Joiner's Musings

From the class of 2015-2016 Well, retirement had to come sooner or later and the end of January seemed to be the perfect time. My hour had come, so they say. I was invited into the classroom; wait a minute I thought. Is something happening? A few seconds later they presented this very timely gift, a memento of my retirement, a clock. I have to give them a big hand! The second year class whom I had taught for nearly two years knew that I had an interest in clock collecting and repair and thought that a timepiece would be appropriate as a retirement gift. And it was and I was touched. They even had it inscribed. An appropriate memento Interestingly enough it is probably the most accurate clock in our home. I have 25 mechanical clocks, all shapes and sizes and not one can maintain the accuracy of this small clock, such is the state of modern technology. I looked on top and said, "what in the world is this? And it spins too. I thought my wife and I could use it to ...

Masked and ready for trim painting There was not be as much work to do on this project as I had thought. Firstly, the side panels are in very good shape. I though it would be a real shame to strip it all down. I have seen disastrous results of wholesale stripping and I did not really want to go there.   I did some light sanding and applied clear lacquer to the existing finish to fill in small scratches and gouges. The results were very positive. I then applied a clear polyurethane coat over the top of the sides and front to bring back the original finish and that glossy look. Following side renewal I decided to do something a little more radical on the trim sections. Most of the unsightly damage was to those sections; the base plate sections were the worst.   I had two options, sand those sections down to the bear wood and recover them or cover over them with paint.  I selected the second option and after a good cleaning, taking the grease and oil off...