hello and welcome to woodworking with edward short, the hoosier craftsman and i have a fun little project lined up for today and that is building a cd rack that mounts to the wall. now i have built plenty of cd racks and towers to hold anywhere from 20 to 280. now i have a set of plans hanging on the wall so lets take a look at them. i am building this project for myself. i have about 30 cds
router dvd woodworking, and this piece holds 50 cds. so that gives me a little room to add a little more. i'm not a big collector of them but this will work just fine for my needs. now i do have a couple of
projects coming up where i am going to be building some more cd racks and towers and one is going to be a floor model that will hold over 200 cds it might hold up to close to 300. i still need to work out the details on that. now i'm going to be building one that is about 6' tall that holds 50 cds and 50 cassettes and i used to build those back in the day. once i'm done discussing this i do a little drawing and show you what that kind looked like. but on this piece. this is the front view and this is the side view. i am going to go a head and take the opportunity to explain all the
pieces that make up the cd rack. this right here is the abacus and this is also the abacus. the pieces right here are the columns which the cds will be sliding into. these right here are the slots and these are the spacers. and this right here is the side. these pieces up here will be be the corbels. and these pieces right here are the keystones and this piece is the facia
and this is just a diminished arch. and this piece right here is a backer that's going to mount to the wall. well it's a slat. and on the back you will have slats that will run down the back of the cd columns right here. this piece right here is the stereobate and this is the stylobate. and this right here is the same thing. it's the stereobate. down here you have the lower pediment and this is the trim for the lower pediment. now i'm going to go ahead and tape
a piece of card board here to the wall and show you real quick the one cd rack and cassette rack looked like. okay, now, i had an abacus that sat on the top of it. then i put the cds down the middle here. then it sat on top of a
foundation like so. then i had the columns for the cassettes. this would be made out of two by material. this right here would be two material and of course you have a foundation for that. then i made some brackets to go underneath like so. and up here i would have a facia with an arch. the columns for the cassettes were a lot thinner than the columns on the cd rack. the cds went in here. and the cassette would go on the sides. there would be 25 over here and 25 over here and 50 cds in the middle.
i then would put corbels and things like that on it. then it would have a a post with a base down here. the base would like this. you have probably seen me make this base before. this is the top view of the base and post was position here. then i would have corbels that went here then i would put legs on which you have seen me make the legs before.
it's the same style i made for the 3 tier plant stand and some other projects that i built> they went something like this. but this is a fun little project and also an up coming project. now the material for the project is southern yellow pine which i use quite a bit for most of my projects. if you take a look it's a 2" x 12" long board. that's basically all i need to build the project and i'm going to use one piece of scrap to make the slats with.
as you can see i already made the out line for the rough cuts and i wrote the piece description of each piece on the material. this is going to help me utilize the board. i'm going to use my circular saw to cut the material so i need to wear my hearing protection, dust mask and and wear my wider glasses so i don't get any chips into my eyes. okay, now i got the circular saw, safety equipment already. now i have the circular saw unplugged. i'm to show you really quick
what i'm going to do. now on the ciruclar saw i want it just to cut through the material about an eight of an inch to a quarter of an inch past the material. as you see right here the saw blade is about a quarter of an inch past the material. there's no reason to make any further down than that. also i have the work piece elevated up off the table top with a couple of scrap boards. this piece is just an extra scrap piece in case i need additional help supporting the boards. and also i have my safety gear. my safety glasses,
dust mask and also hearing protection. now i need to change out my glasses. well i have all the pieces cut down to a rough size. the next step is going to be planing everything down to the proper thickness and then i'll get the joiner out. then i'll rip everything down to the correct size. now let me cover the pieces real quick. these pieces are going to be the slats. this piece is also going to be the back slat to attach the cd rack to the wall.
