I finally made something!

[Dan_Shade]

After sawing out 65,000 bf or so of lumber, I figured it was about time to build something without using a nail gun ;D

The tree was felled by God during Isabel down the road from me at a friend of a friend's house.

A friend of mine helped me skid out the logs, and the land owner had a small tractor, I used my arch to reduce yard damage.  I sawed the log with my old hud-son for half and half with the guy, we split the kiln fees. 

Mark (Ga_boy) dried the lumber for me, here's a shot of the pickup load on the way up:






Here is the glue up, and I mortised and tennoned the aprons and did the half thingy at the top:








here it is with the top attached:



The table in the background is one a friend of mine (same one mentioned above) is building, we use his shop.  That's lumber from a log that I just about killed myself getting the tree down, it was a 20" or so red oak leaner from Isabel, dried in our solar kiln.




here it is with some water based polyurethane,  I used that because we heat the shop with a wood stove, and we were concerned about the flamability of the fumes with regular stuff.





I'm pretty happy with it, it has a few mistakes, and isn't anything too fancy, I wanted to breadboard the ends, but I need to practice on some junk wood to do that.  My finishing skills have a lot of room for improvement too.  I have a way to go to catch up with some of you guys on skill level.

this took me about a year from the top glue-up!   And now I can say something other than "boards" when people ask me what I make, and i'm not so sure how I feel about that, hah!

[Reddog]

Looks nice Dan. 8)

[LeeB]

Looks pretty good for your first outing. Finishing gets easyer the more you do and so does the rest of it. Most likely nobody but yourself or maybe another woodworker will ever notice the mistakes you think you made. I like poly or shellac myself for finishing and i usually spray it on. Never tried the waterborn poly.

[SwampDonkey]

Nice table Dan. Good project to hold some memories.  Make good use of it.

[thedeeredude]

Very nice 8)  Is the table for yourself white oak?

[Dan_Shade]

yeah, it's white oak 

[Radar67]

That's a great start Dan. I like the simple furniture too.

[pigman]

That is a nice table Dan. 8) It is a lot better than my first table and I sure didn't try to make a half thingy on the top  like you did. ;)

[Dan_Shade]

I didn't say it was my first table, Bob, I said it was the first thing I made without a nail gun ;-)

[getoverit]

Looks good to me Dan !

[WDH]

Dan,

I am impressed!  That table will give you many years of service. 

You are also pretty good at coiling bandsaw blades, too, so now you are multi-lingual ;D.

[zopi]

Nice! Those aren't mistakes...they are character marks...

I finally built something with the first two logs off of my LT-15...built  a little 48" carpenters bench to
fit my pint sized workshop..it's a nice addition...gotta get some end vises for it tho'...

[metalspinner]

Very nice! 8)  Can't wait to see it in its final resting spot.

Now, onto building a set of chairs to match.

[Dodgy Loner]

Great job, Dan.  My first nail-free furniture wasn't nearly that nice .  Did you design it yourself or is it a reproduction?

[Burlkraft]

Good lookin' table  8)  8)  8)

I have gone strictly to water based poly. I use Crystalac and I love the results. It holds up well too  ;D  ;D

[SwampDonkey]

That basically what I use to, goes under the Varathane name here. It doesn't yellow and is hard. Easy clean up to.

[Dan_Shade]

well, to be honest, i've built a few things before, just not with my own lumber....

how do you guys fill the pores to get a glass like finish?

[Radar67]

I keep layering the finish coats. I hand rub oil and have used as many as 12 coats.

[zopi]

well, to be honest, i've built a few things before, just not with my own lumber....

how do you guys fill the pores to get a glass like finish?

Raise the grain by wetting the wood and letting it dry before the first coat,
then sand that first coat, re coat....sand with progressively finer paper...I finish some stuff with
automotive fine polish...the stuff without wax...

[getoverit]

well, to be honest, i've built a few things before, just not with my own lumber....

how do you guys fill the pores to get a glass like finish?

z-poxy finishing resin....works like a charm to fill pores

[SwampDonkey]

With butternut, I take a damp sponge and wash down the piece and sand as the grain lifts for a couple of times. Then use multiple coats of finish while sanding a couple coats lightly at first with fine grit. Butternut grain lifts about the worst of any hardwood.  Probably white oak is not too bad as far as pores because of the tylosis. You can see the butternut pores as well, as fine black lines on the flat surface. Interesting with the mix of gray and brown wood. Your oak pores probably have a white appearance. :P