A Quick Project for the Wife

[BrokenolMarine]

A long as no-one minds, I'll keep sharing these, gives me something to do in the evening. This will be quick. I will be knocking out some Cedar Soap Rests to go with the wife's homemade natural soaps. Should be fun, but I can't just do it simple. Not in my nature. She would have been happy with pine. Pine. Sheesh, what's the fun in that?

The Cedar I bought had ONE finished face, but the edges and back were rough. So, set up the fence on the table saw, to run the boards thru. First I cut the eight foot board into four (nearly equal) lengths. The boss wanted the thingees to be 4" x 3-1/2" and each cut will eat 1/16" So I added 1/16 for each cut. That's 3/16 per foot or 3/8" per 2' board. I went with a half inch to be safe. So, three boards at 2'-1/2" and a leftover just under 2'. Should get Six doo-dahs from each board, except the last where we'll get five.

Where was I? Oh yeah, I ran each board thru the table saw, to dress ONE edge, then moved the fence just a touch, and spun the boards and ran them each thru again to address the other rough edge. Now, we are golden right. What? Oh, yeah, that rough face. Running the board thru standing on the edge like that is a good way to loose a finger, or hand. Going thru life called "stumpy" would suck. The wife and kids already call me fatboy.

Ah! Hand plane. I have a drawer full, every size and shape. But, I'll have to sharpen them first... so I get out the plane I want to use and take out the "iron"... (blade) and move over to the sharpening table where I keep my water stones. Splish splash... DMT diamond stone... then 1000 grit water stone, 4000 grit stone, and draw it across a leather strop with some honing compound and I'm ready to go. Of course, I had to sharpen the favorite block plane while I was at it. An hour has passed.... ... where does the time go?

A sharp plane makes the rough face disappear and makes some cool shavings. If you look closely at this first picture, you can see the fuzzy roughness on the board under the plane, and the smooth face on the two I have already planed. This saves a LOT of sanding on the back end.

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I planed all four boards, and will be ready to move onto knocking out the rest of my portion of the project after lunch. If the wife decides, I have another cedar board stacked against the wall and can knock out a second group of rests. The projects normally go a lot quicker if you have done them before and learned the quirks. (and the plane is already sharp.)

Check out the pile of shavings and think how much sanding that would have taken. I could have used the desktop power planer, but it screams like a banshee and doesn't give as smooth a finish these days. I need to change the blades. Frankly, I just don't feel like it.

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I'll post a few more pics, but there won't be much. Once I knock this out, the boss will apply the mineral oil finish. I'll certainly post a pic of one of the rests completed.

[Cofisher]

I love working with cedar! Soft and smooth. And the smell!

[BrokenolMarine]

I love working with cedar! Soft and smooth. And the smell!

I felt cheated, this "hobby cedar" from Home Depot had no smell at all. I expected my shop to smell like cedar for a week!

[BrokenolMarine]

Back at it after lunch. The wood I prepped before lunch was in for a workout.

I have to make sure ya'll understand, this is NOT my design, but one directly from You Tube. I just took more care than the guy that posted the idea. His measurements were sloppy and careless, spacing was inconsistent, and his work habits around the tools were ... ah... unsafe.

Step one, is to set up the fence at a 1/2 inch from the blade and the blade depth to 3/4 of the depth of the thickness of the wood. Then, run the wood across the blade, spin it and make the same pass again, for all four pieces. This puts the grooves in the wood. I use TWO push pads, and at no time do I risk my hands near the blade.

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We perform the process a total of three times, with the blade spaced at 1/2 ", 1", and 1-1/2" and that gives us six evenly spaced grooves. These grooves wick away the moisture from the soap placed on the "soap rest." The initial set up takes as long as making the cuts does. If this was a bulk operation, you could knock out a pretty good number of these things in an afternoon, especially after you had done them for a while.

The next step is to set up the miter saw with a stop block at 4" so that you don't have to measure the cuts on the four grooved boards. We want to cut them into the 3-1/2" by 4" rests. Cut, pull and stack, slide to the stop, cut, pull and stack, slide to the stop, repeat til you need a new board.

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Well, that worked out really well.

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Moving back to the table saw, I set the fence back to 1/2" from the blade and pass the rests across the saw, across the 3-1/2" width, perpendicular to the grooves on the top, making cross cuts on the bottom, one on each end. These cuts are at the same depth as the cuts on the other side, therefore they create dual drain holes in each groove, one on each end. (of course, I used the push pad turned 90 degrees from where it is in the picture, I just turned it that way so you could see the orientation of the "rest." The pad neatly covers most of the rest when you actually make the cuts.

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The process went smoothly, and I quickly ended up with a nice pile of Soap Rests. Look carefully at the second picture, and you'll be able to see thru the drain holes.

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All that remains is to lightly sand each rest, and to treat them with the mineral oil, which the boss forgot while she was our running errands today.
She is going out tomorrow and will pick it up then. I will post the final pics of a couple completed rests at that time. One other thing I will do is check any knots in the cedar and stabilize them with the Super T glue as I have done on other projects.

Stay tuned for further developments.

[BrokenolMarine]

Looks like a miniature pallet, doesn't it?

[BrokenolMarine]

Today's shop time was simple: Sanding, Sanding, and more... you guessed it... Sanding.

Sand all six faces of the soap rest, then roll the sharp edges.

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Done, right?


Not hardly... all those grooves have fuzz in them. If you want the job to look professional... you gotta sand inside the 1/16th of an inch wide groove.
Sheesh... how do you do that? Remember all those fake credit cards you get in the junk mail? I save every one of them. They are good for all kinds of things... spreading glue, mixing JB weld and two part expoxy... and sanding tight spaces. Use them and throw them away. More will come in the mail.. free of charge.

Wrap a piece of sandpaper around it and slide it thru the groove like you are scanning your card at McDonald's... and boom... two or three passes, No more fuzz.

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I spent the morning getting 22 of the 23 just right. One of the rests had a knot that a chip was knocked out of. That is okay, I planned to keep one as a project sample to use for easier setup of the table saw and miter saw the next time I make these. I still sanded it and did every thing as if It were going to be a gift.... then wrote notes on it.

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The rest are stacked and waiting for Miss Tina to stamp the Farm Logo on the back and treat them with the mineral oil, unless she forgets it again.

[JEBar]

all those grooves have fuzz in them. If you want the job to look professional... you gotta sand inside the 1/16th of an inch wide groove.
Sheesh... how do you do that? Remember all those fake credit cards you get in the junk mail? I save every one of them. They are good for all kinds of things... spreading glue, mixing JB weld and two part expoxy... and sanding tight spaces. Use them and throw them away. More will come in the mail.. free of charge.

nice .... will file that one away for future use ..

[BrokenolMarine]

This one is knocked out as well, the finish just needs to dry. When it does, I'll post one last pic for you guys, showing the rest with a bar of her soap laying in place.

Started out the morning with Miss T stamping her logo on the back of all the waiting rests, and letting them dry for a half hour.

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Then I coated them all with Mineral Oil as a finish, it's a food safe coating. Not that I think anyone will lick them, but since the people who use organic soaps are concerned about their health... A safer finish is what the "boss" wanted. The finish looks good and lasts a long time. It's what chefs use on butcher blocks.

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I used an acid brush to get down into those 1/16" slots, and made sure there was a good coat on everything. All the little soldiers are lined up drying.

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Next time around, we may use pine or cherry, or oak. Who knows.