Hope you took time to remember

The weekend is over and everyone is back to work. Lots of us got together with family and friends, played games, went to the beach. cooked out and drank ourselves silly in the true American tradition.

Just like every other Memorial Day.

But I hope that you took a moment to give a thought to our boys and girls fighting for freedom in countries and cities too difficult even to pronounce properly. They are boys and girls going in, and will come out men and women with experiences we can only read about and imagine.

So many will not get the opportunity to party on a beautiful sunny day ever again.

So next time you see someone wearing the uniform, be sure and thank them. Because they do it for all of us.

Now we're cookin',,,,,

And here they are!

Just in time for Memorial Day. I called Robin at the News Herald this afternoon and she helped me with getting an add into the classified section for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. First time advertising in a newspaper for cornholes. She was real helpful and had good ideas about the website as well. And the price for three days was reasonable.

I decided to sell them rather than rent like I first thought of doing. Something about putting so much work into them and then having someone use them for the weekend and send them back abused and broken did not feel right. I have older sets in the garage to use for renting. I am probably paranoid about them, but I would rather have someone that wants them and pays for them and would actually care for them properly. It's hard being a cornhole daddy!

Finishing them was not without some anxious moments though. Thursday morning came and there was still things to do. All the edges were bare and two needed touched up. I was not thinking when I primed them. I should have gone around the edges on four sides and that would have been that. But nooooo! I sat outside on one of our rare dry days last week and simply primed the top surface, then painted everything white, completely ignoring the edges. I must have thought that I would include the edges when I did the spraying .

Well, that didn't happen either. Next thing, I am spraying the frames, then attaching the boards to the finished frames, when suddenly,,,,,hello!!! Bare wood showing! Oh fizzle sticks!!

By this time, the weather is on-again-off-again rain, so I set up shop in the back room of the house which is a screened-in room. With all that ventilation, I am safe in continuing with the spraying to match the rest of the color scheme without choking the kids or Debbee or the dogs.

I cut some clear plastic and used it as covering (like a mask) along with painters tape (the blue tape) and covered everything that I did not want to paint. Tip: You tape the edges of the plastic to your work and this saves you from using a ton of tape. Like using newspaper when painting in your home to protect the floor and molding. Only newspaper might rub off on the white boards and that would be very bad at this time.

Painting the edges worked out well because it did not matter what color I used, as long as it was red, white or blue. They all look great!

I did have a serious problem with the 13 star blue field. When I masked it off a couple days ago to do the upper part of the board, I used regular masking tape (a good brand by the way) and it left a residue on the blue field across the top and down the right side. Not happy with that. Also, one of the wide striped boards had splinter issues around one of the screw heads that needed sanding and touched up. That was pretty easy! Except when I reached for a blue can of spray, I realized that it was not the same shade of blue. And I am not doing the entire wide stripe again.

So here I am! All done! Except the 13 star field and one fat stripe that needed a little touch up. Usually not a big deal, except for the fact that we are spraying and not brushing. So not only do we have to mask everything again, we have to go to Pat Catan's to get the same blue as we used originally.

It's still Thursday morning. I played some Webkinz with Livi while Abby is at school. Livi is done with preschool and Abby has about eight days left. I am anxious to get done with the boards but I enjoy play time with Livi, too. Livi got interested in television after I promised to play video games or bike ride when I got back. Debbee took a phone call from her friend Jean, so it looks like lunch may be a little late, which will work out ok with me. But I have to admit, my anxiety is building.

I drove to Pat Catan's, dashed in, got the paint and some cheap foam brushes (good for Modge Podge) and out in seven minutes. Perfect! Back to work. But hold on! Another thought! Aleci's! Oh boy, pizza dough and that's it. Wanna try it on the grill. Debbee and I were talking just the other day about how I should get fresh dough in the morning and here it is,,,,morning. Maybe some nut rolls, and a box of pizzelle's, and better get some lunch meat, chicken breast and bologna. I think we are done for now! Now gotta get home and finish already. Let's get this done!

