Woodworking
 

I don't recall seeing anything on here about the hobby. Do you do it? Have any interest? Tools? Have you made anything? Do you want to learn?

With the recent developments on the Planet, it got me thinking, what can I do to contribute and support the new effort?

I had no problem with any of the old guard and want to support the effort to make Chiefs Planet great again with the regime.


They aren't teaching vocational training in high school anymore, but maybe we can provide a venue here to learn woodworking?

There is a handyman mega thread, but this deserves it's own thread if we are going to accomplish something.

When I went to Junior high school we had woodworking class and I have always loved it. Finally, upon retirement, I have been able to set up a nice woodwork shop. I can go from station to station and perform the particular task, planing, jointer, sander, router table, radial arm, table and band saw.

I am currently on my fifth cedar chest this winter. Each one has gotten much easier as I have learned.

We have a cedar mill about ten miles away so it has been very instrumental in the effort as raw material is the main ingredient. It is dirt cheap at the mill and I have been buying 1.1 inch thick by 52 long by 4.25 wide boards and gluing them together.

What are you working on?

Per makes a mean dog house ramp.

Nice idea for a thread. I wish I was better at wood working, I'm more like a wood butcher.

I bet if you had the time and space you would do well. It is not all that much different than fixing a car. :D

I built these for my daughters Christmas presents. The first one took forever, but each one gets easier and faster.

I'm a shit wood worker. The only thing I can work on with any success is numbers.

Metal is much easier than wood. You can't go back with wood lol

Those chests look good though ed

Nice work Ed!! I haven't done that stuff since wood shop in junior high back in the (gulp) 70's

I took wood shop in junior high, amd thoroughly enjoyed it. I do small projects here and there, but nothing major. I'm good with most woodworking machines..sanders, router, jigsaw, miter saw, etcetera. Table saws scare the hell out of me, though.

I took wood in jr high too, ended up making a cutting board lol.

I made a couple hammers in metal working that I still use today.

Do we have any contractors on here who work with home repairs or installs?

I'm from Texas, so our final project was a Texas shaped birdhouse. I think they should have let us make whatever we wanted to demonstrate the skills we learned up to that point.

We made some cool shit throughout the year, though. Cameras out of quaker oat boxes, wooden racecars powered by c02 cartridges, and rockets that actually shot into ths sky.

Amd that part about the hammers is really cool. You ought to stash one away, to ensure that it lasts. Let one of your kids use it as an adult and tell them where it came from.

Never had a problem with a table saw but my compound miter saw is the one that has almost gotten me a couple of times. Fingernail saved my little finger a couple weeks ago.

I just finished this one for my sister in law tonight, my fifth one.

Exactly! I have asked my grandsons and they say it is not offered anymore. What the ****?

Table saws freak me out too.

That wood sure finished out nicely, Ed.

My son already has the first, smallest, one in his tool box.

That's really awesome.

Probably too expensive. All the band saws and lathes. It's cheaper to buy computers lol I had metal shop in junior high too.

Wow, that's impressive!

I didn't think you were good for anything but working on those crappy Dodges. :D

Right up until he pounds in someone's fender with it lol. He's only 4 and always wants to help.

I have to watch him in the shop. Lately he takes his little section and uses oil dry to build monster truck ramps.

I'm sure fear of lawsuits is a factor as well.

Umm.... :shake:

We had an auto shop too. A good one.

The blade is stable on a table saw, but moving on a compound miter saw. Table saws should be the safest

Thanks Bug, I had one short board left over after the one I built for my wife's sister out of 120 boards I bought. I have to order more wood so it can be curing for next winter.

Same here, small engine, electrical, drafting/mechanical drawing among others. Probably none of that is there anymore.

I had an aeronautics class in high school. Now that was fun. You built your own wooden airplane with a Ricky dink propulsion system. We'd throw them on the football field and you were graded on performance and distance. I think mine went 60 yards. It was a cool class and I don't hear about too many high school classes offering that.

My fear goes back to high school woodshop when I was cutting a top for a nightstand on a table saw, and the saw grabbed the piece out of my hand and shot it across the shop. Still to this day don't know what I did to make it do that, but that machine earned my full respect that day.

Thanks Tim, it is actually very similar. :D Here is how it actually goes. These boards are glued together after going through the planer, then the jointer, ends cut on the radial arm saw then dowels drilled with a jig to line up correctly.

Seriously, that's awesome. I had no idea you could do that.

I guess guitars qualify since they are made of wood...

That stuff kind of keeps it from getting boring. :D I have stopped a couple of my saws lately and you just stay out of the way. Run and hide.:)

The scary part on the table saw for me is using my dado blades like i used to make these shelves. You are cutting out a very wide path and it whirrs pretty loud. You are also at the limits of the shaft width.

