Cherry Bathroom Cabinet

This drawing is about the most in depth drawing I ever do. Most of my plans are in my head. This is actually (for me) a very detailed working drawing. For the most part, whenever I build anything, I work from a VERY rough sketch with dimensions penciled in. Rarely do I stay with the actual design. This can be discouraging to my wife. I promised her a coffee table in white oak; very country looking. This evolved to a more contemporary design in cherry and walnut. She wound up with a pine blanket chest for a coffee table instead. I know it can be confusing for some, but to me it made perfect sense and turned out exactly as I thought (eventually).

This is a rough drawing of the cabinet I am building for my half-bath to hang above the toilet. This drawing has the door with two panels (I'm using bookmatched spalted maple with the cherry) but I decided to do a single bookmatched panel instead.

Glued up and out of clamps. The shelf is just set in place for now and will be glued in after the back is installed.

Here's a little bit of a perspective view.

And from the other side. The dovetails are hand cut. Partly because I'm too cheap to buy a dovetail setup for my router, and mostly because I want to be able to do them by hand. This is actually the third set I have ever cut. I do have some improvements to make to my technique (mainly patience) but each set gets better.

And here is the book matched panel for the door I will be assembling soon. Am I the only one that sees the eagle bottom center?

New Tablesaw

Well, now that I had turned over the Prospector to the rightful owner (and gotten paid) it was time to look for new tools. I was going to buy a new table saw to replace my old Craftsman contractor model. I was thinking of the new Rigid with the granite tops. Then, as I thought about it, I convinced myself that that is not exactly an upgrade and as such, not worth spending any money on. Not that I don't think the Rigid would be an improvement over the one I have, just not better enough to justify the expense.

Aside from that, I wasn't prepared to spend the money on a cabinet saw, because they are really expensive and I really didn't want to pay for one. So I had convinced myself that I didn't need a new saw anyway and the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Then I started poking around on Craigslist. That's where I found this baby.

A Delta unisaw 52" unifence "Grand Edition" Model 36-816. I noticed that the guy had it marked down to $950 from $1000. A bargain at either price. The saw is about ten years old, and that is all time in a hobby workshop, so I know it wasn't subject to running 6-8 hours a day 5 days a week (which means low hours). This saw could handle that type of running though and still be worth the money I paid for it.

Needless to say, I couldn't pass on this deal because I would never see one like it again. I borrowed a trailer from a friend, hooked it up to my Danger Ranger (with 259,000 miles) and took off to pick it up. The guy I got it from had already sold the other tools he had that I would have been interested in, but he gave me a boatload of lumber. All cherry, walnut, mahogany and curly maple. I tried to pay him for the lumber as it was worth about $800, but he wouldn't take anything for it.

I didn't travel 2.5 hours to fight with someone to take my money, so I loaded my truck and took off.

Now I have to wire my shop. My new saw needs 220v service (I have none in there). Not to mention that I really need more outlets. I originally had 2 pairs of outlets on the same circuit, and couldn't run my shop vac with any other tools without throwing a breaker. I added two circuits at 110v and one at 220v, all at 20A, so they should be able to take any load I place on them with my small shop tools. Here are some pics of the conduit and outlets I ran.

You can see some of the lumber I got from the table saw guy.

I know the shop is a mess, but as I get the wiring done, it will get straightened up.

Note that I also ran conduit and boxes for a third circuit should it become necessary. I probably should have run the stuff for an additional 220v circuit for a future dust collector, but I will hold on that until I locate one.

Now I can get on some other projects that are pending and need to get done.

Photos of the Complete Prospector 16.

Well, here is the finished product. Pay attention to the size difference between the Prospector and my Bob's Special. I will have another post soon with the photos of the toilet cabinet I am building now.

Finished and delivered!

I finished the canoe! I really need to catch up and post the final series of pics, but I'll get to that later.

I put the finishing touches on the canoe last week and was ready to get it out to the water for a test drive before I turned it over to the client. The first thing I noticed was just how much bigger than my Bob's Special that this Prospector 16 is. It is immense! Even though it's only a foot longer and a couple of inches deeper, it really seems huge.

I took it out to Northeast Creek to launch at Camp Brewster aboard Camp Lejeune. When I set the unloaded canoe into the water, the first thing that stuck out to me was the fact that less than 1/3 of the hull was in contact with the water. I performed a wet launch, and when I climed in, the stability of the craft was impressive. Even with me climbing over the gunnels, the canoe was incredibly stable and, at no time did it seem like it was going to capsize.

I then knelt in the center of the canoe and heeled it over and the responsiveness was pleasing. I paddled it sideways, forward, and performed turns with the greatest of ease. This is one amazing craft! It will go any direction you tell it to go, and go with ease. I look forward to building one (or two) for my own use soon. But before I can build my own Prospector, I have a couple of other projects to attack.

I will be building a pair of loft beds with desks and dressers next, as well as a set of book shelves. Those projects will show up here as they progress. I also have to get my workshop in order now that I have cleared out some space. I am also currently engaged in building a small cabinet in cherry for a half-bath in my house to hang above the toilet, and will also get pics of that up here as well. Hopefully, I will be able to begin my canoe around October and be ready for launch in the spring.