I built a bench-top lathe over the past week. Well, mostly yesterday and this morning.
Nothing too fancy. A couple pieces of tubafor, a couple clamps, some paracord. Lathes are pretty simple machines, turns out.
I put up a video of it running if you’re super-curious.
I’ll probably post more after I’ve actually turned something, but my gouge and skew don’t get here until tomorrow.
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One of my ongoing projects is building bookcases to hold all my books. I’ve now built 3 XL cases, 12 large cases, and 5 medium cases. I’ve got another dozen medium and a “whole bunch” of small cases to build yet, but it’s nice getting books unpacked and organized.
I expect I’ve got another month or two of building cases remaining, plus at least one more trip to town for lumber, but over half of the boxes are unpacked, and it feels good to know that the end is in sight.
Once the bookcases are done, I’ve got more shop furniture to build. I have a brace till (for holding bit braces) which needs seven drawers built to hold the various drill bits I have. I want to make a 50-drawer hardware cabinet, and have some wormy chestnut arriving this week for the drawer fronts for that. Plus I need another bench to hold the forge and associated equipment.
No worries of being bored in retirement just yet!
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No errands today. Spent a good amount of time in the shop, building bookcases.
Here’s one case, freshly assembled and glued together. It’ll dry overnight.
And here are the two cases that are farther along. The one on the right has been planed smooth and received a coat of shellac. That’ll dry overnight (it’s already dry, but this has proven to be a good pausing point for me).
The one on the left has had its first coats of shellac lightly sanded, and has received its second set of shellac. It’ll come inside after it has dried overnight (it’s already dry, but the shellac will be a little tougher tomorrow).
The step in the building you don’t see is all the wood pieces dovetailed and rabbeted for the assembly. If everything is going perfectly, that also happens in a day in the shop. Today I was catching up on some dovetailing from yesterday, and I’m running a little behind. I may head out after dinner and cut a set of boards so I can glue up a case first thing tomorrow. We’ll see.
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I’ve been building bookcases to hold my books. I have seven of them done, and another 40 or so to build (I’ve been doing the largest sizes first). It’s a big project, but each new box that’s built is a step closer to being done, and it’ll be a nice feeling to be able to say, “Yeah, I built those.”
Edited to add: here they are with more books unpacked. I’m going to have a lot of sorting to do.
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