We did to but I was already working as a bottom line heavy mechanic at a shop. Kind of funny, I wasn't a "voky" but did more voky than most of them.
We had electrical in eight grade then wood working in ninth, that was it.



Rich kids.

Did you make those?:eek: wow, that is some nice work.

Looking back, our middle school shop classes were pretty impressive as well. In addition to wood and metal, we did leather stamping, plastic molding, silk screening and probably other stuff I'm forgetting. We even cast metals which was super cool.

And yeah, that guitar is incredible.

Is a lot of that training valuable in your job today? Help you build the fundamentals that you use?

How did your kitchen come out, n00b? And did Ed make the cabinets? Lol

Oh absolutely. I don't know where else I would have learned to use so many different types of tools. It sure as hell wasn't going to happen at home.

****, I am STILL staining the cabinets. It's been a slow and tedious process and I've had to redo some of them because I didn't like how they were turning out. I'm probably about 3/4ths of the way done with them but they are finally starting to shape up pretty nicely. As soon as I'm done with that I just have to do the floor. I really need to have it finished by spring.

I think this generation is really missing out on that kind of training. We had this come up in DC one day.

No, I still have all my fingers

Have you worked with wood from aids trees?

The granite counter tops, the backsplash and stove top look nice! Making pork roll there will never be the same now :D as long as it doesn't snow and you don't get called in for emergencies you'll get it done by Easter lol

I am refurbishing a 1952 Tudor house right now.

After that I plan on a cabinet from a tree from my yard topped by the 2007 ice storm. It was a black cherry & I had the bottom 12 feet cut into planks. It went into the attic for 3 years to season. Then I planed it all out.

Gorgeous wood.

Found a 22 buried in the tree. Planed off shiny & bright. I will put that in a prominent location for conversation.

The refurbishing has stretched my plumbing & electrical. Learned window glazing. Tile. Now starting on sanding the hard wood floors. Hope to have it done next month.

Used to do woodworking. When we moved I lost my detached garage shop. Kids also cut into my spare time.

I was considering trying to do some edge grain cutting boards or other small projects this spring to get back into the sawdust.

Finishing has always been my waterloo. I enjoy the cutting, building, sanding but I just dont enjoy the staining/finishing.

After that I plan on a cabinet from a tree from my yard topped by the 2007 ice storm. It was a black cherry & I had the bottom 12 feet cut into planks. It went into the attic for 3 years to season. Then I planed it all out.

Gorgeous wood.

Found a 22 buried in the tree. Planed off shiny & bright. I will put that in a prominent location for conversation.

The refurbishing has stretched my plumbing & electrical. Learned window glazing. Tile. Now starting on sanding the hard wood floors. Hope to have it done next month.[/QUOTE]
Do you have any pictures of the black cherry? You make a great point on the seasoning of the wood. I have a stack of oak boards going through that right now .


Friend does some really exotic cutting boards. I had no idea they could be so pretty. :eek:

On those first two cedar chests I wet sanded them with 400, 600 and finally 1000, then buffed them out with my polisher just like a car fender. :D

Do you have any pictures of the wood?

If you guys have any questions about sanding, stain, and any and all types of finish let me know. I have done it every way imaginable.

naked?:eek:

I was wondering if he's done it doggy style.

That pee stain finish is to die for

I imagine some brown streaking could give it a nice grainy look.

The corn touch up is a bit vintage

Trying to decide if I want to build a bar or buy a bar for my basement.

Many years ago, dad cut out part of the hay mow from the barn. the boards are still there. May make a good rustic bar.

Bad part is, because the trusses are gone, he did not shore up the roof and the barn is starting to bow. We are going to have to go in and put in metal beam around some of the posts inside the barn.

I know dad is saying "see, its your problem now"

This has win / win written all over it.

No. Just have to take my word for it.

Learned the hard way that a 30 in diameter 6-foot green tree trunk is damn heavy. Ruptured a disk wrestling it into the trailer to take the saw mill.

Is that purple heart wood? It looks great.

How you do get such a good finish?

Kickback.

My guess is that your workpiece was just a little too wide for it's length. When that happens, the backside of the cut can 'grab' at the tooth and the front of the workpiece doesn't have the leverage to hold it down anymore. So it walks up the blade and the blade, because it's spinning towards you, rockets it at you.

The big BIG problem with kickback is your right hand and its tendency to follow the workpiece. When a piece kicks like that (as opposed to a bind that's easy to deal with), it goes up, left and then back...when your hand does that as well, it goes up, left and then into the ****ing blade. That's why you always use a push-stick; that way the piece runs off the push stick and your hand doesn't follow. A push block helps even more.

