Watcha Makin'?

[WV Sawmiller]

  I talked to my local outfitter store and he ordered 2 more raised planter boxes and some tomato stakes. He sells plants and garden supplies in the Spring/Summer and I sell and consign him a few items. I have 2 benches back there in the shoe department that get a lot of use for people trying on shoes and boots so it is a win-win for both of us. Anyway I built these 2 copied shamelessly from Bruno IIRC. They are a simple 2' X 4'X 1' box with 3' long farm style legs.

  I nail a 1" 4' long sticker on the bottom of each box to hold the bottom boards in and another on top of the 4/4 boards I use for the bottom. It is a great use for my low grade short boards and such.

[Brad_bb]

I'm making a 3'x4' table for our tack room.  One side will go up against the wall.  I'm using walnut burl pieces from a log I posted about a number of years ago.  It's all dried now.  I have to fill in the one open space you see, I have a piece picked out but I have to form one side to make it fit in the space properly.  Some might remember awhile back I posted a mock up of the table and base from construction lumber.

I'm thinking about pouring a solid black epoxy layer on the bottom about 3/8 to 1/2" thick.   And then filling the rest with clear epoxy.  I've done quite a lot of smaller scale epoxy stuff, so I'm pretty comfortable with the process.  Some of the live edge you see here has a silvery appearance from one side of the log exposed to the sun.  I'm going to try a few things to see if I can make the silver go to brown(wheel brush will be the first thing I'll try).  

This was the best layout we could come to.  Looking for any input from those with some experience, like Tule Timber Peak.

[tule peak timber]

Looks good! I'd sure add as many pieces as you could come up with to fill in the large void at least, and maybe some of the smaller voids to keep your epoxy use down. The black background will look great. If you dab just a little unmixed resin on your silver, I think it will go brown on its own. Give it a try first. Another thing you can do is to stabilize the bottom with the black and try leveling off the tops of the various pieces with a router sled and this will also limit the amount of resin you need to cover things up. Oh and another thing if you have any walnut bark left stick it in the voids and have it protrude above your cut off height. Walnut bark that is cut parallel to the side of the tree has really cool character; a lot like snake skin. I use it a lot for inlays and people have no idea what it is. Take a piece of bark and put it on the bandsaw, then wet it and you'll see what I mean.
Keep us apprised of your progress!
Rob

[Brad_bb]

Rob, I think I understand what you're saying - take the tops off the mountains on the furrows of bark, right?  I was planning to make a sample pour of the black base and clear pour the rest of the way with some scraps to see what it's going to look like.  I can try the bark trick at the same time.  I have logs in the yard with bark that have been stacked for at least a year and a half, so the bark will come off easily.  I just need to dry it enough.  Any trick to drying it?  I'd probably lay it on some metal sheets or plywood? and take it to my kiln guy to slip in the kiln?  

I'll try the resin on the silver.

I do plan to make sure my gaps are not too big and fill in to reduce my epoxy use.  some small pieces I may glue to  1/2" walnut board to raise it up and the board will by hidden in the solid black base layer.

[DWyatt]

Built a new out feed table for my table saw. I don't have the drawers full yet, but they will be. The open area on the end will house a router lift that still needs to be cut into the top.

[beenthere]

Nice table build. 
Don't see a riving knife behind that sawblade. Not worried about kickback? I wasn't either until I got a belly full of a kickback, and appreciate the protection of the riving knife. 

[firefighter ontheside]

Now that this elbow is mostly healed and I have no weight restriction imposed by a doctor, its time to get back to woodworking.  My business has not made any money in like 5 months, but it seems like I spend money every month.  This morning I picked up some bowling lane sections from a customer that they want me to make 4 benches with.  They are heavy and there was no way I was taking them off my trailer by myself, so I sawed them into bench size pieces.  I used 3 saw blades to cut them due to all the nails in a bowling lane.  These benches will have Rite-leg legs on them.

[Old Greenhorn]

Are these going to be sitting benches or work benches? Assuming sitting benches, they should look pretty slick with the Ritelegs on them.

[firefighter ontheside]

Benches to sit on.  2 will be 6' long and 2 will be 4' long.

