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I'm a bit surprised to see the belt sander in there, honestly, because I'm used to thinking of that as a very rough and imprecise tool. It won't give you flat or smooth surfaces, it'll just fairly rapidly remove material. Appropriate in some circumstances, for sure; for example, I could see using it to flatten out the ends on some dovetail pins or something. But as a standard part of your workflow? I feel like I must be missing something.
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Dec 20, 2023 01:15
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A Wizard of Goatse posted:rapidly removing material is an important first step in woodworking! unless you're gonna go all Axel Erlandson in which case you probably should start your own thread I mean, if you want to start from the beginning, my order of operations is something like: 1. get rough-cut lumber 2. flatten, joint, and thickness lumber to S2S1E 3. cut boards to whatever sizes and shapes I need 4. dry assemble; do any required rough sanding to remove tool marks / do fine adjustments of pieces so they're well-fitted 5. glue 6. fine sanding 7. finish Mind you, Kaiser Schnitzel has a lot more experience than I do. I'm sure that what he's doing is appropriate, I just don't understand it myself.
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Dec 20, 2023 01:21
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I'm not familiar with the brand, but my understanding is that bandsaws all pretty much work the same way. There'll be variation in how the blade guides/bearings work, and of course various parts of the saw may need maintenance. I'd want to see it running, at minimum. Probably smart to do some research on bandsaws generally, to help you evaluate the condition of this particular machine. But it looks to be in decent shape. The overall design looks very similar to my Grizzly 14" saw, for what it's worth.
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Dec 23, 2023 14:39
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Use a spokeshave to remove the bark (use a gouge, or a chisel if you don't have a gouge, for the crotch on the big piece). You can hand-plane/sand the surfaces to be flat and smooth, or use a machine. The main thing with legs is to make sure that they have enough reinforcement that if lateral forces are applied to them, they won't break. Since your legs are going to be short, that's less of an issue, but you'll still probably want either an apron, or for the legs to be tenons fitting into mortises in the slab. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with just relying on screws...it'd probably work fine, but it's the kind of thing that could work loose over time. As for the cracks, the main issue I see is that small stuff (e.g. pet fur) could fall into them and be hard to get out. If you really wanted to, you could fill them in with epoxy. If you decide to use an epoxy fill, do that first, before flattening/smoothing the slab, because invariably some epoxy will end up where you don't want it. Also do a practice pour or two before working with your big piece.
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Dec 28, 2023 14:37
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Nice work!
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Dec 28, 2023 19:04
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amazing 
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Dec 31, 2023 03:08
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Resin is pretty hard to work with, in my experience. But I agree that a simple polyurethane finish would do something similar, much more easily. But also, remember to sand the wood. If smoothness is important, I'd do 100 grit, 200 grit, then 400 grit. The 100 grit is where you spend most of your time, the other two are just to remove the scratches made by the sandpaper.
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Jan 5, 2024 22:36
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I would guess that the issue here is that the leaf is usually stored in a closet or something, and thus hasn't seen anywhere near as much sunlight as the rest of the table. I bet that if you let the leaf do some sunbathing, within a week or so the difference will be a lot less stark.
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Jan 10, 2024 01:02
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Aramoro posted:I had a question. I have a kitchen island thing, and it's great for the most part. The issue is it has a laminate top so I don't really want to cut directly on it. I was thinking I could make a topper for it from some solid wood, just to sit on top like a giant cutting board. Felt on the back and beading round the edge to keep it in place. Is this a terrible idea or could it work OK? I just want a big flat surface for pasta and pastry making. Makes sense to me. What I'd probably do is fit the wood to the laminate so that it can't easily slide around. You could do this by making the wood piece oversized and then routing out the shape of the laminate, or you could use some pegs that fit into holes in both pieces, or you could just screw through the laminate into the wood. Just something to secure it, that you can also undo years later when you need to resurface the wood. That assumes you want a large, semi-permanent installation, of course.