these pieces right here are going to be the column shafts. this piece is the bottom pediment trim. here are the stereobate and abacus. this piece is the bottom pediment. this piece is going to make up the facia. i planed all the boards down to the proper thickness and joined an edge on all the boards. on the joined edge i mark it so i can keep everything organized. now i need to rip all the boards down to their proper width. what i am going to do is keep all of my
marked joined edges facing the same direction. so this way i can grab the boards and run them through. this will help keep everything organized. on the columns i trimmed one end. i haven't cut them to length. what i am going to do is start cutting the dadoes then cut the columns to length. alright i have the dado stack cutter set up and i have it set to the proper height. now i'm ready to cut all the slots into the columns. two of the columns will only get the dadoes cut to the inside, not the outside of the board so i need to pay attention
to that detail. i don't want to cut the dadoes on the wrong side and you'll see that when i'm cutting the pieces. now i've already the way this works is the first dado sets up a little high. now i've already set the screw which will set the position of the first dado. basically i position the piece up against the guide then dado then flip the board over and do the other side. on the end columns the dado it's going to be only on the inside. once i'm done cutting the first slot on all the pieces. i'll move the screw over to this position and this is going to set
the spacers in between each slot. now cutting all the cd slots is going to be a little dusty so as usual i have my shop vac hooked up to my the table saw to suck up the dust. i'm also going to wear a dust mask and change out to my safety glasses because there is going to be a lot of debri flying everywhere and course hearing protection. now i need to change the position of my stop here. then i'll be able to finish cutting all the dadoes. one thing i do need to make sure of
is that i watch for any chips getting into this corner because this will effect the position of the slots and cause the slots not to align. now i am checking to make sure that the slots all align up and they all align up so i'm good there. the next thing i need to do is make a notch for the slats that are going to go on the back. then i need to cut the middle columns because the slats go on the back of them. but i need to put a notch on the end columns.
now i'm setting the height of the saw blade ( this is the slat ) i want the saw blade a little above the height of the slat. i also unplugged the table saw to do adjust the height. that's good right there. okay that looks good. now what i need to do next is create a bevel that's going to go here
like so. on some of the pieces you can see that the end here is all tore up. by cutting the bevel that will help remove it. now i'm making sure that the distance between this edge and this edge are going to be the same all the way down because i need the cds slide into the slots comfortably. if the gap is to big the cds would fall out and if the gap is to small the piece will shrink and wedge the cds into the rack. so i am measuring to make sure i have each cd bay right.
these are spacers which i cut their height is longer than their width. so i do need to make sure i have all of them in the correct position. i definitely don't want them in the wrong position and the cd bay to wide. okay looks like everything is correct. now as i put the cd case into the slot. i am pushing it to the one side and as i slide it down you can see a gap right here. so this way
the wood has a chance to move. if you make the gap to narrow the wood will move or shrink and wedge the cd into the slot. i always make the spacers which are the pieces right the same width so this way on all the spaces are the same on all the cd racks and towers i build. it's just uniform thing like mass producing them. once you have one done correctly you can repeat the process.
also i make the height and depth of the slots the same on all the cd racks and towers i build. another thing i need to do is measure how long the unit is and compare it the plans so this way when i cut the stereobate i have it right. now what happens is you can draw something on paper and have all the measurements listed and build the project and pieces don't fit. i could add up all the dimensions and thicknesess for the width of the columns then add the distance between the columns ( the spacers )
and come up with a measurement that way and that could still be a little off. so i'm going to measure the width of the rack and use that measurement. now what i am doing is taking the rack here and putting it on top of the stereobate and i need to and center the rack on there then what i'm going to do is mark the location where the rack should sit on the stereobate. i'm going to measure from each end. on the stereobate it gets a couple of steps which are called stylobates.
and now on the mark here i can't come to far past it for the step. i'm going to put three steps. so basically go like so and notched out like so. i want to make sure i don't cut to far this way. now i need to go a head put the marks on the abacus. now the abacus is going to get a chamfer or angle which ever you prefer to call it. i am going to measure from each end to center the rack on to the abacus. and then i;m going to mark
the outside edges. now that i have it aligned up i going to make the marks. and again it's for the same pupose so i don't cut to far over. now this mark is the outside edge of the rack and what i'm going to do is come over so far and then make a mark because this is going to have a little bit of a lip here. and then the angle which is going to go like so. now i'm going to begin by working on the abacus first. i'm going to start by cutting the angle and i have already have the saw blade set to the proper height.
