Bear's Lair

[Nobes]

Merry Christmas y'all!

I got the shop build finished on July 4, but in doing so I blew a disc in my low back. Ouch! So that pretty much ruined the rest of the summer. Surgery then PT, which concludes next week. It's tough being old.

Obviously I still have all that stuff to do. The TD DID find a home in our garage, and a clever one I think. Our driveway is a big hill, so backing it into the garage was just not gonna happen. My bro-in-law suggested mounting a winch on the back wall of the garage and pulling it up. So I got a winch and one of those trailer dollies to 'steer' the thing and it sucked up into the garage exactly as planned.

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of projects after the surgery. My daughter got married the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and she ordered quite a few small wooden things as well as an "arch" to use in the ceremony. The arch ended up as a small pergola. I had a blast building all that for her, plus I got to do the wedding ceremony, AND I talked her into one of those choreographed "first dance" things which was incredibly fun.

The lovely and gracious Mrs. Nobes is going on a 'quilting cruise' next May--so now I am thinking about a crazy (or is it epic??) trip to Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Arches while she is on the ocean. It would be a 12-day trip: 2 day drive out, 2 days at each park, 2 day drive back. We'll see. If that happens in all likelihood the only TD project I could get done before the trip is the galley re-build. Again, we'll see.

I still enjoy following all the awesome builds on here, y'all keep up the great work!

Nobes

[Nobes]

Well it is almost May and that Epic Adventure with my buddy Spoons to the Grand Canyon and Utah's mighty 5 is ON. I have reservations at various campgrounds and I'm putting together my hiking list. Meanwhile--really it's true--I have started the galley rebuild.

So, first I finished setting up the shop by getting my dust control system fully installed. I had the collector in already so I ran ducting, added gates for chop saw, table saw, bench, and 1 more for everything else. It works great, I'm very pleased with it so far. I still need to build a catch system around the chop saw.

On to the galley! I've got to remember how to post pictures here, it's been awhile. Meanwhile, here's what I've done so far:

1. Pulled the old galley out, it was just screwed in.
2. Bought materials--1/2" Baltic birch and 3/4 alder.
3. Measured twice. And a time or 2 more.
4. Decided on a plan--substantially like the old one, just better materials, adding doors to the right side opening. The ice chest will ride in the truck from now on. For the top shelf, I have cool shelf brackets featuring a bear (you know, Bears' Lair & all that). Adding a rack for wine glasses. Adding 'cubbies' across the back, ripping that idea off from one of our fellow builders. Still have 3 drawers on the left side.
5. Made the countertop--a slab of BB with a 1/2 X1 alder trim on all 4 sides.
6. Built the 4 vertical supports, 1/2" BB extending all the way back to front, with a 1/2 X 1/2 piece of alder glued on the front. Assembled verticals to the countertop. Reinforced all those joints with 1/8 oak dowel pins. The pins look good on the center top of the countertop.
7. Built the doors, rails and stiles with a 1/4 ply insert. I stained the insert golden oak (like on the back of the galley, the wall between the cabin and galley) but haven't polyed it yet; after I get poly on it I will glue the doors up and they are ready to mount. They fit just right. I have small brass hinges left over from previous projects.
8. Built the wine rack. I first tried it with BB, but there was a lot of splintering. Then I decided to use alder instead and created the pieces again. I made the glass rack then pulled out my plastic camping wine glasses, and the bases weren't even close to fitting. Measure twice!! I dint even measure the glass bases once. Oops. I changed a few dimensions and the bases still won't fit but the glass rack is as big as I can make it. So it's installed and I am looking for new plastic camping wine glasses that will fit the opening I built.
9. Built 2 1/2" BB shelves to go between the 3 drawers. I used the same style as the top, BB with 1x1/2 alder trim.
10. The doors fit inside the frame, and the drawers will as well. Measured the opening, got my slides out and figured the dimensions for the drawer box, and cut my 6" blank to size for front, back, and sides.
11. Tonight, I pulled out my shop nemesis--a dovetail jig. AMAZINGLY, it was already set up for what I needed and I cut half blind dovetails for the 6" drawer (the bottom drawer). The last time I tried this thing I worked for days and never got it to make an accurate cut. Apparently at some point since then my shop elves defeated the shop demons and set the thing to cut perfect dovetails for a 6" drawer. Woo hoo!
12. And that's where I am. Things are going great so far and I think I will actually get done on time.