I walked into the house and she is still talking with Jean. Makes no matter to me because I can get a spray or two onto the needed areas and it can be drying while I go play with Livi on the video. The weather is once again changing from hour to hour, humidity is affecting the drying time and bike riding will have to wait until Abby gets home, so video games it is.

Allot going on at once!

Not long into our games, comes the call for lunch. The boards got sprayed and are done, the weather clears up, Abby comes home safely and off we go on the bikes. Mommy will be here soon to pick up the girls.

IT WAS A GOOD DAY!

A few thoughts while waiting for paint to dry..........

1. Why do people who do not have a handicapped plaque or license think it is ok to park in a handicapped space?



2. And why is it ok to park in a spot that is clearly not a parking space, but is actually the end of the sidewalk leading away from a pre-school? In case of emergency, the children should walk around your red Cruiser, is that your plan?



3. True or False? While in a church for a special event, but not during a service, rather than exiting the row in the usual fashion, it is ok to climb over church pews when wanting to get a better position to take a picture? (Not a child did the climbing, mind you. But an adult).



4. True or False? It is ok to remove your shoes and put your bare feet on the hymnal on the back of the pew? (yes. it was another adult)



5. And finally! Multiple choice! A) this writer should mind his own business B) people have lost most of their common sense C) its time again for people to speak out when they see something wrong D) who cares! as exhibited by one through four. Feel better now? My old boss used to ask us that after a good rant.

Ok now, let us get back to work!

Just finished cutting the six inch hole in four more boards. These will be Browns stripes and Steelers stripes. No helmets or logos for a while unless someone orders it specially. They are difficult to do. We will see! Maybe I should have one set ready with the Browns helmet on them. In the meantime, I put on primer and am now waiting for the paint to dry. Back to the shop and time to do my least favorite job. The folding legs of the boards.

One of the hardest parts about making a cornhole are the legs. They should give support to the boards from underneath and they should fold flat when being stored.

My first couple of cornhole sets had stationary legs, meaning they were bolted to the frame and could not move. This made them solid as a rock, but were harder to store and/or transport, especially in a car, because they could not lay flat.

So, I started the folding legs. I don't mean "I" started the folding legs. I mean I just started to make the boards with folding legs. I'm sure folding legs has been done before. First, I would have to use the belt sander to round off the top of the two by fours to a nice rounded end, then clamp the legs where they should be in position, drill the hole through the frame and leg at the same time taking care to be sure we are in center of the frame and going through straight. Meaning not cocked upward or downward, but nice and level. Then we can put the in carriage bolt, washer and wing nut through the frame and leg and give it a test folding.

Many times, they would jam or rub during the closing, which they must not do. They should simply fall closed. When they are sticky, you have to take the leg off, put it on the belt sander and take off some more material and do the test all over again.

Once you have it where you want it, you then trace the good leg onto the next leg to do, and go through the process once again.

Eventually, you would get the proper fit and then you could move onto the next set of legs.
But remember, the hole in the frame is very important. It determines how it will seat against the side and back of the board. And both must seat the same or the board will wobble when the legs are open for playing.

The Patriotic boards that I pictured in the last blog are almost done and will be featured on the website http://www.lccornhole.com/ and new pictures will be on a future blog.
That little rant at the top is all true. The four examples were witnessed by me within one hour this morning and all at the same location.

There are things we see, or maybe things that happens to all of us during the course of the day. But this just struck me as "over the top" for such a short time period.

Is it just me?

Spraying revelation

The pictures are some before and after shots of the latest cornholes to be done in time for a new rental program to be advertised in the News-Herald this week. They need to be done in time for this Memorial Day weekend, and they will also fit nicely into the Fourth of July holiday.

As always, these are painted only and no stickers are used in the finish work.