i have the fence set into the proper place. now all i have to do is cut the notch first into the abacus. i have already selected which side i wanted to be the top and which side i wanted to be the bottom and which sides i wanted to be the front and back. now as you can see i have the grooves cut on three sides. i don't need to cut a groove on the back because the back does not get angle. now what i want to do is adjust the angle of the saw blade and cut the angle here. now i won't be able to cut this in one pass. it will take several attempts to get the angle right and position right. then when i get it right i'll cut the angle. i kept messing with the height of the saw blade till i got it right and also i changed the angle of the chamfer.
now i am going to work on the stereobate and that's the piece that gets the steps cut into it. so what i need to do is adjust saw blade to the proper height, adjust the fence and mark out the steps where they are located on the board. now i am marking the location of the columns on the abacus and stereobate. now this is the center mark. i placed one on all the columns as you can see. the end column marks are a little of center. i need to transfer the mark to the abacus and the stereobate. i'll draw a line on the back and tops for drill holes. what i am going to do is screw the abacus and stereobate to the columns.
the one thing i do need to watch out for is when i do screw the pieces together is that screws don't screw out through the cd slots. the screws i am going to be using will be longer than this one. if i get the screws of center you can see that the screws could easily come out through the cd slots. so i need to watch out for that. that's why i am marking the center location to avoid the screws going out through the sides. the screws need to screw through the center. once i am done marking the marks use foster bit to create a half an inch counter sink.
i'll use dowels to cover the screw heads. now i'm marking the center locations for me to pre-drill the holes because i need to trace this line on top of the abacus. again this mark is the center of the columns. now another thing i need to do is mark how far out the column is going to go. what i need to do now is mark for the depth of the column so i don't pre-drill a hole to far out.
so what i will do is align the back of the column to the back of the abacus and then place a mark. that is the depth of the column. next i am going to is locate the screw hole in just a little bit. i want to come in about there. then mark the locations. this is for the center of the pre-drilled holes which are for the screws.
this is the stereobate and i need to do the same thing as i did on the abacus. i already have the center lines now i need to mark the center of the front screw. i'm going to use two screws to attach the columns, stereobate and abacus. now i need to make adjustment to the square again for the second screw and i'm going to put it about there. there is not really rhyme or reason i picked the screw location. i just want the screws far enough from the ends so this way i don't crack
into the columns. now i'm not setting any particular depth for the counter sinks. i'm just going to eyeball them. now i am going to pre-drill the holes for the screws this way when i drill and screw the pieces together i don't take a chance and crack out the end here. usually screwing this far from the end won't crack but i don't want to take any chance. if it were closer to the end it might crack. now i am going to go a head and pre-drill the holes. i have some scrap boards underneath the material. i am not going to worry about tear out on the other side. you won't see that. i am going to use the hole that the tip of the foster bit left as a guide for drilling the pre-drilling holes.
this will help keep the drill hole centered. i have all the holes pre-drilled. my next step is to sand the stereobate, abacus and all the columns. now i still need to work on the facia, lower pediment and the pediment trim. also the corbels and keystones. but i'm going to begin assembling the stereobate, abacus and columns then work on the other pieces. so the next step is to begin assembly the unit here and that begins with sanding the pieces. okay, i was getting ready to sand the pieces when i started looking at the end columns and decided to add one little detail which i don't have the plans. let me show you the plans real quick. here on the sides as you can see i don't have any
detail along this edge so what i am going to do is add a chamfer along this edge and a long this edge. now i did show it on this detail and that was a debate rather i wanted to add it or not. so i've decided to go ahead and add the chamfer. i've already put the chamfer bit into the router and i'm ready to begin. i have my safe gear ready. right here is were the chamfer will begin and here is where it is going to end. this is the left side of the column and this one is the right. all i need to do is get my safety gear on. okay, i have the router put up. now i'm ready to begin sanding the pieces. i'm going to use 100 grit sandpaper
and i'm going to use an orbital sander and i'm also going to use a scrap block which is a piece of stair tread. i made sure this edge is pretty flat to sand with this way i can sand the chamfer on the abacus and also sand the steps on the stereobate which are called the stylobates. i also have a dust mask , hearing protection and safety glasses which i really don't need for sanding. i just need to see what i'm sanding so i wear my glasses. okay, now i have all the pieces sanded the bottom of the stereobate because i still need to put the dowels in. then i'll sand it. the abacus i did sand the top i will have to re sand it because i haven't glued the dowels in yet.
