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Finished my 2nd major project, a new desk for my wife. It's all #1 Common grade American Walnut, with the exception of the drawer bottoms, which are baltic birch plywood with a Walnut colored stain. Finished with a couple light coats of amber shellac (it's about a 1# cut made from dewaxed flakes, I dunno, I didn't mix it all that carefully), then topped with 5 coats of oil-based poly that I thinned down with mineral spirits to rub on. Finally topped off with a bit of paste wax and buffed it with a brown paper bag. Pretty happy with the way it turned out, but I made several critical mistakes (such as, oh, I dunno, initially cutting the legs ~4 inches too short and having to affix extensions) that thankfully, aren't visible in the final product.   
forbidden dialectics fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Oct 2, 2020 |
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Oct 2, 2020 04:05
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Nice work man, I'm sorta boggled that you made the top out of perfectly aligning three independent boxes rather than having a single monolithic top but hey it works!
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Oct 2, 2020 04:24
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Oh wow that amazing, nice desk!
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Oct 2, 2020 04:51
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poo poo, that looks amazing. Nice second project!
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Oct 2, 2020 05:57
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forbidden dialectics posted:Finished my 2nd major project, a new desk for my wife. It's all #1 Common grade American Walnut, with the exception of the drawer bottoms, which are baltic birch plywood with a Walnut colored stain. Finished with a couple light coats of amber shellac (it's about a 1# cut made from dewaxed flakes, I dunno, I didn't mix it all that carefully), then topped with 5 coats of oil-based poly that I thinned down with mineral spirits to rub on. Finally topped off with a bit of paste wax and buffed it with a brown paper bag. Pretty happy with the way it turned out, but I made several critical mistakes (such as, oh, I dunno, initially cutting the legs ~4 inches too short and having to affix extensions) that thankfully, aren't visible in the final product. This is very neat! The upside of #1 Common is it has tons of nice figure with all the swirls and stuff around knots. I was very impressed by the 3 way miters where the drawers meet but then I realized how it was put together-it's a neat effect. Are the little blocks under the two side drawers little drawers or compartments as well? GEMorris posted:Nice work man, I'm sorta boggled that you made the top out of perfectly aligning three independent boxes rather than having a single monolithic top but hey it works!  I've only done it to break up long stuff that had to go around corners and it was a bit of pain and I was never quite happy with the joint when it was installed, but this looks much smoother.
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Oct 2, 2020 13:29
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:This is very neat! The upside of #1 Common is it has tons of nice figure with all the swirls and stuff around knots. I was very impressed by the 3 way miters where the drawers meet but then I realized how it was put together-it's a neat effect. Are the little blocks under the two side drawers little drawers or compartments as well? Thanks all! The little blocks are just stretchers for a bit of support and to hide a big block in the middle that I drove a bunch of screws through to attach the legs to the base. I figured the screws would give the whole frame a bit of room for wood movement, as well as if we needed to disassemble it for whatever reason. To get everything to line up during glue-up, I cut a couple rows of "floating mortises" - this helped a ton, especially when I realized halfway through that I didn't have any clamps long enough to secure it...  Fortunately, gravity still does it's thing: 
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Oct 2, 2020 14:37
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forbidden dialectics posted:Thanks all! The little blocks are just stretchers for a bit of support and to hide a big block in the middle that I drove a bunch of screws through to attach the legs to the base. I figured the screws would give the whole frame a bit of room for wood movement, as well as if we needed to disassemble it for whatever reason.   Holy crap man, thats ingenious! Amazing work!
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Oct 2, 2020 14:40
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forbidden dialectics posted:Thanks all! The little blocks are just stretchers for a bit of support and to hide a big block in the middle that I drove a bunch of screws through to attach the legs to the base. I figured the screws would give the whole frame a bit of room for wood movement, as well as if we needed to disassemble it for whatever reason. Lmao nice. Your plight with short legs reminded me I had a friend who built some nice thing from walnut with turned legs, maybe 2 1/4" at the bottom to which he butted maple socks a few inches long for a nice contrasting effect. I meant to ask him how he attached them- probably a bolt and socket assembly. FYI in case you build another some time and end up with the legs too short. 🤓
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Oct 2, 2020 18:04
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forbidden dialectics posted:Finished my 2nd major project, a new desk for my wife. It's all #1 Common grade American Walnut, with the exception of the drawer bottoms, which are baltic birch plywood with a Walnut colored stain. Finished with a couple light coats of amber shellac (it's about a 1# cut made from dewaxed flakes, I dunno, I didn't mix it all that carefully), then topped with 5 coats of oil-based poly that I thinned down with mineral spirits to rub on. Finally topped off with a bit of paste wax and buffed it with a brown paper bag. Pretty happy with the way it turned out, but I made several critical mistakes (such as, oh, I dunno, initially cutting the legs ~4 inches too short and having to affix extensions) that thankfully, aren't visible in the final product. Great work!
