First Shellac

      Yesterday I applied the first coat of shellac and just as I thought -- lots of time will be spent here getting all of the nooks and crannies! I also signed the piece for posterity.  It was really nice working with shellac that I made myself from flakes.  It's a very light one called Platina and really brings out the grain, especially on the caps.  Speaking of the caps let me share what trick I used to attach them to the crib ends.

As usual, picture needs some explanation but you're looking at the top of one of the ends.  The Walnut is screwed/glued to the crib end but then the plans called for simply gluing and clamping the cap piece on.  Well, trying to clamp and position one piece on top of another precisely is like trying to catch one of the carp at the Lake Mead Marina with your bare hands.  Jennifer and I used to go feed them popcorn and you may be able to touch them but control them and put them where you want  --- no way!  What I did was to clamp the two pieces together dry and drill two 1/4" holes.  The hole goes completely through the walnut but only partially through the maple.  After the walnut cap was securely glued/screwed to the end it was easy to apply glue, line up the maple and clamp it down tight.

Well, it's back to the shop to lightly sand the first coat of shellac and get ready to apply the next 5 or 6.