Wrap Around!

He carries the puck in across the blue line…around the defenseman on the outside and back in behind the net…he’s got the puck on the backhand and cuts in on the post…he stuffs it home!  Put a bow on that one!  He scores on a wrap around beauty that’s fit for Christmas day!

OK, so that’s not the wrap around that occurred in the Second Wind Workshop…not that I haven’t dreamed about one like that though!

This weekend I focused on those last few boxes that needed sizing and the bottom pieces prepared.  After laying out the parts for the Padauk boxes, I set up the cross-cut sled to trim the sides to size.  The first trim cut defined the final size of the pieces.

This set the tone for matching the grain pattern around the corner with the next piece in line.

Once the grain was lined up the next parts could be cut to size…

Once all four sides were cut, the true test of the layout exercise was whether the fourth side wraps around and meets the first in grain orientation.

On the first box…He shoots, he scores!  On the second and third…well, even Gretzky didn’t score 100% of the time.  I was able to trim the two remaining boxes with three matching corners, but the fourth doesn’t quite meet up.  I could have trimmed some more, but would have sacrificed more size than I was willing to give up.  I also could have had a second box with four matching corners, however the third would have had none.  I'll have to think about some creative corner treatment options...maybe a wide corner key in a contrasting wood?

Once all the sides were trimmed, I cut the grooves to receive the bottoms and sanded the inside surfaces.

With all the parts cut a couple of dry fittings were in order.

Here are the special sized Birdseye Maple boxes.  These are made with slightly thinner stock and were cut larger than all of the other boxes. 

And here are the Padauk boxes, with mismatched corners hidden, all fitted together.

About halfway through the weekend…Minnesota decided to become Minnesota again and we saw an all-day snow-a-thon.  That meant transforming the two stall shop back down to one and bringing the truck back inside.  All that extra space was nice for a while.

Turns out that our house is perfectly positioned to capture all the wind and transform it into a swirling, snow dropping, drifting machine!  That drift eventually piled up to over four feet in front of the shop/garage.

I’m not ashamed to admit that we called in a plow this time around!

Up next…gluing up all these boxes and building a corner spline cutting jig. 

Fortunately the glue-ups only require some space on the workbench, which is good because I don’t even have any room to work on my wrist shot with the truck parked inside.

Pete