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Oct 2, 2020 18:04
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That desk is an interesting design. My first thought is the legs splay too wide but after looking at it for a while I don't think it's too bad. I will say that ergonomics demands a keyboard tray, your wife should not work for long with her arms as high as the top of that desk. But you made that middle area a good height for affixing a maneuverable tray underneath if you want to.
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Oct 2, 2020 18:13
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I really like the design, also making me wish walnut was more readily accessible hereabouts. I'm struggling to find a good variety of finish options at the moment too, though I'm told a different location of the place I've been trying has a more robust selection.
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Oct 2, 2020 20:21
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Generalissimo
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I finally assembled my table-top planer, and used it, I don't think I've ever felt a smoother piece of wood just running a 2x4 through it. It was like touching some entirely different material and not wood at all. I really want a jointer now.
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Oct 3, 2020 04:23
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So the arborists were back at my neighbor's house today, bringing down another tree. Turns out they are not juniper, but some sort of cypress instead. I was going to grab the whole trunk but it was full of ants, which is why the tree is coming down. So instead I grabbed a section that doesn't have a billion ants in it, about two feet long and 18 inches wide. Not sure what to do with it at this point but I'll figure it out.
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Oct 3, 2020 23:35
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Sounds like the trees that were in my yard when I moved in. They grow like weeds, but without the kind of reliable root structure you'd expect, so they tip over easily in strong winds. The wood's pretty crap, very soft and sappy, but there's always something special about making something from wood that grew on your property.
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Oct 4, 2020 00:03
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Olothreutes posted:So the arborists were back at my neighbor's house today, bringing down another tree. Turns out they are not juniper, but some sort of cypress instead. I was going to grab the whole trunk but it was full of ants, which is why the tree is coming down. drat shame. Is the lumber eaten up, like termite wise, or just infested? I've heard that's great wood for outdoor furniture & similar projects. Cypress is cool stuff, I doubt but grows in California.
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Oct 4, 2020 00:50
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Mr. Mambold posted:drat shame. Is the lumber eaten up, like termite wise, or just infested? I've heard that's great wood for outdoor furniture & similar projects. I think these are leyland or Arizona cypress? They were planted all over the city as ornamental trees back in the 50s and 60s. I think they've since been banned because of pollen issues but they're still everywhere. They drop these "cones" that are fused together and look like berries and they suck to step on real bad. The majority of the tree was pretty gross looking, lots of gross stuff with ants coming out of seemingly everywhere. Standing several feet away from the trunk I was getting bit by ants that I swear were just falling out of the sky. But I did manage to grab this guy, which appears to be ant free and was from one half of the main fork. I got out the tape measure and it's almost exactly 24 inches long, 16-17 inches wide on the smaller face, up to 18 inches wide on the larger face. 
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Oct 4, 2020 01:12
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Olothreutes posted:I think these are leyland or Arizona cypress? They were planted all over the city as ornamental trees back in the 50s and 60s. I think they've since been banned because of pollen issues but they're still everywhere. They drop these "cones" that are fused together and look like berries and they suck to step on real bad. Leyland cypress tend to grow real fast and die real fast and I think Arizona cypress are similar. They're all some sort of cross between monterrey cypress and arizona cypress or nootka cypress. They aren't usually especially long lived as far as trees go. I'd imagine the wood is pretty soft, not especially strong, and reasonably stable and probably dries fairly easily/quickly? Heartwood is probably also rot resistant, but who knows how much heart there is. If you split the round in half it will dry better and with fewer checks. What you gonna make with it? E: Mr. Mambold posted:drat shame. Is the lumber eaten up, like termite wise, or just infested? I've heard that's great wood for outdoor furniture & similar projects.  Anyway botany and wood do not line up very well, thanks for coming to TED talk etc. e2: gonna ask the lumberyard for some western redcypress and see what kind of answer I get Kaiser Schnitzel fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Oct 4, 2020 |
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Oct 4, 2020 01:23
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:What you gonna make with it? I have no idea. Someone previously mentioned clocks, and I bet I could make a pretty neat clock out of a slice of that. Beyond that... no clue. I'm new to the whole "grab timber from random yards" thing.
