Originally Posted by displacedinMN (Post 12720657)

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"

Originally Posted by HemiEd (Post 12720247)

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.

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO (Post 12720253)

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

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO (Post 12720634)

naked?:eek:

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut (Post 12720815)

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.

Originally Posted by Rooster (Post 12720803)

Is that purple heart wood? It looks great.

How you do get such a good finish?

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut (Post 12720845)

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.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut (Post 12720824)

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.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut (Post 12720824)

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.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut (Post 12720815)

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.

Originally Posted by Bugeater (Post 12721072)

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.

Originally Posted by jspchief (Post 12721135)

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.