Started out this morning to restore this antique file cabinet that my wife got from her mother's place. Restoration is going to mostly consist of re-veneering the top, which was stained mahogany. Part of the veneer had peeled off, due to water damage from cold glasses. Of course, modern veneer is thinner, so I couldn't just patch it at the seam, I've got to replace the entire top. The normal way of peeling off old veneer is to heat it with a heat gun. Unfortunately, mine died about 10 seconds into the project. So, I'm peeling of the old veneer with a chisel. It turns out that the heat gun might not have worked anyway, as the veneer is actually the face veneer of hardwood plywood. You might ask "Why?" I'm using a chisel to take this layer of veneer off, rather than using something faster, like a power plane or a belt sander. The reason is control. I can control the depth of cut very accurately with a chisel, even if it is slower. If I try to use either of those power tools, I'd likely end up with gouges at their edge of cut, which I would then have to repair. So, sometimes, the slow way ends up being the best way.

A lot of people wonder about which project is best. That's not limited to woodworking, but in just about everything we buy. Here, in woodworking, that question covers everything from tools to tacks, with a wide range in-between. So, we decided to take a honest look at Gorilla Glue, which I have to confess I don't have a good history with, comparing it to the old standby: Titebond. Here's what I found out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO9soiS4ZI

https://www.sawinery.net/how-many-2x4-do-i-need-calculator/ If you've got any remodeling projects on the horizon, one of the questions we always face is "Just how many 2x4s do I need?" Well, we've got you covered. Try out our handy 2x4 calculator, and save yourself some headaches.

This is a continuation of the post I did asking if anyone could guess what I was working on. Finally got back to that project, working on the lid for it. Cut the material the same size as for the bottom, routed out the rabbet for the glass to set into and glued it up just like the bottom. Everything was fine until I took the clamps off and found it was crooked. Oops. The normal way of making sure a lid fits perfectly is to make the bottom and the lid as one piece, then cut them apart. I didn't do that, this time, because of the overall size. I was concerned about being able to make the cut, without messing it up. So instead, I messed it up in another way. Okay, but the real test is how we salvage it, right? I took the frame apart, breaking the miter glue joints and sanded them down to get rid of the glue. Then I glued it back together again, using epoxy, as PVA glue won't make a good bond over PVA glue. It has to be able to soak into the wood's pores. Even though I had sanded off the glue, I couldn't sand what had soaked into the pores. So, I'd never get a strong joint out of PVA. But here's the real key to what I did. As you can see in the photo, I used a band clamp to hold it together while the glue dried, just as I did the first time. However, this time, I've got the corners for the band clamp overlapping both the box bottom and the top, using the bottom as a template for the top and ensuring that they come out the same. To keep it from sticking, I put small pieces of wax paper between the top and bottom. It fits like its supposed to, this time.

Last week I posted a picture of a wood necklace that I made. The hard part of that is thickness sanding the thin wood strips. Since I'm about to make some more of those and I don't have a thickness sander, I decided to make a jig for my oscillating spindle sander, allowing me to use it to thickness sand those thin strips. Works well. The jig consists of a baseplate that attaches to the table of my sander. There's a fixed fence, with a movable fence hinged to it. Distance between the two is controlled by a threaded knob-screw, that runs through a threaded insert installed into the fixed fence. A small wood cap on the end of the screw keeps it from digging into the movable fence. You don't have to have an oscillating spindle sander to use something like this. There are drum sanders available, which can be installed in any drill press. A jig, similar to the one I made, could be attached to the drill press table, allowing thickness sanding of thin strips.