Making it through another year, '23-'24

[Peter Drouin]

Will you use a belt sander to blend?

[Old Greenhorn]

Pete, I use a belt sander to blend the glued edge joints and make things flat and smooth. On the edges for live edge blending especially I use the ROS. You have to be careful working with what God gave ya on the live edge, so you don't mess it up. My 'standards' are smooth and flowing with no sharp stuff sticking out, but as natural as possible and the corners have to be nicely rounded.
 Which bring me to today's observations. As I said in the last post, I was pretty happy with how these edges turned out. I have been drinking from the @tule peak timber koolaid and learning a LOT about how he thinks these oddball things through. Namely and chiefly, there are no rules, do what ever you need to do to make it look the way you want. Initially, that was hard for me to do, but since I've embraced it, it is working for me.
 On this top, with the live edge material I had available, I could not get an even live edge all the way around, that is, a border of a consistent width and all 3 sides. So I had to cut the front edge with a taper from 4.125 to 3.625 wide, which seemed wrong, but no. When my skinny piece on the left edge mated up, it was very close, and on the right edge it was dang near perfect.
 Pictures might help 'splain this better. This is the right edge corner:



 

And this is the left edge corner:



 

And this is the view showing the taper looking from the right side edge.



 

 I did had some minor blending to do on that left corner, but not much. It came out better than I expected or hoped. Live edges present problems that are hard to imagine until you get into it while also trying to hold dimensions for other reasons, like fit, or client specs.

 So today I sanded the top and blended all the edges, then I put two coats of poly (10 hours apart) on the bottom. I am hoping a third coat will finish that bottom off. I also sanded the glue and epoxy fill off the side pieces, finish planed the shelf boards, edged them, biscuited them and glued those together (2 shelves). Later I sanded those out and did some needed epoxy fills on bug holes (ambrosia beetles, long gone) and bug tracks, it's an interesting piece of wood buried in the middle of one shelf. Shelves are Maple, sides are Ash, and the top is RO. The client would like this for Christmas and I am pressing hard, know that the flood coats on the top and it's edges are going to take a bunch of time. I still have no idea how I am going to attach this top to the shelf unit. I want it removable because of weight and I don't want screws through the top. I was thinking pocket screws up from the bottom, but I know they loosen over time and this Oak isn't the most solid and sound wood I have ever used. Maybe I can find some nice corner brackets or something?
 Tomorrow I get the final sanding done, I hope, then start laying out my dado cuts for the shelves and working toward dry assembly. I'll put screw through the sides in the shelves like the last unit, then plug those hole, so I have to make some Ash plugs also. 
 There are 5 large (for me) pieces in this unit and I am using every flat working space I have to keep them all moving along and juggling them around to better lighted areas. I gotta work on that because I can't run other concurrent jobs with this project. My table saw and the RAS table are also serving as drying, sanding, or working areas. With the show coming up in just a week, I have other small stuff I'd like to get done.
 I grossly underquoted this job for sure. Been doing at least 8 hour days all week on it, yesterday and today were 10 hours. Just hope I can meet the deadline.
 Tomorrow is another day.

[tule peak timber]

Looks pretty darn good!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, accidents happen! ;D

In my shop I not only believe in miracles, I rely on them. :D

[doc henderson]

Looks pretty darn good!

And that is a quote is from "The Wizard"!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, in spite of the encouragement I am going very slow these last couple of days. The last two jobs I did with dados for joining or aligning I screwed up and had to do an 'artistic correction' so I have ben approaching this one with great caution. I don't have wood to correct this if I screw it up and no time for 'do-overs'.

 Yesterday I spent the whole day doing the dados, measuring at least 5 times. Then I sand and fitted the shelves, they might still be a bit too tight, but I can take more. Today I cut planed and routed two strips to use for the front edges of the uprights. Since the top is RO and the sides are Ash, I thought the RO edge trim might give it a little pop, but not too much. This was touchy to make it fit right, so I cut the strip a little over width, then routed the fluting on the front, then glued them on and trimmed with a router trim bit. After that I trimmed off the little thin rib that was left standing on each side. I had one side done and the other is still clamped after gluing. There were a few little bobbles I was not happy with, but they 'mostly' disappear with some hand sanding. It will look OK, but I think the profile is a bit too bold and formal. You guys had recommended this bit and form so I bought one a few months ago. It's a whole lot of form to push through, so I did it in two passes. I screwed up the second strip when it climbed on me and got out of register. I had one more piece in the rack I could use, so I had to make another one.



 

The edges sanded up fairly well.



