Imageless

Today was a good day in the shop, and I took tons of great photos of the work.

However, I just experienced a "card read error" and now the memory card is wiped, all images are gone.  Bummer!  Its taking a bit of the fun out of reporting, but I will still labor to recap the events.

I was very sick this week so did not get to do as much as I had hoped, but today had me feeling fine and I continued work on box #2.  This time around, my glue-up was not as nicely fitted as the first batch, and I had to do a lot more planing.  This ended up in a little game of back-and-forth as I struggled to get the 2 pieces planed to the same thickness.  I kept telling myself to stop at the line, but sure enough I would realize I had gone too far.  I did this 2 or 3 times before getting the boards to agree.  All is now well...

I took mostly photos of the nail-clinching operation.  This is where the nail goes through both boards, and is then bent back into the board, like a staple.  Its ridiculously strong, but not all that sightly.  Still, this is how Thomas did it and so this is how I did it.  Its a lot easier to explain with images, so I will endeavor to do it again on upcoming box #3 (the final packing box).

The cross-strengtheners are now all nailed on, something which seems to take a lot longer than it should.  Maybe my cross-peen hammer is too light?  Maybe I am not strong enough?  I used a 16-ounce claw hammer a bit, too, but no matter how much I clean it, it seems to cast aside all kinds of funk onto the wood.  Maybe I should keep my eyes out for a new(er) one.

I also used the table saw.  Let me expain!  I used the cast-iron wing of the saw as a bench for hammering the nails.  Clinching takes a lot of force, and if done on the wooden bench, the nails might just back out and go into the bench.  Using the table saw's table keeps them in place and forces the blow to be absorbed back into the clinching, where it should.  I started off using a small metal block under the boards, like a little anvil, but has the same problem as the hammer - it leaves rusty residue on the wood so I nixed it.

The bottom is now on the box, so one more lid and its a done deal.  It is indeed a little nicer than the first one, although I have also done some learning on this one (in other words, made different mistakes).    Maybe the third one will be a charm?

I will get my camera situation straightened out and post images next time!