Carl Joseph

Finishing the magazine rack …

I finally finished up the magazine rack I wrote about earlier. Here it is in production …

I’m quite happy with the end result. It’s a simple, clean design with a few nice elements. I’m also very happy with the way my first dovetails turned out. This is in fact a “sliding dovetail” (I think). You can see them in action in the feet of the stand.

To finish the piece, I began by sanding it with my beautiful Festool RO 150. <gush>There’s something to be said for great tools. Whether hand tools of electric, a well machined tool is a truly a pleasure to use. This sander is smooth and comfortable and does an incredible job at any speed and grit.</gush>

Now that I have that out of my system … I sanded to 320 grit. I have been using a bit of Shellac lately so I thought I’d apply it to this job as well. In the past I’ve found that it can give too orangy a finish for my likening so I thinned it out making a 50/50 mix of Methylated Spirits and my Shellac mixture. Applying three coats of this gave me a really nice solid finish which still showed off the wood grain.

The finish touch was a very thin coating of wax. I haven’t worked with this before but after my initial experience, I really like the end result. Reading all the tips on it’s application, I took care to only apply a very thin layer of it. Now, the piece is nice and smooth, not sticky in any way and the wood grain shines beautifully as it sits on our loungeroom floor.

Another project done!