It's a new day, and I start with sanding the few "rough" spots on the case.
Actually, the rabbets were about as good as you can get, so there was only sanding needed
to ready the surface for painting. Once again, I marvel at the Festool Rotex 150 Sander.
It sands smoothly and sucks up all the dust.
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There were a few voids in
the plys that needed puttying.
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An hour later and the
putty has dried. I use 120 grit paper and give the whole case a once over. By adjusting
the eccentric motion (less aggressive), this sander handled very easily when doing the
fronts.
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I am edge banding the front
edges. I am not sure if I will paint these edges gloss black like the rest of the case or
finish them natural. In either case, I will apply the edging. It is easy to do and adds
quite a bit to the end look — natural or black.
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I miter the
corners. It is simple to do. I lay down the cross piece and iron it on. Once set, I use
the miter gauge to guide me in cutting the miter with a utility knife. Once cut, I warm
the corner a bit and lift off the discard. When laying down the other strip, I do much the
same.
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It is not a perfect
corner but once finished will look great.
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The ply is 1/2" and the
edge banding is 13/16", so there is some trimming to do. I use a utility knife to cut
off most of the overage and then finish with this block plane followed by a little
sanding.
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It looks like I
am spraying gallons — that is my crude airbrushing of the photo just for
illustration. Fact is, I am spraying sanding/sealer, and you can't see anything. I have
lowered the air pressure to about 12 psi. and have the smallest spray possible. This
allows me to work close and coat the case without getting too much spray on everything
else.
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A couple of days have gone
by, and I have painted the inside and out a satin black. Now, I spend a view minutes
scraping black paint off the birch edge banding. I just use the side of a chisel. It
doesn't take much to clean the banding.
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I said earlier that I should
have installed the CD storage racks before I assembled the case. There were reasons I
didn't, but I am having a hard time getting in to screw the pieces in place.
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Then, I remembered that the
Festool Cordless Drill/Screwdriver came with a right angle attachment. I quickly attach it
to see if it will help. There is less than five inches in which to work.
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The right angle drive just
clears the opening and works like a charm. I first drilled a 5/64" hole and then
changed to a Phillips #1 bit and drove in the tiny screws.
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