Watcha Makin'?

[Larry]

Fed the Byrd this morning.  Making a small table with curvy legs.  Made a MDF pattern to run against my Byrd pattern cutter.  One side is for the convex curve and the other side is for the concave curve.






The Byrd leaves a nice enough finish I can start sanding with 220 or maybe 320 grit sandpaper.



Next step is to cut some mortise's for the stretchers than I can taper the adjacent leg faces.

The table is being made to show off a little art treasure.  Straight leg tables are nice, but tables with curvy legs are sexy........and sex brings more $$$$$'s. ;D

[Don P]

And kind of in the same vein, I'm not sure what you call that big byrd router bearing, we called it a rub collar. Pretty legs Larry  ;D

[aigheadish]

I decided to try again, fresh and new for the cutting board, so I went to the local lumber yard. They have some nice stuff. I got an 8' long piece of walnut, a 10' long piece of maple, and probably 5' long piece of cherry, of which they did not have a great supply. I spent Saturday cleaning up the edges and squaring stuff up. This is the before picture with the long pieces cut in half so I could fit them in my car. Next will be ripping some strips and doing the glue-up. I plan to oversize this one so I have some shoulders to ride the router on, then cut it down to size. I'm thinking from this much wood I should be able to make 2- 4 cutting boards. I have yet to do the real math of piece widths.

[Larry]

The little table I'm working on is beginning to look like something.  The assembly I'm gluing up are the lower rails and attach to the legs.  I was happy with my really tight joints.  Went in the house for a quick sandwich.  When I came back out I noticed the rail on the right was glued in upside down.  They have a flat on one side and a slight curve on the other....I had that one reversed.

Luck would have it, the glue was not set and I was able to re-glue.  Of course now I will worry if it is a good joint.


 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Okay, I am hoping no industrial spies are checking this site before my pattern gets approved. :D

  This is more of the "Common Man" projects. ;)

   I was talking to my cleaning lady yesterday about coons getting into the dog food stored on the front porch and she suggested buying a metal trash can to keep it in. I said "Why buy metal when I can make wood?" This morning I measured an unopened 50 lb sack of dog food then went out and grabbed a few stock 4/4 poplar boards, cut them on my RAS and built the bin below. It looks like it will work fine.


 

 


 
The inside dimensions are 8" W X 20" D X 29" T. I used 1X8s for the bottom and sides, 1X6's for the sides and a 1X10 for the top with a couple of 2X2 strips inside the bottom and cap/top for nailers. I used all nails instead of screws. It is pretty hard to open for a coon. If worst come to worst I'll add a locking feature to the top but unless a bear gets on the porch I doubt that is ever needed.

[Don P]

I need to make something like that for the pantry, like they say about the old rounder, an empty sack just cant stand upright.  I really need a 2 bagger I can turn around to the fresh bag while replacing the empty.


I seem to be going thinner and thinner on the canning jar boxes. This is all about 5/16" thick black willow, the branch gave up 4 "boards" about 1/2" thick several years ago. I saw them last week and planed them down. Clear brush on water based poly seems to be the best bang for the buck on these. It should hold a dozen jelly jars. We sawed up a little sassafras a few weeks ago I've got upstairs in the barn with a fan on it.



 

A 36" plastic culvert was $1100 today.

[WV Sawmiller]

   One feature I did not discuss was the handles. Those are a real simple design that works real well on any rough/rustic wood project. Just take a piece of 3-4 inch wide scrap, cut it 4-6 inches long and turn your table saw blade to cut a 45* angle, set the fence so the blade cuts the full thickness, cut one side, reverse and cut the other. Then turn the narrow side in and nail or screw to a box top or a wooden door or gate. This makes a very serviceable, dirt cheap handle to lift or open anything with.

This allows you to easily place 4 fingers under one side and your thumb on the other and lift or pull as needed. I use them on my wooden composting toilet/outhouse doors  for a perfect match for decor desired.

[WV Sawmiller]

Don,

  Back to your comment about a 2- bagger you could easily add a partition using another 1X8 (in my example and a couple of 1" stickers for runners in the middle on each side with a 1" space for the partition board but that will make a very large and heavy bin to move and take up space. You could add the runners after the sides are on by just screw them securely from the outside.