 

 I also made a template and drilled the shelf mounting holes sometime today and cut plugs to fill the holes after final glue-up.
 Tomorrow I'll start the finishing before assembly for all the interior parts at least. That saved me a bunch of time last time, I think. I am learning some new stuff on this one though, small things. I think I'd like to get back to some more rustic stuff after this, but I have to do a ru of cremation boxes to replace stock. I also got an email today requesting logs for February. This for a client I picked up from that project a few years back where we sailed logs down the river. These guys have been coming back and ordering logs every winter for 3 years now and are a pleasure to work with. They are looking for around 150 logs, so I will have to go scouting and flagging and start cutting in January.
 Tomorrow is another day.

[21incher]

Not sure if you're using scrapers yet but they will do a nice job feathering down an edge like where the slight overlap was and can really cut down on sanding dust. The part I fight with though  is trying to sharpen them. Really  nice flat finish from them and can save money on sandpaper. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Yes, I do use a scraper but in this case I left 1/16" overhang on one side and 1/8" on the other. A trim router bit made quick work of it, then a fast pass with the ROS and all good. Have to use hand sandpaper on the flutes in that profile. there is no other way around it.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I haven't updated since last week. I spent a bunch of time on the show, but that's done and all the stuff is stored in the shed now with room to spare. I will let it sit for a few more days before I go out and restack it with moving blankets. Right now I have good airflow on it to make sure there is no moisture in any crevices. nits grow into lice. ;D
Sometime around the weekend I finally burned and used up all that junk wood I had, about 3 trailers loads, so about a cord of it. Not a lot of BTU's and it needed a lot more air to help it burn, but I went through it quickly (3-4 weeks?) and am now burning decent wood which allows me to control the shop better and hold it at 58-61 overnight, making it very easy to come back up during the working hours. I plan on trying something new this year, in the next week or so, to hold a bit more heat in the building. Last week we never really got much over 30 during the daytime and we pulled down 2" of rain over the weekend, with big wind on Monday cooling things off pretty good.
I think I picked up a bug over the weekend and Monday felt poorly but did the work I had to do, but no work in the shop on the current project, I just could not get my brain working and I didn't want to screw it up. Haste makes waste. So I took it easy. Tuesday started out better and I glued and screwed all the parts together on the cabinet base. I glued/plugged the screw holes and cut the plugs flush and sanded them. But in the afternoon I started feeling really lousy again. I lost focus after I laid one coat of finish on the cabinet side. I had to wait anyway, so I sat by the stove and started looking at a dead EMT run that used to go into my greasepit for the pump, which no longer exists. So a little at a time I started working on pulling that apart and rerouting it upstairs to where I have been meaning to put a quad box since I built that loft. One little step at a time, taking breaks, I got the EMT run and the box wired and installed by quitting time. I was satisfied with that, but really I wanted to install a light fixture UNDER the loft covering a dark area in front of the woodstove. I had an old fixture to use until I find something better.
So today after I flipped the cabinet and did a coat on the other side, I ran a piece of romex back down from the junction box I put in yesterday and put a duplex outlet in between the joists, wired a plug on the fixture and all is good. Not great light, but it's just a fill-in light so I can see things, which is handy. I'll get a better fixture someday not too far off. As I get older, I seem to like more lights.
But still, this morning I didn't feel so good at all, and my Daughter who I had seen on Friday, declared she has covid again. So I took a covid test that we had laying around and it came back negative. So I guess it's just the crud or something.
The cabinet is looking pretty good now.


 

I will probably bring the top downstairs tomorrow and test fit it and put the brackets on, but I am not really happy with the edges and might actually re-pour at least two of the edges even though it will add a couple of days in curing time. I'll look at it and think on it more tomorrow.
I also have to put everything back in place up in the loft that I moved out to do the wiring work. It's time for a general cleaning and 'put tools away day' anyway before moving on the the 'next thing'.
But that's for another day, not today.

[21incher]

Free covid test kits are available again COVID Home Tests | USPS . With how it's going  around again and many of the previous test kits expired it pays to grab some before they are gone.

[Old Greenhorn]

Thanks, I placed an order. I see they have extended the expiration dates on many of these kits, but I burned the box from mine so I don't know if it was still good or not. Only expired 3 weeks ago, so I assume it's still good.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, the rest of this week has been about the same, I feel lousy with very low energy and yesterday I had a rather disturbing and unexpected lower GI issue come out of the blue.
But I am still getting stuff done, just not as much and a lot slower. I finished off the current project and the client came by and approved it today. Delivery on Saturday.
In the meantime, I am looking forward......

