Whew! Made It!

No, the title doesn't speak of some grand project completed, but more of my complete avoidance of the cursed Black Friday. Not once did I step foot outside the shop to venture forth into an unknown world of crazier than normal folks. It just didn't sound like a good time to me, so I didn't do it. Nor last year...or the year before that...

I figure I can buy the stuff that others and/or I need at any time, so why would I try to wrap that up all in one day? With thousands of other people--who all want the latest electronic toaster that emails you when the toast is done more than I do--I'm just not sure that I could compete. Oh well...

So instead I puttered around the shop and practiced. I've been somewhat tired of the same projects, so I glued up a couple more and set them aside for the day. Today I was going to practice grooves and dovetails. A box it is then.

I already had some pieces cut from last weekend while I was waiting for the glue to set on the gift projects.

Then marked the grooves that will hold the bottom. I didn't have a grooving plane, so this will all be done by hand.

Chiseled the waste and evened it out by hand to get it close.

Then cleaned it all up with a router plane. Oh, and these are stopped grooves, so nothing shows after the box is assembled.

All four pieces all came out better than I thought they would.

Now it was time for the dovetails. The pins are lying. I actually do tails first, but I forgot to to take the pic, so this was just an afterthought.

They fit together pretty well. I was pleasantly surprised. This was done with the "new" saw I just tried to sharpen. Seems to be working pretty well and I like the way it feels.

And the grooves line up, too, with no major gaps from the inside. Yippee! Two for two!

The rest of the dovetails went pretty well. I noticed my saw has a little wider kerf than I'm used to, so there were some adjustments to be made, and I improved with each cut. I also improved quite a bit on my chiseling. The bed of the tails and pins all came out pretty square and flat. Much better than my last attempts.

Then it was ready for gluing and clamping.

And now it just needs to finish curing and will be ready for planing down the proud pins and tails tomorrow. All-in-all a good day of practice. Even got another of the gifts glued up and ready for shaping tomorrow.

And another Black Friday insanity avoided.

Josh