So, some easy fixes for it and the easiest is a simple splitter. Microjig makes universal ones that go on older saws and work great. Newer saws have what are called riving knives that do the same thing. Kickback paws also exist but I hate them; they grab when you don't want them to.

But you're right, man. Kickback is terrifying. I was building some drawer bottoms with 1/2 ply. Since it was completely square, it was a kickback waiting to happen (like I said, wide and short is a recipe for disaster). I got through about 6 and at about 1 AM one of those things fired back at me. I tried to save it with my left hand around the back of the blade (because I saw it hop first) and all it did was fire into the top of my left hand and sheer some skin off before hitting me in the hip. Took me about 10 minutes to get my heart rate back under control but by God, I was finishing those ****ing drawers....

So a couple of my shot drawers may or may not have blood on the underside of the bottoms.

My saw is a deathtrap. No board buddies, no splitter, no nothing. My buddy is a no-shit craftsman and has built some amazing stuff and he's terrified to work with it. But it's got a great blade and it's a 3 HP, 220 saw so it cuts like butter. With my Vega Pro fence, that saw is a miracle worker and I just don't want to mess with that. I have some of those micro jig splitters, I just haven't gotten around to installing them yet. It's probably gonna be a lot harder to do once I lose a couple of fingers but I suspect that will be the catalyst.

The right safety devices and a willingness to use them makes a huge difference. I have the former....just not the latter.

Looks great; nice use of that ice cream wood.

My buddy's dad has probably set 1,000 board ft of that stuff on fire because he doesn't like the look but it's great for rustic projects and things like those chests (please don't get me started on the amount of walnut 'scrap' he's burned up....ugh)

Here's a wood that I don't think anyone would have ever thought to use that we stumbled into - osage orange; common hedge. You'd need a hell of a bandsaw to re-saw anything of significant heft, but if you're able to get any 2 inch thick stock, a good table saw can do the work.

It's damn near bright yellow when you cut it but after it ages for several months to a year, it takes on this honey amber color that's really quite attractive. Better still is that it's DENSE. It's the only thing I've ever worked with that approaches ipe and it's a shitload cheaper. Makes for a tight, pretty grain pattern and fantastic durability for outdoor furniture.

Look up 'live edge bar'. You can probably guess, but it's essentially a vertical slab cut from a big ol' hunk of trunk. If you finish them right, you keep the bark on the outside and get that cross-cut grain look on top; really nice looking when you're trying to do the rustic look.

We've made some benches from that kind of stuff before and they look pretty good. Woodcraft in KC may be able to sell you some or point you in the direction to acquire it.

thats a damn good looking coffin man. I'm more of a pine box kind of guy, but those are beautiful

We've taken some stabs at flux-core and MIG welding. I can make booger welds that will hold things together but I can't make an attractive weld for shit.

I'm pretty good at burning right through things, though. The problem is that an idiot is teaching an idiot and we're kinda guessing as we go. Idiot one was taught by a pretty good welder but he still pretty much sucks and is trying to teach me. So mostly we just **** up a bunch of tube steel and try again.

But yeah, it was fun realizing that we could add metal back if we shorted things. Again, we sucked at that as well, but we had some gaps of around a quarter inch that we could fill in and still create a bond that was sturdy enough to hit with a car. Pretty cool shit to fiddle with but I'm not sure I have the patience to get good at it.

Only if the mood is right.

I know a few people that are good with hardwood floors and sheet rock.

Yeah a well tuned saw with a good blade makes a big difference.

It is cedar from the nasty cedar trees that grow around here. We have a mill about 10 miles away.

I sand it with 40 and 80 (belt sander),100,150,220 (orbital sander) then put on sanding sealer and sand it with 220 again prior to applying polyurethane. Thanks for the compliment, like jspchief, it is my least favorite part.

You need to talk to my dad. He taught the dumbest **** that ever lived to weld (me). He can teach anyone.

I had never heard it called "ice cream wood" before, interesting.

I am not sure if there is any of that hedge growing around here but we had plenty of it in Kansas. Doesn't it have this kind of screwy twisty grain that makes it hard to work with? My brother likes burning hedge because it burns so hot.

The mill a "couple hollars over" only does cedar and oak. I bought 40 1x8x8fts in white oak from them. Holy crap, that stuff is like titanium compared to the cedar.

There is a few more mills around here and I will have to check them out one of these days.

Thanks for your input.

My wife is a big fan of Pottery Barn and Magnolia Farms. While I will still drop some big $$ on some of those brand pieces, a lot of times I get my buddy to mock up the same thing for half the cost.

https://www.facebook.com/AnalogWoodworks/

He does some nice stuff to your custom order, I just had him make me a Farmhouse style dining table.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...8e&oe=59486DFD

I used to hand carved Selfbows out of the stuff. (Damn kids eat ALL your spare time). It would sand down like glass because it is so dense.

