table making! (weekend 2)

weekend #2...and it's warm enough to take this show outside!

the high art of making corners: take a circular object. shove it in the corner of the table. trace the outer curvy side of it. chop that part off.

sanding the corners

hey! this crazy thing's starting to look like a table!

the continuing adventurers of girl jesus

the lady tessa

gord checkin' in

the orbital sander! it looks like a tiny martian. BUT A FRIENDLY ONE THAT HELPS YOU MAKE FURNITURE.

jane and gord ♥

at last, it's time to put on the first coat of finish! this is a water-based, eco-friendly clear matte stain. $20 at home despot.

painty painty paint

imagine that i wasn't painting a table, and i just inexplicably posed like this all the time?

purtttyyyy

while the first coat of finish dries...to the maple sugar bush! it started to rain so we hung out in the wee hut that houses the boiling machine.

this is the sap boiling. 

maple steam wafting in from the boiling machine

TAZ

future tables...

mmmm

jane gets the pancakes going...

mmmmmmmm oh wow, that kind of looks like manparts. oops.

us doing us things. like sitting! sometimes we sit. other times we get up and walk around.

table making! (weekend 1)

it began with a pile of salvaged orillia cherry tree wood!

finding the pieces that fit together best

gord explains basic saw safety to me, worriedly

loading the wood into the truck to go get it planed in town

this is brian. he let us use his planing machine

uncle gord, wood planer extraordinaire

after we straightened and sanded the wood, we glued the planks together

and then used this bar clamp to force the boards to love each other

gord forces the love

i took this photo to show how hard i yanked this crank. unfortunately, photography failed to capture the awe-inspiring brute strength of my muscles.

when the glue pops up like this, it's a good sign - it means you've clamped the boards nice and tight

we are the clampions

AWWW YEAH

sanding that shit down

mrs. sandman, bring me a dream

the tiny army tank of sanding

mr. sandman, bring me another dream. but a different one, this time, OK?

GRACIE!!!!

GRACE 'N BOOTS

taking the glued wood to be planed a second time

gord gets high on fumes

the saw OF DEATH

the wood emerges victorious from the planer, smooth as BALLS!

AS BALLS, I SAID!

brian introduces the wood to some "sandpaper on steroids"

now we have to glue the two halves of the table together

but she's looking pretty damn good so far! (a stand-back-and-admire-it shot)

getting the two sides straight with an orbital sander

yeah, they're not so straight yet

behold! she is glued and clamped like a wolf who's also a medical doctor! (or something else that rules)

I AM CRANKING SO HARD. nobody knows what it takes to be me.

mixing sawdust and glue to put in the cracks

testing out some different stains