Woodworking Update and Late Breaking News!

Hello Gray Ghost Fans!

Time for a quick update.  If you remember the last post on woodworking for the Gray Ghost, you remember that I was only halfway done with the project.  I decided to finish it up this weekend.  Of course, it was the hottest weekend of the year....  Oh well.  To finish up the project, I had to disassemble everything.  As a reminder, here is the project loose fit on the truck:

So, what's left to do:  run the edges through the router to soften them, sand everything (120 grit then 220) stain the wood and then seal them with polyurethane.  Doesn't seem like much, does it?  Well.... 

The finish woodworking was very straightforward and I was in a rush to get it done.  The rush was because I was set up in the shade and I knew that I'd lose that shade as noon approached.  So it was all business.

After the finish woodworking, it was time to stain and seal the wood.  Since this is made out of a softwood (pine) it needed to have a pre-stain conditioner applied first.  This somehow (I don't know the chemistry of it) opens up the pores of the wood and allows the stain to penetrate the wood evenly.  If you try to stain pine without it, it usually turns out blotchy.  So, knowing that I really don't like math, here's a bit of it anyway:  16 pieces of wood for the project, each piece has 6 sides that need pre-stain conditioner + stain + poly.  That's 16x6x3=288 sides of wood that needed attention.  (Yes, I used the calculator on my phone to figure out that number....)  Regardless, that's a lot of sides.  Granted, some are narrower than others, but some were really wide or really long, so I figure it evens out in the wash.  Here's a pic of the wood pieces after the pre-stain conditioner was applied:

You can see that it doesn't really add any color, but trust me, it's on the wood.  Here's a shot after the color was applied:

Now we can see some color.  Not that much, though.  I did not want the wood to be a dark color.  In fact, I was a little disappointed that it was so dark.  Oh well.  Here's a shot the next day after applying polyurethane to the first side:

You can see that it is darker still, after adding the polyurethane.  The wood is still wet in this shot, so it looks glossy.  However, it is a semi-gloss, so that shine will be toned down once it is fully dry and cured.  I had to wait for this side to dry, then it was on to the other side.  More lather, rinse, repeat.

After waiting the obligatory drying time, reassembly was next.  For the most part, it was pretty easy figuring out which piece went where.  Some of them were labeled "D" or "P" for driver or passenger and others were not.  All in all, it went together easily.  Here it is fully assembled, with the carriage bolts properly flanged down:

Once again, I beseech you to pay not attention to the debris in the back of the truck!  I like the proportion of each tier to the others.  The top tier is made from the part that I cut off of the second tier.  Both the middle and top tiers are made from the board that I originally was going to use on the bottom.  You may remember that I didn't like my first attempt at this project, so I took that long board and cut off the 30 degree bevel.  That made the boards narrower than the bottom board.  The top board is narrower than the other two, so that it matched up to the top of the back board.

The only issue I had on reassembly was that two of the carriage bolts would not properly seat in the wood and spun in the hole.  No matter how hard I tried, they spun.  As I wrote this, I figured out how to fix them.  Good grief!  Sometimes I'm a bit slow on the uptake.  The answer is to use a C clamp on the ends of the bolt.  With enough pressure applied, the bolt should stay in one position while I turn the nut....  Thanks, Gray Ghost Fans!  Writing this up helped me remember something I already knew, but had forgotten!

Breaking News!  I may actually be getting a garden shed this summer!!!  It's an idea that my wife and I are discussing.  Getting that shed would be one of the biggest projects for the Gray Ghost!  Stay tuned!

That's all for now.