I finally broke down and splurged to add a good wood working lathe to the shop. It’s amazing what you get order from Amazon.com and with free super saver shipping the 500lb box was a good deal !

The deliver truck driver was very happy to see a 14 foot high door open and BARRETT waiting to unload the crate. One bit of humor. Knowing the delivery truck was going to be big, I moved the truck, trailer and car out of the drive so there would be room to maneuver and turn around. Both the delivery truck and UPS truck saw my vehicles off the side of the driveway and halted right then and there, thinking the rest of the drive was impassable. Both drivers were glad to learn otherwise.

The new lathe is variable speed and setup for 230v so there will be plenty of power and control. I still need to choose the right chuck for turning bowls but at least now the bulk is in place.

Now if I can only secure a bit of Herbie to make a new family heirloom …

The pantry cabinets are progressing, albeit slowly. The carcasses are done. The face frames are finished but not as perfect as I would hope. I think I need to find a finer mesh strainer for my sprayer. I kept getting crystalline bumps. I also need to accept that more of my supplies need to be considered "single use" items. The finish is good but it took two extra sandings and spray coats to get there. The shelves are all finished and I’ve order 140 shelf pins – 80 for this job and 60 for the next. The face frames have been attached using the same biscuit technique i used on the kitchen base cabinets.

Since the pantry will have inset doors rather than drawers, I used a trick I learned from a cabinet making shop. I lowered the face frame about 1/4" so the door would close against the bottom of the carcass. This required I cut the bottom of the carcass 1/2" shallow and then install a 1/2" piece of finish wood. I glued and screwed a complement piece of finish wood to the back side of the face frame at the top such that it hung down 1/4". When a pantry door is closed, it is now fully supported along the top and bottom so it will remain square and flush. At the bottom, it is advisable to add an extra strip of carcass material below the finished edge so there is something for the biscuit joints. Technically it is possible to get by without it but with a 1/4" reveal, that only leaves 1/2" of the carcass for the slot and biscuit joint and that was not enough for my comfort. (The insert at the bottom of the photo is a zoom of the bottom of the center pantry cabinet and highlights the technique.)

Next weekend, I will build the three large doors. If it stays warm enough, I might be able to cut all the parts over the course of two or three evenings. The rail and stile material has already made a pass through the router table to receive the panels. However, the panels are large so cutting them will be a task for when I have patients and am not tired. They will also need to be rabbited just a little since the plyboo is true 1/4" and the shaker panel bit set is made for undersized stock. (such is life)

This weekend was dedicated to building the pantry cabinets. The pantry is tall (floor to 9 foot ceiling), wide (just under 8 feet), and shallow (interior shelves are just 12 inches deep). The last dimension means I won’t lose stuff to the back of shelves and it also means the light from the kitchen will illuminate the contents not matter how tight the shelves, so I won’t need to install lighting within the cabinets.

After cleaning the shop (it’s nice to start with a clean space), I set out to build the carcasses, and layout the shelving. The back fits into dados on the sides. The bottom fits into dados on the sides and back. The top fits into a rabbit on the sides and back. The sides were easy. I installed my stacked dado blades into the table saw and rand all the sides. Then I had a brain gap. With the sides and back being a full 8 feet, running a dado across was dangerous without a special jig and an extra set of hands. Then I remembered you can dado with a router if you have the right size bit. fortunately, my old router had an edge guide so after a bit of experimenting, I was set to dado for the bottom panel and rabbit for the top.

I finished the glue ups of the three cabinets and did a little more cleanup with the plan to start face frames on Sunday. However, that plan was premature.

Each pantry cabinet already weighs about 60 lbs and given the size, they need to be assembled inside the kitchen. So, I decided I would layout the necessary blocking and spacers for the eventual cabinet installation. This will help with the rest of the manufacturing and will let me separate the three to move then into the kitchen while insuring they will go back together with nearly invisible seams. The blocking also helps keep the cabinets true given their large size and minimal internal support structure along the front.

I took advantage of the relative mobility of the separate cabinets to drill for all of the shelf pins. Some of the shelves will be rather close together given the pantry will hold canned goods. There will likely be as many as eight shelves (plus the bottom) in each cabinet. That will provide better than 50 square feet of shelf space. this does not include the long term storage in the bin that will go above the pantry cabinets.

Each row of shelf pins has 19 holes. That makes the math 19 holes per row, by 4 rows (front and back for left and right), and 3 cabinets. My wrists are not happy but the job if finished. If you drilling more than just a few shelf pin holes, the jig is well worth it. The plastic is not the valuable piece by itself. You could make that yourself from scrap wood. The sleeved, self centering drill bit is what makes this work.

I also built the base (not pictured).

I’ll spend evenings this week building the shelves. They will consist of a 3/4" of the same prefinished plywood used on are carcasses and will have a 1" front edge of bamboo. The extra 1/4" will create a small lip on the under side of each shelf and add additional strength and stability for canned goods and other heavy storage.

Somewhere in a corner of your basement or garage you probably have a small bench where you go to fix things – a cord on a lamp, a loose screw on a chair, a door hinge, etc. And on a shelf near that bench (or in a drawer) there is an old coffee can where you keep the left over screws from old projects. It has lots of different wood and metal screws, bolts, nuts, washers, and odd looking bits and pieces you decided should not get thrown away because "some day you’ll need it".

When it comes time for the next fix-it project, you dutifully go to the bench, dump out the coffee can and sift through the contents in hopes of finding the perfect match. If the can is big and you’ve been at this for 20 years, odds are good you will find something. When it’s all done, you are left with the task of putting all those odd bits back in the can. The challenge is that some are small and many have sharp points. Inevitably you drop a few on the floor or prick you hand or both.

The solution is a "pan funnel". You empty the can into the pan rather than out on the bench and when you are done, you conveniently just pour the contents right back into the can!

I’ve needed a floor standing Lazy Susan in the paint booth since … well, the dawn of time. With the door fronts needed the final coat to be sprayed, it seemed a good time to build one.

The one I put together is working well but I consider it only temporary. I need to build one with some additional functionality. When I re-build this one, I will give it three feet so it will not wobble regardless of any subtle imperfections in the floor. I will also add a shelf 2/3rds up the pedestal where I can put small blocks, clamps, and hooks. Lastly, I want a hangar for the spray gun so I don’t need the separate stand.

Even without the planned improvements, the floor standing carousel made very quick wok of spray the 20+ door fronts! It allowed me to stand in one place and rotate the work quickly. This is especially handy given my paint booth, in it’s smallest configuration, is 18 feet long but only a little more than 6 feet wide. (Barely visible on the right edge of the photo, along the wall, is the drying rack with the door panels.)

… I wonder if there is a market for floor standing Lazy Susans for dinner parties ?