Staying Busy and out of trouble, 2020-21?.

[Old Greenhorn]

Just a short update, yesterday was pretty good (work wise). I put a final coat on that live edge bench and (I don't think I say this often) I am pretty dang proud of how this is looking, especially with the live edge. This looks wet, but it is not. The finish is really good. It is just pretty.


 
I also did my first ever sand and polish on that cookie epoxy. This is something I have been sweating about. I didn't know if I would be good enough to get it clear. This section is clear enough to make me happy, you can read through the 1-5/8" thickness. 


 
I did some finish coats on the bottom and let them dry. Will see what I can get done today, we have the boys.
 Gotta get to it.

[btulloh]

Nice work on the sand and polish.  Optical grade result. 

[Nebraska]

That's some purdy stuff there!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well today I got the cookie prepped for the big 'money pour' to finish the top off, or so I had hoped. I also had hoped I wouldn't blow it and have big leaks and a mess. I kind of split the difference. 


 

No real leaks to worry about but there were 2 or three spots where either I ran out of epoxy to cover or it perked into the wood and gave me a stippled surface. There was no time to mix more before setting took hold and working it further would have made more of an uneven surface. Here is a bad spot:


 

And this one is worse:


 

 I confess it took a lot of fortitude to just let it ride and walk away. I just checked it a few minutes ago and except for those bad spots, it all looks pretty good. I had a couple of pinholes where some came through the tape, but they self sealed. My plan now is to do another layer that will fill in the pockets and bring it all up a little higher. I have done this before with good results. I just have to blow more epoxy on it and not short myself this time.
 The wife and I have our monthly chiro appointments tomorrow morning, so I am going to try and get up early and get this done so it can cure through the day and maybe I can pull the tape in the evening. Anxious to keep moving on this. Just a tiny bit of tackiness in it at 9:30 tonight, so it should be good in the morning. Shop temp is 73 right now, I hope that's good enough, last year this time it was nearly impossible to get good cures in my shop because of temp changes, this year, not so much. ;D
 Tomorrow is another day.

[Tacotodd]

Looking good OGH! Looking good  :D

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, up at 4 today, in the shop by 5 (had a little coffee pot disaster to clean up), and poured by 6:30. Starting temp in the shop was 72°, which is what I wanted. I mixed more epoxy than yesterday but still could have used more. Touch and go to spread and smooth it, but I managed this time. There are still 2 slight low areas but everything is shiny and smooth and I believe I will leave it as is unless something changes. I am finding you have to babysit these things for a couple of hours to deal with little surface imperfections and an occasional bubble that just show up. The torch is my friend here. ;D
 Here is where it stands right now:


 

SO another hour or two of watching it and not raising any dust in the shop. Then I am done for the day. We have chiro appts. at 10:30 (why I got up early) and then I am taking the wife to lunch. She has been depressed lately at the outcome of the election and what it means for our financial future. So I took her for a ride to visit a client and get colors off of his furniture I am going to make a matching bench for. Today I will take her out for lunch after the Doc, then do fall cleanup and put stuff away. That usually cheers her up a bit to have it done. I will stay out of the shop except to check things and watch the temp. I am hoping to pull the tape tonight to see how much edge sanding and polishing I have to do to get this finished.

[doc henderson]

looks great.  I will be curious about your epoxy brand and the total outlay for the materials as well when done.  you have stated you have been well compensated and that is good.

[Old Greenhorn]

looks great.  I will be curious about your epoxy brand and the total outlay for the materials as well when done.  you have stated you have been well compensated and that is good.

Well, I will be. Texted the client this morning with a photo and told him he needs to get some cash from the bank, it should be done in a few days unless I mess up.
 Materials (including the legs) are probably around $150 at this point, maybe a little less. My time OTOH is around 40-50 hours spread over 2 years or so.
 Going to look at that woodmaster 610 tonight, so faster than the money comes in, it goes out. ;D

[doc henderson]

consider it advertising as well.  he will prob. be so proud of his custom high end rustic piece of art, he will show it to all who enter his home.  maybe they will all want one.  when folks ask where I get my wood, my first response is usually "from trees".  and when asked what I do in my shop,  "anything I want".  all in fun of course.  yes even "free" trees take time to pick up and move around, saw and handle.  oh, and when asked how long it took to make a rustic bench,  I say, "about 75 years if you include growing the tree".  

[WV Sawmiller]

OGH,

   Good looking piece. I know the customer will love it.

    Let me know if the lunch for the wife works. If so my wife and I can take each other out too.

