Watcha Makin'?

[tule peak timber]

Detailing a pair of 11 1/2-foot oak benches this morning.

[firefighter ontheside]

I finally finished these bowling lane benches and I'm delivering them tonight.  These things are so heavy and I'm glad to be done with them.  The rite legs make benches easy and they look nice.

[Old Greenhorn]

They look great Bill! I like the trim you put on them, it works nicely. I used the same RiteLegs on some benches I made for a dining room table, they really made thigs pop, I think. How many hours did you finally have in them, or don't you want to think about it?

Rob, I have a feeling when you put the finishes and complete he detailing on those they will look a whole lot different than they do in the photo.

[Resonator]

Those turned out nice! A good project right up your alley made in your spare time.

[Old Greenhorn]

That's pretty good. I saw what you did there Res. I wasn't that sharp, glad you were. My mind must have been in the gutter and I couldn't split off a minute or two to get it back on the ball and strike out something witty.

[doc henderson]

Tom, you have to strike while the iron is hot!

[Larry]

I did a bowling alley bench one time and found lots of metal. Never again. Your benches look nice and they have a story which adds a lot.

I'm sure this is a way off label use of a wood lathe. Making tapered octagon stretchers for a stick chair. May not be approved but it sure is fast. Use the lathe indexing and cut the facets with a router mounted on a jig.


I cut the legs on the table saw with a jig but the stretchers are smaller plus the taper goes in two directions so the lathe seems a better option.

[Old Greenhorn]

Holy Ham Hocks Larry! I have done some bizzaro stuff in my career (always in metal) put machines to use where they weren't designed to go, but that has my brain tied in a knot. Pretty neat stuff. It would be easy to do with the 1/2 million dollar CNC's I used to have in my stable, but these days making stuff with what I got is the rule of the day. I don't have a piece of equipment worth more than $400 or so. 
 Now we all need to know, ow do you line up those holes and make the lengths fit? That would drive me mad for 2 weeks and I would wind up re-making parts at lease once. What you have there, I would not even attempt. I don't drink enough to convince myself that I would have a chance to pull that off. No way. Your work blows me away.

[Larry]

Now we all need to know, ow do you line up those holes and make the lengths fit?

It's all Black Magic and a bit of luck.

Of course, sometimes I will get help from a jig. I'll get a picture for you soon.

[Old Greenhorn]

Take your time but I am looking forward to it. Try to bring it down to a level a hacker like me can comprehend. Some of the other things you've explained to us I still can't figure out . Black magic again, no doubt.
 I guess it's one of those "I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" things.

[Old Greenhorn]

So a few nights ago, after dinner I was sitting in the shop having a beer and thinking/pondering/musing. I had room for more stuff in the trailer. I am good for stools and benches and most stuff now. I have a cocktail table I am refinishing for the next show, I have never even attempted to sell it, too heavy and bulky before I got the trailer, now it's do-able. I just ran it through the drum sander and am now re-applying poly. No big deal. It's getting a little boring. I still have a few of those semi-finished half round slabs from 4 years ago to use as I sell the rustic benches. Need to make more legs, always need to make more legs. BUT, I wanted to do something different and hopefully, interesting.
 At the show last week there was a vendor selling antique furniture and she had some keyhole chairs. I found the design interesting and somewhat unique. I also have no idea what the original practical intent of the design is intended to do. Anyway, I looked them over and walked away and filed it someplace in my head. 
 Well now I am looking at a 4-5' long half round slab and the idea developed that I might make something in that line, but a bit more practical (to my simple mind anyway). SO I slept on it, couldn't come up with a reason not to try it, and began on it a day or two ago. Taking small steps and (trying to) think it through. This is a convoluted process, I think the order of build and assembly steps will matter here and I really don't want to make firewood.
 Cut to the chase:
This is all rough, no glue, just one clamp to hold the back at the right angle.


Looks kind of cool from the front.



I will be tracing and cutting a full radius around the top edge of the back to smooth out the shape. The legs will be trimmed to give a seat height of about 17" or so. Right now it's about 24", although that almost looks cool too.  I have a tiny bit of leg fitting to do so I have enough to trim off the top on one leg. Tomorrow I will glue the legs.

 Here is the blind spline detail on the back joint. I will epoxy this one, it is a waterfall joint, meaning the grain follows right around, but certainly no where near museum quality.  It will trim and blend just fine though. 



 Everything is just rough cut and semi-fitted at this point. The plane is to glue the legs and get that all sealed up. Trim off the tops and sand flush, then put it on the mill and level the legs. Then I'll bring it back in the shop and after I trim the top of the back and rough sand that, I will epoxy the joint. After that some small fill pours to blend everything out nice, sand and blend the back joint outside edges, then see if I missed something, if it looks good I'll throw a finish on it.
 At least it's something different and I really prefer to have as wide a variety of stuff as possible in the stable. It helps open up folks minds to conversations and better ideas.
 On reflection (so far) this isn't really very different than the oak chair a I made a year or two ago but given the round live bottom/back sides, it was a different challenge to get the cuts right. No idea how I will price this thing out. But I like it because it's different.

[firefighter ontheside]

I like it Tom.  Might need some wider slabs.

Now that those benches are out of the way, I can do a little work on a canoe.  I made two new mortise and tenon seat frames out of walnut.  I used my tenoning jig for the first time in a long time.  I used it because I didn't feel like putting the dado set in the table saw.  I'm gonna go back out there and make a thwart out of cypress.  I've decided that this canoe doesn't need a carrying yoke, so I'm gonna make a thwart designed to hold fishing rods.  I'm looking forward to floating this canoe down my local river.

