Woodworking: Amateurs, Craftsmen, & In-Between

[iNow]

41 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

There used to be a place in Denver on our Furniture Row that would pretend you weren't diving in their dumpster. 

Lol. I’m not too proud for that. 

[Phi for All]

6 minutes ago, iNow said:

Lol. I’m not too proud for that. 

No shame in reduce, reuse, recycle. I look at manufacturer's dumpsters like a salad bar. I can sample small bits without the large investment of a specific meal.

It might be harder to do these days, with added security and legal liability concerns.  

[iNow]

I’ve been scouring the cull pile at Home Depot every few days. Stuff they mark down 90% due to warps, twists, cupping, tears, etc, ... you know, with the orange and purple spray painted ends... but which works fine for me to rip down and practice some basic chisel work, or build pegboard shelves and holders and push sticks out of 

I’m still so new to this that the best lumber I’ve bought so far was the finished birch plywood for my cross cut sled 

[Moontanman]

1 hour ago, Phi for All said:

There are a LOT of furniture manufacturers in the south. Have you ever seen if Lifestyle Furnishing in High Point (they're the #3 manufacturer in the US) has a manufacturing plant you could get scraps from? There used to be a place in Denver on our Furniture Row that would pretend you weren't diving in their dumpster. 

That is about a 5 hour drive for me but there is a place that makes furniture where I live. I've done a bit of dumpster diving there.  

[Phi for All]

A good project for a bearded Amish carpenter father with some interesting wood scraps is a Chinese checkerboard. I've seen them put together with seven different kinds of wood. I never got around to making one but always wanted to.

[waitforufo]

I do woodworking all the time.  Most I would have to admit are utility items for my shop and garage.  Storage shelves, work benches, lab benches.  Occasionally furniture items like coat racks, reading lamps, or end tables.  There was a time when I went the no modern fastener route, but I gave that up about a decade ago.  You can complete an entire project on a Saturday with modern fasteners.  Mostly I'm talking about dry wall screws caped with dowel plugs.  Of all the tools I have purchased that have made me a productive wood worker I would say my air compressor, and brad nailer make just about every project possible.  The trick with a brad nailer is that you can tack your project together while also gluing the parts.  You will be surprised what you can build.  

When I was a younger man I went the craftsman route. I get the zen thing.  When I gave up on that I got a lot more accomplished.  Also I built a lot more things. That taught me  a lot about how to build things that looked good and were sound structures.  

[iNow]

15 minutes ago, waitforufo said:

There was a time when I went the no modern fastener route, but I gave that up about a decade ago. 

Perhaps a decade from now, I’ll do the same. That said, it may also take me a full decade to complete a single project. Lol. 

16 minutes ago, waitforufo said:

I would say my air compressor, and brad nailer make just about every project possible. 

I’ve got an air compressor, but no brad nailer. I may consider looking into that one of these days. 

[Raider5678]

Tried making a newton's cradle today and failed horribly.

The wooden part holding the strings and balls is fine, but the balls just don't act like a newtons cradle should. Once you pull one side up it just kinda rocks all the balls at once.

 

Tips?

[iNow]

6 hours ago, Raider5678 said:

a newton's cradle today and failed horribly. (...) Tips?

Use metal. Most woods are too soft. Absorbs too much of the impact.

 

Okay, so shoot me straight, fellas. I’m new to this. Smart, but lacking practice. Experienced, but in a very different domain. I attempted my first dovetail last weekend. Bought my first table saw over thanksgiving. Sharpened my first chisel set over Christmas. 

Should I attempt a farmhouse style table for the dining room, or just buy one?

[zapatos]

IMO, in order to build a table that you will be happy with you first must have patience, attention to detail, and recognition of when those attributes are slipping (due to fatigue, being in a hurry, etc.), so that you can step away before you screw something up. If you do each individual step to the best of your ability, your overall project will be the best you are capable of with your current experience, and will generally be something you are happy with.

Assuming the above is true the next thing you need is a plan. Not just the look and dimensions of the table, but an idea of how you are going to accomplish cuts, glue up, joinery, finishing, etc. That will come from either a plan you are following, someone to guide you, or your own knowledge.

If you've got the two items above covered, go for it! It really doesn't matter if you've done the techniques before because if you have the right approach (paragraph 1) and know what you have to accomplish (paragraph 2) then you will be successful. May not be perfect, but it will at least be good enough, and no one will likely notice any imperfections except for you. The average person will not look that closely.