now i'm going to nail the end columns to the stereobate first then screw it. the columns in the middle i need to move forward because they get slats on the back. i do need to be careful that the nails do not shoot out the side. as you can see the column is even with the back of the stereobate. the middle columns need to be moved forward. as you see the end column has a notch for the slats. the slats go like so and that's why i need to move the middle columns forward. now that i have the stereobate attached to the columns i need to attach the abacus to the columns. i'm doing it the same way i did the stereobate. now
what i did on the stereobate i just centerd it up with my fingers then i marked the location and use this mark to adjust the other end and keep adjusting the abacus till it is centered. now that right there is it. now i'm going to nail the abacus into place. now i'm going to glue the dowels into place. put a little glue in the hole then spread it around. now i'm getting ready to put the slats on the back. the includes the vertical slat and horizontal slats. now i've already doweled the screw heads and sanded flush so i am good there. the next step is to put
the slats on the back and they are going to go like so. i've already cut the slats to size. now all i need to do is glue and nail them. this board is a little warped but that's ok it won't be a problem. then i have the slats here on the bottom that go like so. i'm going to go ahead and apply the glue. now i do have to watch nailing into the columns if the nail goes at an angle or if if it's to far over the nail will shoot through the cd slot.
now i'm going to put the lower vertical slats on now. this horizontal slat is the piece i am going to use to screw the piece to the wall. now that the slats on the back are all done i'm going to attach the facia and i need to put the arches that are going on here. now one thing i did and then i decided to change my mind again was i have eleven cd slots. i was going to make the facia a little smaller but after i cut the slots and got to looking at it i decided to leave the facia to the height on the plans. so i ended up with this extra slot which isn't a big deal.
now what i need to do is make the mark for the location of where the arch will placed. this right here is where the width of the column is located. but i'm going to bring the arch out a little to right around here on each one. i'll finish marking these then i will show what i need to do next. now these are the marks where the columns are going to go. now i want the arch to be a little over so i took my dividers and already set where i want the location of the arch at. i just need to place the marks for the location.
now i am marking how high up the arch will begin. the arch is going to be located here. to trace the arch i'm going to use this paint can. i am going to line it up with my marks like so. now i'm getting ready to attach the facia to the columns themselves with glue and nails. i want to make sure the facia is flush with the outside edges. the use a couple of nails. now i'm putting some wood filler into the nails holes. then once i'm done with filling the nail holes i'm going to sand them.
okay, now that i have the facia put on. next what i'm going to work on is the bottom pediment which goes under the stereobate. this piece right here is the stereobate and i have already got it cut proper thickness and height and also i have it planed down to the proper thickness. i just need to cut it to the correct length. and it's going to be the same length as the outside of the end columns. so what i'm going to do is make sure it is even on this end and then take my square and mark this end.
all i need to do is cut to it's length and then i just need to make the coves or quarter radius'. as you can see i marked where the top of the radius will begin on each end. okay, i'm not going to cut the radius' just yet i still need to cut the corbels and keystones and i'm going to use the scroll saw for that. so i'm going to ahead and cut them to size and get them ready then cut all the pieces at once. now i am ready to apply the corbels and keystones. now what already did was apply some super glue to the end grains on the corbels and keystones. this way it soaks into the grain. when i apply more super glue it won't soak in as much and i'll get a better hold.