[DWyatt]

@beenthere I guess I've never operated a saw with a riving knife to know of such a luxury. I suppose they're necessary, but I've never had one.

[beenthere]

DWyatt

I didn't have one either, until I rec'd the gut punch. It was quick, sudden, and hurt. Dawned on me real quick what happened and why. 
So I right away fab'd up a small piece of metal that bolted right up behind the blade. 

Will snap a pic. 


and

[Larry]

My understanding of a riving knife is that it will go up and down with the blade and follows closely behind the blade. A specialized thing. A splitter is a fixed knife right behind the blade. It looks like BT's is a splitter. I've always believed a splitter would accomplish the same as a riving knife at a lower initial cost.

My saw normally wears a 40 tooth combination blade. I'll rip 3 or 4 boards with it but anymore than that I'll change to a real rip blade with 24 teeth and put my modified splitter in place. The rip blade cuts so much easier than a combo blade and the splitter is added insurance against kickback.

[beenthere]

Larry is correct, and thanks for pointing that out. It tilts with the blade, but doesn't raise up with the blade. It attaches to the spot where the floating guard over the saw blade attached on this Rockwell Delta saw. I feel safer being able to see the blade, rather than trying to look through the plastic guard so it was removed.
Better called a splitter. I remove that splitter when running shallow dado cuts.

[Machinebuilder]

I added a MicroJig MV splitter to my Powermatic 71 tablesaw

This is a 12" cabinet makers saw I bought many years ago really cheap. it also seems to be pretty unknown.

the issue with adding the splitter is the blade is at the left edge of the insert and there wasn't enough room to put the 2 splitter pieces in the insert
I made some "0" clearance inserts out of baltic birch plywood. they took some adjusting to work reasonably well.

I feel the splitter is a huge improvement in safety as it helps to keep the cut piece next to the fence, I try to use a finger board on the infeed.

I don't have a guard either, because I haven't taken time to build one that will work. I am considering one of the overhead gaurds that several compnys sell

[Old Greenhorn]

It's been a while for me here. I have been making stuff, just forgetting to post it. I have no rustic benches in stock these days and am trying to get 2 done to have for a show this Saturday. One is a opening cut slab bench I started 4 years ago and never finished (?) so this week I put legs on it and am trying to get the finish done by Friday for packing up. I like having some lower priced benches in the booth the show variety. This one is Ash and has  very distinctive galleries as well as mice color on the top. I don't expect it to survive the show.

 Seems like some heartwood got in there too.


 The other is a pine bench with RO legs.


There is a tad of denim color in it.


So at least I'm working on something.

[firefighter ontheside]

I finished a flag case for my cousin who died last year from a medical condition that caused him to be discharged from the Army while he was at west point.  I built the case from sycamore that was reclaimed from his barn plus some walnut.  I made little spots for casings from the rifle salute and a challenge coin that was given to his parents at the national cemetery.  I started a similar case for my dad's flag, cases and coin.  

[Old Greenhorn]

Very nicely done. I like the way you combined the species of woods. It just works really nicely. Never saw the inclusion of the spent rounds, nice idea.
 May they both rest in peace with Honor.

[doc henderson]

Hooo rah!  Godspeed.

[aigheadish]

So, the putter I made and showed off in the post I've linked to below made it through a season. I made a few mistakes and the initial major one was I put a big, oversized grip on it. Too big and too heavy. Well, the league started last night so I wanted to rectify the heavy grip before that happened so I went to replace the grip last weekend. I cut the big grip off and cleaned up the shaft nicely. When I went to put the new grip on I didn't use enough solvent and it wouldn't slide down the shaft more than a few inches before it got stuck. At that point I grabbed the putter head and used it for some leverage to attempt to twist and push the grip on better. No go and I broke the epoxy connection from the putter head to the shaft. Whoops. Next, I went to the store and spent another 30 bucks on a new grip and tried again. This time went a bit better and I was able to regrip it properly and I re-epoxy'd the shaft into the putter head. It wasn't perfect but it was close enough that I thought it'd be ok. It wasn't. I made it through 7 of 9 holes last night when I felt a little click that told me the epoxy had broken loose again. The putter head was attached enough that I could still putt for the next couple holes but by the time I walked off of #9 I was able to easily pull the putter head right off... 