The ones on the left are not yet finished at this picture , as we continue to experiment with the spray and the final look of the boards. (Trying to avoid having them look like that popcycle with the red, white and blue colors sold off the good humor truck) Of course, the ones on the right are the same boards, only these were taken before we started to work on the final product.

One of the boards is todays flag and the other one is the first official flag from June 14th, 1777 as a result of congressional action on that date. Up until then, there was no formal arrangement of the stars or the stripes. Personally, I always thought the stars were placed in a circle. Maybe Betsy Ross did the round stars, because according the source, Francis Hopkinson did the design we are familiar with today.

The source is www.usflag.org.

Spray paint is fun, but not cheap

No doubt that spraying is way more fun then a roller and/or brush. Oh sure, these have their place. You are not going to spray inside your living room with a room full of furniture. But when it comes to items you can pick up and move around, especially now that the weather is coming into a nice time of year (unless it never stops raining), you can take it outside and do a nice spray on the item you are making or just fixing up.

We are just talking about the paints, stains and finishes that come in a spray can. Not the compressor, hose and gun spray arrangement that professionals would be using. Even though I have a small compressor and gun kit, the trouble to set up and mix the proper thickness is quite a chore. Then comes the proper adjustment to the mix of air versus liquid. It does not take long for the fun to be wearing thin. Then finally you have to wonder if all this work is only worth the time and effort for only a couple pieces. Might be if there is a sufficient quantity of items to spray the same color, it may be worth it.

For instance. I have four cornhole boards to do. American flag colors. Two boards will be just like the Euclid Fire Department board shown above, except without the EFP medallion, just red, white and blue. And maybe stars all over it. Fifty of them. Might be nice! The other two will be the stars and stripes. Design was a minor issue. I first thought of doing the colors long ways; meaning the blue star field would be on the lower left as you played with the stripes going up and down. Debbee thought that would too much like the way our soldiers and sailors are brought home. So, we turned the flag to be on the width with a lot of space at the top around the hole. That will a nice place for a soft color that does not clash with the flag colors. Or, we'll see how the spirit moves me.

Because of the nice straight lines, this is a good time to spray. No doubt that masking off the lines would be real easy. And this would work for a roller or brush paint job, but spraying is much more fun. Besides, every cornhole I have done so far is all hand painted like the sets shown above. These are still hand painted, just hand sprayed. The stars in the flags blue field will be hand painted, and that is going to take some time to get that just right. But they will look good, real good!

Until the end of the month, spray cans are on sale at Pat Catans, so I decided to give them a try knowing I had this project coming up. Some new brand I had seen before, just never tried. So far, it seems to be working out well. What constitutes "working out well"? Not much odor, fast drying and good color. And color fast. Will they hold their color over time? That remains to be seen.

Newsflash! Discount Drug Mart has Painter's Choice spray cans for 2 for $3.99, and they are 12 ounce cans. The cans are Pat Catans are 9 ounces for $3.00. Where's my receipt? Something is going back!

I am using regular masking tape and newspaper to block out areas I am not spraying. Works very well. Especially for spraying, because using a brush or roller puts a lot of paint on the wood and it will seep under the tape just like they show on television. Which makes for a lot of "touch up" later with an artists' brush. And besides that, I cannot justify the cost of that newest green tape to prevent this seepage, because I use a lot of tape. Take a look at the three examples at the top of this page and you will get the idea of the amount of tape used. Any place there is a change in color consitutes taping to prevent bleeding into the other color. Those would eventually get to a point where no tape is used, but not until the final details need to be done. Then once more its time for an artists' brush and put your nose in real close to get best results.

Besides, if you sand the boards good in the beginning before priming, then sand again after priming, then press the tape on really good, the seepage will be very minimal. And its just the nature of the wood, being plywood with all the nooks and crannies, it is bound to happen.

And there's just no getting around it. At some point, a quart can will have to opened and a brush will be used to correct a mistake.

