a cross lap, but details). Since everything was dry I stressed the joints by putting my body weight on it and the frame is solid. I’m really looking forward to get the rest assembled. The frame is ash, the sides are hard white maple, and the top is black walnut. It’s going to be a thick top at ~2 inches, so pretty substantial. Below is the top, it’s two pieces I’ve cut to size, now I just need to glue them together and go through all the finishing stuff.

Today it’s probably going to be a lot of gluing. I’m limited to what I can glue by my number of clamps. I plan on gluing the top so I can finish it and set it aside so nothing happens to it. I also want to get the wood cut for the sides, bottom, and doors. So I’ll cut all the pieces I can, then get to gluing everything to the frame. It takes ~24 hours before I can remove the clamps and move on to glue something else, but I’m hopeful that if I plan it out there won’t be a lot of waiting for pieces to dry.

Yeah, not a long post, but it’s the holidays so right now I’m just trying to take it easy. That’s part of the “work/life balance” people are always talking about and if you’re getting a PhD or frankly any sort of higher education having a good work/life balance will keep you sane through all the hard times. Just a friendly reminder from me to you to take some time for yourself and for your mental health. Happy holidays!