When I build things I often do a lot of the tasks twice. Once for practice or to see how it will go, and once for real. I'll cut a rabbet on a piece of scrap before I do it for real. I'll dry assemble before actual glue-up to make sure I have enough clamps and time to get it glued before things start drying. I'll sand/stain/apply polyurethane on a sample to see how it looks. That way when I do it on the piece I'm making it comes out the way I want it to.

When you get down to it, all you are really doing is cutting wood into smaller pieces, then putting the pieces together in the shape you are after. Since you are still fairly new to this game, you may want to consider making it out of, say, pine rather than something like oak. Much cheaper and easier to work.

I vote you make it.

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2018 by zapatos

[iNow]

9 minutes ago, zapatos said:

you first must have patience

Damnit. So much for that idea

It would be so much easier if I had someone to help me with my questions... to offer the occasional guidance or encouragement...  but alas... like so many other areas of my life, I’m stuck going after it alone with sheer grit and stubbornness and forced to “hoist” upon my own petard. 

Really appreciate that post, btw. Thank you

[Ken Fabian]

I enjoy working with round poles, only rarely sawn or dressed timber -

 

[Raider5678]

10 hours ago, iNow said:

Use metal. Most woods are too soft. Absorbs too much of the impact.

 

I had used metal for the balls, it still doesn't work.

It's a very simple concept, and all I know is that I'm losing a LOT of energy somewhere. I'm assuming the strings are too large(they're pretty important) so I'm going to restring it with fishing line.

 

I used a 6 1/2 inch by 3 inch by 1/2 inch dark stained block with 4 square pieces.  1/2 by 1/2 inch by 4 inches. Then I used two 6 inch long 1/4 inch dowels and put them between the 1/2inch pieces of wood by drilling a hole. So the woods pretty nice looking, albeit a tiny bit crooked on one side.

[iNow]

2 hours ago, Ken Fabian said:

I enjoy working with round poles, only rarely sawn or dressed timber -

That’s excellent!

1 hour ago, Raider5678 said:

I'm losing a LOT of energy somewhere. I'm assuming the strings are too large(they're pretty important)

I have to imagine length of the string and composition matter. Fishing line could help. Spacing between the balls likely plays a role, so consequently where you attach the strings to your structure. Also, I suspect you want that structure to be as rigid as possible so it doesn’t “radiate” the energy outward with vibrations. 

[dimreepr]

The best lesson I had when it comes to building anything is, measure twice and cut once; a lesson I learned by doing the opposite. 

Edited January 14, 2018 by dimreepr

[Moontanman]

8 hours ago, iNow said:

That’s excellent!

I have to imagine length of the string and composition matter. Fishing line could help. Spacing between the balls likely plays a role, so consequently where you attach the strings to your structure. Also, I suspect you want that structure to be as rigid as possible so it doesn’t “radiate” the energy outward with vibrations. 

Well most of my woodworking involves aquariums, hoods, lights, stands, filters. If you ever decide to go that route let me know! 

[iNow]

2 hours ago, Moontanman said:

Well most of my woodworking involves aquariums, hoods, lights, stands, filters. If you ever decide to go that route let me know! 

I will! What kind of joinery do you use for your projects?

[zapatos]

This past summer my son decided he wanted a farmhouse table for his dining room. We made this with hardware that allows him to easily take it apart for transport.

 

[Moontanman]

3 hours ago, iNow said:

I will! What kind of joinery do you use for your projects?

Wood screws and water proof glue, very effective water poof paint allows for the making of really large aquariums with cut out in the from for a glass pain. I currently have two panes of 1/2" plate glass I am considering using to make a 1000 gal aquarium. 

[iNow]

3 hours ago, zapatos said:

We made this

That’s pretty! I notice you framed out all four edges instead of just using breadboard ends. I like the legs, too. My wife is into turned legs... the big beefy type... but I’m a fan of more architectural legs. I prefer ones that look like the ceiling in a really kickass church...art, curvy, but functional and rooted in physics. I respect lathe work, but find turned legs somewhat mundane and even boring  

What type of wood is that for the top? I want to say oak, but don’t feel comfortable enough yet guessing based upon looks alone. 

21 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

Wood screws and water proof glue, very effective water poof paint allows for the making of really large aquariums with cut out in the from for a glass pain. I currently have two panes of 1/2" plate glass I am considering using to make a 1000 gal aquarium. 

It’s cool that you make your own acquariums. I remember you trying some 3D stepped stuff and posting sketches on graph paper some months back. Way cooler than a boring rectangle \ elongated cube. 