But the end result is always worth it. Don't you think so?

How to behave at a craft show without really trying

"CRAFT SHOW" TIME

Craft shows are exciting and fun and they will be here soon and, and, and ...you should go to them...........

Wait a minute! Actually they're here now. Everywhere! I only know this because two years ago, I bought a directory of all the craft shows in the area and found out that there are a ton of them all over the place, all year long.

Not just around the holidays like I first thought. But hey, what did I know? Both me and Debbee were totally new to this. I was always more into flea markets. And the flea market people that I talked to said my stuff was really meant for craft shows. But I was not so sure.

I knew that eventually we were going to have to get involved with craft shows if we were going to show off our goods that we made. But where were they all? I would watch the News Herald classified to see what was coming and got some information from the paper. But I knew there had to be more shows. But how was I going to find them?

I thought that there must be an association of craft shows. Afterall, there is an association for everything, isn't there? Or maybe a guild, or a club? I remember making phone calls to places like Farmpark to get information about their craft show, or calling a church in Painesville that I saw in the News Herald classifieds. And I would always ask about this "magic" list of local shows. Where are more shows?

Then finally someone gave me the answer. I wish I could remember the circumstances, but no matter, they gave me her phone number. Yes, yes! This was it! The magic phone number of Jennifer of North Royalton, who possessed all the information anyone can use on craft shows.

She makes the directory called "Northeast Ohio Arts and Crafts Shows". Hallelujah!! "Over 450 shows". And it is terrific! Worth the ten bucks.

I sent her a check. She sent me the golden ticket. And all year long, she would email updates.

What an angel! Craft show heaven. Locations, costs, dates; the works.

After all of that, doubt set in. After all the research, the phone calls and the web searches on finding craft shows, I thought maybe I did not really"belong in a craft show". My stuff was not craft show worthy.

Afterall, when I heard 'craft shows' I thought of the creme-de-la-creme of crafty, talented people who make great things. Like all the great water color artists, or maybe all the great paper flowers centerpiece arrangement makers. Or how about all the great plastic jewelry, bracelet and necklace makers. To me, the craft show rookie, these people were all the graduates of Michael's and/or Pat Catan's, and they got together for one big celebration of their work. Not some laid off salesman who liked to make stuff in his garage. There is some real talent at these shows. The ones who do the quilts always impressed me. That is talent. Some of them are magnificent. I thought "who wants my plant stands anyway when you can get them at Walmart?" Who wants my stuff?

But then I thought about my daughter's dining table that she had for eight years and still going strong and how we could all sit around it for celebrations. Or the wine glass holder on her credenza! And my grandkids toy box and the stools they use everyday for brushing their teeth and washing up. And the utility bench in their garage for taking their shoes or boots off before going into the house.

These "things" are not hidden away. They are being used everyday and used hard.

That's who wants my stuff. People.

People who need to reach something a little higher than they can reach. Hello step stool!

Or get that plant off the floor and show it off proudly. Hello plant stand!

Or just sit down and take a load off while enjoying nature in their backyard. Hello garden bench!

That is who needs and wants my stuff!

Real people!

Being on the bench is a good thing

I have no problem with the making of stools and step stools. Or benchs, for that matter. I just love to do it! I guess because you can make any of these from just about anything you have laying around the shop. Though all the benchs are not pictured here, a small sample of the stools are pictured above with a bench further down. The blue/black one on the right above was made two years ago (decorated by Debbee) along with two or three others that were painted or stained and later sold. A white one sold at the Spring Fling in Euclid (mentioned previously) to a dog owner who needed it for poochie to get into bed. Poochie was there to try it and it worked fine, and the other one was sold also, not sure where. Painesville Flea Market comes to mind, but can't say for certain, plus it doesn't really matter, does it?

