Day 297
 Big Cupboard door/Desk
Sometimes you think you have matters in hand, everything well planned, and with all of that thought and sureness, that everything will go well and be easy. That's usually when nothing goes right, nothing is as you thought, and the whole thing takes 5 times longer than expected!  
   
Good thing I have some patience with wood. Originally I was going to put in the headliner that I didn't get in yesterday, after a quick job for Gena making 2 large cupboard doors. Well, it didn't happen again.

I have made many picture frames in the past, and thought this would be about the same. The trouble started when Gena mentioned the tongues should have about an inch depth. Routing out an inch deep groove isn't easy. It was scary and dulled my 1/4" bit quickly. The slot for the 1/4"  ply was only 1/4" so it was easy, until I realized that slot interfered with the slots for the tongues. They came up uneven.
Not a problem right? Wrong! The result was a very thin difference ( <1/8") and to increase the problem, some of them were torn off with the router bit. Luckily this was on the inside of the door so it won't be noticeable!
Anyway, after I had done one complete door, I realized I had slotted them all!! SO, it ended up with one doors verticals having the tongue, and the others having a groove. Lucky I noticed.

Next, the inset had to be routed out about 3/8" ( for the hinge depth ) and in about 1/2" on every side but the hinge side. This time it wasn't my fault. For some reason the router bit started riding up. It was really dull as it had done a lot of cutting already. On one piece it rode up to a point where it nearly went right through! I couldn't see this because the board was face down, but luckily I stopped because I noticed it was cutting so slowly.

That had to be filled with my famous sawdust/glue mix. Again it is hidden but a veritable disaster.

As if this wasn't all enough to test even monk-like patience, it turned out the miter saw was out by just under 1º leaving slots in every corner. I was livid and tears came flowing. After a brief nervous breakdown, I cut all of the slotted pieces down by 1º less (44º) to compensate.

They all fit perfectly! Yay!

I hadn't noticed the variance with the small frames on the hatches because they are so narrow. On these much wider boards it was extremely noticable.
The top picture attests to a great finished door.

Gena, while waiting for me to finish the doors, decided to frame in her ( and I say "her"! ) desk in the aft stateroom. It, like mine in the forward stateroom, is large. She plans to put cupboards along the bulkhead and probably along the hull, or bookshelves. The only disadvantage is the fact that my new door will swing out over the end of the desk thus removing any possibility of having a cupboard in that corner. I suggested mounting a paper holder in there as they are low, and some of them are pretty nice.

When I had told Gena how I planned to do those doors, she thought it was a bad idea. What I didn't know is that she had done her kitchen cupboard doors in her previous house this way, and it took forever. If I had known that, I definitely would have listened! ;)


I'll never do that again......maybe!

Day 297:
8 hours - Made 2 door frames, put in desk top


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