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I’m considering buying a premade maple butcher block from Lowe’s, sawing it down to the size I need and putting some metal table legs on it. Every time I go back to my hometown I end up taking over my mom’s dining room table with my WFH setup and after 3 years it’s getting pretty old for everyone. In my old room there’s a 33” wide space I can use, and that doesn’t lend itself very well to anything you can just go and buy. I’m just interested in checking feasibility here, and seeing if there’s anything I haven’t thought of. 33” is pretty short so I wouldn’t think I need to be adding any C channel. I’d seal it up really well and use threaded inserts to put the legs on. I’d like to build a butcher block someday but right now I’d just like a faster and cheaper solution.
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Jan 25, 2023 05:36
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Just Winging It posted:Shapton waterstones just need some water squirted on them to use, not live in a pond like the coarser King waterstones (which even then still get dry awfully fast) (their 8000 grit only also needs just a squirt). So those would be my recommendation for anything but a final hone. Glad you posted this. I've been using Kings I got from Rockler and I never knew if I should keep them submerged. I didn't want to risk dissolving them if I wasn't supposed to but I got tired of having to soak them right before each use.
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Jan 25, 2023 14:47
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Casimir Radon posted:I’m considering buying a premade maple butcher block from Lowe’s, sawing it down to the size I need and putting some metal table legs on it. Every time I go back to my hometown I end up taking over my mom’s dining room table with my WFH setup and after 3 years it’s getting pretty old for everyone. In my old room there’s a 33” wide space I can use, and that doesn’t lend itself very well to anything you can just go and buy. I had an ikea cardboard honeycomb desk built like that, it worked. I moved the legs over to a $10 solidcore door with oak veneer from the local Habitat restore and that was great. I didn't use inserts to hold the legs on.
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Jan 25, 2023 15:27
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nwin posted:I’ve got some Formica counters in my kitchen and there’s this triangular piece that connects the counter to the backsplash. As shown, it’s coming off. Meow Meow Meow posted:Finished a couple projects recently, a bookshelf to match the media console I built a couple months ago and a stand for a geode I got my wife for Christmas.
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Jan 25, 2023 15:34
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Casimir Radon posted:I’m considering buying a premade maple butcher block from Lowe’s, sawing it down to the size I need and putting some metal table legs on it. Every time I go back to my hometown I end up taking over my mom’s dining room table with my WFH setup and after 3 years it’s getting pretty old for everyone. In my old room there’s a 33” wide space I can use, and that doesn’t lend itself very well to anything you can just go and buy. At only 33” you probably don’t need any supports if you using 1.5” butcher block. I have made 2 desks with box store butcher block and threaded inserts. It’s easier than I thought to break threaded brass inserts just using an hex key. Another cheap option is get a counter top tailing.
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Jan 25, 2023 16:56
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I've seen numerous secretary tables/desks at thrift stores. They're about the size it sounds like you need, and a nicely built one can be pretty cheap.
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Jan 25, 2023 17:41
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nwin posted:I’ve got some Formica counters in my kitchen and there’s this triangular piece that connects the counter to the backsplash. As shown, it’s coming off. Masking tape or packing tape a wedge against the molding. Brad nails thru formica seems like a bad idea.
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Jan 25, 2023 17:50
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I have less experience with formica, but I'd be tempted to use some CA glue as well to help to pin it in place while I get the silicone on.
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Jan 25, 2023 18:10
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Casimir Radon posted:I’m considering buying a premade maple butcher block from Lowe’s... I did something similar. I used a 6 foot counter, cut off the top, and made the legs+aprons out of the remaining material.
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Jan 25, 2023 19:51
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Casimir Radon posted:
If the legs are solidly attached that'll work fine. I have a 1.5" birch "butcher block" desk that's 74" wide and it has no visible sag in the middle. The legs are only attached near the edges and there's no additional supports.
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Jan 25, 2023 21:16
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nwin posted:I’ve got some Formica counters in my kitchen and there’s this triangular piece that connects the counter to the backsplash. As shown, it’s coming off. You could maybe put some construction adhesive on it, then cover it with some sand bags.
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Jan 25, 2023 23:38
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Mistaken For Bacon posted:Those mitered dovetails (dovetailed miters?) are hot Thanks, I did a write up on them recently if you wanted to add them to any of your own projects. If you can cut through dovetails then you can probably cut these. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Painter’s/masking tape. Thanks, the vertical pieces on it are the offcuts from the double taper I cut on the legs of the bookshelf, I thought the offcuts looked neat so I kept them around for a few weeks and they made their way onto the holder.