right now i'm going to go ahead and put the corbels on with super glue i'm just going to eyeball the position of the corbels and hole them for a few seconds. now i'm going to attach the keystones using super glue. now you can probably see i already centered the keystones by marking their location now the marks i'm not going to bother sanding because
it's going to get some stain and gel stain. the gel stain will pile up in the corners and you'll never see the mark. now i've already went through and marked all the locations for the keystone. what i have decided to do is clamp the keystones into place because i don't want to hold them for a minute. now i am attaching the side corbels with super glue. i will have to hold these. i will need to hold it for about a minute. on the middle corbel i am going to measure over and split the difference till i get it centered in between the two. then i'll take my pencil and mark the location. i'll apply some super glue and hold.
now i'm getting ready to attach the bottom pediment to the stereobate. i'm going to use some biscuits to do that. i won't need to use any nails or screws. now what i need to watching for is where i place the biscuits so i don't cut into any of the nails or screws. so that means i need to place the biscuits in between the cd bays. i'm going to put one here in the middle. i'm just going guess where i am going to put them. i'm going to use three biscuits. i'm going to go ahead and put five in here. now i just mark the location where the pediment is going to sit. now i didn't go by the reference on the biscuit slot lines because they could be a little off.
but what i did is measure from each end of the pediment and made sure it was the same on each end.. that way the pediment is exactly centered on the stereobate. now i'm only going to use biscuits to attach the pediment. i don't need to use any nails. biscuits will work just fine. then i'll clamp it together after i get it glued. then i will work on the trim that goes to the lower pediment and from there begin finishing. now i do need to make sure that the edge meets with the line. i'm just going to tap it over till it meets the line. ok that's good. i'm ready to begin clamping it on. i'm going place a clamp between each cd bay.
if i do get any glue squeeze out on the front. i will be able to use a chisel or utility knife to scrap it off because it won't be to much. i'm not putting to much pressure on the clamps. the more pressure i apply will just leave marks on the other side of the wood. and that would be noticeable so i'm applying enough pressure to get a nice snug fit. now i did get some glue squeeze. i'm going to show you real quick. and you can see it right there. it's not a big deal. if i was to try and wash it up with water and a rag what would happen is it would smear every where and then i would have to go back and re sand when i could just let that dry and scrap it off with a chisel or utility knife. okay, next what i am going to work is which sets on the lower pediment and is the last piece the pediment trim.
so i need to get the router out and router bits. now i might change the style of profile on the piece from the style on the drawing on the wall. okay, i'm ready to begin putting the profile on the pediment trim. i changed my my mind. i was going to use a classic profile on the very bottom of the trim piece but i'm going to use cove on the bottom and a round over on top of the trim piece. i could use the router the piece on the router table but i'm going to use the router free hand. this is how i've always done it and continue to do it. i like free hand because i have a little more control over the router
and what the piece does as opposed to routering on the router table. i have only used the router table for the last five years. for fifteen years i used the router free hand and fasten the work piece down. so what i'm going to do is is nail the trim piece to this scrap piece of wood i nailed to this board. i'm going to nail the piece so it sticks past the scrap wood so my guide will follow the trim piece edge rather the nailer edge. so the trim piece is going to stick past the nailer a little bit. now i have this board securely fastened down which is secured by a clamp here and then i have a clamp over here on the other side. what i'm going to do is nail the trim to the scrap piece of wood. okay, i'm going to start with the cove bit first then switch to the round over but
i am going to change these glasses out for the bigger glasses this way i have better coverage on my eyes because the router is going to kick material and dust everywhere. also i want to wear hearing protection because the router is extremely loud. because i doing a then piece. i'm not going to wear a dust mask because i won't be routering to long. now technically you shouldn't do the routering the way i just did it. the routers and bits are designed that you push away from you when your routering the material
and the only problem with that is you can get tear out when your routering. so to avoid the tear out i start at the opposite end and work my way back. now if you start at the opposite end and pull back the router bit will bite into the wood and kickback and then you would have problems. it would do more damage than doing anything good. nibbling the material helps the router wanting to kickback and take off because that's what the router would do. now if i would have used a much bigger router bit i wouldn't use this technique. because it would take a bigger bite out of the would and want to kickback. i do pay attention and watch for any kickback.
