95% Of The Way There

I got up early and cranked hard on it today. I'm just gonna insert pictures and talk about what I was doing at the time.

First off, I went ahead and picked up a load of clamps on sale at Canadian Tire today! $9.99 for the 36" and $7.49 for the 24". I also picked up a jigsaw, sander, rubber mallet, and a sweet set of router bits. I cut the top heat vent hole, glued up the finger joints, hammered it together and clamped it up. I put it in my computer room and turned up the heat so things would set nicely.


I then decided to throw the chassis in for a preliminary look. Things looked rough, but nice.

I then broke out my new 1/2" and 1/4" round over bits and started routing everything nice and round. Once I completed that, I went ahead and hit the works with some 100 grit, and then again with some 150 grit, to make things nice and smooth.

Then it was time to put it all together. At this stage I am still lacking rubber feet, a handle, and 5 or 6 coats of dark chestnut stain, and a bit of gold mesh for the rear and top vents. Then all I gotta do is drill some holes in the logo and screw it on. I'm going to start staining tomorrow, but for now check this out. There's a video at the end of the amp going as well, connected to my XXX 4x12 full of Sheffields. Be warned, the audio will suck, it was recorded with an iPhone.

So tomorrow I'm going to hit it with a fine sanding (by hand) and then start staining it. I figure I'll order some rubber feet and a handle and it should get here within a week. I'm in no big rush now; I'm practically there! Here's that video I was talking about...

Head Cabinet Beginnings

So after letting the pine I bought dry for an extended period of time, I decided that with the nice weather happening today I would go ahead and get some woodworking done for the head cabinet. I made use of my new table saw as well as my router table with finger jointing jig that I got from Oak Park Enterprises. It made the finger jointing part of the endeavor a total cinch.


Above is my router table with finger jointing jig. It's awesome. I still need to pick up some large adjustable bar clamps (I figure a couple 36" and a couple 18" should do) and then I can cut the heat exhaust hole in top of the box, glue and clamp it up, and then move on to cutting the front and back pieces. I've decided that #001 is going to get a few applications of dark chestnut stain when the time comes. Here are a few shots of what I managed to get dry fitted together.


Stay tuned, I'm going clamp hunting tomorrow!