  I have about 4" of clearance between the top and the contents. I figure I will use about 45 or so lbs of the dog food, pull the nearly empty sack out, put another full one in, shake it down good, then put the nearly empty bag back on top. You can just add extra space on the the top with that in mind and leave room to put the partial bag on top of the full one.

[Don P]

I've been working towards being able to sell cornmeal to the local stores which involves the blessing of the state. One of the things I have to do is either work in the back of a closed truck, or screen the back opening. So i started making a screen frame and a door frame. This board had made it a bunch of steps before this caught my eye. At first I thought DanG fence. but look, no knife damage, its lead. 



 

I'm working on cornbread samplers. They're getting closer and somebody has to dispose of the experiments.
9 mind numbing chapters into the foodservice ServSafe manual so far, and there will be a class and test this week, oh joy  :D.

I think I need to figure out some kind of display rack with 1 & 5 lb bags.

[Wlmedley]

Poplar trees must attract bullets. I found several sawing some of mine.The more I think about it I was probably the fellow that shot them  :laugh:

[tule peak timber]

I've been working towards being able to sell cornmeal to the local stores which involves the blessing of the state. One of the things I have to do is either work in the back of a closed truck, or screen the back opening. So i started making a screen frame and a door frame. This board had made it a bunch of steps before this caught my eye. At first I thought DanG fence. but look, no knife damage, its lead.



 

I'm working on cornbread samplers. They're getting closer and somebody has to dispose of the experiments.
9 mind numbing chapters into the foodservice ServSafe manual so far, and there will be a class and test this week, oh joy  :D.

I think I need to figure out some kind of display rack with 1 & 5 lb bags.

I would like to know what make of grinder you are using. What type of corn?

[Don P]

The mill is a ca 1917 Meadows with 16" stones, the red mill here in Sammie's shop. I didn't update you all, he passed the January after finishing our mill. I believe that is a Wood's mill second back on the left, another N Wilkesboro company that was bought by Meadows. The same Meadows of sawmill fame. The mill in NC is running a 30" commercial Meadows and supplies places like Mabry Mill, Neese's and the surrounding community.






 

I'm grinding commodity white dent corn that I'm purchasing from Sammie's son and grandson's mill down in NC. Food safety wise it is tested and certified (I'm readin the book boss!)  Hickory Cane and Hickory King are the two old time varieties. I'd like to work towards getting a local organic grower at some point. Up here white is bread corn and yellow is feed, but I grew up where everything was yellow. This is whole grain, not degermed so it must be used and restocked fresh, which sounds like a pain but we have forgotten something, or lost it, but that's why there was a mill on every creek. Nowadays we eat sawdust the bugs won't even touch. So far the best endorsement I've heard was from an old Arkansas farm girl "This is the best effing cornbread I've ever put in my mouth!  :D". Off the stones and right to the kitchen it is a different meal. And her chickens appreciate all my missed efforts.

[thecfarm]

Don P, A picture of you grinding corn with that old machine will sell a lot of bags.
Then a link for a video will sell more. ;D

[Don P]

I was curious and mailed some a week or so ago. Where it started was with me driving down to NC to buy the corn, back up here to grind about $.25 of whole kernels and put the meal in a bag and then box to mail. The fuel outstripped the corn already. Down to the post office with 1.33 lbs... and $12.50 later it was heading down the road. I think its a hobby  :D.

What we really need is to drag those old mills out of the weeds and harden our food supply. Cornmeal isn't supposed to come from Chicago. But don't get me started  ;D.

The VDACS people are trying but they don't know what to make of me. "Its in a truck?". But where is your 3 basin sink? It's a mill, no water touches anything in a mill, that would make a sanitation problem. So I'm a coupla hundred pages into their text, which hasn't mentioned a mill yet and I suspect some poor soul is trying to dig up some standard for gristmills, which I'm sure exists but has slipped from use. And the daily grind has happened since man first settled down, we are funny 

[Magicman]

Don P's Cornmeal is good stuff.. 

[tule peak timber]

I'm having a heck of a time finding a mill to purchase before fall harvest of my Floriani flint corn. My goal is to make polenta as a house staple. I am unable to find a machine specific for this purpose of course meal production.
 The mill you are using looks terrific! Also your meal sounds delicious. 8)

[WV Sawmiller]

Don,

  First thoughts from the design committee is that your display needs to be vertical and round to look like an ear of corn standing upright. I guess you need the larger shelves on the bottom for the 5 lb bags of meal with smaller closer, shelves at the top for 1 lb bags. I assume you will also want to produce and market home ground grits too. I am surprised the taste drives toward white over yellow. I much prefer the taste of yellow corn meal.