so it's not a good idea till you get some good experience with using the router and learn how to use that technique properly. routering this way and not paying attention and don't have the experience could cause injuries and may not be very safe. now another thing i watched for was routering on a thin narrow strip could cause the router to teeter and take out material where i didn't want material removed or having kickback. so i made sure i used my other hand
to balance the router. so those are the things i watched for. one, i made sure the router wasn't going to kickback so i had a good grip on it and that's why i like using the router free hand rather than a router table because i have more control over the router. again that is effected by the bit size. now i'm going to switch the router bit to the round over and router the pediment trim. now the lower pediment has dried and i removed the clamps. now i'm going to attach the trim piece. i going to glue and nail it then camp it on.
now i put a center line so i could line the marks up just to make sure it's centered. i going to apply some glue. i am going to add the glue to the back side so that it doesn't squeeze out the front side. if it squeezes out the back i'm not to concerned with that. i need to line the center marks up. i'm going to start at one end and begin nailing. now i'm going to do when i put the pediment on and i'm just going to again apply enough clamp pressure
so that it gets tightened up. once the glue sets up and dries i'm going to fill the nail holes with wood filler and then re sand the trim piece. again i not going to over tighten the clamps because it would leave indentations in the wood and can make it hard to sand out. it may not be to much of a problem to sand out but i don't want to have to do a whole lot of more sanding. now i'm filling the nail holes with wood filler.
then once i'm done i will sand it with 100 grit sandpaper. that's what i sanded the whole piece with. i using this profile and i wrap the sandpaper around that and it works just fine. here i have glue squeeze out and i'm just going to take this chisel, the flat part and just bring it towards me and scrape. as you can see it's removing the glue squeeze out and i'm going to do the same thing on the pediment. the cd rack is just about all done. all i need to do is apply the finish.
i'm going to apply a base coat of liquid stain and follow that with about four to six coats of shellac, probably six and then maybe three or maybe four coats of gel stain. i haven't decided on the color yet so that's what i'm going to get busy and get started on next is deciding the color. i'm getting ready to apply the first coat of a liquid stain. then i'll follow that with four to six coats of shellac usually the reason i don't give a specific number is because it depends on how much of the shellac begins soaking in.
the first two coats soak into the wood pretty good. by the time i put four coats on it will depend on what the shellac looks like before i apply any more. if it looks like there is plenty of shellac on the piece then i'll stop at four but if not then i'll apply six. this way i know i have good coverage. from there i will apply gel stain. i need to make sure i do inside the cd slots very well because if you miss spots it will end up showing. you can go back and touch them up. i am also going to use this throw away brush to apply it. so it will take a little time to apply the stain inside the cd slots. once i'm done staining the whole piece i'm going to use this bed sheet i cut up to soak up any excess stain which will remove any runs, drips or any
spots which i will show later on that appear on the piece. well i'm all done applying the first coat of liquid stain. i'm going to let the piece dry for twenty-fours that way the stain has had a chance to cure. if i were to apply the shellac or another finish on to the stain it would create hazy spots and what that would look like is if you rubbed in one area to long. it would be lighter than the surrounding areas and look unnatural. the next steps to start applying the shellac. i'll probably apply six coats. the first two coats soak in pretty good and the third and fourth coat begin to build up and the sixth coat will definitely give me
something to work with. now i'm going to use an amber shellac and i usually use a clear shellac. i'll show the difference between amber and clear shellac and explain a little bit about the difference. well the first coat of base coat of liquid stain has dries now i'm going to apply six coats of shellac. now i'm going to apply the first coat of shellac and give it a couple of hours to dry, check it out then apply the second coat. i'll keep applying coats so i can get all the coats done in one day.