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Jan 26, 2023 02:31
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I’m at the beginner phase of “trying random small projects to see where I gently caress up and need to hone my skills”. My latest is that I bought a single barrel stave to make coasters. My initial plan was to see if I could make it real basic: cut it using a miter saw into maybe five inch squares/rectangles, use a hole saw (big forstner bit?) to make a spot for the coaster itself, and put a cork circle in it, then sand and finish. I knew that the wood would be very bowed due to the nature of it being a stave and all, so I figured that towards the ends it would be so arched that they wouldnt have enough usable flat-ish surface for the coaster. I got the stave and it’s got some twist, too, in addition to the bowing. So all of that to ask: What should I consider? I heard that using a miter saw to make the cuts may cause pinch so I should consider a band/jigsaw. I’m guessing the twist means that the easiest option would be to sand (?) the bottom to have four contact points with the table. Or is this a complete fools errand and my expectation should be “you will not get anything usable out of this”? Of note I have access to a wood shop and most of the tools therein; also this is the video I first saw that gave me the "low effort" idea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkajgOzm6kU SgtScruffy fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Jan 26, 2023 |
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Jan 26, 2023 15:33
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I like the idea for the project and I think it'll work great. I think you can cut on the miter saw by lying the stave on its "side" so you're slicing through wood that isn't trying to pinch the saw blade as you go. If you use a big forstner bit you can make a flat-bottomed circle inside the arch of the wood, so the fact it stands up off the table a little shouldn't be a problem. If you use a hole saw you'll be cutting all the way through, or, be forced to use a chisel or router plane to remove the waste. That will be much more time-consuming so I'd definitely splurge the money for a big forstner bit of the appropriate size. The twist means the wood is under some tension, and as you cut it into squares that tension is going to be relieved in some places and that will allow the squares to subtly alter their shape again. e.g. trying to straighten the whole stave now isn't really valuable. I'd cut a bunch of squares and then look for any that will actually be out of whack and either reject them or try to correct them on an individual basis. E.g. you can probably just assume that if your stave is long enough for 12 squares, you'll be rejecting three or four and that still gives you a nice set of 6-8 good coasters. That'd be my guess, anyway. One challenge is neatly cutting circles from adhesive-backed thin cork. I found cutting cork to be kind of a pain, it tends to crumble at the edges. Get a lot more than you need and experiment. In the end I wound up using a big pair of good shears/scissors but even that wasn't perfect.
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Jan 26, 2023 18:39
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I did the cork thing for some coasters awhile back. Seconding scissors or an exacto knife. The real important thing is sharpness. Your tool has to be fair sharp or the cork with crumble badly instead of crumbling a little bit.
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Jan 26, 2023 19:58
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Leperflesh posted:I like the idea for the project and I think it'll work great. I think you can cut on the miter saw by lying the stave on its "side" so you're slicing through wood that isn't trying to pinch the saw blade as you go. If you use a big forstner bit you can make a flat-bottomed circle inside the arch of the wood, so the fact it stands up off the table a little shouldn't be a problem. If you use a hole saw you'll be cutting all the way through, or, be forced to use a chisel or router plane to remove the waste. That will be much more time-consuming so I'd definitely splurge the money for a big forstner bit of the appropriate size. Thanks! I'm at the beginner portion of woodworking where my first thoughts going into a new product is "what critical thing am I missing or not considering that will be a showstopper" rather than "oh boy I hope this turns out well!" so it's reassuring to hear that I'm on the right track! Good idea about the stave on its side, I'll see if I can try that. I also guess I need to confirm that the woodshop I'm at has a large enough forstner bit - I know they have up to one inch but I haven't confirmed they have a 3.75" or so. The good news about the coasters is that I specifically bought some 1.5mm thick round adhesive backed ones, so as long as I get the circle wide enough, I should just be able to plop them in. If there's a mismatch with whatever bit is available I'll make sure eto get it sharp
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Jan 26, 2023 20:08
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4" is a huge forstner bit. I'm not gonna say they don't exist, but I can't imagine that they're common. Even a hole saw that size is going to be rare... I'd say that's scrollsaw territory, personally.
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Jan 26, 2023 21:27
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They do exist and while there's cheapo ones for like $20, they range all the way up to over $100. I would guess that 4" is a bit bigger than you need. The cork just needs to be about as big as the bottom of a largish glass or mug. Maybe 3.5"? e. 100mm might be a good size that is readily available. That's about 3.9 inches. I'm also seeing some at like 95mm and 90mm. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Jan 26, 2023 |
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Jan 26, 2023 21:37
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Seems like it might be tough to wrangle without a drill press.