I was going to put this in the 'wood storage; thread but I couldn't decide which of the 5 was the correct one, so I'll just put it here. This winter I have a number of projects to do and stock to build up or replace, but as mentioned before, my lumber supply is quite low. I have a bunch of ERC out in the garage ready to go. So I want to get that into the shop. Some of it I want to resaw into thinner stick for certain projects and I want it all planed before I put it upstairs. I expect to use the majority of this material through the winter. The problem is where to put a load of lumber? Since I am now storing my finished goods out in the shed I have some room in the storage loft but no racks and I really don't want to build a permanent rack that I will be stuck with. SO I recalled some temporary racks we used to use for material staging in every machine shop I have ever worked in. They are stackable and used for staging orders. Those are made from welded up C channel to hold some heavy steel bars. I made these from junky 2x4's and scrap plywood.


 

These are stackable.



 

So I made 6 of them with the material I had on hand and they are truly ugly, but they do the job. It's hard to tell in the photo, but after and hour or two of moving stuff in and out the set these up, then putting it all back. This is a messy cluttered photo, but maybe you get the idea.



 

I'm still not happy with the general setup, I really need to move out more stuff and relocate my table router away for the end of the new rack where it lives. More thinking and that's for tomorrow. For now, I got something done today and I'll take that.
Rain started around mid-day and should rain straight through until tomorrow night.  No idea what I am doing tomorrow, probably more needed cleaning up and putting stuff away, staging that cabinet for loading and delivery, and setting up to plane all that lumber.
I worked on some drawings and BOMS for upcoming projects this afternoon, but the energy was gone at that point. Tomorrow is another day.

[aigheadish]

Well, Tom, I show up a day late and dollar short I guess.

I really like those racks. Nice, simple design and I think I could use them almost infinitely! I'll need to keep these in mind.

[Nebraska]

Like that design if I get my barn /shop built I might have to plagiarize them a little. Hope you get to feeling better soon.

[Old Greenhorn]

Man did we get rain from yesterday through today! 3.75" or so. Kind of made for a depressing day and I am still fighting that 'no energy' thing. Sometimes I can't get motivated to actually do anything until early afternoon. Today was one of those. So I cleaned and puttered in the shop this morning and after lunch. Then the rain finally let up around 2pm, so I moved the truck over to the garage, loaded all my ERC in the truck and drove it around to the shop and flat stacked on some saw horses. I took a short break and though I might as well get started on some of those boards knowing that planeing out a whack of lumber can take a lot out of me and I work up quite a sweat. Well this time, I was wrong. What a dream planeing well sawn lumber. Frist time that's happened. I set for the first board and ran them all through at the same setting on the first side. I only had 2 boards with issues and I brought those two in with no problem. So just about all of them got done on the first side without breaking a sweat. I still have a few thicker ones to reset for and run through tomorrow, then flip and do the second side. Most will go up in that rack I showed yesterday, but some will get pulled and planed to a finished 3/4 and a few will get cutout and go back to the mill for re-sawing into thinner boards. I am hoping to double my usable wood on those as I need a bunch of 1/4" stock and can't see planeing 1" down to 1/4".
I had also nearly forgotten the feeling of running rust brown ERC into the planer and seeing that brilliant rasberry color come out the other end. Instant and permanent smile. A real 'pick me up'. I don't think I can fit all this in those racks I made.



 

If you look in the background on that photo you can see the few thinker boards I have left to do yet. SO more planeing tomorrow, then sorting and more planeing, then re-sawing.
But I have my monthly chiro appointment in the morning so I will do other town chores, like a haircut, beer run, and other 'stuff' so as to save on gas.
One day at a time, right?

[Wlmedley]

Tom, I sawed some ERC for the first time a few weeks ago and it really saws nice.It's a shame that it's pretty rare around here.There's quite a bit the next county over and I know a couple guys that live there.Think I might see if they can locate me a little bit.Planed mine with a electric hand held plane and it came out pretty good.

 

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, it's pretty stuff and we don't get much either. I saw how your came out for that playset/slide house. Are you going to put anything on it? I built a potting bench for the wife 2 years ago and I put it in the garage for the winter, but hose it off and lay a coat of boiled linseed oil on it each spring. It seems to help the rain bead up and roll off. I just put it in the garage this afternoon and it still looks good, excpet for all the dirt she spills. ;D

[Wlmedley]

I'm leaving it up to my son and DIL to put something on it if they want to so it probably won't get anything.If they lived closer I would do it.They don't really see the value of wood and what it takes to produce it like I do.

