Smooth

  When building out of wood it is good to have all surfaces smooth to the touch.  All surfaces don't have to be sanded to four hundred grit but they all need some attention, often the surface that comes off the jointer or planer is good enough for an under side of project or the inside of a box.

   In today's project the back side of the boards needed some attention because the boards I was using had been recovered from another furniture project from a couple of years ago.  The back side of the beaded boards were rough cut and had some glue residue as well.

  I had used these bead boards to make doors for cup boards in our previous family room. 

  After a bit of trimming I needed to clean up the back side of the boards.  I have every kind of sander and plane known to man and I finally decided to use 'the beast'

  

THE BEAST 

   3 by 21 inch rip snorting belt sander.  My 'beast' is at least 25 years old and doesn't get much work now days but... there are times, like today that it is just the perfect tool for the job.  I keep a 120 grit belt on the sander and use it when I want to make a whole bunch of dust in a big hurry.  The bead board was not too straight and slightly cupped with a few knots in awkward places so running it through the planer seemed like a bad idea and beginning with an orbital sander seemed too slow. ( with glue and crap on the boards, I wasn't risking a hand plane)

  

   With the belt sander, I clamped the board down and run the sander up and down the board a couple of times to clear away the rough stuff.  Then I used my random orbital sander to finish off the board.

the big clamp is a KHC Xlarge face clamp,
very handy to have around for times like this.

  After things were smoothed out I glued the pieces together to make yet another box.  This box will be sanded and painted once the glue is dry.  The design is for a box to sit on top of a low partition wall and collect car keys, cell phones and other stuff that get emptied out of ones pockets when one comes in through the door at the end of the day. 

    As follow up to the Folding Stool from last week

   

scratched bead on the leg

new seat.  12 inches square,
 my sit down was is to big for the original 10 inch seat.

 all that remains is to stain the stool and give it a couple of coats of shellac.  Photos to follow when the spirit moves to me to finish this job.

cheers, ianw  

P.S. another day of penguin weather.