Friend of mine is a professional painter, and he says you should let pressure treated lumber sit for at least 6 months, because it off-gasses while it dries out, even the new stuff. If you seal it before it has time to do that, it'll fuck up the sealer and won't cure properly. I just built a new set of stairs for my mom's deck and was going to seal it before I left, and he said not to. He also recommends the Olympic oil-based sealer, which I used in the past, and it worked great.
Looks good. Did you not need an end post at the bottom? Are the balusters strong enough to keep the handrail from getting wiggly?
I ran out of time to do a proper end post treatment (I did it during my dad's funeral), but it's plenty strong as it sits. I will put in end posts this Spring when I'm back visiting.
I just did a little project for myself so I could hang some deer antlers on the wall, but my girlfriend went nuts after seeing it so I'm making a larger version to put up on the wall. Printed an outline of the state of Minnesota and stuck it to a piece of scrap walnut Put a 1/4" blade in my bandsaw and zipped it out. I had yet to do any intricate cutting work like this with the saw and now that it is tuned up and running smooth, this was a lot of fun. Sanded and finished with satin lacquer. It stinks, but I like how fast it cures for quick projects like this. The finish looks shitty around the edges but that's because I rounded them off a bit, which in hindsight could have been skipped. So... quick and fun and a productive use for scrap pieces. I love my bandsaw.
Since moving into a house earlier this summer and creating a workspace in the basement for making custom gunstocks, I wanted to build a big heavy workbench with some pegboard for tools to round out the shop. Two years ago I was in a different house that had a great bench built into the basement wall that wrapped around the room, but then I had to move again and use a vise bolted to a weighted down tool stand in a very poorly lit basement for a year. I had no choice but to just deal with it (better to have some workspace than no workspace) and did my best to get work done but needless to say it was not very motivating to be in there. In addition the previous two basements were poorly heated in the winter and temps got down into the 40s at times, and in contrast this one is very comfortable. Moving to my new place was like getting a breath of fresh air. A neighbor had a work bench made for him that was constructed solely out of 2x6s of a nice simple design and I decided to replicate it. Thanks to the help of another neighbor who does house framing and trim (yes I got lucky), I put up a bunch of shelves in the basement and finally built that bench this week. Now after a couple dozen 6' 2x6s, some 1x6s, a sheet of 1/2' plywood, pegboard sheets, boxes of screws, and a bottle of glue... here we are. It is 6' long, 33" tall, and 29.5" wide so I can still get it out the door, and I'm guessing it weighs about 250 lbs. without the vise. Making the bench created a lot of storage space and allowed me to reorganize everything, which further freed up space. The lighting was already good but I added my two overhead lights and between those and the ambient daylight thanks to the windows, I don't know if it could get any better. Obviously if you build a big new bench you need a big new vise too, and I got lucky and picked up this old Craftsman 506-51840 bench vise from Craigslist for a great deal. The brand tag is missing and the seller didn't know who made it. Rotates 360 degrees on the base that was added. It weighs about 50 pounds and dwarfs the Wilton #4 1/2 that used to be my primary bench vise... real American made heavy metal right here. Now I feel like I have a real shop and love having my tools organized again and available right in front of me. Needless to say I'm looking forward to getting that bench dirty now!
Very nice! For my bench, I set it up so that I used a thick (3/4") sheet of MDF, screwed from the bottom, as the bench top. Super smooth finish, and easily replaceable if it gets damaged or worn out.
A few months ago a buddy called and said he wanted to make a kegorator with my help. Said he found a decent freezer on the side of the road and had an idea for it. So we went to my local lumberyard and scored on a big curly cherry board, and I went to work turning it into a "riser" for the freezer that would elevate the room for 4-5 kegs to fit inside. This kind of woodworking isn't usually my thing, and since I don't have the clamps and jigs a big rope with a lasso knot may or may not have been used to help join the four boards together, but I got the thing finished up with spar urethane and made four tap handles too. Walnut, cherry, maple, and zebrawood to correspond with a dark, medium, light, and "wildcard" beer tap. The final install went pretty well and I got it attached with 3 layers of 1/2" foil covered insulation on the inside and dumped a ton of sealant into the thing. My buddy did the wiring and tap installation. It was fun to do a different project and I know it will be put to good use, in addition to me having free access to beer on tap there too. Yesterday we poured a porter we brewed out of this kegorator we made... very satisfying. Spoiler: more pics Also, updated workbench... I love this thing: I've added and removed a few tools (notably bought a variety of old English made gouges off Ebay for about $10 each shipped) and the setup works. The bench and vise is as solid as I could ask for. Here's some invaluable stuff for those who use bladed tools... DMT diamond stones and a strop. The big ones belong to my neighbor, whom I share a lot of tools back and forth with, and using water as lubricant (I use an old hot sauce squirt bottle cleaned up as a container, very handy) they will fix up and sharpen the shittiest blades in no time. The old belt turned strop hones the final edge, which can be stupid sharp if you want and that is the goal. As I accumulated more good tools I try to take care of them, and these are must-haves.
