Today saw the final round of glue-up for HB Tansu #2.  Unless I make a mess of something and have to do some repair work.  Fingers crossed that nothing like that transpires in the next few days.  Doors and drawer bottoms were on the agenda for this weekend.  Saturday was mostly a bust but Sunday I finished strong.

I started Saturday with high hopes of fabricating all of the door parts and getting the doors in the clamps by supper time.  Yea…that didn’t happen.  I don’t know why I get so flummoxed with these damn doors.  I ended up remaking almost every single part for each door.  Including the panels.  I just couldn’t get into a rhythm of work on Saturday.  But I soldiered on and at least had all of the parts ready before I turned the lights out on Saturday.

Today, Sunday, went much smoother.  I was in the groove from the moment I walked into the shop.  Everything came easy and the progress moved along quickly.  I applied the decorative kolrosing to the door panels.  I also laid out and drilled for the what will eventually be the braided pulls of the doors.  After that, it was glue and clamps.

The only other bit of fabrication that remained was to size and install all of the drawer bottoms.  This is a straight forward operation and went pretty quickly.  With all of the drawer bottoms cut to size I began the installation.  Each panel was installed with glue  along the drawer front.  The backs were pegged in place with bamboo pegs installed at an angle.  Then glue blocks were distributed around the perimeter of the drawer.  All of these details combined result in a very solid drawer that should hold up well over the course of time.

I’m off this week, mandatory shutdown at work.  So tomorrow I’ll will complete and fit the doors.  Then a few hours of cleanup.  I want to go over the whole assembly and make sure that all the edges are broken and that everything is flush and smooth.  I’ll also work all the drawers and the doors and verify that they are working smooth as possible.  With some luck I’ll have the first full coat of BLO applied.  My plan is to apply at least three coats of BLO followed by a final application of Tried and True Original.  The Tried and True product is a blend of linseed oil and beeswax.  Once its dried I’ll buff it with steel wool.  This sort of finish requires ongoing maintenance but I’m OK with that.

Greg