I recently made a two step stool for my son, his wife and their doggie, Lema. It was actually for Lema, so they said. Lema is ten, and a very lovable pitbull that you would not know it was a pitbull unless someone told you. It's more some kind of terrier that he got as a pup. But that old vet in Euclid, you know, the one near the service garage by the freeway, first told me that he was a pitbull on the very first visit ten years ago. And I could tell that he really did not like Lema because of that alone. This visit came right after an incident in Los Angeles that made national news about an attack by pitbulls in an apartment building and that pissed him off . I assured him that we had never been to LA and this was not one of them. Back then, attacks by pitbulls was in the news every week. So this vet acted totally indifferent to Lema. I don't even remember why we were there because Lema is not my dog, so I must having been doing my son a favor. After that, I no longer liked the old vet and stopped going. I only went there because he was inexpensive. Having put two labs to sleep and cremated, I know how costly vets can be.

Anyway, Lema's family have a high bed that Lema has a hard time "leaping" into it, just like the lady at Spring Fling. So they had to lift Lema into bed each night. My son asked for a step stool and I made one from 3/4" plywood. Strong, solid enough for an adult and easy for them to finish with any paint since he is not so handy. Plus with paint, it did not matter if you saw the edges because they would cover up with paint anyway. I made it a little wider, and a little deeper for good ol' Lema.

But once they put it in place by the bed, Lema decided that he was not as handicapped as he was letting on and pretty quick got his "leap" back. So now, the step stool is another useful additon to their household for those hard to reach places.

And that is one of the reasons I love to make step stools and stools. Because people need them for all sorts of reasons. They are just so darn handy. For example, let's say your a little older. You play on the floor or the driveway (yes; don't laugh; the driveway; like when you "chalk" pictures) with your grandkids like I do. Sometimes getting up off the floor (or ashphalt) can be pretty painful. I know! I helped my dad up many a time, and there was always the grunts and groans from being in one position too long. Now I know just how he must have felt. So with the aid of a step stool, you can use it to get leverage for that lift up from the floor. Plus you can lead on it while sitting on the floor.

But if its ease of working you want; take a look at this:

This is a garden bench. But this goes with what I was saying about being a helper as well as just a plain garden bench. The seat on this one is lower than usual. It is about 13" high. High enough to sit ok, but I have another great use for it.

(Note that most chairs at the dining room or kitchen table are around 16" or 17" with a slope towards the back, and benches can be anything you want, but 15" is a good height for sitting outside.)

You know when you are digging in the ground! They call it planting! Well I can't sit on the ground like I used to as mentioned before, or kneel very well. But I can get down on my knees (with knee pads from Harbor Freight) put my chest on the seat part of that 13" bench and have both hands free to do what I want. After a little work, I lean back, move the bench. Scoot over a little, lean on it again and continue on. This goes on for a while, and if I get tired, it is there when it is time to stand up, swing my butt around and have a seat. This is a great bench! And it was made last year after the craft shows were done. I left it outside on purpose so it would look much older than it actually was when I took pictures of it. Like a one year old antique. This one would sell for only $18.00 and it even has a handle cut out in the top for easy carrying. Let's be real clear here! I do not, repeat, do not like anything about gardening. I give a lot of credit to gardeners, as well as anyone that does anything with their hands, but gardening is not for me. So any aid that will make my life doing gardening with Debbee easier is fine with me, especially if I made it. Something I am thinking about is this same 13" bench, but with a shelf under the seat so I would not need a separte carry-all to drag around. I had better make a note of that before I forget.

I also make regular benchs with a seat height that takes no effort to stand up from. Some even have backs, like the garden bench shown on the web site http://www.lccornhole.com/. I had that one at the Painesville Flea Market and one elderly fellow would come by the booth each day (Sat and Sun only), "sit a spell" and just chit chat with me. I enjoyed the company since I was not going anywhere for a while. Besides, he was quite knowledgeable, knew everyone in the place, and gave me tips on what I should be making. Point is, he had a limp, was able to "take a load off", and then easily got back up, refreshed, and continued on.