Pictures to come!

[Nobes]

Photos:

Dust control unit, a grizzly 220v machine


The ducting & my little 10x20 shop


Countertop glue up with alder trim


Galley cabinet unit overall


Built wine rack parts out of BB--ultimately didn't work


Cabinet unit with BB wine rack--note the little support pieces above the parts the glasses sit on--I designed these to be 1/2 x 1/2, but when looking at the pieces I thought they were too small so I went to 1/2 x1. Then I tried to insert the glasses, and whoops. I remade the whole thing with alder and made these 1/2 x 1/2, but I still have to get smaller glasses.


Alder wine rack complete


Doors


The evil dovetail jig


Nice dovetail drawer! There was a surprising amount of tearout, and I think I just have to live with it.

[Nobes]

Further progress over the weekend. All 3 drawers are built, the first two are installed. I got the lower shelf between middle & lower drawer in place, and I'm ready to put the upper shelf and the last drawer in. After I get everything set, I will take the drawers out, remove the hardware, cut the groove for the bottoms, finish, glue, reinstall hardware, then move on to cutting the drawer faces.

Pics:


Laying out the drawer parts.


Lots of marks on there. Each piece has to stay oriented throughout the process.


In the jig, ready to cut


First you have to backrout across the side piece or you get really terrible tearout.

[Nobes]

Another view of the back rout


Cut all drawers & fitted in place, checking clearance to make sure they all fit



I sweated over the stupid slides for hours. Went to Lowe's to buy a jig to help with installation, they didn't have it. Luckily I'm close to a Rockler store now, but they're closed on Sundays. Then I decided to google 'how to install drawer slides without going crazy.' Found a bunch of videos, and basically I learned my slides are NOT the kind they use now and are much harder to use than the new ones. I almost decided to drop yet another hundred dollars (for new slides), but decided to try one more time. Back to the shop, realized I had more of these, in the package, let's look at the instructions! Whoops, I'm trying to install them upside down. Right side up, hey these are easy!


1st drawer installed correctly


The lower shelf is in in that last picture. At this point, I have the bottom 2 drawers in and that shelf. Tonight I will continue with the upper shelf and top drawer, then take it all apart for glue up, assembly & finishing.

[Nobes]

Work continues...

The shelves between the drawers are installed. 1/2" BB ply with alder trim front.


Then I made the 'cubbies'--these photos show them in and out of clamps


This pic shows the shelf above the cabinet, the drawers, doors, and the cubbies


Side view of the cubbies on the cabinet unit

[Nobes]

These are the brackets (you know, for The Bears' Lair) that will hold up the shelf above the cabinet unit.



Cubbies on the cabinet, stained



I used 1/4 dowel pins to reinforce the glue joints on the cubbie assembly and where the vertical supports join the countertop



As usual, doing things twice. After I put the cubby assembly together I realized I forgot to make notches to run wires for lights. I have some cool led light tubes that will be placed in various spots and there has to be a notch for the wires. I should have cut notches on the band saw before I assembled. After some time in the pondering chair I realized I could get it done with a drill bit. It doesn't look as nice, but no one (except you and me) will ever see it.

[Nobes]

In the continuing spirit of doing things my way...

I decided to use alder fronts for the drawers, not alder ply. This meant resawing a piece of alder, then planing the 2 parts to get 1/4 stock to make the drawer fronts. Since my shop is tiny, I needed to move the bandsaw outside to do this operation. For some reason, I didn't unplug it before starting to move it.