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Jan 31, 2024 20:31
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For best results, an end grain butcher block will be much more stable, and a better chopping surface, than long grain would be.
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Jan 31, 2024 21:43
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Gonna third/fourth the "get the tools you need for the project you want to do" advice. It's very easy to buy tools with the idea that they'll be useful in the future, and then end up having those tools just languish unused for years. Buy tools because you know you have an imminent use for them.
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Feb 10, 2024 20:50
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Re: drill presses, you can replace a fair amount of what they do with a self-centering doweling jig. It's definitely not a full replacement, but if you want to drill perpendicular holes into boards or especially board edges (for making mortises), it's a good option and a lot cheaper than a proper drill press.
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Feb 11, 2024 18:00
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Those are box joints, yeah. Typically a box joint is done with machines (either a table saw or router) and a jig, because it only uses straight cuts but needs those cuts to be very precisely-positioned. The common hand-cut joinery is the dovetail joint.
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Feb 11, 2024 21:27
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My homemade end-grain cutting board is still going strong a decade after I made it. It's roughly an inch thick, all end-grain maple and walnut, titebond 3. I only ever use one side of it, and only bother washing that side, and haven't had any issues   (apologies for the flash photo) To be clear, the steps Leperflesh describes are certainly not going to hurt the longevity of what you make. They're just clearly not mandatory in all cases.
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Feb 17, 2024 01:13
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For the record, the guide I followed for learning to do the "drunken checkerboard" pattern for my pictured cutting board? It had long-grain strips between each of the squares. I omitted that for simplicity's sake, since the glue-up was already pushing the limits of what I was capable of back then. It was certainly an aesthetic improvement to have that border effect, but for sure it'd also be a point of weakness.
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Feb 17, 2024 02:30
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Gorgeous!
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Feb 21, 2024 05:04
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Pictured: reasons to pay people to move your possessions instead of trying to do it yourself. Also RIP to my old workshop.  I'm moving cross-country (CA to PA), so the whole kit and kaboodle, including probably around $1000 worth of lumber, is coming with me. Unfortunately, the new site has no shop space yet...
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Feb 22, 2024 04:19
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AFewBricksShy posted:Where in PA? Near Philadelphia. As I write this, I'm sitting in the plane, waiting to take off, and listening to Pavlov, my dog, who is down in the cargo hold, barking his silly head off.
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Feb 22, 2024 16:44
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Thanks, appreciate the tip!
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Feb 22, 2024 18:21
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I'm a slut for cherry, so as long as that's available I'm good. Purpleheart is nice for accent work, but it burns so drat easily that I don't really prioritize it any more.
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Feb 22, 2024 18:59
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Please the to veneer/lamination/vacuum bag gods for me this is about the hardest thing I’ve ever veneered that's a hell of a setup, geeze How would it compare to just cutting curved pieces out of big (laminated) chunks of wood, in terms of difficulty?
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Feb 24, 2024 01:29
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drat, nice work!
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Feb 24, 2024 20:39
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A trick you can use for this kind of awkward situation: use clamps to attach blocks on either side of the join. The blocks give you surface area to attach other clamps to, to hold the joint together while the glue cures. If you're fancy, you can cut the blocks at an angle to counter the angle on the joint, so that the clamps pull in exactly the right direction...but close enough is good enough.
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Feb 25, 2024 22:29
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Leperflesh posted:I think we should also mention that you're gluing end-grain to end-grain with no reinforcement; that's a very weak join. If you drilled out a hole that could take a dowel that ran through both pieces, that'd add a lot more strength to the join, as well as keep the pieces aligned as you clamped & glued them. A screw helps a bit but if I were making that join I'd sink a fat dowel, like maybe 3/8" or even 1/2" diameter, a couple inches into each side. This is an important video that blows up the "end grain glue joints are fundamentally weak" myth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7HxBa9WVis The tl;dr is that the problem with end grain joints is that they typically have small glue surface areas (and the handrail being discussed here is no exception). But when you control for surface area, end grain glue ups are actually stronger than long grain. Long grain glue ups can relieve strain by breaking the comparatively weak lignin that holds the fibers together, while end grain glue ups can only relieve strain by either breaking the glue itself, or by breaking the individual cellulose fibers. Both are much stronger than lignin. Anyway, the handrail glue up won't be strong, but that's just because there's so much leverage that can potentially be applied to the joint, compared to its surface area. It has nothing to do with grain orientation.