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Oct 4, 2020 01:34
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Got another #4 because I can't stop myself and I accidentally win eBay auctions all the time.  Had to fix a broken tote, which isn't a big deal at all. Sole cleaned up fast. I could go further with it, but it's flat where it matters. I might someday redo the japanning (or paint it), but I doubt it. Also pulled out the leatherworking stuff and made some more chisel sheaths for the rest of my framing chisels. If I haven't said this here before, everybody should get into leatherwork. It has an insanely low barrier to entry both in skill and cost. $20-$40 in specialty tools and some normal stuff like a straightedge and snap knife and you can do a ton of simple but super satisfying projects. Really easy learning curve, doable in any space. It's really great.  Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Oct 4, 2020 |
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Oct 4, 2020 02:15
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Hello Woodworking thread, I asked in a different thread about having somewhere to sanity check and/or ask for advice when building myself a home standing computer desk out of wood and was pointed here. Before I start posting - if I am going to try building said standing computer desk for working from home and also videogaming, is this the right place? I've always wanted to get into woodworking and now that I'm a home owner and a dad I'd really like to get into it so I imagine that I will spend some time going through the links in the OP, but right now the standing desk is more of an immediate need so I'm thinking I'll make improving it an iterative process as I learn.
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Oct 4, 2020 04:44
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Yes, hello. The way I see it, you have two realistic options: buy an adjustable sit/stand desk frame and put a top on it, or make a fixed-in-place standing desk and get a tall chair for when you're tired of standing. I strongly recommend the former; it's what I did. Not having to deal with legs saves a bunch of time and stability woes. Then you have options for how complicated / nice-looking you want the desk to be. It can be as simple as a sheet of plywood or even a hollow-core door, or you can edge-glue some hardwood boards together and put a nice finish on them. You can get more complicated but at that point you're doing serious furniture. Do you know your budget? How much of a hurry are you in? What tools do you have?
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Oct 4, 2020 05:01
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Yes, hello. The way I see it, you have two realistic options: buy an adjustable sit/stand desk frame and put a top on it, or make a fixed-in-place standing desk and get a tall chair for when you're tired of standing. I strongly recommend the former; it's what I did. Not having to deal with legs saves a bunch of time and stability woes.
 I liked having it in a corner so I can easily lean one way or the other as I fidget on my feet and I worry that the transition capable desks or desktops would shift and or not like the weight. I'm planning on picking up a Monitor Rack to hold the monitors and also help increase desktop space; I'm not even sure if I can make three fit in the space given so I'm considering trying stacking two monitors on top of each other with the vertical monitor next to them. As for tools I have a random smattering of tools and drills in the shed and a miter saw for cutting the wood. I'm right around the corner from both a Lowes and a Home Depot and have a reasonable budget. As mentioned I have long wanted to get into woodworking to be able to build things like a lawn chair or picnic table for the back yard or a shelf for an awkward spot in the house and that kind of stuff. Therefore if there is a good tool worth buying that I'll use again I am happy to buy it. Right now I have an uncomfortable setup using a folding table where the mouse/keyboard area are cramped and there is not enough room for my work laptop, so I'd like to get even a basic poorly done version of the desk built really soon and then I could rebuild/replace part or all of it as I improve my skills. AAAAA! Real Muenster fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Oct 4, 2020 |
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Oct 4, 2020 05:48
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Olothreutes posted:So the arborists were back at my neighbor's house today, bringing down another tree. Turns out they are not juniper, but some sort of cypress instead. I was going to grab the whole trunk but it was full of ants, which is why the tree is coming down. I like wood with ant holes in it. Gives my chess pieces more rustic character!
