Watcha Makin'?

[RetiredTech]

  I finally got the new cedar gate hung my wife wanted. I know it's not much, but it's what she wanted.  Here's a picture of my wife, the gate and the log it came from. She's happy now.

[Larry]

I have a customer/friend that I frequently saw for, mostly big live edge slabs.  He gave me a large piece of a fire killed sequoia.  It was really ugly and mostly black as you can image a fire killed tree would be.  I was looking at it with my friend and she thought she could turn a little piece into a bowl so I chain sawed off a chunk to turn.  Here is the result.



The bottom bowl is sequoia and the top bowl is maple out of the slab pile.



Another picture of the maple bowl.  Best color I've ever seen from maple.  Just the first coat of oil so the sheen will improve with a bit more with additional coats.

While she was messing with bowls I was building steam bending forms for a ladder back chair.....I'm going to copy a Brian Boggs chair with a few twists of my own.

[Ljohnsaw]

Did you know that a half full 5 gallon bucket of concrete anchors is really heavy? ;)

A CL free add had a 17' pallet rack end that was munched by a forklift and a pile of concrete anchors. Well, the anchors were bigger in person. Most were 1" x 10" so not useful to me. They filled 8 or 9 buckets half full. They got scrapped.

There was also 3 buckets of nuts and washers. I kept the 120 galvanized ones. The rest gave me some ideas...

A family with the weird uncle.


 

 

 
Alternative groupings.


 

 

 
;)

[firefighter ontheside]

One of the other battalion chiefs at work asked me to build a picnic table for him to give to his son for Christmas.  It's an octagon that I had to follow plans for building it.  There are lots of pieces with 22.5 deg cuts.  The instructions do not tell you to cut long point and short point.  There is simply a length measurement.  This thing is heavy as it is built all with treated pine that is of course very wet.  Luckily the Kubota made quick work of picking it out of the garage and placing it on my trailer.  A little lesson for my son on using the tractor and the loader.


 

 

 

[doc henderson]

still in one piece.  good job FFOTS jr.

made benches for the neighbor's grandchildren that did not get one last year. 



 

 

 

[Old Greenhorn]

Neat design on that table Bill, wow. Gonna be tough to put that away for the winter though. :D
Doc, looks like you are cranking out stools with your easy bake oven. :D ;D

Well, I think I am calling this one 'done'.



 

The cabinet is 44" long, by 33" high, by 19" deep and the top overhangs that by an inch or two on 3 sides.



 

The back is intended to fit flush to a wall.



 

Top is Red Oak, 3 live edge sides.



 

Sides are Ash but I added a fluted trim on the front edge to cover the dado's. I also only held the top on with some small angle brackets to keep it from sliding around. Top has to be removed for moving anyway because of the weight so I wanted it simple.

I really pulled the material for this out of my ash. I used the ash sides, oak top and maple for the shelves, just searching around for whatever wood I could save and make work. Yeah, I could put another dozen hours or so polishing the epoxy edges (the top and edges are full epoxy floated), but it's not that high end of a job and they need it for Christmas. ;D

I am anxious to get on to the next thing.

[21incher]

Looks good. Wondering how the top side edging was installed to avoid seasonal movements opening  up the front miters?  I tried  that once and a year later had problems with the miters opening even with doweling them at the joint. What's your secret?  Is it encasing everything  in epoxy so the seasonal moisture content can't change.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I guess we'll see. :D Truth is, I've never had a problem...yet. I put a lot of effort into filling every little crack and cranny in the wood before cutting fitting up, and finishing. With the epoxy, I really doubt there is any moisture getting into this at all. The edges are biscuit joined all around, but that's just alignment. Biscuits and dowels do nothing for joint strength really, just align it for easier gluing and clamping. This top does not have epoxy on the bottom, just 4 coats of poly, which also seals pretty well.
I guarantee all my work, so if there is a problem, I'll fix it. But I really don't expect an issue. It's a good point you make though and I wonder if Rob @tule peak timber has any thoughts on this since he does so much more of it than anybody I know.

[21incher]

From what I have noticed Rob seems to hide a Baltic Birch substrate with veneers to keep intersections like this stable. Then many coats of WOC finishes that I have never heard of. After the cart I made my sister had problems  I gave up trying to hide end grain on tops.

[tule peak timber]

Honestly, I don't do bread board ends on any of my designs. A lot of guys who do bread boards choose to dowel or pin through a tenon rather than gluing, to allow for some movement. As far as coating schedules, on any of the projects I do, the finish schedule is the same top, bottom and sides; that is, everywhere the same, balanced. Epoxy is good for keeping moisture in or out and the topcoats I use, on top of epoxy, are even more waterproof and usually contain a UV component, and hopefully are harder than the epoxy itself.
When I build with veneers, on a substrate, the veneers are typically 1/4-1/2" thick, so I can get a little round over on the edge, imitating solid wood. The purpose of the baltic birch substrate is stability and also saves a lot of weight as these structures are usually hollow or engineered. One way to put the bread board ends and sides on a veneered piece would be to heavily dado the bullnose, so it gets a good hold on the stable veneered piece. An additional thing you can do on the corners is to run splines, either blind or visible. I don't care for mitered corners and would choose a half lap look instead. If the end grain is a problem,,,highlight it with a little carving to show off the piece as a solid hunk of wood!

[doc henderson]

can you show an example of what you mean, "a little carving on the end grain if it is a problem"?  is that just to distract the eye, or functional in some way?

[doc henderson]

making a new squirrel feeder for my wife's mom.  fill the jar and hoist it up.  easier than screwing a corn cob onto a screw. 