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Feb 26, 2024 15:04
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Leperflesh posted:yeah those tests are good and I'm aware of them, but they all (or at least all the ones I've seen) assume very good smooth mating surface on the endgrain surfaces, whereas a typical crosscut with a hand saw surface isn't that. Oh yeah, handsaw cuts are gonna be hard to make glue-ready, and I'm not entirely sure how you'd go about flattening end grain by hand so that it would be glue ready. I wasn't aware that hand tools were used for that handrail, though?
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Feb 26, 2024 18:55
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ColdPie posted:I just use all long grain wood. No idea why y'all insist on getting the wood with the end grain still in there. Just making it harder on yourselves. ahh, the coveted plaid grain (a.k.a. plywood)
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Feb 26, 2024 20:39
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Nice mallet! There's few things as satisfying as whacking something with a heavy homemade hammer, in my experience.
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Mar 1, 2024 00:15
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Looking good, good luck with the rest of it!
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Mar 2, 2024 00:32
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There is a black cherry tree in my backyard that needs to come down. Its trunk is about 2 ft in diameter at the base, and goes straight up for maybe 20 ft. I want to get the wood milled, and I'm curious what you all would want in terms of board dimensions? I don't have a specific project in mind, so the goal is just to produce wood that is likely to be helpful in the future. I've spoken with the arborist who would take the tree down, and he's on board with the idea. He has a miller that they use sometimes. I could also use advice for storing the boards while they dry out. I was figuring I'd make a box out of 2x4s and plywood outside, with a plastic roof. Do I need to protect the wood from pests?
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Mar 7, 2024 13:30
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Thanks, good to know that storage should be straightforward. And good call on the ratchet straps. I was trying to imagine stacking big weights on the boards to keep the wood from moving too much, but straps would be way easier and more consistent.  Width is a no-brainer, as much as possible is obvious. I guess I was mostly wondering whether I should bother getting any 8/4 or thicker wood out of this. It'd use up a lot of wood and take longer to dry, are the obvious down sides, but if I wanted to use the wood for stuff like legs, or large table tops, then extra thickness is warranted. Then again, you can always laminate thinner boards together again...
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Mar 7, 2024 18:05
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:When I've gotten logs sawn I've always gotten it just straight flitch sawn through and through rather than cutting it into a square cant and flipping a bunch to saw for grade. I've usually gotten the middle stuff that comes out roughly quartsawn sawn 8/4 on the theory that if I ever want to resaw it back down to thinner stuff, the quartersawn grain should allow that without too much warping. Make sure wherever it winds up stacked and stickered that air is able to circulate. Don't put it under a tarp and if you put it in a shed or basement or something, ideally run a dehumidifier because ALOT of water is going to come out as vapor and the the lower the humidity, the faster it will dry. As far as bugs, I would treat it with Boracare, but powderpost beetles are particularly rampant here. Thanks! Makes sense to do the middle portion thicker than the others. Just to make sure I understand completely, flitch sawn is what you'd typically get from an Alaskan mill or similar, right? I.e. all cuts are parallel to each other and go all the way through their portion of the log? I found this article on solar kiln plans; I'm guessing that's about what you were describing? I'll have to dry these outside, I don't have room for this much wood in any enclosed space. Like, assuming that the average trunk diameter is 20" and I get 3x 6' sections, we're talking roughly 600 board feet of lumber here. A Wizard of Goatse posted:Personally I rarely find all that much use for stuff that thick unless you're getting into actual architecture, it can be handy to have a little on hand for heavy-duty dining table legs but like you said it's not hard to double up if you need to, and imo good design is sturdy and stable and *light*, 2" thick tabletops are a thing you grow out of when you stop watching youtube clickbait and learn about aprons Massive quantities of thick wood are definitely not something I care about, for sure. But I often find that the legs need to be thicker purely for the sake of aesthetics. Even if a well-designed piece of furniture would be perfectly functional with 1"-thick legs, it still looks wrong.