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Jan 26, 2023 22:02
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Leperflesh posted:They do exist and while there's cheapo ones for like $20, they range all the way up to over $100. I would guess that 4" is a bit bigger than you need. The cork just needs to be about as big as the bottom of a largish glass or mug. Maybe 3.5"? Right, the cork circles I bought are I believe 100mm. I doubt the woodshop has a forstner that big but I could be proven wrong. Worst comes to worst I can buy my own and just say "screw it, donation to the shop!"
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Jan 26, 2023 22:03
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SgtScruffy posted:Right, the cork circles I bought are I believe 100mm. I doubt the woodshop has a forstner that big but I could be proven wrong. Worst comes to worst I can buy my own and just say "screw it, donation to the shop!" When I need a hole of about size, I make (in my case 3d print) a template and do it with a router pattern bit. Jigs are your friends.
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Jan 26, 2023 22:18
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SgtScruffy posted:Right, the cork circles I bought are I believe 100mm. I doubt the woodshop has a forstner that big but I could be proven wrong. Worst comes to worst I can buy my own and just say "screw it, donation to the shop!"
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Jan 26, 2023 22:19
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SgtScruffy posted:Thanks! I'm at the beginner portion of woodworking where my first thoughts going into a new product is "what critical thing am I missing or not considering that will be a showstopper" rather than "oh boy I hope this turns out well!" so it's reassuring to hear that I'm on the right track! Good idea about the stave on its side, I'll see if I can try that. That seems like a job for a router. Make a template and just clear out the circular area. It doesn't have to be made by something the same size.
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Jan 26, 2023 22:22
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I have used forstner bits this big. 100% you do it with a drill press, and you definitely clamp your work in a vise. I was drilling through an oak log and it did work. I posted the project in this thread somewhere, I'll try and find a link.
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Jan 26, 2023 22:31
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You could go with a hybrid approach. Use the big-rear end Forstner bit to mark the center. Trace around the BAFB with a pencil. Use a router freehand to hog out most of the material, being sure to stay away from the edges and also leave the center alone. Then when most of the waste is gone come back with the BAFB to make it perfectly round and nice. Still clamp the workpiece when drilling with the BAFB. And make sure you keep the drill press RPM down low. The outside of a 4" Forstner bit is travelling a lot faster than the outside of a 1/4" regular drill bit.
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Jan 27, 2023 00:20
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Yeah for me the key was to just geeeetnly work through the wood, very patiently. It's takign a really wide slice so you want to take thin spirals off the wood, like you would with a plane. If you try and plunge through with pressure like you do with a normal drill bit it won't work. In my case what tended to happen was the chuck would slip on the shank of the forstner bit. Partly that's because I have a crappy old chuck that slips easily. I found a couple of photos. The bit is about 2 3/4 or like 2 13/16 or something, I originally got it to make holes exactly the size of the instruments for a little weather station. Anyway I wanted to make bigass holes:   I was drilling at an angle into an oak limb. I used a makeshift jig and a lot of clamps because this was impossible to fit into my low-profile drill vise. The blue tape was just a centerline of the piece so I could line up the hole where I wanted it. I don't have a photo of the other part, where I drilled straight down the center of the log, but the jig was much less complicated and more secure. I think it took about 30m or so to slowly drill through maybe 6 or 8 inches of solid oak, stopping to let the bit cool when the shavings started to smoulder. The result, after widening the bottom lip and applying finish:   This became a dice tower with a lid for TGSS 2020. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Jan 27, 2023 |
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Jan 27, 2023 02:34
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Ok all of this is fitting into my expectation of “I had some good ideas but at least one REAL BAD IDEA”. I like the idea of making a jig and using a router more than buying a bit that may-or-may not end in catastrophic failure
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Jan 27, 2023 02:51
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Leperflesh posted:Yeah for me the key was to just geeeetnly work through the wood, very patiently. It's takign a really wide slice so you want to take thin spirals off the wood, like you would with a plane. If you try and plunge through with pressure like you do with a normal drill bit it won't work. In my case what tended to happen was the chuck would slip on the shank of the forstner bit. Partly that's because I have a crappy old chuck that slips easily. Hot drat, that's adorable. You could go to craft fairs with that, although it sounds prodigious tedious.
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Jan 27, 2023 04:37
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Thanks for all the replies. I’m going to go ahead with the desk once it warms up a bit.
