ListWise

Monday, April 14, 2008

Do Over

Nope, its not going to do. I keep walking back in the room hoping the floor will look better and it doesn't. I didn't sand enough. I've got to take it down further to get the color more uniform. At least, that’s my theory. So it looks like another fun weekend with the rental sander.



In other news, I did get the cabinet completely assembled and hung. I went back to Stafford glass to get the a replacement for the piece I broke a few years back the last time I took it apart and painted. Stafford Glass is where I got the violet glass and the florentine glass for the bathroom, both salvage. This is probably one of the only commercial glass places that regularly stocks old wavy glass. And this isn’t reproduction stuff either. People bring them old window sash and Stafford glass harvest the old glass out of it. The best part is, they charge the same for the old stuff as they do for the new stuff. I picked it up on Thursday and me and the owner stood there admiring the “Flaws” in the glass just before I paid for it. The owners are retiring (It is literally a Mom & Pop operation) and Stafford Glass is going out of business in a year. They will be missed.



One thing odd about this cabinet is that the hinges only go on one way. If you put them on wrong there is either a gap on one side and they are too tight on the other, or the doors are crooked. This didn’t dawn on me when I put this thing back together 4 years ago. I got it all back together and there is a big gap on one side where the door meets the jamb. I thought, “That’s odd. I didn’t notice that gap before”, but I really didn’t think much more of it.

Then today when I put it back together I got all four hinges in the wrong place. The last time I had the two left ones on the right side and vice-versa. This time they were all mixed up so instead of a gap I had two crooked doors. That’s when the light went off. I’m glad I figured it out, but it was a real pain to take all of those hinges back off and move them around. The screws heads are getting a little warn after a 100 years and it is not easy to work them with the screw driver. So the next time I break a piece of glass I’m getting out the duct tape and calling it good. I’m not taking those hinges off again.

6 comments:

Jennifer said...

Love the cabinet... too bad about needing to redo the floors!

Gary said...

That floor looks fine. Shellac that puppy for color and it will look like it belongs in a laundry room!

kingstreetfarm said...

Funny, I think the floor looks fine too, but if it's going to bug you then you know best!

Cabinet is really, really cool. Shame about the impending loss of yet another wonderful small family owned business though.

Greg said...

The floor does look "OK" to me as well. I want to do it over because it will be a test as to how well the other, more prominent floors will come out. Namely, I'm referring to the dining room, which has the same tinted shellac on it.

Fred said...

Love the cabinet.

When we sanded my sister-in-law's floors (older pine floors over joists) we ended up doing many, many passes to get the floor uniform. We found that a drum sander worked best (as opposed to the vibrating or rotating kind) - start with 24 grit if you can find it to really cut into the surface, then go to 36, then to 60, then to 150. It will take time but if you don't go all the way to the low 24 grit you don't get enough "cutting" and if you don't use the higher grit the floors won't "shine" - they'll look dingy. Also, definitely "go with the grain" - if you don't, when you stain the floor you'll be able to see the cross-sanding - and once it's done its really hard to fix.

Anyhow, you might already know all this, but maybe it'll help if not.

Fred

Greg said...

Fred,

Thanks for the info. Man, I wish I could get a drum sander in there. The room is just too small. It is only 6-feet wide and the boards run in that direct. I'm forced to do the whole thing with one of those rental edge sanders.