So, it fell over. When it started to fall I started to grab it. Then I remembered I had back surgery last summer, so I just let it go. Fortunately my son in law was at the house at the time, so he helped me stand it back up. The fall broke the trunnion support, the piece that holds the table on. Some pics to prove it:





That last picture is the new part, ordered from Grizzly. The good news was it only cost $25. The bad news was I now to had to do a total re-set of all the settings on the machine. It took several hours and I had to do them all several times, but I finally got it done. As I got into it, I realized that the upper part of the machine was not tight. This bolt had loosened in the fall.



I had no sockets that fit this nut, so I tried my biggest wrench, an adjustable. There was just no room to get it in there. I had already made one trip to Lowes for a new support bolt for the table, and I didn't want to go again so I just clamped these pieces together. However, the clamp interfered with opening the lower door. So, trip #2 to Lowes, found a socket for just $5 (hey how bout that!!), put the nut back on.

took the nut off, put the WASHER on, then put the nut back on.

Now the adjustments are made. Again.

After several hours of futzing with this thing, I got it working, the blade stayed on the wheels, the table was 90 degrees to the blade, and I was ready to resaw.



And it worked. Here are the 'bookmatch' pieces ready to plane.


They planed up nice, and tonight I will continue with staining/finishing. The plan is to install all this in the TD on Tuesday night, then my trip is a 8 days from now. Grand Canyon & Utah's Mighty 5!

[KCStudly]

Way to persevere! "If you're going through hell keep going." - Winston Churchill

[lincolnlerner]

I cut this piece of wood three times and its still too short!?
Way to get after it. As a fellow back "expert" you are doing great!
Can't wait for final pics

[Nobes]

On the last lap now!

Doors are installed. I put a magnetic closure thing at the top behind the doors (not visible when doors are closed), and it's too far forward so I get to remove that and reinstall a bit further back in the cabinet today. This time I will turn the whole unit upside down, meaning I don't have to hold it up while getting the right spot marked.

Drawers are installed--they slid really nice on the slides before the drawers were glued and poly'ed. Now the sliding action is very stiff. So, I'm going to take one slide off each drawer and CAREFULLY remove about 1/16" to the height of the slide on the table saw. Hopefully that will do it. The problem is, the Baltic birch I used did not respond favorably to cutting the dovetails. some of the (pins? Tails? I know those are the word but I'm not sure which is which) male ends there's not much there and I hope I don't make the cuts and reveal huge gaps where most of the male end splintered away while routing the dovetail.

I really think the problem is I didn't get them tight enough when gluing them together so I think this will fix it. Hopefully, the slide on the drawer side will hide my 'surgery scar.'

Finishing up the poly on the drawer fronts, one more round to go. Everything has 3 coats except the drawers which have 2. Then put the drawer fronts on and install the pulls.

When these Items are done I'm ready to install in the TD. My son is coming over Tuesday to help mine install, so the whole thing will just rest on Monday, or more likely, I'll be out here tomorrow trying to fix more problems. It's the Nobes Way.

[Nobes]

KC--thanks! I sure have appreciated your help throughout.
Lincoln--ha! Been there done that.

Pics tomorrow, hopefully of a completed galley.

[Nobes]

The good news is I'm working inside my air conditioned shop today. It's tiny, but it's mine and I like it. Beatles tunes going, pondering chair at the ready, life is good.

Pics tomorrow, hopefully of a completed galley.

[Nobes]

I'm still chasing that perfect project, but the galley rebuild now goes in the "done" category. Next is installation, tomorrow.

Saturday was 'finishing' day. I hate finishing. All my good work can be ruined with a poor job here, and the woodworking part is much more fun and involved than this. My shop is tiny, so I needed some space and the only space is outside. I bought this 12x12 canopy last fall and it has been sitting under my teardrop in the garage since. Since I'm camping next week, it's high time to test it out.



Nice shade, Mr. Canopy. Well done. I got everything finished with 3 coats of poly except the drawer fronts--which were ready to cut to final size but I can't do that till the drawers are back together--and the drawers, which only got 2 coats, because hey they're drawers.

