Look whos talking 2

As they are so cheap and relatively easy to make I did a couple more mirrors this week. I took the daring step (sense the sarcasm people) of using different wood for both these pieces as I am now thoroughly bored of mahogany.

This is by area the biggest mirror I have done so far and so I thought I'd go for something a bit different for the frame. This is an exotic pine finish and as yet i haven't come up with a name for it!

For a finish I decided to round of all the edges and my trusty router took care of that in no time. I also sanded this down using 180 sand paper which is very, very fine. As the wood itself is very pale I wanted to so something to really bring out the really nice grain so I went for a varnish that contains a redish stain in it. This saves time as I don't have to do both things (stain and varnish) and I know there is no chance of any kind of reaction. As you can see the results are pretty good and this may even be my favourite mirror so far. Also I successful used a rig I made for routing which dramatically cut down the routing time and significantly increased the quality of the cut. Actually, on this one the only mistake I made was..........well, I'm not gonna tell you here, you know where you have to look to find out those kind of details don't you!

The second mirror is another version of "Limpio" using Oak instead of mahogany.










Oak is a strange wood to work with, while is is a hard wood it doesn't lend itself to being worked and so be and this frame had a few conversations that are to blue to be put on here. However at the end of the day it all turned out well so I cant complain.




I had to be quite careful while drilling this frame as the wood wanted to split and rip all the time. I managed to get it done without any serious accidents so was feeling quite happy with myself until it came to the finish. I did a few tests on left over bits of wood I had and couldn't find anything that really brought out the best in the grain. (Which is really nice by the way, cant really see it on these pics but it looks good. In the end I went simply for Antique wax as is darkens the wood ever so slightly and makes it quite resistant to knocks while at the same time preserving the grain and really giving it a classy finish. Again I routed the edges (can you tell I like my router??) and that is pretty much it. I cant say I am in love with this one, simply because its not really my style but I got to play with a different wood so it was a worthwhile experience. Not sure I will use Oak again unless a customer actually requests it. For the money I don't feel its great value.

Mistakes/Lessons

1) Don't try and even out varnish just because you think one side looks darker than the other, one side has soaked in for longer so is obviously a different colour! Idiot

2) Be careful when cutting the depression for the mirror, if you make it to big the mirror will slide around inside the frame and you really don't want that.

3) Wow! No more, must be learning something!

Terrible Twins

By now i figured that I had learnt my lessons from my original table and thought Id have a crack at making a couple more little ones to practise my skills a little. I came up with the design for an end table that was square and called the design "Cafe Cuadrado" (Coffee Squared).



As you can see I ended up making two of them as I felt that they would sell well as a pair, little did I realize that it wasn't possible to make them exactly the same as my wood supplier didn't have the wood in the same width! As a result one of the tables is 3cm smaller than the other, but who's counting, right?

I am overall pretty happy with these two pieces. Since my last table I have spent about 200 Euros on clamps which produced the desired effect and gave my some very tight joints all around the tables. I used 3 times as many wood plugs on these tables as the other one. In other words, these ones are NOT coming apart for love nor money (well, depends how much money we are taking about!)

I am particularly happy with the grain and finish of the table tops. They feel completely smooth and have a glass like feel. This is in no small part down to the new electric sander(s) I invested in. The first one was a Skil branded one and wouldn't sand down the tough skin on my feet. The one that did the trick was a Bosch one (Funnily enough, they are the same company!). I also routed all exposed edges on these tables which gives them a nice rounded look. This was surprisingly easy to do and the final finish is very pleasing. As you can see I made sure to match up the grains on these tables to give a more even appearance. It still isn't perfect but I think they are pretty sweet myself. The finish once again is Linseed Oil which is fast becoming one of my favourite finishes because it darkens the wood to rather than varnish which tends to make the wood go a little yellow. I did actually try and varnish the tables which brings me nicely on to............

Mistakes/Lessons

1) Don't use fast drying varnish (which contains nitroglycerin) on top of linseed oil! They react together and leave a surface that is about as smooth as acne scared face (Not very smooth)

2) Make sure you rub off the Linseed oil every couple of hours! (Didn't learn that lesson)

3) Stop buying cheap tools, they are cheap for a reason you idiot!

4)By careful with the orbital sander, it leaves marks which can be difficult to get out.