Day 1619 Easy does it

16th January 2022

The temperature was low again, enough to freeze the sliding doors in the sunroom. The poor dogs were waiting patiently with their legs crossed. Once again I let them out the back door in the garage, boy did they run fast.

I managed to free the door with my trusty heat gun and shop towels.

So it looks like the dehumidifier was a bit of a waste of money.

I made a start on the commission piece by trying to remove the top. Thinking I had to remove the back panel to get at the rear fixing screws was a complete waste of time. The top was nailed down with the fixings hidden by decorative upstand and screw at the front.

The next problem was removing the upstand that ran from the sides and along the back.

I had never worked on anything similar before therefore was not sure how it was attached.

I tackled one side by sliding a thin spatula under the upstand, this seemed to work.

When I got halfway along I realised how it was fixed. There was a slot machined in the top, and the upstand had a tongue that fitted into the slot, and dipshit here, was sheering the tongue with the spatula.

I finally removed the top part, but the tongue was still in the slot. Eventually I dug it out in a few pieces, thinking I could glue the pieces back together.

Now I was left with the back and side piece to remove.

I then had the thought to tap the nails back through the top and force the fitted upstand out.

Gradually it came out. I tapped the nails in sequence and Plop! It fell out, now if only I had this thought earlier I could have saved myself a lot of extra work.

Now these were out I could now strip the old finish off and get it ready for finishing.

There was a bit of repair to some veneer that I managed to do and the good old familiar sanding, but at least I made a start.

I needed to renew my passport which runs out at the end of February. I went on line and was able to fill out the appropriate form, add a new photo and pay the fee and in approximately eleven weeks I should receive a new one with a blue cover, all I have to do is send my old one back, that makes me nervous because I’ll be without any identification.