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Oct 4, 2020 13:23
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AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:... OK, so I'm hearing "beginner woodworker, can't afford to spend a ton on tools, and have an urgent need". That suggests aiming towards the simpler end of designs, in particular avoiding complex joinery. It also suggests working with dimensional lumber (e.g. 2x4s and 4x4s) and plywood, just to avoid having to rip boards to the correct width or worry about piecing together a tabletop out of multiple pieces of wood. What I would recommend is that you buy a Kreg pocket hole jig. This is a tool that lets you use screws to join two pieces of wood at a 90 degree angle, and it'll be vastly easier to use than cutting fancy joinery would be. You then come up with a design for your desk that involves using a sheet of plywood for the top, 2x4s for the desk apron and stringers (look these up if you don't know what they are, they're important), and 4x4s for legs. You can draw this on a sheet of paper or make it in a 3D modeling program, whatever you're comfortable with, but we need to see it before you start construction to make sure the table won't rack or wobble once built. The hardware store can cut the plywood down to size for you, so as long as you can transport a sheet the size of your final tabletop that should suffice. Sheets are 4'x8' standard in the USA; maybe you can use the offcuts for those little shelf units you were talking about. Drawers I would also recommend doing out of plywood, a simple open-faced box. They'll need to hang below the apron to avoid cutting it, and indeed you could probably retrofit them on after the rest of the desk is completed. Stealth edit: when you're buying lumber from big-box hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowes, 90+% of it is going to be total crap. Be prepared to sift through the pile to find boards that aren't bent, twisted, cracked, or waned (meaning that it's not a complete 2x4 or whatever for the entire length of the board). Hold one end of the board up to your eye and sight along it to help you tell if it's straight.
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Oct 4, 2020 15:22
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Rutibex posted:I like wood with ant holes in it. Gives my chess pieces more rustic character! Well there's a load of cypress across the street that I can offer you if you pick it up, but you get a free bonus ant farm. I personally think the tree was either sick or had been hit by lightning. One half of the first fork and everything below in the main trunk was in bad shape and full of very angry ants. The other half of that fork seemed fine? Who knows what's in there but it wasn't teeming with ants so I think it's ok. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:If you split the round in half it will dry better and with fewer checks. Do you mean two 12 inch cylinders? My geometry brain is saying cut perpendicular to the z axis. E: should I try to peel the bark off? Olothreutes fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Oct 4, 2020 |
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Oct 4, 2020 19:26
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Olothreutes posted:
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Oct 4, 2020 23:45
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 I'm trying to make a sliding joint. Ideally I'd have an old school shaper and grind the blades as I need, but I don't, so I'm curious if you folks have any ideas? Initial thought is plunge with a straight router bit then go to a plunge router bit with a 20 degree bevel, or whatever near there I can find, and remove the rest. Am I on the right path?
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Oct 5, 2020 00:18
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Do you have a tablesaw? That's a pretty simple groove and two bevels on the concave side and what amounts to an angled rabbet on the other. Probably also doable with some careful jig setup with a circular saw, but that wouldn't be fun. Otherwise yeah, bevel router bit would help a lot, though most have a bottom bearing and you might need to do some modification to get them to cut all the way down to a flat bottom. https://www.holbren.com/edge-bevel-router-bits/ Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Oct 5, 2020 |
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Oct 5, 2020 00:47
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What about a dovetail bit instead of a bevel bit?
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Oct 5, 2020 00:54
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Hypnolobster posted:Do you have a tablesaw? That's a pretty simple groove and two bevels on the concave side and what amounts to an angled rabbet on the other. Probably also doable with some careful jig setup with a circular saw, but that wouldn't be fun. A table saw would work. I'd just need to keep the meeting point clean so I don't get a weirdo transition burr.
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Oct 5, 2020 00:55
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Yooper posted:
Table saw if it has to be exactly that. They do make matched sets of edgebanding router bits that may work. They are meant to make a tight glue joint, so IDK how well they will slide, you could probably adjust it and get it where you want it. https://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/bit_edgeband_ogee.html I think I have even seen some with stackable cutters sort of like a shaper?
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Oct 5, 2020 00:59
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Yooper posted:I'm trying to make a sliding joint. Ideally I'd have an old school shaper and grind the blades as I need, but I don't, so I'm curious if you folks have any ideas? I'm dumb and don't have a table saw, but I'd probably find an old saw plate and use angle grinder + file to make two blades, bang them through a couple of pieces of wood to end up with some makeshift planes. put some bits of wood on the sides to act as fences and go to town. How many times will you need to repeat this operation?
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Oct 5, 2020 00:59
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Yooper posted:A table saw would work. I'd just need to keep the meeting point clean so I don't get a weirdo transition burr. I'd say cut just barely shy of them meeting perfectly and just clean it up with a chisel, since you're already cutting a nice big clean reference surface to work from. Though, the blade on the angle cut will present a pointy edge that you should be able to sneak up to the groove perfectly so that might not be necessary.
