Dominoes!

Since my last post was about the set up of the dominoes I guess I should finish the story. But first a note about my brilliant son!

He has become quite the climber in his day. There is nothing that he cannot get around or over. We have found him on top of the dry sink playing with the blinds, on top of the hutch of the toy stove, on the dinning room table standing and proud of himself, on the computer table laughing at the fish screen saver, and 0n the living room widow sill. This picture is from him climbing on the cupboards that hold his toys. My wife tried to block his path from the couch to the top, notice the stuff on the right. That worked for about five minutes until he figured he can use the drawers as steps. He really wanted those crayons.
Back to the dominoes... This past week I was able to paint the shapes on the backside and put in the inlay walnut pegs in the front. This is just a fancy way of saying I filled the holes with walnut dowel and sanded them smooth. I don't have the patience or the talent to do detailed inlay work. This past weekend I was finishing them. I started by filling the shapes with polyurethane and letting them dry over night. I had never done that before but I am glad I did. It smoothed out some of the paint lines and it dried thick enough to hide the lines left by the router.

After the shapes had dried I put a clear coat of finish on the rest of the pieces. Now for all the mothers and wives that read this blog, which I believe is only family, this statement might shock you. Yes I am finishing these pieces on the dining room table. No I did not have my wife's permission. However it was convenient and close. I did at least cover it with cardboard. I used cardboard because I could stick push pins in it to keep the the blocks from sticking to the drying surface. By the way my wife did not kill me. I also washed my brush in the kitchen sink.
So here they are. I still have to sand the sealer coat and put another layer of polyurethane on.

Now for the lessons. I have been looking for a glue bottle to use because I got tired of buying the largest bottles of glue so I bought a gallon of wood glue and was filling the other bottles up when they ran out. Well that lasted about three times before the push tip on the glue bottle on one broke off. Good thing I had a spare but that tip was also in bad shape.
While making the dominoes I needed to go to Rockler for wood dowels. I would not suggest going there to buy wood unless you really have to. They are pricey. I looked at their glue bottles and they were $5 for the cheapest. These were the ketchup bottles with the pointed tip. I was not going to spend that much money. Well one day I was working over at my parents and there was a bottle that would work on the half wall. Knowing better than to just take it I asked my sister where she got it and how much. It is a bottle for coloring hair and costs less than $2. Sold. The bottle works great and with the pointed spout I can have better control on the amount of glue and where it goes.
Lesson number two: Polyurethane ages. I have been using the same gallon of polyurethane for the past couple of years. I purchased a gallon for the kitchen set I made thinking I would use most of it. I used about half of it. Well I was going to run out so I finished the last of the sewing boxes with it and bought a new one to finish the dominoes. When I opened the new can to my surprise it was a creamy white color. Scared, I made sure I did not get the oil base because my old can was a transparent amber. I had gotten the correct stuff. It is supposed to be creamy white. The directions on both cans state that. All my projects up to this point have had a nice amber stain to them which isn't a problem. I just didn't think polyurethane aged.
More to come of my latest projects.