It has been a long time since I last worked on the panelling.  I have been away for a week, and preparations for that plus a bit of procrastination have kept me out of the room.

On Wednesday I wrestled a few pieces of oak out of the garage, and decided I had enough for the chair rail, but I would need both jointer and saw to get it done - and maybe the mitre saw as well before it's over. On Thursday I sawed off the remaining plugs, put a screw in the baseboard where it was needed, and thought about sanding.  That's as far as it got.

I muddled a lot over how to finish the baseboard, fitting something around all those pillars that are recessed from the top and bottom boards.  Finally it came to me, so now I am ready to proceed with some new learning -- it's a little scary to tackle the jointer, but it's necessary.  How hard can it be? 

Friday I googled how to use a jointer/planer, and how to cut narrow strips on a table saw. (about which there are numerous opinions, mostly involving complex jigs, built or purchased)  So, I commenced to construct a  simple jig that I had googled for the latter. 

There are a million jigs for cutting narrow strips.  Some are fancier than others.  Some you can buy on Amazon.  My attempts to construct one were doomed for failure for various stupid reasons, mostly around being unwilling to use the table saw alone.  In the end, I surprised myself by creating something akin to a jig by clamping a stick to the mitre bar of the saw. Maybe when Brian sees it, it will turn out to be a really bad idea. He's coming tomorrow to help me with planing and cutting narrow strips.

I also dug the planer out of its bed of extreme clutter in the basement and tidied up around the area so there would be room to plane those long pieces of oak. The planer is a mess, covered in sawdust and even some rust.  That will be tomorrow's chore, to clean it up like new - so I will next be googling that.

This is midway through the process.  I still smell a bit like WD40.

Cleaning up the Planer