The grandkids, Abby and Livi, use the step stools and benchs like stages for whatever musical shows they are putting on. I remember when they were 2 yrs old and 4 yrs old, they would line up the stools according to height and play for hours. They have one chair with a back that swings down to be a step of 2" and a seat of about 4", then a stool or two that are 6" then finally a step stool that is 7" and 12" and "bingo"; their stage. Of course, they got to take one home if mommy would allow.

I made a really nice one for them that could not tip. (pictured below) This was also decorated by Debbee. They get good use from it to this day at the bathroom sink and all around the house I'm sure.

As the note says, the legs are wider than the stepping area, so there is no way to tip this over front to back. As with the one at the top of the page (the brown one); the legs on that one are equal to the step in both width and length. It is very, very hard to tip.

Safety first is job one. I know Ford already said that, but it really is pretty important.

Alrighty then! Benchs, step stools and stools. Mighty useful in the house or outside. And fun to make. Any wood laying around can end up as a stool or bench. Or even a plant stand.

But thats for another day.

How much do we love SHELLAC?

Shellac.....shellllllac....sha-lack.....sh-lac. It is just so fun to say! And it is so fun to use, most of the time. (Shellac is a coating that is really shiny when dry. Either clear or amber and has many uses and dries really fast. Look it up) But I really messed up recently when using one of my favorite liquids; shellac. I made another three tiered plant stand, like the one in the picture above. The one pictured was my first, and the plan came from a book my kids got me for Christmas several years ago called "The Big Book of Weekend Projects". Great book! By the way, that plant stand sold at Eastlake Flea Market, but that's another story.

Anyway, back to my mess with the shellac. The one I am working on now is for my craft show season, which will start whenever we have enough products to make a good showing from me and Debbee. Debbee is my wife of 30 something years (kidding, I know the exact number) and she is really into the decorating of all kinds of craft show stuff, like the foot stools I make or the yard decorations for holidays such as Easter, Halloween, Christmas, etc, that I cut out of plywood. And she decorates items such as small wooden boxes (jewelry) and wooden trays that Pat Catans sells unfinished. She makes them attractive with soft pastel colors or perhaps staining then adding rub-ons or working from her large collection of stencils, before sealing it with shellac. Funny thing about her. She never thinks the end products are good enough and she will spend hours going over and over an area until it is just right. Which is a good thing; right? But it was good three hours ago. Oh brother!! What are ya gonna do with them? "C'mon", I tell her, The proof is in the sales. Last year at the Richmond Heights Craft Show in the fall, (and it is a good one if you happen to go to it) her stuff out sold mine by 2 to 1. Oh sure, my stuff is larger, and in most cases more costly, but her stuff really shines under the lights and looks great on the display table and really would look nice on someones shelf or given as a gift. And its what people want! Things for their table or their mantel, stuff like that. Why we even had a man and woman fighting over a set of trays. Not fighting like "that", but the woman had one in her hand looking at it, when the man comes along and picks up the other two and tells her "if your just looking, I'm buying the whole set". She replied, "still deciding"! To which he responded with "but I have two thirds of the set and I am buying the whole set"! She turned over the third piece to him and walked off. I was anxious to see how that would have played out further. The only fighting I see is when the customer offers a really low amount and practically wants it for nothing and I tell them to just forget about it. Customer relations is my strong suit.

