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Stardate: 20200528.1031
Location: Garage
Input Device: AlphaSmart dana.wireless
Software: AlphaWord
Audio: Ham radio repeater banter
Visual: Garage cluter, partially sanded wood cabinet
Emotional State: underlying on call anxiety
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This past weekend I was gifted by my aunt with an old, free-standing
wood cabinet. She is moving soon and is getting rid of stuff. The
cabinet was going to be donated to St. Vincent de Paul, but she gave
it to me instead.
This cabinet is pretty beat up and a bit worse for wear. Probably
something you would find at a garbage sale or a second-hand shop.
The cabinet stands upright on 4 carved legs and is a little over
3 1/2 feet in height, 2 feet of which is cabinet space. It has 2
front doors, but the opening is pretty narrow compared to the amount
of space inside. Inside the cabinet is a full shelf, a 1/3 shelf,
and the bottom is missing. The back panel is missing as well.
My aunt is at least the 3rd owner of this cabinet and did not really
know the original purpose. She just used it for storage and I will
probably do the same.
Most people would probably see this cabinet as junk, but I see it as
treasure. As you can tell from some of my past gopher posts, I like
repurposing things and building things. I saw this cabinet as an
opportunity to level up my high school woodworking skills. Well,
that's not entirely accurate. I have leveled up since high school,
but shop class or "industrial arts" was my formal introduction into
the world of woodworking and I have been facinated in it ever since.
Also, since the cabinet is in pretty bad shape, I wouldn't feel too
bad about messing it up.
The cabinet was pretty dirty so I cleaned it up with a shop vac and
applied mineral spirits to assess the work. I also gave it a sponge
bath with dish soap, then dried it off. This article was helpful
in getting me started. [1]
There were some repairs that needed to be done, mostly minor cracks
and chipping that wood glue and putty could fix. I have not
identified the wood yet, but it is mostly solid. I did find veneers,
but it was only on the doors and the wood behind them are solid.
One of the nice things about this piece is that it is solid wood,
not press board or plywood. Most of the cheap furniture that are
in stores these days are made of press board or plywood and cannot
really be refinished, like solid wood furniture. Yeah, you save
money with cheap furniture, but they are basically disposable,
kinda like much of the electronics these days, but that is a rant
for another day.
This past Tuesday I took a day off and spent the whole afternoon
working on the cabinet. Originally, I just thought of cleaning it
up, polishing it, and being done with it. I thought about it some
more and decided to try doing a more thorough job. There wasn't any
pressing priorities and I didn't have to be anywhere so I figured
I'd go slow, take my time, and try to do a nice job.
Most of the afternoon was spent sanding. I wasn't really interested
in using chemical strippers to remove the old finish since I have
sanding tools. I have a palm power sander that I picked up at a
garbage sale a couple years ago and also a sanding disk drill bit
thing, but decided to just sand by hand. The power tools are loud
and make a mess. Yeah, they work faster, but since I'm taking my
time and didn't want to mess up the cabinet too bad, I sanded by
hand.
Man, all that sanding, I totally miss doing that! I forgot how
it puts me in this relaxed, meditative state where time just slips
away and I just lose myself in the sanding. I totally love that
state! The sun was out shining bright, the garage door was open, it
was nice and warm, just perfect! I had the music going on in my
garage and just got in this groove.
Next thing I knew, it was dinner time. The cabinet is not finished
and there is still much moar sanding to be done, but I'm in no hurry.
I can't wait to get back to it.
HTML [1] How to refinish furniture
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