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A fabulous walnut counter for the fabulous Darlene's computers

Started by mesquite buckeye, October 06, 2015, 12:34:14 PM

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mesquite buckeye

Well, we shall see just how fabulous, but here goes anyway. We have a very nice view out of a six foot wide window of the Santa Catalina Mountains to our north from our recently finished upstairs.

 
Darlene wants to be able to use her computers and see the pretty mountains so she can be happy on her working from home days.
;D 8) 8) 8) :snowball:

Here is the space. 

 
The counter will be like 11 1/2 feet long and it needs to be at least 20" wide. I have 2- 3 X 9 X 15 1/2 feet long book matches from that lightning struck walnut from the MO farm. I'm going to have to figure out how to add at least 2-6 inches to the glueup width. I have some ideas how to get there, but I'm sure there will be some evolution of thought during the process.

Already have an idea using some end matching. Thanks, Rob.
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

tule peak timber

persistence personified - never let up , never let down

sawguy21

What a view. I see the need,our desk is double yours and still too small. ;D This should be interesting, keep us posted.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

mesquite buckeye

Here are the rough planks.

 
At least they are nice and light. ::) :-\ ;D

I didn't have any good twist sticks, and the 11.5' planks are too big and heavy to run through my jointer. I made a set of twist sticks from some old, short stickers. Couple of quick runs through my jointer on 2 faces and then planed out even both directions so they can't be screwed up lying on the side. ;D
I used my fancy push sticks seen in the eucalyptus flooring thread beloved by all who saw them to get this done.
;D ;D ;D 8) :snowball: :snowball: :snowball:

Here they be all nice and even.

 

And here shown sitting on top of the first plank cut to 11' 7".

 

Good thing the plank is extra thick.May only be 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 finished.
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

samandothers


mesquite buckeye

Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

mesquite buckeye

Working up the first plank. It has some twist as well as some crook, a bit of bow and a kink about 2/3 of the way down at a knot cluster. Argh.

 
Started planing away the high spots with the help of the winding sticks. They help with spotting the low spots and any cup remaining.



 
The knot cluster that made the kink. I'm sure the end to center deflection is at least 3/4" :(



 
Reverse side after running a few passes through the planer. The black line is the burn from the lightning bolt. In the places where the burn is really bad it cracks along that line.
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

plowboyswr

Just an ole farm boy takin one day at a time.
Steve

mesquite buckeye

Those holes are from flathead borers, by the way. Some pretty big ones I'd say.

Also, I need to cut the winding sticks to the same length. The varying lengths make them harder to use. :(
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

Ljohnsaw

John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

scgargoyle

Waiting for the next installation... I'm patient, but I'm old! :D
I hope my ship comes in before the dock rots!

mesquite buckeye

Fine. ::)

Busy now trying to wrap up all my stuff around here before heading to Missouri on Saturday for the big annual woods workout.
;D 8) 8) 8) :snowball:

Got to get a patent written, fix a broken trailer and gather together my stuff.

But just fine.......

I looked at the second timber and it was considerably straighter than the first. ;D Got it close and it is still like almost 3" thick. Here it is on the right of the first one. Note the cutoffs from both pieces leaning over to the right. I will need to add more length to the two of them to get the third stave.

 
After getting the first and second beams close to flat the bookmatch isn't so great after the loss of the matching layers. Take a look at this spot and see how poorly the matching pieces correspond. :(

 
I'm sure the loss of probably 3/4" of the matching wood to leveling is the cause.

Also all of the cool lightning bolt wood is on the other side of both pieces. :( :( :(

Darlene wants the fire. ;D 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) :snowball:

Try to be patient, as Monrovia is hot to get one of our new plants and I have to get that patent written as soon as I get home to contribute to the family income. :) :-\ :o ;D

Boooooring. :( I'd much rather be getting this done.  :( :( Priorities. :-X :-\ ::) ::) ::) 8) ;D :snowball: :snowball: :snowball: :snowball:
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

mesquite buckeye

I'll try to get a picture when I get back and get them really flat to show what it looks like with the winding sticks for those unfamiliar with doing it the old fashioned way.

I do cheat and use a hand power planer to cut down the high spots, then the big planer to smooth out the rough finish, then back to the winding sticks to check and fine tune.
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

beenthere

And each layer removed changes the stresses a bit, releasing some such that it is like chasing your tail around the tree. But hope you catch up with it. ;)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

mesquite buckeye

Exactly right. Something I never hear anybody talk about. My experience is that working on it a bit, then leaving it for a week or two to move around, touch it up, repeat.