Edited January 15, 2018 by iNow

[zapatos]

The entire table was made of clear pine and we only used 1 inch nominal thickness boards with various widths. Where we needed thicker boards we would just glue up two boards. And to make the overall job easier, we kept the width of all pieces at the width of boards we could buy at Home Depot. That way we didn't have to rip any boards. 

Because pine tends to look splotchy when you stain it, we used a pre-stain wood conditioner, a brush on stain, and applied several coats of polyurethane. In between coats we rubbed it down with 0000 steel wool. 

Part of the reason for framing all four sides of the top was to add rigidity, and also to give the illusion of a thicker top than we actually built. 

[iNow]

It’s actually rather encouraging seeing that you can do something like that just with pine

[waitforufo]

On 1/13/2018 at 1:05 PM, iNow said:

Perhaps a decade from now, I’ll do the same. That said, it may also take me a full decade to complete a single project. Lol. 

I’ve got an air compressor, but no brad nailer. I may consider looking into that one of these days. 

I'm not suggesting you abandon the craftsman approach.  You will learn a lot of good skills and build some nice things.  At the same time however, take on some less challenging projects.  Something like a work bench made out of plywood and 2X4s for your garage.  

With regard to the brad nailer, you need to make Harbor Freight tools your best friend.  Yeah, a lot of people bad mouth there tools.  Yeah, occasionally you will buy something there that truly is junk.  That said, I have a garage full of there tools that all work great.  I think you can get a brad nailer / staple gun there for $9.99, and if you go to there on line add get a coupon for a free LED flashlight or some other thing. 

On 1/13/2018 at 7:29 PM, iNow said:

Should I attempt a farmhouse style table for the dining room, or just buy one?

You want to build a dining room table and you have never built a work bench for your garage?  You will be surprised what you will learn about table building making a work bench.  Also, you will have a kick ass work bench to do other cool projects

On 1/13/2018 at 8:43 PM, zapatos said:

IMO, in order to build a table that you will be happy with you first must have patience, attention to detail, and recognition of when those attributes are slipping (due to fatigue, being in a hurry, etc.), so that you can step away before you screw something up. If you do each individual step to the best of your ability, your overall project will be the best you are capable of with your current experience, and will generally be something you are happy with.

Assuming the above is true the next thing you need is a plan. Not just the look and dimensions of the table, but an idea of how you are going to accomplish cuts, glue up, joinery, finishing, etc. That will come from either a plan you are following, someone to guide you, or your own knowledge.

If you've got the two items above covered, go for it! It really doesn't matter if you've done the techniques before because if you have the right approach (paragraph 1) and know what you have to accomplish (paragraph 2) then you will be successful. May not be perfect, but it will at least be good enough, and no one will likely notice any imperfections except for you. The average person will not look that closely.

When I build things I often do a lot of the tasks twice. Once for practice or to see how it will go, and once for real. I'll cut a rabbet on a piece of scrap before I do it for real. I'll dry assemble before actual glue-up to make sure I have enough clamps and time to get it glued before things start drying. I'll sand/stain/apply polyurethane on a sample to see how it looks. That way when I do it on the piece I'm making it comes out the way I want it to.

When you get down to it, all you are really doing is cutting wood into smaller pieces, then putting the pieces together in the shape you are after. Since you are still fairly new to this game, you may want to consider making it out of, say, pine rather than something like oak. Much cheaper and easier to work.

I vote you make it.

 

 

 

Sage advice.

8 hours ago, iNow said:

It’s actually rather encouraging seeing that you can do something like that just with pine

The hardest part to build for any formal table is going to be the top.  If you have to glue up your own boards you will also likely have to plane the top as well.  You may be able to find a supplier of glued and planed 4X8 foot sheets.  Here is my local supplier.

http://www.bargainhuntcabinets.com/?page_id=821

 

[iNow]

1 hour ago, waitforufo said:

I think you can get a brad nailer / staple gun there for $9.99

That’s wicked cheap. Appreciate the great tip!

1 hour ago, waitforufo said:

Here is my local supplier.

I love the knots and dark crotch areas in that piece of hickory. I happened to pick up two hand planes cheap this weekend on Craigslist. Gonna put a nice edge on them and practice smoothing joined pieces. 

[Moontanman]

13 hours ago, iNow said:

 It’s cool that you make your own aquariums. I remember you trying some 3D stepped stuff and posting sketches on graph paper some months back. Way cooler than a boring rectangle \ elongated cube. 

The triangle one is more of a dream really, I would have to have both money and skills I do not have. It would be  an intersting tank to build .