the thing about the first two coats is they dry pretty quick. but as you begin building the shellac up the shellac bonds to the previous coat. therefore six coats will equal one thick coat. now what happens is with six coats the shellac it doesn't cure after a two or three hours later. it takes about twenty-four hours before the shellac to set up properly. now i talked a little bit about the difference between amber and clear shellac. i'm going to use an amber shellac when i normally use a clear shellac. so if you look right here you can see i have an amber shellac and you can see that it is orange in color and this is the clear shellac and you can see it is clear. the amber shellac will help add a little color to the piece. the difference between the two is the orange shellac ( amber ) has wax in it and the clear shellac is purified. they process the amber shellac to make the clear shellac.
i use amber shellac to add a little tone or color to the piece. shellac comes in various forms. of course you have the cans which you have the amber shellac and the clear shellac. and then it come sin buttons and flakes which you have to mix with denatured alcohol known as cuts. 1:1, 2:1 or 3:1 cut and the higher the number the thicker the shellac. so a 1:1 cut is pretty thin. i usually like a 2:1 cut because it's just the right consistency to be able to apply it for me. you can also use a sprayer to apply the shellac but i'm going to use a arts & crafts brush to apply it. that's my style and that's the way i like to do it. some folks do use a sprayer and that's perfectly fine. on a sprayer you don't want to use a 2:1 cut or 3:1 cut. you want to use a 1:1 cut because it could clog up the sprayer.
like i said i'm going to apply the first coat of shellac and let it dry for a couple of hours then come and check it out after a couple of hours. as you can see the color tends to be orange. i need to watch for any drips or runs because they will show up. if you apply the shellac in a 3:1 cut you end up dragging the brush. that's why i like to thin it down. even though this looks like a full can i did thin it down. you can see the difference in color of where i have applied the shellac and where i haven't and that's why i applying the shellac. i'm not going to apply any shellac to the inside of the bays here. i'm just applying it
to the outside here. okay, now i have the first coat of shellac applied. i'm going to let it dry for a couple of hours come back and check it and make sure it's dry. while the shellac is drying i'm going to begin another project. i got all the shellac applied in one day and i let it cure for a good twenty-four hours. now i'm ready to apply the gel stain. i'm using an old t-shirt or bed sheet i that i cut up and a stick. on the stick it has a little bit of a chamfer which allows me to get into the crevices and corners. i might be able to get two or three coats on today. it's going to be about 72 degrees.
the higher the temperature the more humidity there is and it takes a lot longer for the gel stain to dry. so a good weather is about 60 to 70 degrees. i am hoping to get three coats on today. i'm probably going to apply four coats total. i want to make sure that when i apply the gel stain on the top and the front i go with the grain and then i'll do long strokes to keep the gel stain from building up. i'm going to start in the crevices first. i'm going to do the top right here. this takes the most time i would like to get it done first.
i have the first coat of gel stain applied. i'm going to apply about fours coats is just depends. the first two coats come out a little hazy. the third coats makes it look more uniform and gives more a natural look. and the fourth coat starts to add a little more darker color to the piece. the more gel stain i apply the darker the piece will get. i like to use the gel stain like this because i can control the color better rather than applying the gel stain directly on the wood. by adding the base coat of liquid stain helps tint the piece. you don't have to add the base coat of stain. you can apply the gel stain directly to the wood or apply the shellac to the wood and go from there. it just depends ( for me ) what a family, friend or client
wants the piece to look like. now i'm going to wait a couple of hours then come back and check the piece to see if it's dry. if it is dry i'm going to go ahead and put on another coat. i'd like to get all four coats on today. but that may not happen. i might have to put two coats on tomorrow. well the cd rack is all finished. i ended up applying four coats of gel stain. i also have a shelf that i can store items up on. that ends this episode. i'm off to start some more. so until next time i'm edward short, the hoosier craftsman. happy and safe woodworking ! thanks for watching. help show your support by liking and sharing the video. and also leave a comment down below.
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