I knew I wanted to try a second version but I'm still disappointed. I've learned a few lessons in the meantime and I'll have to see about some different gluing options to keep the putter head attached and squared up to the shaft. A buddy suggested a set screw embedded into the shaft through the putter head and that seems smart. 

I guess we'll see. Waa-waaa. 

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?msg=1978466

[firefighter ontheside]

Maybe a more flexible epoxy like G flex will be better.

Here is the case for dad.  I will finish it the next time I work on it and give it to mom.  

[aigheadish]

I haven't heard of g flex, I'll look into it, thanks!

I started fresh today and thought about the putter making process a bit more before starting. I went with bubinga again, and I've made huge progress compared to my first attempt.

I wanted to go substantially heavier. The original was 169 grams, and I'm aiming for ~400 grams in the new one. Thusly, I've adjusted the proportion a bit. Below you can see the original size versus the new size, and I'm making the ball grabber cutout shallower (less deep, front to back), giving me more room to jam weight into the front of the putter, you'll see that in a later picture. I aimed for more symmetrical as well but you'll also see that didn't happen. I don't know the right way to really get symmetrical and remove excess wood. My template was a cutout of the shape seen in the drawing, glued to a thin piece of plywood, but I didn't get it cut out perfectly, which didn't help symmetry. 



The best thing I thought of, this morning, before I started, was to leave the beginning chunk of wood big and blocky and route out the ball grabbing hole like that. I blocked off the space for the router base to go right where I wanted, about 3/8 deep. That gave me the space to use a pattern trim router bit bearing to guide itself around the open hole. Man, this was a life/time saver. If you recall, on my last attempt, I used the drill press as a router and it was terrifying and not very accurate. This cutout was quite precise and only marginally scary (still getting used to routers!). The mistake I made here, just adding a bit of complication, was that I just eyeballed the template tracing onto the wood. I'd had been much smarter to square up the template to the edge, so it was a little tricky making parallel lines and cuts. 





I just got a new, fancy Rikon bandsaw, last weekend, and I put her to some use on this putter head. Man, is it smooth and lovely. I resawed about a half inch off the bottom of the chunk of wood and even though it was maybe 5 or 6 inches thick and the 1/4" blade it still cut through like butter. Already worth the money. I need to spend some more time squaring the bandsaw table to the blade, as the results are off maybe 1/16" from bottom to top of the putter head, but there should be a slight angle to the putter face, so it works out in this instance. I plan to sand out most discrepancies and re-do the face angle anyway. I don't know how anyone has the patience to get good, square tools. My close enough is not good enough. 

I've got drum sanding attachments for the drill press, so I've cleaned up the curves to the point we are at below. Next will be the belt sander to square up the bottom and the face. Then I'll drill out a big fat hole in the bottom to chuck about 3/4 of a pound of pennies or something into it for weight. I have fishing weights but I don't think nearly enough. 

It's amazing what a previous attempt will teach. I think the original took days to finish and I think this one will be done much, much more safely and only in maybe 10 hours. I could see v3.0 taking 3 hours, knowing what I know now and improving symmetry and the other stuff. Ideally, I'll have this one done by Thursday for my next round of golf. 

This is the original and the v2.0.

[doc henderson]

It looks good.  for precision I might use a Forstner bit to cut the inside corners, and to bulk out the recess and then trim with bandsaw and with a router using the drum to bring it all up to the line.  a drum in a drill press is nice.  if it has a nut on the end of the threaded shaft, you can make a cover for the press bed out of wood so you can put a hole in the center for the sanding drum to go into so you sand right down to the bottom.  for mine, I routed a relief on the underside, so it fits nice on the bed.  I also on my press use the wood base as a backstop/fence so I can quickly drill holes the same distance from a reference edge.  I use this making the wine glass holders I give for wedding gifts.

[aigheadish]

Thanks Doc! Good call on the forstner bit, I think that would help. 

I have a 1/2" piece of wood on the drill press table, so yeah, I can get the full depth there.