Day 6 - Sutton

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Day 6 was quite a day. 

I made significant progress on the dog bowl stand and feel confident that I can finish it by Wednesday. Hallelujah. The first thing I did in the morning was use the Tinkeria's brand spanking new circle jig. You basically attach this gadget to the router, plunge it into the wood, and - abracadabra - it cuts out a perfect circle. It quickly became my favorite tool since it is relatively easy to master and it is so satisfying. Scrap the "vacuum therapy" idea from my other blog - circle jig therapy is definitely the way to go. Before using the tool on my real piece of wood, I worked with Mr. Grisbee to do a practice circle cut on a scrap piece of wood. When that circle was a success, I moved on to complete my two real circles independently. Luckily, there was no drama or danger and I was left with a board that had lost a lot of weight (because of the missing circles).

I then used the table saw to make miter cuts so I could attach the legs to the top board. This step is really important because, the last time I checked, Baker wanted the parts of his dog bowl stand to be joined together, not separate. We adjusted the blade on the table saw to be a 45-degree angle and then made my cuts. I had previous experience making miter cuts with my J-term frames so this part was quite easy. When the completed pieces of wood were held together, they fit together perfectly. I did a quick glue-up of one side of the dog bowl stand and then we broke for lunch.

Once lunch was over, we returned to work. Well, "we" minus Sayer. Again. He was nowhere to be seen. Later on, we figured out that he totally overestimated the length of our lunch break. I completed my second glue-up and did some work on my mermaid tail commission piece. Once the client selects their wood type, I will begin to build the frame. I then walked around the Tinkeria and took some photos for our photo blogs. You're welcome :). 

Next came the highlight of my day - assembling Sayers sword shelf. This was, obviously, a group effort and it was so much fun. Catherine was in charge of gluing, Sayer was our fearless leader,  I was the "crank master," and Nathaniel was responsible for wiping off leftover glue with wet paper towels. Despite our detailed hierarchy and unmatched confidence, we encountered quite a few issues issues. At one point, we completely forgot to glue in the shelf part. At another, we had to re-do everything in order to unwrap the rope cranks (?) because they were upside down. At another, Nathaniel vanished during a critical moment. And, by the look of Mr. Grisbee's face when he saw the final product, I am sure there were other issues as well. 

At the end of the day, I worked on deciding which type of wood I want for the splined miter joints. I have three options that will each create a very different "vibe" for the dog bowl stand. The pressure is insane. I put some varnish on the pieces so I could get a better sense of what they will look like once the dog bowl stand is all dolled up. Tomorrow, I will make the final decision. Wish me luck.

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