[Old Greenhorn]

Lunch with the wife sort of worked. As we were approaching the diner, my son called, turned out he was right behind us and followed us in and gave my wife money for the lunch 'just because' then he went back to work. She is still not happy with the state of the world, but a free lunch helped to lighten the mood.
 Doc, this client already has a few of my pieces around that I played with to learn some basic concepts then gave him. He shows them off at least when I am around, he tells folks "see that table, look at the grain! Tom Made that for us!" His fire pit benches a made from unfinished slabs last Christmas eve in about 30 minutes with a chainsaw and 6" spike nails. He brags on those too and I winch every time he mentions it. OTOH, none of it hasn't helped sales much. :D

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, dog tired tonight and a little frustrated. Was out in the shop by 6 and sanded all the edges on the cookie to match and blend the radius from top to sides. A little tricky given the shape, then I inspected it as close as I could. There were a couple of spots that needed a little epoxy touching up because either the sanding broke through the epoxy in thin spots or some spots just needed it. So I did a little pour and brushed that on. I started the finish work on edges in an area away from the fresh epoxy. 320>800>1000>2000 grit, then a heavy scratch remover compound (using Novus products), a lighter scratch remover, then a polish. Not happy. It is glass smooth, but the 'coloring' does not match the virgin pour, there is a very slight difference to my eye. True, like most novices, I missed some scratches before I moved onto a finer grit and those showed up in the final result so I had to go back and do it all again. Normal learning curve there. But the coloring was not right and I could clearly see where I had re-finished and where the original pour finish line was. Very frustrating and by 10am I was already tired, so I walked away to let the other epoxy dry while I thought about it and the day got away from me.
 I unloaded the truck of that dust collector and Woodmaster I picked up last night. Both pieces run, dust collector works fine. The Woodmaster is in rough shape and I will have to take most of it apart to clean the rust off.


 
Then I have to make a height adjustment handle and figure out how it works. I do have the manual. 
 Then my son showed up with his landscaping trailer and we did the leaf cleanup. Last year there was 4 of us and it took 2 hours. This year there was two of us and we finished in the dark. Good thing his machines have headlights ;D.
 He left, we had dinner. I watched the news for a bit, but the polishing thing had been on my mind and eating at me all day. I went back out to the shop at 8pm and started over on the same section. I got a much better finish than before with a very nice shine, but again, it did not quite match the poured surface. I think what I have to do is sand and/or polish the entire top so it is all finished the same and has the same 'lay'. The finish I achieved tonight is very fine, shiny, clear, and quite acceptable, but not a match to the clear pour, so I believe the entire top needs to get the same treatment so there is no 'line' between the original pour surface and the re-finished surface. Only way I can see to make it uniform. Anyway, I feel a little better with this knowledge in hand, but am nervous about taking sanding paper to a perfectly smooth glass-like flat surface. I am going to pick up some 3000 grit paper and see if I can get way with that. I came in and ordered some more of the Novus products because if I need to do the whole top, the 2oz. kit I have will not go the distance. I do know this is going to take a fair amount of time to get right. In spite of my disappointment in the surface finishing issues I am really pleased with the edge blending radius and smoothing between top and sides, which I kind of developed the technique for through my total lack of knowledge. Accidents happen and that part looks really nice. I do see a few other spots on the sides that I have to sand and smooth a little more and may have to re-touch the epoxy, buy confidence in that is pretty high. Every little mark, dust spec, and wave shows up on this thing like a neon sign. This is going to be very tedious.
 Tomorrow is another day and I'll give it another shot.

[dougtrr2]

Pictures of your problem probably wouldn't help.  Subtle stuff like that is hard to see in a photo.  Before you go to a lot of effort to fix the problem, it might be worth getting a second opinion.  I would ask your wife to give it a critical look and see if there is a real problem, or one that just leaps out to you because you made it.  We are most critical of our own work.

Doug in SW IA

[21incher]

I am not sure if it applies here but I have been told  never to use any automotive buffing products on wood parts  until you are sure the finish is perfect.  Many of them contain silicon that can never be completely  removed that will cause problems with future coats. Silicon can not be sanded off as it only  spreads and the automotive silicon remover does not work properly  on wood finishes. I buy the novus  products by the gallon on Amazon for my wife's golf cart and know I  had to use silicone  remover  to get the decals I made for it to adhere properly after polishing with them.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I have been consumed by that cookie commission for the last couple of days. I started another thread asking for specific help with my polishing issues and the cookie project kind of morphed over their. You can catch up on that thread: https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=112730.new#top
 Anyway, it came out OK.