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Jan 27, 2023 04:46
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Mr. Mambold posted:Hot drat, that's adorable. You could go to craft fairs with that, although it sounds prodigious tedious. Yeah it's not scalable at all. These are limbs cut from my wife's parent's coastal white oak trees, 95% of which split and are used for firewood, I just salvaged the rare unchecked pieces once when I was over there and then let them season in my garage for two years. And then it was easily 20 hours of work. I could pare that down to probably 2-3 hours each based on a lot of learning from doing it once, but that's still gonna be an item I'd have to charge like $200 for, and could sell... four... before I was out of the source material. But it was a cool project that I had to do a ton of problem-solving to complete and IMO those are the most valuable for a beginner woodworker, which I still am in many ways.
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Jan 27, 2023 06:38
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Mr. Mambold posted:Hot drat, that's adorable. You could go to craft fairs with that, although it sounds prodigious tedious. If you were gonna try to do it at scale, I think the lathe would be the right tool. You could hog out most of the waste with a Forstner bit, however big you'd trust for your lathe and your chuck, then use regular hollowing tools to widen it. It's kind of like a giant pepper mill.
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Jan 27, 2023 17:48
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My ability to lose mechanical pencils is on a 4th grade level.
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Jan 27, 2023 19:16
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more falafel please posted:If you were gonna try to do it at scale, I think the lathe would be the right tool. You could hog out most of the waste with a Forstner bit, however big you'd trust for your lathe and your chuck, then use regular hollowing tools to widen it. It's kind of like a giant pepper mill. Yeah that's a good point, if I had a lathe and/or a mill I could do this much more easily. Although leaving the bark on might be a non-starter since the chuck would damage it. Might have to sacrifice an inch off the bottom to the chuck, just part it off after that. The hole on the side would still need to be figured out. I'm not sure what the craft fair marketplace for dice towers are, though. And I also don't have data on the longevity, that bark is probably going to degrade and come off eventually. All that said: dice towers are sellable online, and a fairly workable, repeatable design sold on Etsy could make a few bucks.
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Jan 27, 2023 19:24
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My wife has her sister and kids coming down for the weekend, so no better time to gently caress around in the shop on the next project. I went and picked up some cheap oak 2x12s to resaw into the top box stretcher around the legs. Use a bunch of my odds and ends oak for the tenon cut cross braces. Edit: had a good look at those leg chunks while planing all my extra boards and may rethink my plan a little. 
Sockington fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Jan 28, 2023 |
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Jan 27, 2023 20:02
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I picked up a Stanley no. 5 and no. 7 off ebay and hoo boy I had seriously underestimated the size of this jointer plane. 
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Jan 28, 2023 20:22
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Been looking for them locally, but only been able to find a #6 so far. On that note need to get that thing in shape.
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Jan 28, 2023 20:41
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My #6 is plenty big for all the projects I do, and was pretty cheap. I'm not sure a longer plane would ever really come out to make shavings.
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Jan 28, 2023 21:04
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I have resawed two 6x25x1.5 pieces of this Lowes Butcher block and all four the pieces have come out bowed about ranging from a 1/16” to 3/16”. The weird part is the the pieces from the same original piece are bowed in opposite directions. I would have expected them to bow in same directions so they would “fit back together”. Is this a by product from my attempts to resaw or just nature being annoying? Any suggestion on what I can do reduce the bowing? I am kinda nervous to try the towel and iron method on butcher block with all the glue. Edit the bow is perpendicular to sticks/grain. Calidus fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Jan 29, 2023 |
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Jan 29, 2023 15:41
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Calidus posted:I have resawed two 6x25x1.5 pieces of this Lowes Butcher block and all four the pieces have come out bowed about ranging from a 1/16” to 3/16”. The weird part is the the pieces from the same original piece are bowed in opposite directions. I would have expected them to bow in same directions so they would “fit back together”. Is this a by product from my attempts to resaw or just nature being annoying? This is expected. By ripping the single piece apart, you relieved tensions within the grain that were pulling in opposite directions. The proper fix would be to join one edge of each piece, then rip the other edge parallel.
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Jan 30, 2023 02:24
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SimonSays posted:My #6 is plenty big for all the projects I do, and was pretty cheap. I'm not sure a longer plane would ever really come out to make shavings. Classically, a #8 isn't for doing the same things as a #6. A #8 is a jointer, you'd typically grind the iron flat and use it for jointing the edges of boards. In this application, the size and weight is an advantage, and the width lets you joint thicker boards than you could even if you ground the iron on a #6 with a flat profile. Of course if you're not edge-jointing planks, you might not have a need for such a long, wide, heavy plane. I have found that even from rough-sawn lumber, I'm rarely taking more than a dozen strokes or so with a #8 so the weight isn't a problem in terms of fatigue. Buying one new is a non-starter for how much I use it, but grabbing a used one eventually I think isn't a bad idea especially for folks like me who lack the space to buy a decent powered jointer.
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Jan 30, 2023 05:36
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