Day 1047 Patio dreaming

22nd June 2020

I spent time working on a veneer jointing jig. I have alway wanted to do more with veneer, and as Dave had a massive stock of material in his basement workshop, I thought I could use it.

His years at Herman must have had some advantages, and he was not one to miss out on an opportunity to blag loads of off-cuts.

There was a dresser that we picked up that had a painted laminate top that, I thought it would be an opportunity to try using the sheets of veneer to resurface it.

I thought it would be easy, armed with a new sharp blade in my knife I tried to get a good edge in order to make a perfect join, but it didn’t work. The blade followed the grain, so the edge was neither straight or sharp.

I put my thinking cap on which wasn’t easy as I was wearing my wide brimmed gardening hat, designed to keep the sun off my neck.

I knew what I had to achieve, but I only had stuff in the garage to make something to do the job. In the end I used lengths of plywood and clamps to make a fixture to hold the veneer whilst I used a block plane and a sanding block to finish the edge. The end result was great, and I was able to fix the sheets together with masking tape.

Now I have buy contact adhesive to finish the job.

Whilst I wait for the opportunity to visit the shops, I continued to work on the under structure for the new patio.

The first area I am working on is directly outside the sun room. The height of the structure is governed by the sliding doors, so I am able to use the timber we got from the sculpture at Saugatuck. This Area will be the lowest point, but it will step up to the main deck space.