Updates, Projects, And Other Stuff..

 Well, it's been a couple months since I've updated this Blog. Hopefully that will change - VERY soon. 

It's been a very rainy, cold, gloomy, and depressing Spring. Never mind all the political chaos with that obnoxious dictator wannabe and his Jim Jones-esq following of loonies.

Anyway...

I'm REALLY going to try to update this Blog at least once a week. Lots going on here... I do hope to put together another "Behind The Scenes" video soon as well. I will be linking this Blog to both my Facebook and Twitter feeds also.

A couple weeks ago I posted on Facebook about my latest project which is building a series of new computer desks. The system I used to have worked well, but it wasn't exactly what you'd call "portable" as you can see below.

This "wrap around" system was specifically designed for this space in the basement. Moving it elsewhere would not be easy, and I'd have to do a lot of modification, most likely. With the prospect of moving at some (hopefully soon) point, I needed something a little more flexible, space efficient, and easier to move when the time comes.

I've completed two desks so far, and moved them to the other side of the room, away from the north wall and window. 

The desk on the left is for my main Photoshop machine, and is L - shaped with room for a laptop. The desk on the right is for my main general-purpose machine. Both desks have slide-out platforms for the 2 flatbed scanners.

I am now working on the 3rd of the 4 desks I'll be building. During all the cutting of the lumber, I had quite a bit of scrap pieces left over. There were several 6-inch boards I was using for shelving and so on. These are actually 5 1/2 inches wide, so I started cutting them into 5 1/2 inch squares. When I had enough of the squares, I assembled them into a 2 X 4 foot table top - the same dimension as the smaller desk in the lower photo.

I used a sheet of Masonite as a substrate to attach the squares to, using wood glue to glue them to the Masonite as well as each other. Wood glue is actually even stronger than the wood itself, so what I ended up with is essentially a wood panel made up of a bunch of these squares. I alternated the grain direction of the squares so no two of them are end-grain to end-grain. It's stronger that way, and looks cooler as well.

Now that it's cut to size, trimmed and square, the REAL fun begins.... Sanding this surface so it's nice and smooth, and there are no ridges between the wood squares. Some of the squares are darker, as they were cut from scraps that had been stained. By the time the sanding is done, they will lose the stain for the most part. Not a problem as this top will be stained after the sanding is done.

I'll try to keep posting updates here with this, as well as with other ongoing projects - like the continuing T.N.A. story.

Stay tuned!

Rod out for today...