I got the doors installed. Late Saturday night I was putting the magnetic closure in to hold the doors closed and got it too far forward, resulting in the doors 'bowing' forward instead of standing straight across when closed. I even thought as I was holding it up, trying to mark spots for screws, "This would be easier if I turned this cabinet upside down" but it was late and I didn't. More work for tomorrow.



I put the hardware back on the drawers and they had to be shoved to close. Wait a minute, these worked great before glue up! Dang it. Something else to fix tomorrow. But, I went ahead and cut the faces and taped them up just to see how they are going to look. Gotta say I love me some alder.



So I had more work to do on doors & drawers, but the wine rack part was done. At least SOMETHING was done! Actually the upper shelf and the cubbies assembly were also done.



The next day we were going to late church, so I could get some work done early. I walked outside and found a broken canopy. My sprinklers came on overnight, ran for 20 minutes, and broke the dang thing. On its FIRST DAY in use! Fortunately, Lowe's is great on returns so I packed it up and got a new one. If this one breaks the first time it gets wet...I guess a 12x12 just won't work. Here the broken part.



Saturday night I stained the drawer fronts, and before church I put the first of 3 coats of poly on. I had been thinking about how to fix the drawers, and unfortunately my best idea was to do a little surgery on the outside side, the least viewed side. So after church I took the hardware off and set up a sacrificial fence on the tablesaw, raising the blade to cut to the height of the drawer slide.



The cut went as planned, I reinstalled the hardware, and presto the drawers roll in and out like they're supposed to. Here's the happy patient.



yeah, he's got a little scar, but it's in a spot that rarely viewed. I can live with that.

I fit the drawer fronts and glued them on. While waiting for glue to dry I turned the cabinet over and removed and reinstalled the magnetic closure so the doors would look straight while closed. Tremendously easier to do it this way.



Doors work great, pulls installed.



Then I got the drawers finished, with pulls.



And...it was done!



Pulls close ups. The drawer handle is the same handle I have on the outside of the hatch.




Today it sits. I'm letting the finish get good and hard. Tomorrow night, it goes in the TD.

Today is my 35th wedding anniversary! Our kids threw us huge surprise party Friday night. I had been thinking about what to do for the lovely and gracious Mrs. Nobes tonight, but shoot she's had a huge party, her sister from Houston came in and they spent the whole day Saturday shopping (should I check the bank records today?), her best friend in the world was there (she lives in East Texas, about 2 hours away)...dang tonight a frozen pizza and watching several hours of Fast N Loud should be perfect right?

Well maybe I should keep thinking about that. Happy 35th to my lovely bride. I can't believe you've put up with me all these years. I love you, and thank you.

[Nobes]

So here are the potential issues with installation:

At the back edge of the galley floor, I have a metal strip that gives the floor a 'finished' look. Will open doors clear that metal strip or do I have to take them off and shave off a 16th or so? I really don't want to do this--the hinge screws are the tiny brass things that strip very easily. Plus then I have to stain and poly. Again. Same question for the bottom drawer.

I used wooden closet rods for my hatch supports. Previously, one was on top of the cabinet and one was on the floor. My plan is they will now both be on top of the cabinet. Will the weight of the hatch interfere with either door or drawer operations? With the previous galley, I always thought the cabinet was a bit bowed due to the weight of the hatch. This galley is much stronger so I hope I have fixed this, but I won't know till I get it in and the hatch is resting on the countertop. Eventually, I need to get switched out to struts. Meanwhile, I'm putting holes in the countertop.

Finally, I have some cool lights to install. I made notches in the back of the cubbies to run the wires, and I put holes in the side of the wine rack and the top of the cabinet for wires & lights to go through, plus holes in the shelf. I have to think about order of installation of all these things so I can get the pieces installed as well as the lights. I still don't have a clear plan on which needs to happen first, second and third. Also, while I have cleats for the lights themselves, how do I get the wires to stick in corners so they are least visible?

First world problems, right?