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The Book Of The Pulpit
Then I soldered the connections and installed the bottom mounting block. Then it’s time
for testing with some dummy input cables and a digital multi-meter. There is a moment
of panic when testing one of the circuits for the light, the resistance is way too high!
Then I recall that there is a potentiometer in that part of the circuit so the light can be
dimmed. No worries – all the connections are fine for both lamp and microphone.
Concurrently Cal finished installing the shelves and their walnut edge trim.
OOPS! Something is not quite right. Before we removed the shelves for finishing, the
walnut edge trim sat flush with the top surface of each shelf and was snug and flush with
the rear walnut rails. But things are not lining up as well on the bottom two shelves. The
reader board retaining shelf and top shelf are good, but what is going on with the other
two shelves? ARG! ! ! !
Its’ late, we have been working from 10:00am to 4:30pm and, except for the issue with
the two lower shelves, we have accomplished all of our goals. I will come back during
the week and see what I can do about the two shelves. It’s probably something simple,
maybe the pocket screws were not torqued down in the correct order. But it will have to
wait, we are too tired.
Week of August 10, 2009
I am still unemployed, so I am able to come to the Shop on weekdays and make
additional progress working on the shelves.
I had to remove the two lower shelves and remount them. I also remounted the walnut
trim to get a better fit. It took some hand sanding, but it’s done and it looks good.
While I have been working in the Shop during the day, Charlie has been layering
additional finish on the base, reader board and step in the evenings after a day at the
office. The nice deep, dark, finish is wonderful to see.
Because these elements will get the most wear, Charlie is putting in extra time to get as
many layers of protective finish on them as possible. It looks so good now, I can hardly
wait until we put the final coat on and do the final buffing.
Life in the Shop is good, even on weekdays!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The primary focus is putting the finish on the exterior of the pedestal. Work on the Base,
Reader Board and Step has been moving along steadily, but the exterior of the pedestal
has been waiting for the interior to be finished and to patch some blemishes (noting more
will be said on this point – don’t ask, and don’t go looking).
To do the patching (filling seams in the veneer, etc.), we need to make a paste out of fine
sawdust from the same wood as the piece to be patched. So the first task for this session
is to use the sander to make a bunch of fine sawdust. We take turns running the sander
over some left-over pieces of the curly maple we used for the front and the clear maple
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