   I think you need a crockpot full of grits in the office to offer every guest or customer who comes to visit. What you don't eat today you can chill and fry and sell fried grits from the leftovers.

   Then you need a real catchy name for your marketing. Maybe Maizey's home ground corn and grits or such.

   At what point are you gonna offer blue cornmeal?

   Good looking set up.

[Don P]

That's good to hear MM, it goes from the mill to the freezer here and stays fresh, that is as long as any has been "out of the water". I need to experiment and see what the room temp "best by" time is. I'd have to make rounds and replace unsold stock on something shorter than that schedule. That gets into design committee stuff too  :D.

I would like to grind some of each and try them fresh, side by side, blind. For cross contamination avoidance, such as a person with a wheat allergen, this mill will only see corn. I don't think different varieties would be a problem.

Under "cottage laws" I can sell face to face to individuals or at farmers markets but cannot wholesale to a store. Non refrigerated food, stuff that doesn't require time/temp control such as cornbread would be the same. It gets that "Prepared in an uninspected facility, not for resale" sticker and you're good to go for one to one sales. Dry grits no problem, cooked grits or polenta would be a problem, now you need time/temp control.

Like at the farmers market, I'll need a handwashing sink with 100+°F water, soap, towels, can, the sign. That can be a flip valve igloo over a bigger bucket, paper towels and a foot activated trash can... and "the sign".

Latino's grind wet, they are making hominy first and then grinding that. I believe that is a steel burr mill. That, food-wise, is better. It makes the niacin available to us. We are also not deficient in a modern diet. It is a completely different product though. What we get here as masa harina is the wet output of that mill, dried rather than used fresh as is traditional. I'm pointing to another niche market.

Rob, I have no idea what a new one costs, I suspect its an investment in the community, even this one will never pay for itself... but that wasn't the entire goal.

Meadows Mills, Inc. - 100 Years & Counting of Providing Top Quality Milling Equipment

[tule peak timber]

Thanks. I have reached out to them

[tule peak timber]

Finishing up a Live Oak table from some really rough rotted materials. The tree meant a lot to the customer, so I put my "wizard of crap" hat on to weave some magic. Sorry about the glare... :D

 

 

 

 

 

[beenthere]

The wizard done real good on those rough wood slabs. Real good !!

[Don P]

I'm working on the screen door for the back of the truck. I'm no wizard or furniture guru but I was slapping together a carpenters setup for routing a few tenons. 

I usually have my best dull 3/4 bit banging around in the bottom of a toolbox. I measure from the bit to the edge of the "bearing". In this case I'm using the base as my rub collar. Not particularly accurate, but it works of you don't squirm around a bunch. Add 2-5/8 to the cut line for a fence.



 

Set the depth to be removed from each face.



 

Slap together a jig, this is well into it, there is a finished tenoned rail behind the one in the jig that is clamped in and ready to start



 

Cleaned up, the top and bottom ones "haunched"


 

And I just got everybody fitted up but needed a sammich before glung it up.


 

Anyway, more simple router tricks.

[tule peak timber]

Grain filling a walnut island top today. 

This customer wanted a big top from a small tree so I used scribed joinery from 8 different pieces to form up this top. The quality of the wood, with all of the twists and curves, would not lend itself well to a table saw. So, I laid things out and hand cut and matched the various pieces to form a single large "wannabe slab" for their kitchen island. If you are careful, and cut along the grain, the result is that it almost looks like one piece. Claro walnut, 3 inches thick.

 

[Larry]

tpt, with that style of leg are you using any "C" channel to keep the tops flat? 

I like your legs, table legs I mean. :D  I'm guessing your cutting them out with a pattern on a shaper.  I have a table to make soon and might make similar legs.

[tule peak timber]

Yes, but with multiple patterns, referenced to each joint. That said; after rough sawing, then run through a big shaper head, the legs might be slightly different in shape/size, but perfect joints. Once the legs are put together, I re-true their squareness very carefully on a big sliding table saw. When you look at them, they are flat, true and square, but not necessarily identical. My weird way of looking at things. Most woodworking guys work from an outside reference (table top, jointer bed, etc.) and I like to reference from the inside and true by touch up later.
I guess I am bassackwards eh?