A stitch in time

This was a posting I didn't publish at the time since it was a Christmas gift, and I didn't want to ruin the surprise.  Enough time has past though  ( Christmas in July anyone?) and it is about time to share the results.

This antique sewing machine cabinet came to me in a pretty sorry state.  There was major wear and tear, including several splashes of paint.  It was being used as a stand for a miter box in the garage.

Before I did anything to this, I had to pause and make sure I wasn't ruining a potentially valuable antique.  Perhaps I've just seen Antiques Roadshow too many times, but I really wondered if the "original finish" on a piece like this would be important to keeping its value.

It turned out that the hype on the popular antique shows was perhaps a bit overstated.  If you had a one-of-a-kind item, or a very rare piece, there would be a benefit to retaining an original finish.  Especially if the furniture was very finely made.  In the case of sewing machine cabinets, they are relatively common, factory produced and not too terribly hard to find.  So knowing this, I decided that the piece would be more enjoyable and more usable if it was restored to a better condition, and would never be a priceless heirloom that a foolish carpenter stripped the finish off of, rendering it junk.

I unfortunately failed to capture the stripping process on camera, as it was a bit of a time sensitive process of applying and wiping/scraping off.  But I basically painted the gel stripper onto the wood, one face at a time.  Then scraped and wiped it off.  It worked really well on the flat areas, and took a bit of extra effort in the small nooks and crannies.  I did some light sanding, being very careful not to work through the veneered parts.  Where the veneer looked to be lifting free, or splitting, I re-glued it.   Here are the results:

I saved the original Eldredge decal on the front face, because I really liked how it looked.  The wood got three coats of Minwax Tung Oil Finish.  In the future additional coats can be applied to restore a fresh finish.  Tung Oil is an older style finish, and while it is not as durable as a polyurethane, it also displays the grain of the wood much better since it penetrates the wood, and gives a hand rubbed lustre.

The little drawers had the same detail as the box above, and look great once I used a bit of brass polish on them.  Underneath the box of course is where the sewing machine is stored.  The cover would have kept dust off the machine, and giving it a cleaner look in your home.  The grain patterns on this part really looked great once it was finished.

I also sanded the iron legs and treadle wheel that the cabinet sits upon.  Then it got a fresh coat of black paint, that really made it pop.

 Now's the time to get those orders in for Christmas!  Only 165 days left!

A bit of shade on a hot summer day.

Here are a few images of a pergola that I built this week in Fayetteville.  It's about 12' x 12' at the base, and the back corner had to be worked in with the clipped corner of the deck.  There are double posts in that corner, and the lattice ends in an open pattern, short of that corner.  It was a bit of a head scratcher to get that right, but I think it turned out well.

The existing rail posts were really uniquely done.   Running down, and bolting into the skirt-board/rim joist is a 2x4, and then spaced about an 1 1/2" forward of that is another 2x4 that rests on the deck itself.  Joining them are 1x4's that were spanning the gap and used to frame out the section of spindles.  The homeowner was having a bit of trouble with them pulling free as they were joined with only finish nails.  Fortunately for this add-on though, the 4x4 post fit perfectly into the void, once I removed the interior 2x4.  Then after it was done, I modified the top railing to fit around the new extended posts.  Once it dries and can be stained, I think it will look as though it was always a part of the deck.