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Oct 5, 2020 01:03
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:https://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/bit_edgeband_ogee.html Edge band set looks neat, just not quite the angles I need. Might still work though, will have to test first variants and see. Granite Octopus posted:How many times will you need to repeat this operation? 6 sets, though if it goes well probably more. Hypnolobster posted:I'd say cut just barely shy of them meeting perfectly and just clean it up with a chisel, since you're already cutting a nice big clean reference surface to work from. Though, the blade on the angle cut will present a pointy edge that you should be able to sneak up to the groove perfectly so that might not be necessary. I'm going to give that method a try, should give me the most control. Will have to get a fresh zero clearance insert for this sort of thing. Thanks dudes! Going to be making a clone of a Berlebach tripod for a telescope of mine.
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Oct 5, 2020 03:19
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Public holiday on Monday here in NSW and I took the rest of the week off on flex leave (I'm a federal government employee, it's one of our perks. Kinda like time off in lieu of hours worked). I've been putting off a few things so this week I decided to get them done Job one:  Couple of basic bedside tables. They have their faults, I'm not overly well equipped but I made do. I used dressed Tasmanian oak from Bunnings, which is like our home depot, it had a few light warps which affected the final fitup but overall I'm pretty happy with how it all came together. They are reasonably accurate facsimiles of each other and I can comfortably sit on them and know they aren't gonna fall apart. Main joints are pocket screws, with the top nailed down. Other issue I had was that the nailgun just wasn't driving in quite far enough in a few spots, maybe hitting an internal knot or something, and I forgot to grab a hammer from my toolbox (it's been at my partner's since I'd moved to a place without a garage to put it in, I'm now at a new place but haven't got around to moving it - this weekend's plan). I made do but in spots it affected the router guide a bit and made some light gouges. Other than all that I'm pretty stoked with em but and I know for next time
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Oct 6, 2020 23:36
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So, I've been planning a fold-down table for my breakfast nook for quite some time, and I finally think I've got the time and inspiration to make it. I'm wondering if people with table and glued butt joints could weigh in and tell me if it'll be strong enough with how I've planned it. I've attached a few of the model photos here, the plan is to make it out of 1x pieces of cherry (which I have in my garage and have achieved a beautiful red color over the past year sitting in there). When it folds up, it will be a picture frame, and then it folds down with two portions of the frame swinging out to be the legs, which get locked into place with a steel pin each. My real question is if the 1xs adhered only with 3/4" of glue between them will be strong enough to be a table, or do I need to add another layer in there?  
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Oct 7, 2020 02:52
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This is, what, a 1.5' x 3' tabletop? I think you'll be fine. Properly-applied glue with long grain to long grain is stronger than the wood itself, and your lengths aren't so long that sagging is a serious concern. What I'm not clear on is how that steel pin works to secure the legs. Wobbly legs would be unpleasant to deal with, so I'd be inclined to go with a locking shelf bracket or something similar. It might not achieve the aesthetic you want, but it'd be a lot more secure.
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Oct 7, 2020 03:41
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:This is, what, a 1.5' x 3' tabletop? I think you'll be fine. Properly-applied glue with long grain to long grain is stronger than the wood itself, and your lengths aren't so long that sagging is a serious concern. What I'm not clear on is how that steel pin works to secure the legs. Wobbly legs would be unpleasant to deal with, so I'd be inclined to go with a locking shelf bracket or something similar. It might not achieve the aesthetic you want, but it'd be a lot more secure. It's actually 29"x56", long enough for two people to a side.. The pin is set between two hinges, and it's about 1/2" diameter steel pin. 
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Oct 7, 2020 03:52
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Hi, just seeing if anything knows anything about Dickson Furniture Manufacturers? they are in Houston I saw a dining table from them on craigslist, and the name sounds familiar, but I have no idea about their quality. However some of their prices just seem too low, so i wanted to ask. They mainly do commercial sales, so I guess this is stuff they had left over? there's no info about the wood at all really. http://clearance.dicksonfurniture.com/shop/
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Oct 7, 2020 04:06
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:OK, so I'm hearing "beginner woodworker, can't afford to spend a ton on tools, and have an urgent need". That suggests aiming towards the simpler end of designs, in particular avoiding complex joinery. It also suggests working with dimensional lumber (e.g. 2x4s and 4x4s) and plywood, just to avoid having to rip boards to the correct width or worry about piecing together a tabletop out of multiple pieces of wood. I'll definitely find a way to model it one way or another - could you recommend a good, preferably free, program to use to plan the build? The few times in the past I've bought wood from Lowes/Home Depot I've noticed that a lot of it was skewed, crooked, or off in some way so its good to know that it is that high of a percentage. Is there a better place to buy wood isntead, or is it just something you have to deal with?
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Oct 7, 2020 04:11
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