If you like that aged color, wipe it down with bleach. The chlorine instantly oxidizes it giving you that burnt orange color. Pretty cool running a cloth with clear liquid down the wood and having bright yellow on one side & burnt orange on the other.

It didn't come straight back at me. It somehow lifted the board and shot it off almost 90 degrees to the left of me. It had a curved gash from the blade in the bottom afterwards. It was a nearly square piece of wood though so it maybe it did kickback and then the blade caught it again somehow. It was weird.

So it grabbed more of the board or released it differently.

Pretty much any kickback is going to leave a curved gash because the piece is walking up a round blade (and still getting cut as it's being flung off.

http://chiefsplanet.com/BB/picture.p...pictureid=1827

Here's what the piece I'm talking about did. Unlike yours, mine hopped and that's why it's two cuts, but you can see that hard curve released into a second curve when it came back down.

Did you have a firm fence on the outside? Without the fence holding the right edge in place, I could see that propeller effect being extreme enough to shoot it off to the left. Or maybe if it did it just as it cleared the top of the fence. Kickback does some weird shit.

There's a video out there of a guy that intentionally causes kickback for a demonstration. Slow mo replay shows how close he comes to losing a finger. He thought he could "anticipate" it and nearly made a gore film.

I've seen something similar with foam board. Yeah, kickback don't play. It's so sudden that you can get yourself in a lot of trouble in a hurry.

The sawstop system is incredible. I thought about splurging on one and maybe I should have, but it's a very neat, very effective idea. There's a low-voltage current running through the blade and if a finger hits it, that current is interrupted and a metal brake fires into the blade to stop it.

It'll wreck the shit out of our blade but I've seen demonstrations of people running hot dogs into one and it stops almost immediately; it barely breaks the skin.

The problem is that it's another thousand bucks for the feature. Small price to pay for a finger, but like I said, splitters and board buddies are going to be good enough 99.99% of the time.

I grabbed a Freud premier fusion and like it a lot. It's on par with the Forrest woodworker II models but I really wanted to see how those triple grind teeth worked for an all-purpose blade. So far I'm really impressed.

The WWII is probably a more precise blade but more expensive and I didn't know if it would have as much versatility.

Yep, looks like basically the same result. I'm sure the fence was there, but I believe it was on the right side, it shot the board away from it. Either way, sounds like that was indeed the culprit.

My buddy's dad has near 1000 acres now and a fire spread across a large portion of it. It killed a stand of walnut trees but didn't actually hurt the lumber. The insurance company still paid him for it. He took the money and bought a mobile saw mill and set it up at his old hey barn, then we cut down the walnuts that had died and he used the mill to re-saw them into rough cut lumber of all sizes.

Ended up using the lumber to build a big covered bridge (beautiful bridge; brilliant guy with a masters in math from MIT; designed/built the bridge himself). That sawmill has been a huge benefit for him.

As for the hedge...I don't recall much in the way of twisted grains but again, that mill made light work of just about anything we needed. Admittedly we didn't get a ton of lumber, but we got enough. And yeah, it burns hot as hell again because of the density and the amount of energy it has on account of it. As opposed to something like cottonwood that is soft, burns in a heartbeat and has no energy to speak of.

We used to take hedge down by piling around it and burning it because it was eating saw blades alive. Once we got some of the smaller stuff down and milled though, we convinced his dad to stop doing that and he's started saving it for later use. He's used it to build a 'deck' on the outside of the covered bridge that really couldn't have come out any better.

Good old random orbit sanders - easily my favorite 'discovery' of the last 5 years or so. I've all but retired my belt-sander and will just hit things with a hand plane before taking some 80 grit on a random orbit sander to smooth things out.

I realized after several years of hating everything that I stained/finished that the reason I didn't like it is that I just don't care for hand-rubbed finishes. They pull out way too much grain and give that colonial look that I don't like. Once I went to harbor freight and got myself a cheap little $10 gravity fed sprayer, I found that I enjoyed my finishes much much more.

May I recommend General Finishes products? I think they make the best stuff out there and their prices are reasonable. Their high performance topcoat has never disappointed me.

And before the guy that's probably the worst woodworker in the room completely hijacks the thread, lemme make one more recommendation to anyone starting out:

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/

Marc Spanguolo is the presenter; excellent videos. Explains things simply and has projects ranging all across the spectrum. He's really helped me figure out things from knockout jointery to dust collection to how to set up a jointer (now using one correctly is a different subject).

There's a ton of great information at his site.