Archive for the ‘In The Shop’ Category
Cleaning Day!
The only thing I hate worse than watching glue dry is watching clear finish dry. I have post office box banks and lazy susans sitting all around the shop after putting their first clear coat finish on this morning. When this happens, I can’t machine anything that would create dust. Fortunately, I had a shipment of post office doors come in Saturday and I spent the rest of today cleaning doors. It’s time consuming, but it’s also a lot like quiet time so I enjoyed the change of pace.
It’s rare to get a hold of these vintage doors in like new condition. They were all in service somewhere at one time. Many were bought in large lots and stored in basements and barns for years until re-discovered. I probably spend at least 30 minutes cleaning each door. Some doors may take an hour or more depending on the condition. Hard to open locks, bent frames, and stuck hinges contribute to the reconditioning process. I’m not trying to make them look brand new, but they need to work and fit into the box correctly.
The first thing I do is remove the glass and wash each door with Dawn detergent while scrubbing with a soft wire brush. This gets the dirt and crud off the door, but it’s still dull and tarnished. If the lock doesn’t turn or work smoothly, which happens about 50% of the time, it gets disassembled, repaired, and lubricated. Once all this is done, I use Brasso and start polishing to get the original shine back. Sometimes I have to resort to using a Dremel tool with a spinning wire brush to get hard crud off some of the metal parts.
This is a before and after of the doors I just received. The one on the left is representative of how they came to me. The one on the right is what it looks like cleaned up. The majority of these doors had smooth operating locks, so I just had to clean them and be done with it.
I recently received a few of these 1902 double dial eagles. I got them cleaned up before I took a picture, but the dials and locking mechanism had to be completely disassembled, cleaned, and oiled to just get the dials to turn. The effort was worth it because they now operate smooth. These are beautiful, heavy, and well-built doors.
More Post Office Box Banks
I finally got some boxes finished to hold the early 1900s Post Office doors that I recently acquired. These are white oak and jatoba. Jatoba is also referred to as Brazilian cherry. I really don’t know why, because it is not related to the cherry tree and looks more like mahogany than cherry. It’s still a very pretty wood and easy to work with.
Like the walnut in my previous post, the jatoba dovetails really stand out against the lighter white oak. These doors are a 1902 Star Dial, and a circa 1920 flying eagle. Both are old and rare, however the 108 year old 1902 is the rarest and also my favorite. It has a two digit combination where all the other doors are three digit.
Almost Déjà vu
About 11 years ago, I got side tracked and started making Post Office lock box door banks. I made up about 15 of them, gave one to each one of my kids, a few friends, and set the rest on a shelf in the basement and forgot about them. A few years later, my wife gave one to a nephew, with a little money in it, and precedence was set. Now all the nephews and nieces expect one of these coin banks when they graduate.
My wife mentioned the other day that we were down to two boxes and still have seven nieces/nephews to graduate. The next one doesn’t graduate for another four years, but I prefer to be proactive. The original boxes from way back were built using red oak and walnut with a few using cherry and walnut. This time around I opted for white oak and walnut. I had 6 Grecian doors from the 50s and 60s sitting in a cabinet, so I went ahead and ran a batch off.
This is the first time I have used white oak in any project and I really like how it looks. It doesn’t have the reddish hue of red oak, but more of an antique look when finished with the oil-based clear finish that I use on all my projects. I never use stains on my projects and let the natural color and figure of the wood stand on its own. What makes these boxes a little unique is the dovetail joinery. Most woodworkers who make these coin banks use 45 degree miter edges to join the corners which is quick and easy. Not being the person who takes the low road, I prefer to spend more time and dovetail them. The results are much more dramatic.
My plan right now is to add these as a new product for my shows. Unfortunately, the six I finished yesterday have already been sold through the power of customer email notifications. I have a show in a couple of weeks, so I’ve got to get moving to get more ready.
The custom engraved coin slot really makes this box.
It takes a big mallet and a lot of clamps to get the dovetails together and glued.
Too Pretty For Anything Else
By looking at my products, one will deduce that I like to mix different woods to make each piece interesting and eye catching. However, every once in a while I get a hold of a piece of wood that beckons to stand on its own without any further help from me. Such is the case of my recent lazy susans.
Since I buy my lumber rough as it comes from the saw mill, it is sometimes difficult to see what the wood actually looks like until I run it through my planer. I had some walnut that I planed down with the intention of using it for another project. But, when it came out of the planer, I just couldn’t bear to cut it up into small strips. The creamy sapwood streaks mixed in with light chocolate heartwood was too pretty to use for anything other than a lazy susan. It worked out so that I could make a 13” and a 16” with matching walnut bases.
Church Pew Lazy Susans
When I was in Tennessee a few weeks ago, my dad gave me an old church pew that was removed from his church. It was destined for the dump and would be there right now had he not rescued it. This pew was installed in the church in 1964 when they built the new sanctuary. I was 8 years old when it was built and listened to many sermons over the years sitting on these solid red oak pews. It just didn’t seem right to let it go to the dump or be cut it up for firewood.
I decided to do the “green” thing, reclaim the wood, and turn it into lazy susans. This involved cutting around the holes (where the book holders were screwed on) and all the staples that held on the upholstery. I ended up with 5” wide strips that I ran through the planer to remove the old finish and dents. I then glued the strips back up and cut the circles out on my bandsaw. The whole time I was milling the wood, I was wondering if any of the chewing gum under the seat bottoms belong to me from the 60s.
The result was three 16” lazy susans and still enough wood for maybe a couple 12” ones. I also couldn’t resist making up some bookmarks out of the oak. Upon first glance, these are a little uninspiring, but the history and story behind them is what it’s all about. I figured out the other day that excluding revivals, these lazy susans have bore witness to over 6600 Southern Baptist sermons and should be full of the Holy Spirit.
Church Pew Red Oak
Church Pew Bookmark With Walnut Trim
It's all about the sanding