 

here is the elm cookie I gave to Dr. Hagley.  @cardiodoc.   after about a year's effort.  was stabilized and now re-flattened.  has some epoxy.  and some polyethylene glycol.  4 feet across and 3 inches thick.



 

here are the plaques from one of my "near eagle" scout projects, to place on the benches he made for the disabled housing units here in town.



 

point in time at the ED party at our house for the holidays.



 

had a broken bone, but could see some ID, may add it back later.

[aigheadish]

Well, I guess I'm learning the strength of a certain thickness of whittling wood... Basswood or Doug Fir (presumably) 2x4. The tree and big mushroom I wasn't happy with but the little guy was coming along ok, even after I chopped his nose off.



 

[tule peak timber]

can you show an example of what you mean, "a little carving on the end grain if it is a problem"?  is that just to distract the eye, or functional in some way?

 

 And of course you can always use a router to highlight solid wood construction.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, as much fun as it is to hear why this will fail over time, I just wanted to point out that the only reason I did this was because (as mentioned) I was really strapped for wood. I am OUT of anything of decent size and dimension. I did not have enough to make the full length and width top required, but I did have some funky RO that I could take the edges off of.
Should this top fail as predicted. I will happily replace it with a complete new one when my wood supply is back up to snuff. I do guarantee my work, always. I did make the top removable so this won't be an issue.

[NE Woodburner]

A lot of guys who do bread boards choose to dowel or pin through a tenon rather than gluing, to allow for some movement.

I built a dining trestle table about 35 years ago and still use it. I did a breadboard edge on each end and did just this. I stopped the tenon short of the ends so you don't see it from the side and pinned the center with a glued dowel (no glue on the tenon). I put two more dowels at the ends and made slotted holes in the tenon with no glue in the tenon section of the dowel to allow movement. And move it does. The table is 3' wide and during the winter with dry wood heat in the house the ends of the breadboard are flush with the sides of the table. By the peak of a humid summer the table grows in width and I will see over 1/4" difference in the width of the table and length of the breadboard edge. I'm OK with it and think for the table style it looks more finished with the breadboard edge.

OGH, you never know - it may be fine. I've seen projects with glued cross grains and thought they would have issues and they didn't. I was taught to not constrict that movement so I've never tried it myself.

[Larry]

I have a design for a large waterfall table I want to make sometime this winter.  I've been thinking about how to make the miter waterfall joint.  I could do splines, domino's, or dowels but none of those methods have really impressed me for several reasons.  Fine Woodworking has had a couple of articles about using "L" tenons.  Some were solid wood, others a composite of wood and aluminum angle, and one was made from baltic birch.  I found a video detailing the baltic birch method from a source that I respect and trust.  L-shaped Tenons

I thought it would be helpful to practice before cutting up a high dollar slab.  Grabbed a short junk slab to make a kitchen step stool.



With a dry fit it was solid as a rock.  My GF and I bounced on it and no give.






Glue up was an easy process and clamps brought all the pieces together.  The legs are exactly 90 degrees and no gaps.  The glue line can barely be made out.  I decided to put a small round over on the joint but I think that was a mistake as it adds a slight bit of distortion to the waterfall effect.  First coat of oil on this morning and the sheen will improve with a couple more coats.

[Hilltop366]

I'm liking the round over, flows better with the soft edges to me.

[21incher]

That's a great video explaining the joint.  Thanks for sharing it.  I also like the radius.

[caveman]

The stool is cool.  The joinery is impressive.

One of the logs we got the other day was cut too short but since it was a decent sized slash pine, we had it loaded on the trailer anyway.  I sawed it into 1 3/8" thick boards and one live edged slab.  I figured it was long enough to make a picnic table out of.  This is green so I expect the lap joints to loosen a bit but maybe it won't fall apart.



 

 

 My wife really did not want her picture taken but I said something mildly inappropriate, and she could not help but smile, so I pushed the button.  The table is for my oldest daughter and her husband.

[Old Greenhorn]

That's a nice solid design with good execution. She should get many many years out of that.

[Crusarius]

Today's last minute Christmas gift for my dad.

He finally retired after 35+ years.



 

[aigheadish]

This time I'm making the view better. When I say "I'm" I mostly mean my lovely wife. After I put in the new culverts I hacked the right side of that path back a bit. That gave my wife the opportunity to really get that junk cleared out so we have a nicer view of the back field. I expect to keep most of the big trees that are in the path but we may lose some limbs here or there. Today I went out and chainsawed some big downed logs and honeysuckle. When it's all said and done we'll probably have about 20+ feet more to the right of the existing path cleared out.



 

[doc henderson]

 

 

 

Sammy the shop cat at my buddy Dallas's place.  he liked to sit in Dallas's chair in the room with all the trophies.



 

 

Last week he got out on the road.  He was after moles out in the ditch.



 

I could not get a pic of Dallas cause I had tears in my eyes.  Dallas loved that cat.  He would always check under my truck if the cat was out before I left.  Dallas told me a story about running over a friend's dog, that always got under people's cars, and he never forgot it.  only so much you can do.

[doc henderson]

Well, another sad pet story.  this one belonged to my lead scribe's BIL and died on Christmas.  Diesel.



 

 

I thought the content made a great engraving, and the gift will be appreciated by the owner.  Katlyne came and helped.  I have known her for almost 10 years.  She also worked at Wesley, and I made the cake topper out of wood on my engraver with a bear and a fox.  that was their thing.  they dated since 6th grade, and got married at about age 26.

It was a thin piece of spalted maple and got a significant warp with finish.  15 x 15 inches.  I made a brace to flatten it with finish and in the warmer.  it lays flat now.  note the screws on each end of the wood stick.  I think the heat and moisture from the spar urethane, help to relax and flatten the piece.