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Mar 7, 2024 22:32
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I agree with Kaiser Schnitzel: most of the money in woodworking is in selling tools to aspirational carpenters. There's a never-ending supply of
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Mar 11, 2024 20:45
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A Wizard of Goatse posted:gonna be the first to figure out a line of furry art dining sets and secure an endless stream of wealthy patrons who aren't all just looking for the same kitchen cabinet but beiger this time The main problem with the "end table whose legs are sculptures of Incineroar" product line is that most furries have too highly-developed of a sense of taste to fall for it
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Mar 11, 2024 21:11
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I'm guessing that's plywood? You should be aware that plywood (and MDF, OSB, and other manufactured wood products) contain chemicals that are hazardous to inhale when burnt, such as formaldehyde. You should wear a respirator with VOC filter cartridges, and do your best to contain the fumes.
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Mar 18, 2024 13:18
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why is everyone being so aggro about this 
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Apr 12, 2024 23:30
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Oh, nice. What species of tree?
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Apr 16, 2024 18:20
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Continuous verticals IMO, because they're the load-bearing portion. Then you just need to hang each individual shelf onto the vertical walls, which can be done any number of ways. For example, you could stack all of your verticals together, then drill through them to create dowel holes (which are automatically aligned because you stacked the verticals together), install a short dowel section in each individual hole, and rest the shelves on the dowels.
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Apr 19, 2024 19:05
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Khizan posted:You want to build these things with continuous horizontal shelves. Hm, I'm not sure I follow the logic here. Certainly you're correct that the dowels would be taking load, but they'd be taking the load of one short shelf section, which isn't going to be much. The issue I have with short verticals and continuous shelves is that it seems much more prone to racking if your joinery isn't on point. I am of course open to being corrected, but I feel like continuous verticals has the simplest joinery and the least risk of spontaneous disassembly. Of course, if you secure everything to a backing of 1/4" plywood then you'll be fine either way.
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Apr 19, 2024 21:03
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AFewBricksShy posted:I am making a dice tower for my nephew, and I want to make it look like a castle. Put dowel in a vise, and use a chisel. You'll probably squish the part of the dowel that's clamped in the vise, mind you. Using power tools on dowels for anything other than crosscuts is an iffy proposition.
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Apr 24, 2024 13:45
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Just Winging It posted:The only big change in bikes is the arrival of e-bikes, which isn't so much a new thing, just battery tech getting good and cheap enough to be within reach of the general populace. I'm not a big cycler, but even so I can point out a few advances in bikes in the past ~50 years besides the development of electric assist. In particular, they benefited massively from advances in materials science. An old steel-tube bike is a lot harder to ride than an aluminum frame one, simply due to being heavier. You can also get carbon-fiber bikes if you really want to go lightweight. We've gone from mostly single-speed bikes to gear systems being extremely common, and those gear systems have become much more reliable and effective. Helmets are vastly superior now than they were when I was a kid, and I expect that the clothing has also improved. e:f;b, but also a bicycle-powered sawmill isn't remotely farfetched IMO. People regularly make bicycle-powered laundry machines for use in places that don't have reliable electricity. I don't see why the same couldn't be done with sawmills. Just mount a belt to the bottom wheel of a bandsaw, put the other end of the belt on your bike, and start pedaling. TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 18:03 on May 5, 2024 |
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May 5, 2024 18:01
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