 
 I'll take final photos tomorrow when it is really done and the legs are back on.
 The polishing work is very tedious, so I have been slipping out for breaks to enjoy this incredible weather and get a little more of the fall prep work done. I emptied my water storage tank by using my 150 GPM pump and a fire hose with a 3/4 bore straight nozzle to blow clear some culvert pipes (with mixed results). I blew out my hoses and put some other outdoor stuff away. between sanding/polishing sessions.
 I am keeping the woodstove in the shop going even with the 70° temps during the day because it drops at night and the shop cools really fast overnight without heat. Also I really like making coffee on that woodstove in the morning.  So I fill it at night and it is at about 65 when I go out in the morning, I rekindle it to make coffee and then let it limp along all day choked way down, but enough to hold the temp at 70 and keep the fire going, then re-stoke it in the late evening again. Mostly I am still burning junk. I throw in good wood overnight, but put a few green pieces in the mix that burn slower. I have emptied the bin of all the end cuts and short nubs I had, but that carried the shop in part for several weeks, so there is that.
 I have also continued to monitor the attic temps to see if it is worth going ahead with that fan system to suck heat from the attic during the fall and frankly it doesn't look like it is worth it. That attic heat is very fragile and not what I have thunk it would be. The temps are just not there except for a very short week or two. Lately even with this nice clear weather and sunshine, it just isn't there. But I haven't given up on it, I'll keep and open mind and keep watching.
 It's late, I'm pooped. Tomorrow is another day.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, the table is finished. I have to get the client in to look it over.


 
I hope they like it, I kind of hate this part where where all the 'why does it look like [this] or [that] and there is always the chance that what they clearly asked for, not that they see it done leads to the suggestion about something different they would have preferred to have seen. It doesn't always happen, but when it does I get really short with my patience. It is what it is.


 
Done.

I haven't mentioned but the last few days I have had the free entertainment of looking out the side shop door to watch my neighbor (the junk collector) working out in the swamp with a big excavator he borrowed 'from a buddy'. I have no idea what he is doing but he is working pretty close to the water (a drainage creek) and he is making more of a mess than he had before. Still it has been humorous to watch him try to operate that big machine. Of concern is that he lets his 9 year old kid run around where he is working. Still, it's none of my business. Well around mid-afternoon yesterday he got it stuck.......pretty good.


 

 I would have loved to hear the phone call of him calling all his 'buddies' for help. He even tried to pull it out with his SUV (this gives you an idea of how he thinks). He got somebody to come with a huge articulated CAT loader and that guy got him out. Pretty soon he is going to run out of 'buddies' to borrow things from because I know he is going to return this machine with the entire undercarriage and tracks packed with mud. Pretty much the same as he returned most of the stuff he borrowed from me in a broken or damaged condition. (I stopped loaning him stuff a year ago after he returned a brand new, used once, battery load tester and it was fried. He said it never worked. Funny, worked just fine for me 20 minutes before I loaned it to you.)
 Anyway I am concerned what he is going to do to this waterway because right now it is a mud wallow.

 I also had a nice visit with NYBHH yesterday and he brought over some cherry slabs. He came up with an idea for a bench design we would like to try, so we spent some time brainstorming while we watched the drama next door. It was a highly enjoyable visit.
 Time to get at it.

[doc henderson]

I knew that window in the door would come in handy!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, with that cookie done I did a little (tiny) bit of cleanup yesterday and started thinking about 'what's next?'. The neighbor was working on that excavator until 10:30 the night before and di about the same last night. It is very distracting because after 4 days I see he has still not gotten a grasp of the controls on the machine and spends more time trying to figure out which way it goes with each control. Yesterday I saw he had his 9 year old kid tucked in the bucket about 10 feet off the ground and was swinging the turret around at full speed. Scared the crap out of me. Jackass. Yeah, none of this is any of my business of course, but I know when somebody gets hurt, and the screaming starts, I am the guy that will wind up mitigating it until the ambulance shows up. For now I keep my mouth shut, but another thing that bothers me is this guy operating that machine in the watercourse and the mess he is making out of everything. I did check and it is not on the list of controlled or monitored water courses in this state and I think what he is doing might be legal if not ethical, but I am sure he did not check and has no clue. I do know if a logger did that he would be screwed, no doubt. At this point my shop window is a community "entertainment center' and several folks have stopped by to watch the show and shake their heads. We have now nick-named him 'Ding-Dong' and it seems to fit. I get text messages "Is ding-dong still at it?" during the day. ;D I think he is going to work today, so no show for me, which is a relief.