Ok, back to our story. So! I got the plant stand cut, sanded, put together to be sure it will look right when complete. I take it apart to stain it because it is easier to stain, or paint, when it is in pieces. Its only four pieces, but experience taught me to do it this way. So stain is no big deal. You put the sealer on first, then put the stain on, wait a few minutes then wipe off the stain. You can do it again with the stain and it may get slightly darker the longer you leave it on, but you still have to wipe off the excess. Now wait until the next day and finish it with a nice top coat, like lacquer or polyurethane or, my favorite, shellac. I have used shellac on lots of stuff and it always turned out great. But nothing this big. The bottom shelf is 36 inches across and 6 inches wide. The middle is 24 inches across and the top is 12 inches across. So I get my can of Bulls Eye Shellac ready, get my brush, clean everything , and get started. Top shelf, no problem. Set it aside. Middle shelf, start brushing on the shellac. Putting it on lightly, it is dripping over the edges. I take my brush to touch up the edges and by the time I get back to the flat surface, it is drying and getting real sticky. So I hurry and try to finish the flat surface, but I make the mistake of going over a spot or two to "touch up" an area that looks not quite right. But this in not paint. You cannot do that. Ever! Leave it alone! Too late. There will be brush marks that will not fill in because it starting to set up completely. Ok, move on the big bottom shelf and work quickly. No good! The brush did not have enough shellac on it at times, and was too full other times. It is supposed to run together like most liquids, but this was setting up to fast and did not have time to "run". Oh brother!! Nothing to do but leave it set completely, which only takes a matter of hours, and see what it looks like. A couple hours later it looked awful. The middle and bottom shelves had places that looked untouched and other places had too much thickness. The top shelf looked great, but that was the smallest one.

So I was listening to Triv on the radio and he was getting under my skin as usual, but it is the only station I can get on my junkie radio in the basement, plus this situation in front of me and it is a rough day for the brain. Shellac is supposed to be so forgiving, that all you have to do is go over the whole thing again. Just go right over! So I did! Double brother!! I just do not understand. I have used this before, so what is different? Is the piece too large? Should I not do the whole thing at once? There is a show on PBS called "Rough Cut" starring Tommy MacDonald (Tommy Mac). Great guy, great show from Boston and he has that accent that you know where he's from immediately. Reason I mention him is, I saw him do an entire dining room table in shellac and it was gorgeous. But I do remember that he sanded it afterwards and then waxed it. I think I had better watch that episode again, because I definitely have done something wrong.

So now, in order to get it done and be nice like it should be, I will sand away all the shellac, because it has a waxy base and polyurethane and shellac do not play well together. So I power sand it with a vibration sander, being careful not to stay in one place too long because it will get gummy from the friction. This would happen even if you did it by hand because the friction between the paper and the piece gets pretty hot and melts the finish no matter what it is, so we have to keep moving around and just take your time. Finally, after getting all the shellac and a lot of the stain removed, we will stain it once more and the apply the polyurethane, let dry overnight, lightly sand again and put on one more coat of polyurethane. That should do it, then we can put it back together for the last time and it should look really nice and be very functional. But it should not have been that difficult! Something I did made it harder than it should have been. I will make something smaller, like a step stool, slap on some shellac to make sure I still know how and take it from there. So, if you will excuse me, I have to go find Tommy Mac on PBS and see where I went wrong. God Bless America!

Better get a bigger fan

It would have been nice to have been a woodworking prodigy at the age of six or ten or even thirty-five. But no, as a kid, I had to play baseball. This was by choice of course. Whenever there was daylight and a couple more kids, that is all it took to get something going. Actually, all you had to do was show up at the skating rink field where there were two ball fields and an ice skating rink, thus the name. I do not recall calling it anything else. It was on Shaw Ave. by the railroad underpass. Anyway, we would just go to the fields and there was always enough guys there to get a game going.

So that is what went on in the summertime. Baseball and Euclid Beach. We played a little league game at Euclid Beach once. Somewhere between some buildings and near a roller coaster track. Never knew there was enough room within the park for a ball field, but there we were. Playing for the glory of Jim Connell Chevrolet on what was called "East Cleveland Day".

Mom and Dad packed a picnic, we got on the rides for some discount I think. Because we were from East Cleveland. And that was our day. And of course, the two baseball teams from East Cleveland thought we owned the park as we would strut around still wearing our Jim Connell Chevrolet itchy wool uniforms and them wearing whoever they were in their wool uniforms. I was 13. And that was the summer I started my first great project in woodworking.

