My Garden Shed

Today I prepared the walls for the garden shed. The plans in Miniature Collector called for using a thicker basswood and using a table saw to add grooves and lap joints to the wood. Unfortunately without a table saw I had to get creative. Instead I used a very thin 1/32" sheeting that was in 4" wide strips. I cut them to the 8" height needed and then I used some scrap wood that I had that was 3/4" wide and cut some of those strips in half length wise and alternated full strips and half width strips.

I used the scrap wood to evenly space the woods, and these spaces instead became the grooves that I was to have made in the wood. Once I glued each of the strips down, I very gently removed the spacers, and put lots of books on top while it was drying to keep the panels from bowing.

I made sure the strips covered the joins I had in the panels, and once everything was dry, I removed the masking tape from the back. I think it worked out well.

I have a Easy Cutter which appears to have a blade that is no longer sharp, so the cuts on the strips are a little rough, but I kind of like it. It looks like the wood is starting to break down at the bottom, which time would do this to the wood closer to the ground in a garden shed. I'll play up this flaw once I stain/paint the panels. In the meanwhile, I had better order a replacement blade for the cutter. I wonder if those blades can be sharpen? I'll have to check into this.

Wanda