 So trying to get that off my mind I turned toward the next project, which is a joint venture of sorts (there is a pun in there that will remain secret until we get further along) to test a design idea.


 

I spent several hours chiseling, drawknifing, and finally sanding off the cambium to clean it up gently. This one is Cherry and if the idea works, it will be cool, but it goes well beyond pressing my skills and tools, so I will say no more until things progress. ;D

 The client for the cookie table was supposed to show up and see his table 'after dinner' last night, but he stood me up. That seems to be his style and I never hang my hat on anything he says, still it aggravated the heck out of me, and no I am not going to text him with reminders, I am not his mother. He is also known to be a little slow making payments but always in a rush to get his work done. (I know none of you guys ever have these issues  :D.) My son does a lot of work for him and it is a real sore point for him, having to chase his money. 'nuff sed on that.
 Today is another day and I will see if I can sneak over and see what the total damage is that ding-dong has done, although he is not done yet.
 Time to get at it.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Nice looking curved slab. I see "Bench, Bench, Bench..."  lights flashing. I gather this one is fairly fresh. I have used a wire brush to knock off the punky sapwood on slabs like that in the past when it was soft enough.

  On the slow pay customers I figure that is a one time event. After that it is pay with the order. I may have the time but I don't have the temperament to chase down my pay. I have a neighbor who recently bought $180 worth of walnut from me that I let him have on credit and he said he'd split the payments the first of each month and he was beating my door down looking for me both months till he paid it off as promised. I was in no rush for him but it was reassuring to see people like that.

[nybhh]

Those slabs have such nice curves and look so sexy naked!  
@WV Sawmiller - About a dozen or so of these slabs have been stickered drying in my barn for about 18 months now and apparently the bark was not all happy about letting go.   Your intuition was spot on as to their final use.  These were never exposed to UV so they will hopefully oil out close to their original coloration.  Can't wait to see how this progresses.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well the cat is worming out of the bag here a little bit. Brandon brought these slabs over to use for a design idea he proposed a month or so ago which also intrigued me. Hence the 'joint venture', but without letting too much else slip, the leg design on this is very complex for me to pull off for several reasons and it is the jointing that presents the big challenge, so another 'Joint Venture'. I planed it this morning and it is very white at this point, but when oiled, some color should pop back. (Any suggestions for a good product for Cherry grain would be appreciated. we are both looking into this.) Right now I have dumped epoxy into all the drying cracks on the bottom, then I have to do the top and sand it all off. SO probably Saturday before I can start making sawdust on it again. In the meantime I will start thinking about the cutting and jointing jigs I have to make.

 (BTW Brandon, I chose to smaller of those two book matched slabs to begin with, saving the better for later.)

[doc henderson]

indoor, or outdoor location?  Danish oil with a top coat of spar urethan, satin.  for me.

[Old Greenhorn]

This one is strictly an indoor piece. Shooting for high end classy with pretty wood. Modern rustic I guess you could call it 

[Old Greenhorn]

Well a full day of pressing ahead and I am not doing any work after dinner besides filling the stove before bed. Lots of thinking and detail work today on this new piece. I sanded the first side after epoxy crack fills, flipped it and epoxied a few more cracks on the other side. Then I turned to planning and making the first jig I need. Hopefully I only need one. Here's a hint:


 

I had tried to do this without a jig, but proved out what I knew, it was a non-starter. So I made the jig and did some test cuts with pine. They came out pretty close, but not perfect. Still I think I can make that work. I spent the afternoon looking this over, playing with it and thinking on it. There is a huge fight going on in my little brain right now between my machinist precision and my woodworkers precision and this project really requires machinist precision in wood, to my mind.

 In the evening as I was pondering, my cookie client showed up and was very pleased with his table. I offered to deliver it tomorrow, but he wanted to take it himself (I didn't expect that, he rarely does anything manual), so I loaded it up in his jeep with a blanket and off he went. Hopefully he will pay me in a few days (yeah, I know but...).
 This cleared that thing out of my way and now I can dug out the router table I bought with my table saw and never used once. I need it on this project. That is the job for tomorrow, to get it working, make a fence and figure out the next steps. I'll give y'all one more little clue which will likely make it all clear, it's all about the grain pattern.


 
 Tomorrow is another day, right?

[doc henderson]

looks like a "waterfall table"!!! ??????
does the jig just ride against the fence?  some would add a strip to go in the miter slot for stability.