Watcha Makin'?

[WV Sawmiller]

    Just piuddlin' mostly but I got out and made a couple of black walnut bench "kits" and some more bench legs for more kits. I trimmed and sanded a 30" and about a 36" walnut slab I've had air drying a couple of years. They were too wide to fit my planer so I worked on them with a belt sander to remove the saw marks and any water stains and such. I drilled the mortices with a 1.5" auger. The brittle walnut heart chipped a little on the edge in the process. I cut the legs from some square stock I had to length, ran them through a planer, knocked the corners off the legs on my table saw then cut the 1.5" tenons on the legs with my tenon cutter. Next I shrink wrapped 4 legs to each top to make the kit.

Next I found a couple of 2' long pieces of 2" thick LE ash and ripped them into 2" square stock, knocked the corners off them then cut the tenons on the end and then ran them through the planer to square them up and remove the weathering and the burn marks from the the table saw. This is the first time I have used 2" legs but looking at the finished legs I like them and am confident they will work well. I got 13 legs from the scrap pieces so I can build 3 more ash benches from them. I have a lot of ash LE 8/4 stock that is AD. Now I just need to pick the right ones and marry them up with a set of legs to have a kit.

  The kits are a new idea for me. They store in much less space and can be quickly assembled by just gluing the tenons and driving the leg into the mortices, saw off the excess on top with a Japanese pull saw, add/install a metal wedge, if desired/needed, then put them on the mill clamp and saw it at 17" height. I may take a kit with me to sawing demos and quickly assemble on site in the future. I can assemble them any time I need more stock for shows or such.

  One lesson I learned is next time I'll shrink wrap the legs to the bottom of the bench top so I or the customer can see what the bench will look like before I assemble them. I'll probably cut the plastic and re-do that with the 2 in the first picture.

[Wlmedley]

I got my table frame finished today.There was some pretty figure in the wood especially the legs.The bottom of my table top made a nice finishing bench.Found several shot gun pellets and one 22 caliber bullet. I left them in it as me or my brother were probably the ones that put them there many years ago.Should be able to bolt it to the top tomorrow but will have to get someone to help me flip it over because it's going to be pretty heavy.

[Wlmedley]

[Wlmedley]

[SwampDonkey]

You southern boys like heavy stuff. 

[Wlmedley]

You have got to make stuff heavy around here or someone will carry it off.

[Wlmedley]

Finally reached the end of my table build . My wife and I managed to get table flipped over and placed on the back porch. There it will stay until my son and daughter in law get their back porch constructed and then I'll take it to it's new home. I kind of hate to part with it but I already have one I built a few years ago but this one is nicer. I was happy to find that it doesn't wobble so I lucked out on that. I wouldn't have posted so much about it but input has been pretty low lately and I figured this might help out.

[Wlmedley]

Set a bench I made a while back next to table and it works perfectly. Just the right height and length but the legs don't match. If my DIL sees them setting together I'll have another project. Maybe I'll move it inside.

[SwampDonkey]

Run and hide it quick or you'll never be done. Course that ain't bad if theirs some cash involved. Often times work for relatives means going behind, fast. 

[Magicman]

That table is strutting it's stuff. 

[aigheadish]

Both of those tables sitting there are beautiful and inspiring! I need to get busy doing something!

[aigheadish]

I mentioned in OGH's thread, while talking about the flea market, that my wife has been on a birdhouse kick. Well, I finally made one after seeing one of the pieces of Ash, that I tried to run through my bandsaw, sitting in the yard, and I thought it'd make a nice roof.

Very simple but pretty fun to make. I took a random board I had around that was maybe 3/4" thick and resawed it down to maybe 3/8" (I don't know if that math works, I I figured out, yet again, that my bandsaw table was not flat, fixed after the fact). I used those pieces to make a box and to keep from running fasteners diagonally through the house I glued on the top. It's certainly not perfect but it was a fun, easy build in an afternoon, and I'm excited to try some more.

This may be an idea for some of you guys with all those first cut slabs. I don't know that I've seen them used this way, but maybe they have been.

Uhg, sorry for my toes!

[Old Greenhorn]

Fun little birdy house Austin. I hope it gets some nice tenants next spring.

I also love that table Bill! Nicely done indeed!
---------------------

I have been a bit busy in the shop with a couple of long days. Did some of these silly bottle holders today, not sure where that will go.


I have two cookie mirrors almost done, just need to mount the mirrors.


I have 5 keepsake boxes ready to apply finishes, then interior flocking.



And I have 5 pet cremation urns mostly going into an order.



These last are now glued up and I just have to put in the screw holes before I begin finishing them.
Not shown, I have some coat racks I am ref-finishing after the show because I didn't like how they looked. Tomorrow they may be cured up enough to put the pegs back in.

I'm staying busy, that's for sure.

[Wlmedley]

I might have to seal your bird house roof idea   ,Austin. I like it. Tom ,I can't figure what keeps bottle holder from falling over .Is it fairly stable or just balanced with a lot of effort .

