So long 2017

Yeah, turns out even a holiday week is not enough time for me to wrap up a big project. Not having time off of work didn't really help though, so I don't feel too bad. Still, I'm happy with where things are at. If I don't look too closely at the glued up desktop things looked pretty good. But I need something I can set a PC on and work off of without noticing bumps or rough sections, so there's a lot of finishing work to be done here.

I can move it all as one big piece, so that's probably a good sign.

Which is why I picked up the power planer. My in-laws did something very nice for me the other week; on top of a pizza steel for Christmas they also bought me a saw as a "thank you" for helping with the kitchen over the summer. Unfortunately, they bought me a saw I already had, which is how I ended up with a $98 store credit at HD. After some internal debate, I ended up realizing a hand plane would really help if I wanted to try a desktop build, but store credit can't be used online, and they don't have any hand planes in store anymore. So I went with the power option, which was cheaper so I could grab some extra clamps to help with this too. Not my first choice, but it turned out to be a real time saver. Some of those glue joints were WAY off.

Hooray, new tool un-boxing.

Like anything other project, I want things to look as nice as possible, but I also realize I don't know what I'm doing so I'm used to fixing mistakes. The planer was really easy to figure out though, and as much of a pain it was to constantly have to empty the collection bag, it did a good job cleaning up some of the bigger bumps. My block plane was enough to really clean things up, plus get rid of some mistakes I made with the power tool, and after an hour or so the first side was looking good. 

If you squint it looks pretty good.

Quite a collection of shavings.

The other side went pretty much the same way, and after sanding that side too I was feeling pretty good about where I was at. When I flipped things over to sand what I considered the top, I realized some of my gaps probably had to get filled just to make things a little more presentable. So after one more trip to the store, the gaps were filled and I was waiting to sand again. 

Whoops. Thankfully nothing like this to fix in the middle of the block.

The more I filled the more I found to fix.

Wood filler dried, things are looking pretty good at this point. It might not be counter top quality butcher block, but for $30 in materials I'm thinking I've got a nice desk coming together.

I was thinking about how to finish this, and at this point I'm kind of stumped. I've got some natural stain and enough poly left that would probably work, but the idea of spending night after night getting this finished doesn't really appeal to me right now. At least not as much as having a few drinks and saying goodbye to this weird, strange year.

holiday week butcher block

I have one more thing I want to work on this year, specifically before my next session of classes start for grad school. B/c I'm going to need a better place to work late at night than the couch, so why not put together a better desk with some holiday time. Although I'm not sure waiting until this week makes getting it done possible at all...

The first project I ever really worked on was a writing table to replace our crappy ikea desk at the condo, and it's been in our office room since the move. All it is is two reclaimed boards glued together with some table legs holding it up, stained and sealed for a functional surface. I thought about taking it apart and re-doing that joint in the middle, but really I need more room than the table currently offers. When I have a paper due, I like to spread out and have sources all over the place, and I can't do that right now. To help with this, I envisioned a wider table spanning most of that wall, with some bottom shelves to stash stuff on.

Things have come a long way since this table came together (thankfully).

I've been toying with the idea of putting together a big butcher block to have everything on, something I could do myself for as cheaply as possible. I love seeing all the examples of people building legs to hold up a block they've bought for $300 somewhere, but as much as they look cool I'm not dropping that kind of cash right now. As luck would have it, I just happened to have $100 store credit at HD, and about $25 in rebates for Menards, so why not go pick up some materials and a new tool or two to see what I can come up with.

Turns out I could do a lot. For about $30 out of pocket, I picked up

A ryobi power hand planer
2 36" clamps
9 8' 2x4's
2 1/2" 2x4' plywoods

Plenty to get started putting a desktop together. That's about as much of a plan as I needed.

So with some extra time off I got to cutting, gluing, and clamping. The 2x4's got the rounded edges cut off, then split into 2 1.5 inch halves. Those got chopped into random lengths, and then I started laying out how to put them together with the nicest looking grains I could find.

Trimmed

Halved. So much saw dust out.

Hey, this might actually work.

I started on the workbench but had to move to the floor eventually b/c I wanted to build out to around 30" deep. At this point I was getting a little worn down; it was a lot of repetitive tasks to get to where I could start gluing. But this was all one day's work, which made me feel really good about how much progress I was able to make. Time is running pretty short these days, so being able to go from raw materials to this far into the project in one workday was great.

Technically I should have flipped it at this point but I was done

I should probably build some nicer legs for something with this much work, but honestly re-using the old legs is going to be enough of a time saver it will be worth it. The plywood is to build a cabinet with that will serve as legs on one side of the table or maybe even two, but when I have time to put that together is anyone's guess at this point. I have until mid-January before classes start, I think I can get this done.

I'm not a structural engineer...

But sometimes I wish I was.

Wreath hanging has become an annual challenge around here. This year's plywood wreath is much heavier than last year's, and if that one feel I'm a little worried about how to hang this year's.

So I thought I should make something a little more permanent, screwing a block into the outer wall. I started with a triangle block, and put a 2.5 inch screw through it. I also caulked the edges to seal it. I think that might do it.

So the wreath is up, and even if the lights aren't working right now it looks pretty good. And now I have room to do, or at least start, one last big project for the year. Happy holidays to me.

Lots of wreath progress, with one big issue

Once the frame was cut the wreath has come together pretty quickly, with one major issue I haven't addressed yet.

I hinged the two pieces together, which should give me some flexibility in storing it after the holidays. It kept things together but has also made it a little more difficult to move around, especially if I need to flip it over. Whoops.

I like that it folds, I don't like that I still need to put stuff on the back side.

But things look good; the lights still work, everything was where I left it, and now I just have to figure out how I'm going to attach something capable of hanging it for the rest of the month. You know, the little details.