It’s been a busy week and weekend. Yesterday was spent spreading ten yars of mulch, so no workshop time. Today was also busy until late afternoon, when I made it into the shop.

I’m doing final fitting of the stiles and rails. Now that I have a way to finish them, I need to get them ready for that step.

disassembled frame

I could glue them up and sand the faces starting with coarser grits and working up to 220, but that’s noisy, dusty, and generally not much fun. I’ll certainly need to do a bit of sanding, but since I know how to use hand planes, I can get the faces nearly coplaner with some judicious hand planing. We’re talking very small amounts here (probably about 1/64th to 1/32nd of an inch) so my low-angle bevel-up Lee Valley plane is a good choice, especially since quartersawn cherry has a tendency for tearout.

Lee Valley plane

I made it through four more frames and will likely finish up the remaining three Monday and Tuesday. Then some final sanding and wipedown before I tape up the faces and start finishing the inner edges.

frame parts