[Old Greenhorn]

It's just a center of gravity physics thing. That particular one is not real stable, but I have other photos in the other thread. It does take a little adjusting, but it's not really tricky. The thickness of the foot has a bearing on how stable it is. I had one setup on the bench while I was going to town with the ROS on other parts and it never moved or wobbled. Basically it's a piece of firewood with a hole in it.

[Wlmedley]

Tom,disregard my comments about bottle holder. It seems to have been covered pretty well in another section of the forum. I'm like you , I don't really think it's practical for anything and would probably result in a broken bottle or even worse a trip to the emergency room with a bad cut. They will probably sell like hotcakes.

[WV Sawmiller]

I mentioned in OGH's thread, while talking about the flea market, that my wife has been on a birdhouse kick. Well, I finally made one after seeing one of the pieces of Ash, that I tried to run through my bandsaw, sitting in the yard, and I thought it'd make a nice roof.

Very simple but pretty fun to make. I took a random board I had around that was maybe 3/4" thick and resawed it down to maybe 3/8" (I don't know if that math works, I I figured out, yet again, that my bandsaw table was not flat, fixed after the fact). I used those pieces to make a box and to keep from running fasteners diagonally through the house I glued on the top. It's certainly not perfect but it was a fun, easy build in an afternoon, and I'm excited to try some more.

This may be an idea for some of you guys with all those first cut slabs. I don't know that I've seen them used this way, but maybe they have been.

Uhg, sorry for my toes!

How do you access the bird house to clean it out? Bluebirds will not use the same nest but sometimes they will build one on top of another. I use a 1' 1Z12 most of the time on mine. A wide first cut slab would work just as well. I may try some of that.

    I turn the birdhouse upside down on the top, center it and screw 4 short stickers on the 2 sides and front and back. That makes a cap that slips snugly on the birdhouse which can then easily be removed for cleaning. 

   I don't use the perch as I have heard it encourages predator birds to steal the eggs or baby birds. 

    I use rough 1X6 boards and when assembled the nest cavity is roughly 4" X 6". My front board is 10" long with the 1.5" hole about 3" from the top. The sides slope from 12" to 10" and the back is anything over 12" as the excess is used to fasten to the post when I put them on my pasture fence posts. I notch the corners on the bottom and leave the connections loose for good air flow. Mold and mildew will kill the birds as quick as anything out there.

[SwampDonkey]

I need to make a couple new bluebird boxes this winter. The old ones are getting pretty weather beat. 

Nice bird box, that rounded top will make water run off easier, probably better than a sloped flat top. 

[aigheadish]

Thanks guys.

Please do steal it Bill, I'd love to see more creations with a slab roof!

Howard- I thought about an access to clean it out but didn't do it on this one (maybe a hose?). I didn't even consider airflow, that's a good call and maybe I'll add some venting. It's taken me a couple reads of your description but I understand your design and like it, I'll have to keep that in mind next time. There is certainly room for improvement on my design.

My wife has an arch over a gate that she created with a ladder and the 4x4 posts of the gate and is attaching bird houses to them. I'm not sure that she cares much if birds actually live in them or not and she's, so far, just run screws up through the bottom of them to attach them. My guess is that doesn't end up being very bird friendly or hospitable with screws sticking up through the bottoms. I'll get permission, one of these days, to redo the screwing. For her it's more the look of it than the desire to attract birds and it does looks pretty cool. I'll see if I can find a picture.

This was early in construction, much more populated now. 

[Magicman]

No perch for Bluebird houses.  Either the top, front, or bottom needs to hinge for clean out.

[doc henderson]

Well, I doubt the birds will get the memo and will likely move on in.  

[WV Sawmiller]

Doc,

  If you don't have them set up for proper cleaning and removal of the old nests illegal emigrants/invasive species will take over and when they trash the place and move on dirt daubers, hornets and yellow jackets will start coming to take over.

Note to Bluebird lovers:

    Set your bluebird houses out 4-6 feet above ground in an area with lots of short grass such as a mowed yard or pasture. They feed on grasshoppers and grubs and such. They like to have an overhead place to light and observe before dipping into their houses. A convenient tree limb or cable line overhead or in front works well. I have one nest box in my back yard with my TV/Internet cable overhead and I have seen 4-5 bluebirds lined up each with a grasshopper or worm to go feed the chicks. (Yes I said 4-5 as the older siblings from the first clutch will help raise their baby brothers and sisters from later clutches.) Keep your boxes spaces several hundred feet apart as bluebirds are territorial and will nest close to others. I have 2 boxes that are too close and they use both but they alternate and never use both at the same time.

[Larry]

In serious need of adult supervision while in my shop. Only a child would think up a polka dot stool .

Throwing stuff on the wall to see what sticks!

It's not close to being finished and I see space to add a few more polka dot's.

[doc henderson]

are the colors aniline dye or natural exotic color?  I may have been tempted to orient the grain along with the base wood, since there is no wedge driven.  It all looks great.  what is the base wood?

[Larry]

Seat is crotch sweet gum. Legs are cherry with maple wedges. Dots are zebrawood, bloodwood, walnut, and yellow heart. The cherry will darken drastically but the rest of the wood is pretty color fast. I didn't give grain direction much thought because sweet gum has interlocking grain. Main reason is the dots fit better in one direction for some reason.