The recession in the 50's caused my Dad to have to try and find work at the Collinwood railroad yards for New York Central. Lucky, he got the much needed work from which he would later retire. The hard part was, we did not live in the area at the time. He had to live in Collinwood by himself at the old YMCA on 152nd St for almost a year before deciding that this might work out and moved my Mum and me from a big three bedroom house with full basement in Altoona, PA. to an apartment in East Cleveland. I was nine at the time.

It had to be hard for them. I see that now. But we made it. And the day Dad said I could redo a built in dresser, with mirror, I had been pestering him about for some time, I saw my calling.

Ok. Maybe not a calling. But an opportunity nonetheless. I might have been looking for something to do, when I found his single speed, non reversible, steel bodied electric hand drill in storage in the basement and knew that with a sanding disc, I could put this to some use. Anything to just use it. I loved power tools, even if I had never used one. And that ugly white built in dresser was perfect. Plus it was right under a window. Dad told me about ventilation and dust and what to expect.

He already had a rubber wheel for the drill and he let me buy some sanding discs to get started. I am guessing they were not expensive, because I know we did not have money to burn on such things as sanding discs to do meaningless work in an apartment.

There was a Sears on St. Clair Ave. near Collinwood High School. He drove me there. We went in the back door and down the stairs to where the hardware was. T do not remember how they were sold, but I must have gotten enough to last for the whole job, because we did not go back there again, at least not for discs.

And so it started. My new hobby: woodworking, sort of. Sanding. Using an electric drill and disc sanding kit, like the auto body guys used. I did not care. I was about to do something special.

Still going to school, and not wanting to disturb the neighbors in the evening, I did most of the sanding on Saturdays and Sundays. And during the winter, everyone had their windows closed anyway, so noise was less of a problem. But then I froze because I needed my window open to exhaust the dust. But when I started the project, it was hot, real hot. And it got worse before it got better considering August was always hot. But wide open windows or not, I quickly learned that if you are going to sand in a small room, cover everything first. After the first few hours on day one, the cloud was thick and everything was covered. Though I only had a tall dresser and a single bed in this small room, it still got covered. Luckily, the dust cloud did not escape into the rest of the apartment. But it did not escape outside either. It was to go magically through the open window. I had placed a small oscillating fan on the other dresser shooting across the room towards the only window in the room, but the incoming breeze must have cancelled out the little fans outgoing influence. So I stood there waving a towel until the air was clearer. Not great, but at least, breathable for sleeping. It was time for a bigger fan.

I was working part time at the corner deli, Ward's Delicatessen. The owner had an old four blade black desk fan sitting in the corner and I never saw him use it. After I told him what I was doing he loaned it to me, making it clear it was just on loan until the job was done.

I took it home, plugged it in, and whooosh........I think the street light across the street swayed. This was going to be great. My own wind tunnel. Now I could sand for hours and you would never know it. Of course, you thought there was an airplane behind you, but still you knew the air was changing every 30 seconds.

I was 15 when the desk was done. Done meaning stripped of a quarter inch of white paint. I started in July, turned 14 in August, so it was only 13 months in the doing.

Next up was staining. My Dad was working in the apartment part time cleaning the halls and helping the manager with maintenance. So Dad was able to get me some stain to do the dresser in three shades. The drawer faces were one shade, the area around the drawers were another shade, and by mixing those two shades, I came up with the third for the top. Glad I had the wind tunnel fan, because that stuff really smelled going on. Fortunately, the odor did not last long.

But that was it, no shellac or varnish. No urethane. I do not know if they even made it then. But it did not matter because I ha not yet heard of "finishes" until I was older. So the dresser stayed dull, but colorful. I would use that dresser every day for five more years.

And it would be five years until my next real project. Actually making something from wood.