I had a very productive maker day today to make up for all the knitting throughout the week. First, I installed the new bearing on the metal lathe’s lead screw. It seems to be working much better now, but the change gears have been modified since I tested it before. I’ll have to change it back to absolutely confirm that it was an issue with that bearing, but for now it’s working well.

On the left of the lathe you can see my second project of the day. We have several brushes and tools that go with the lathe and they usually just lay in the chip tray or on the workbench. I made this rack for some of the tools and brushes to get the area more organized. It’s just some 1 inch holes in a scrap of 2×4, but it does the job well enough.

Finally, I put what is hopefully the last coat of paint on the secret cabinet. Like I said in the last post, I think my sanding and use of a brush was a problem. I got a sander that could take my higher grit sandpaper and used some 400 on it to smooth out the painted faces. It worked very well, some other people commented that it feels like plastic rather than wood. I think I probably should have started even lower than 400, but 400 did the job. I also got a foam roller and did most of the painting with that. It left a nice finish and any bubbling that occurred during application had dissipated by the time I got back around to that side to examine it. I still had to use the brush on the inner corners, but it’s greatly reduced. Maybe that’s what those foam brushes are for. Anyway, this isn’t actually the last application of paint because the frame for the door is painted on both sides. I’ll have to get the other side painted tomorrow. However, this is hopefully the last time I paint over existing paint.