# Latest Project of 10 boxes



## GoonMan (Mar 22, 2005)

This project has been keeping me busy, so when not at work I am in the shop. I am about to see the light at the end of the tunnel, hopefully the last 5 will be finished by Thursday night. I have made 10 of these 24X24 boxes. A friend wants them to stack in her kids toy room so she could fill baskets with toys and then slde them into the boxes. I think she wants 5 or 10 more. It is time consumming and I have sanded till I am tired of sanding.  I also trimmed them out with some of the different woods I have collected from Pallet Wood. I have used Oak, Ash, Lace Wood, I even found some Walnut and what looks like maple. Since I make all of my own trim the Pallet wood comes in handy. 

Here are some pics of the 5 not completed. I am going to try a homemade prestain wood Conditioner (because this stuff is not cheap at $10 a quart), Special Walnut stain and Spar Urethane. I sanded all of the plywood with 100 then 120. I use 1 to 2 coats of thinned Spar. I thin it 70/30 and if it needs a second coat I will thin 60/40 and it goes on good. I tried using it with out thinning and I did not like the way it turned out. I will post more pics when we get these other 5 stacked together. So far I have spent about $200 on this and alot time but it has been fun. It has taken me about 5 or 6 weeks because of work and allergies. All 4 edges are lap jointed, glued and stapled. 

I also threw in the pic of my new router mounted in the table.


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## Gilbear (Dec 13, 2005)

Goon Man,
I'm sure she'll be happy with the boxes - that's a lot of case work, but I enjoy that stuff myself - gotta wonder if she's considered weeding out some of those toys though!
What are you using for the home-made prestain conditioner? A mix with mineral spirits?
Couldn't agree more about thinning the urethane/varnish - makes a world of difference in how it goes on - JerryMayfield here clued me into that and I'm glad he did. Good luck and post completed pics if you can.


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## GoonMan (Mar 22, 2005)

Hello Gilbear,

I am going to try 9/1 mineral spirits and blo. I saw it mentioned in one of the forums. Unless some one has a better ideal. I just hope the dry times are good if not I will drop back and punt.

Her husband, my wife and I suggested to her to have a large toy sale or give away. Not sure why she will not part with them. This is not the first project I have made for her. _Maybe she likes the work I do. _ I am atleast getting alot of practice. LOL

Yeppers Jerry is who I got the ideal from on thinning the Spar, it works great. I have done a little experimenting with it and I tried 50/50 but did not like the way it looked for the first coat. So I went back to 60/40.


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## Hamlin (Dec 25, 2005)

Randy, awesome job!! Will you post pics when you have them finished? 
I'm like you, always using pallet lumber for projects. For me, its easy to bring home what we call at work "junk" pallets. Just to have the time to break them down and make something out of them. 

Ken


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## GoonMan (Mar 22, 2005)

Thank you Ken,

Whew talk about a long day. I mixed up the Mineral Spirits and Blo and it worked great. I went through 60 ounces of the Blo mixture and a little less than 2 quarts of stain. All 5 have been stain and now I will need to put the spar on then which I will start tomorrow or Saturday and finish Tuesday or Wednesday since I am working the weekend nights.

I will post pictures when they are finished. I will post pics of them stacked.


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## jerrymayfield (Sep 25, 2004)

Randy: Fine looking boxes,my only comment would be the only reason for pre-stain conditioner is to increase the bottom line of the Finish Co.s. 

Keep Up The Good Work.

Jerry


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