Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Lewellyn Media Cabinet, Pt 1

Cardboard mock-up of early version with fancy-assed walnut plywood in the background.
I finally got started on the media cabinet commission I've had since last August.  In my defense, part of that time was a long design phase.  Then I had to wrap up at Blue Man.  Then Cindy's mom died.  Then I had to go out of town for a week for the Wilderness tour.  Then it was about 6 weeks of work on The Panther Room workshop... And then I had to clean the shop and catch up with all the other stuff that had been languishing - getting the garden planted, finishing the photography phase of a neighborhood survey to extend the historic district... and then the trip to California for blacksmithing and visiting family...

Current drawings, minus 2" of width.
Before I went, I did some experiments with various cutting methods.  The plywood I'm using for this cabinet is SUPER expensive - custom-made 5/8" Russian birch ply with A/A bookmatched walnut veneer finish.  I was afraid (understatement?  perhaps paralyzed with fear?) to cut the stuff and not sure what the best way to cross-cut it without getting tear-out on the veneer would be.  I bought a new 5/8" router bit, thinking I could try to cut it with that (as well as use it for dados to keep the plywood together), and I bought a fine circular saw blade.  It turns out the saw blade won the contest.  With painter's tape on the cross-grain cuts, I didn't get any chipping, and the edge was almost as smooth as it would have been if it were planed.  I free-handed the initial rough cutting, and then I made a circular saw guide and have been switching back and forth between that and my table saw for the final cuts.
Plywood edge as delivered

Plywood edge as cut with sweet new circular saw blade. (fuzz on the underside is painter's tape)
As with many things in life, the plywood didn't come in a state of perfection.  The edges hadn't been trimmed, and the corners weren't square.  So contrary to what we used to do back in my MPC scene shop days, I'm having to cut all 4 sides of each piece and try to get them square (I've resorted to diagonal measuring as a backup for my framing square, which is more flexible and fallible than I would have thought), rather than parallelograms.

I got the bottom, back and sides cut to dimension and started routing out the grooves for the shelves when I realized I had under-estimated the width of the cabinet by about 3/8".  You can't have a cabinet that's made to hold a record player and record cleaner, and neither one will fit!  I had to make a new back (I made it 2" wider to leave more wiggle room) and re-route the dados, but I got it all finished and up-to-snuff by the end of the day.  Good thing I ordered some extra walnut plywood to begin with!

The screw up with the back yesterday reminds me of a time when I'd borrowed Dan's 1970-something Cadillac El Dorado convertible.  I was desperate to return it to him without a scratch, and wouldn't you know it?  I hit a deer on Carmel Valley Road one night.  In that instant, about which I felt terrible (especially for the deer, but also for Dan's car), everything changed!  The thing I was afraid of happening, happened.  And after that, I was much more relaxed.  So it goes with this expensive plywood.  I had to re-cut the largest panel in the whole cabinet project.  There's still enough left over if I make another mistake.  And, although I wanted to call my mom or Cindy to talk my mistake through, I knew the only thing that would fix it was carrying on.  So that's what I did.  That's what I'm doing.  I'm carrying on.  And I'm pretty pleased with my progress.


Sunday, June 4, 2017

Baby Steps Outside




Occasionally people ask me what life is like since I left my job at Blue Man Group.  I can tell you, it's strange!  For a long time, I was struggling to figure out what day of the week it was.  I kept thinking it must be Sunday - that it looked like Sunday.  When I finally realized it looked like day, which I normally only saw on Sunday's (I was off Monday's as well, but those always had a miserly feeling with an undercurrent of dread - knowing time was slipping away and there was a coming need to return to work on Tuesday), I couldn't stop laughing.  I've probably told that to half the people who will ever read this post by now, but it is significant.  DAY.  I spent 8 years working 40 hours/week (more or less) in a windowless basement office with only occasional sojourns outside for lunch or walks.  This year, I got to see spring unfold, I've more-or-less been on top of my planting timing in the garden(s), and my eyes are awash with color and light.  I'm even getting a farmer's tan that reminds me so much of my childhood and of my grandmother's tan that I get these wonderful/tragic little flashbacks.

I've also been to California for a week.  My sister in law, Jodi, got me a rental car and a round trip ticket to go out and help with her school's California Gold Rush festival.  I was the mining town's blacksmith.  I spent most of the week visiting with my step father, Daron.  There is lots to say about that, but I've got to go to New Jersey later today for a tech rehearsal.  Another United Nations gig is coming up this week (World Ocean's Day), and I'm getting too antsy to sit in front of the computer.

Making my first pair of tongs, Daron operating the forge blower.  The school's garden (with chickens) is in the back.
So, I'll sign off for now with one last thing: I'm trying to post something to this blog or Project Happy Life's social media at least once/day.  Most of what I've been doing lately is on Instagram; I've been wrestling with the perfectionist tendencies in my mind and letting the blank blog post scare me... pressure, you know, it has to be good... blah blah blah.  This is me trying to train myself to let go and take baby steps as needed.