[Wlmedley]

Don't really know what I'm making yet but I have a good start on it.Have a piece of white oak 19" wide and 5' long.It's a little to wide for a bench and it's live edge on both sides so I'm thinking maybe a coffee table.First white oak I've worked with and already noticed it is a lot harder than red oak or walnut.

[Old Greenhorn]

Bill, 19" is a nice width for a chair seat, but also good for a coffee table or a sideboard serving table or a breakfast bar in a kitchen. The world is your oyster, choose widely. 

 FFOTS Bill, have you ever thought of just making a canoe from scratch? Seems like you've made all the parts at some point already.
--------

 About 4 years ago when I was just getting into learning this stuff, I built a 3 piece series. A lamp table, a coffee table, and a cocktail table. Although all the tops matched, coming from the same logs, they all have different leg systems. One had a screwed together leg system, the other used those inside miter corner brackets for easy leg removal, and the 3rd used a commercial restaurant leg pedestal that has been taking up space in my shops for 40 years. I just took off the rust and refurbed it. But this last one I never finished. The top was totally done, as was the pedestal, but I never attached the top the the pedestal. I just set the top on, threw a towel over it, and used to to hold parts and extra blades for the TS and router bits. It was too big and heavy to pack for shows and I still have the other 2 pieces that have not sold yet, so I figured I would make the offer to whoever bought the others.
 
 Well now that I have the trailer and have have been getting better with my packing, I can fit this table in. So last week I took a look at it. The top finish was just fine, but it remained at my skill level of 4 years ago which meant the top was finished with a handheld 4" belt sander and ROS. It 'may' have had a few dips, but it was still quite flat with no cup to speak of. Still, I can do better now, so I ran it through the drum sander and removed the finish and flattened it both sides, leaving just one little dip on the bottom side, then I refinished it (poly) and attached it. It cleaned up quick with little effort. I had to do some touch up on the pedestal paint just to freshen it after cleaning. Done and Done, and I stuck it in the trailer before it gets more shop dust on it.  The inventory continues to grow and I still have a rustic bench and that chair to trim the legs and start on the joints or finishing work.

 

[firefighter ontheside]

Yes, Tom, I would like to build a cedar strip canoe.  It just takes a lot of time and space.  I need to do it soon so I have time to enjoy it.  

[doc henderson]

As with most things in life.

[DWyatt]

A quick little project that I got finished up last night.

[aigheadish]

My neighbor has some old, rotting shed doors and, presumably, after some beers or bourbon, I suggested I could build them some new ones. Well, I was reminded of that conversation (which I didn't remember) a few days ago. These doors are nothing special but I've got the first one done, just plywood and some 2 x4s, trying to get the motivation to work on the next two. These are beasts and quite heavy. I also will need to figure out how to reframe the openings and hang the doors. It's nothing I've done before but I think I can figure it out. My biggest concern is the weight, so the hinges may need looked at to make sure they are beefy enough, and I may have to go with lag bolts. Uh, it's intended to be vertical. With the bottom being the hinge side.

Anyone have a good idea what a neighbor price for these would be? For better or worse I'll likely have 7+ hours in them, just to build them, then I'll have to hang them, that seems like a lot of time, I'm not sure... They paid for materials.

[firefighter ontheside]

Dwyatt, at first I thought I was looking through an open door at a bed.  Then I figured out the project was a mirror.  I made a mirror just like that several years ago to donate to a benefit auction for a firefighters kid with cancer.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I stuck two more projects in the trailer today for the next show in mid-June. The first is another rustic bench, Ash with Maple Legs.

 For Ash, it has nice figuring with the sapwood mixed in. On the bottom side:

 It has some really nice galleries from those danged EAB's. Hard to see in that photo, but really pronounced. I don't think I'll see much more of this in my lifetime as this stuff goes to rot, the little bit that is left. I put two blind tenons and two through tenons in this one because of the variation in thickness, end to end.

 The other item was that chair I showed here a week or so ago. It's finished now and I am pretty happy with it, it's very comfy, even if it is smallish.


 I am calling this a 'semi-waterfall joint' because the grain is not perfectly lined up, but it does flow.



 The back joint is a blind spline and the blending came out pretty nice. I had fun blending in the edges and there were some knots that make interesting features, but of course, they are nearly out of sight.



The trailer is pretty much full now and I did some work on condensing my packing. It's time to sell some of this stuff.

[Wlmedley]

Both projects look good Tom but I especially like the bench. I've managed to give all of my benches away except one and think I'll try to build a few more.Maybe I'll eventually build some good enough to sell.

[Old Greenhorn]

They are ALL 'good enough to sell', it's just a question of what price you put on them. Last year I sold out on all my lower priced rustic benches and most stools so I focused on replacing those this spring. It's early in the season and nothing seems to be moving yet, but we will see. My high end cherry benches are not moving, but I am not dropping the price and will just carry them along until the right person shows up. In the meantime I have the rustic stuff to generate some income. Those stools sell fairly well because they are in the $40. range, some cheaper.
 Except for small things, the trailer is full now, so I can't add any tables or such until I sell some of the bigger pieces to make room.

[DWyatt]

Walnut end tables are about ready for assembly. The front 'waterfall' has been cut off to service as a semi-inconspicuous drawer front. 

[Larry]

Looks good!

How are you making the waterfall joint? It looks tight.

[aigheadish]

Wow DWyatt! Very well done!