[Old Greenhorn]

Oh yeah, I get that. ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, today would have been my friend Bill Keith's 84 birthday, but he left us in October of 2015. None the less I always miss him most on this day because we would always have a Birthday celebration for him on the Thursday closest to his birthday at their weekly gig, with a cake and often some distinguished players would make a trip and sit in the with the band for a few tunes. We had folks come from CT, NC, TN, MA, CA, and even Europe over the years, mostly touring musicians. We had some good times for sure. I just got a text from a buddy who was at all those parties too, and like me, he has been thinking of Bill all day and playing his music tonight. We were blessed to have Bill as a close friend and I guess the blessings continues with these memories.
---------------------
I got involve in a decent movie last night and stayed up past midnight, so I slept in this morning and then we went and did the monthly food shopping trip in town. With the late start we didn't get home until 2pm. My energy levels still suck and I am having to force myself to do most stuff. Yesterday I planeed out all that ERC, got it upstairs and stocked into those temp racks I made a few days ago.



 

It surprised me that I fit it all in because it was a LOAD on those sawhorses when I was planeing. Yes, one more tier would have been useful, but I got my without it. I held out a few boards for resawing.
Anyway, that was a fair amount of work for me and lots of trips up and down the stairs getting it stored. Maybe that's why I had no go-juice today, I dunno.
I noticed yesterday the woodstove was not breathing right. Too much smoke coming back out the door when I filled it. SO today, I climbed up on the roof and pulled the cap and cleaned it, it was ugly, but not as bad as it could be. I also ran a brush down about 8' or so and broke a lot of stuff loose, which should have fallen right in the stove. Put that back together and back in the shop it seemed to be worse. SO I figured  all that creosote fell into the stove and made enough of a pile to hamper the air flow going up. But I had enough wood in the stove that I couldn't get access to the back bottom area inside the stove (I tried, the shop smoke alarm went off for the first time ever). So I came in the house and waited until after dinner to try again. Now everything had burned down and I did find a pile of junk and maybe a bunch of it burned away in the past 2 hours, I dunno. But I cleared it, refilled the stove for the overnight and now it is drafting well.
Speaking of heat, over the weekend I hung a bunch of moving blankets over the garage doors to try to know the wind infiltration down. That seems to be working quite well as the shop stays warmer overnight, I think. The only time it cools off is when the fire dies out before I tend it. I am pretty certain I do not have enough wood for the winter so anything to stretch it out will help a bit. The downside is, I miss being able to look out the window during the day and I get no solar heat from the sun on the floor, so maybe I will mess with that a bit. The nights are getting colder and the days are not warming up as much. Happens every year.

Tomorrow I have to motivate myself down to the mill, Bill has some kind of one off special log job coming in, a couple of timbers I think, nothing big, for another contractor neighbor. They are bringing in the logs, which is new for me. No idea what species. I also have my ERC to try and resaw, so we will see how that goes. Hopefully we will have good sunshine, which makes it warmer at the mill.
But that's tomorrow and that's another day.

[Ljohnsaw]

What kind of garage door? Can you add rigid foam insulation to it? Or spray foam?

In 2 days the days will start getting longer!

[Old Greenhorn]

I have two. Both are wood frame with masonite type panels (heavy). One is 12' high and the other is 7'. Yeah, I could do foam panels but that makes it another project which I don't have time for. Best would be new doors that are insulated, but that's $$$.
I could do something a bit fancier with the blankets. Right now, it's just 'proof of concept' messing around.

[WV Sawmiller]

    Yeah but what was the "decent movie" you got to watching? ;)

[Old Greenhorn]

The Gambler Returns with Kenny Rogers, Rebba McIntire, et al. I really enjoyed how they included all of the 60's western stars like the Rifleman, Gunsmoke, and all those series plus the iconic character actors. It was fun to watch again, but I didn't realize it was a two part movie that went several hours.

[SawyerTed]

Hope you feel better today, Tom. 

On those garage doors, my basement door is like that. Wood and Masonite and leaks air like a sieve. Most times the cold isn't a problem because it's just not that cold here. 

But every winter we get some teens and single digit temperatures.  That's when I put up a sheet of clear plastic.  It's just a painter's drop cloth.  I've stapled it up and have taped it.  Now I have some strips of wood stapled to the plastic and I use screws. When I take the plastic down I roll it up on the wood strips and store it.

It can make 10 degrees difference in the basement.  During those single digit times seems like we get a northwest wind that blows right in that basement door.  If our power goes out, I'd get frozen pipes without the plastic over that garage door.