I've done some very juvenile cherry log centers like this and the finished products are completely stable. You have to remember to let the adjustment movement be allowed to happen and not rush it. ;D
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

mesquite buckeye

Well, those patents still aren't done but the wife is wanting this more at this moment. :-\

I got my winding sticks all cut nice and even, which helps a lot when trying to sight down them. I use a little block of wood like a measuring stick to get them lined up. Unfortunately my winding sticks decided to do some winding themselves while I was away. :( :( :( :snowball: I put them on my table saw for a flat surface and flipped them around until I found a side that sat pretty flat. Then put an X on the up side of each stick. 8)

 
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

mesquite buckeye

So here is the long kinked beam. Seems it did kink some more in the last month. Hopefully it is getting tired. ;D

 
If you look closely you can see the winding sticks spaced out across the top and all lining up. ;D


Here is one of those 4+ foot long pieces that I'll have to fit together. If you look at the sticks you can see the back one is high on the right and the front one is high to the left. Also a lot of cup but that doesn't matter at the moment.

 

This one shows how the board looks after knocking down the twisted ends, tapering out to nothing in the middle.

 
You can see the planed parts as smoother. After the twist was removed I sighted across the sticks, which were level side to side and end to end across all three. ;D Next, just flip over the board and run through the planer until flat on that side, reverse and rotate 180° and run that side flat. All good. ;D

The next one is the other short piece with sticks. This one is just cupped and not twisted.

 
A quick look across the sticks showed it to be flat along the edges, even though the board is a bit cupped. Off to the planer to smooth the bulge side letting the board ride on the straight cup edges to hold it square. ;D  Flip, rotate, repeat. ;D 8) 8) 8) :snowball:

If you already know how to do this stuff, hang on, it gets prettier. ;D Just trying to help the guys who don't know this stuff yet. ;D


I ended up with everything trued up at 2 1/2" thick. I'm planning to finish it out at close to 20", as Darlene thinks it will be too fat for the space otherwise. I will rip the short pieces to close to 4", which will give me plenty of material to finish the job with a bit left over.

There is lots of strange, partially shattered and burnt areas within this wood, not just near the sapwood area. I've been able to plane through to worst of a lot of it and the rest i can stabilize (hopefully) at the glippity glop phase.

I hit some kind of cool bug holes filled with bright orange frass, which I thought contrasted nicely with the wood. I was thinking to color the epoxy filler orange. Darlene doesn't like it. :(

Basic black it will be. >:( >:( :( :snowball:

Oh well. It will still be nice. :)
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

mesquite buckeye

Progress. Jointed and ripped the short planks. Here is one possible layout. Still have to straighten out the middle stave, which has close to 1" of crook. :(


 

Also thinking of putting the skinny stave in the middle.....


;D 8) 8) 8) :snowball:
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

lowpolyjoe

Glad to watch your journey.  Looks like lots of work flattening those beams

mesquite buckeye

The biggest issue is the weight. Also they are too fat for the jointer I have. Then there is the post flattening unflattening. :( :( ::)

The real cupped piece cupped a little again after it was flat. Figured wood just likes to move.

Once I get it all glued up the pieces can fight with themselves. Hopefully that will help keep the shelf from puckering too much. ;D 8) 8) 8) :snowball:
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

mesquite buckeye

Got those monsters all jointed up with Robert's help. Kept having unsquare edge issues. :( Turns out my little square isn't. OOPSie, ::) :o :( :(

Found another square that was actually square. ;D

Now things are better. ;D

This is looking like the layout.

 

Still have to rejoint the skinny pieces square and level them up in width in the planer.

I'm tired now....
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

mesquite buckeye

The left stave on the previous post decided it would like to move some more after we trimmed the sapwood side even. It is amazing how much a thin strip of sapwood can pull. The curve is maybe a quarter inch total and will close using the armstrong method.
;D 8) 8) 8) :snowball:

Got the skinny pieces all evened and squared up today. Just waiting to get the chop saw back from the ranch. :snowball: :) :)
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

yukon cornelius

Following intently! I can't wait to see how this turns out. It sure looks good so far
It seems I am a coarse thread bolt in a world of fine threaded nuts!

Making a living with a manual mill can be done!

mesquite buckeye

Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

mesquite buckeye

Got those middle guys all nice, cut and fitted. Off to mark for dowels.

 
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

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