So this showed up on Friday. Safety glasses for scale. A number 7 jointer plane. 22" long, 8.5 lbs. Perfect for getting those table / desk tops nice and flat.
Lee Valley? Nice plane, I have been debating starting a Stanley Baily collection, hard to beat vintage stuff unless your buying Lee Valley or Lie Neilson
Yep, Lee Valley (Veritas). When my dad passed we found about 2 years of Lee Valley Gift Cards that most of the family had given him for birthdays, father's day, Christmas, etc. Needless to say, I inherited them. That plane pretty well ate them all up at around $500. I'm not sure I would have bought it on my own, but it seemed like a reasonable thing to do with some "found" gift cards.
You know you want to. Obviously nice new stuff is good (i.e. Nett's new plane) but I am attracted to gnarly old tools that still work like a moth to flame. I'm pretty sure you're doing it right... that's a really nice tool. Also, what good is height capacity if you don't ever use it? The log is a 24" long 10" diameter section of "Carpathian" walnut (juglans regia species) planted in a pasture by my grandpa about 50 years ago and recently cut for firewood. I happened to call my dad while he was in Illinois on the farm and he snagged it along with some additional hardwood logs for me to mess with. It is relatively green still so I de-barked it with my spokeshave (fun making a big mess), sealed the ends with latex paint, and called a neighbor to help me split it in half with the saw. Took maybe 10 minutes to get through the thing, just easing it along and pausing every couple inches to make sure the 3/4" saw blade wasn't kinking or bending, and I am very happy with the results. I probably could have gone faster but why rush? I may just paint over the open faces now too, since I'm not going to touch them again for another couple of years, at least. It looks a lot like some English walnut I have that was grown in California with the fine pores and yellowish sandy/tan color- it is the same species after all. It isn't super high grade wood, nor is it a really big chunk (too short and not wide enough for any gunstocks, oh well), but very valuable to me regardless considering where it came from and how it ended up in my possession.
Last year I made a 12' long, 4" thick table that was basically glued-up pine and cedar. I had a shitty 4-post set of legs that I pocket screwed into the bottom of it, and it wasn't really all that sturdy. It was my first real attempt at something substantial, and it lasted quite a while. When I moved into my new place, it was too long, so I took the chainsaw to it and shortened it to 9' so that it will fit in my new office. I'm almost done re-working it, and thought I'd share some pics: First step was to redo the surfaces. I'd stained it a dark colour initially and wanted to go with something lighter this time around. Also, I didn't plane both sides down properly last time, so the desktop was of uneven thicknesses, which really fucked with the legs and overall level. Here I am using the router sled I created last year and taking the top few 16's off to get down to fresh wood and make it flat. Here you can see a close-up of the results. Low RPM and taking your time and it does wonders. It also helps that I got a big-ass 3" wide cleaner router bit from Lee Valley that is meant to do exactly this. Both sides done, and despite going slow and trying to be as consistent as possible, there are still some slightly noticeable "streaks" from the router bit. Went over it with my brand new plane a few times to get rid of them, followed by a quick sand and a few scrapes with the cabinet scrapers and the surface was nice and smooth. Now for the new legs. I jointed and thickness planed some cheap-ass 4x4 cedar fence posts until they were perfectly dimensioned, cut them to length, and then went at them with the Domino. Stupidly simple, stupidly fast, and stupidly strong. There is only one small hole that I fucked up on that will mock me from hiding for all of eternity (won't be visible once the table top is on), but such is the way. Finished the legs with a few coats of dark walnut Danish Oil, then a good rubbing with some furniture wax, and all is nice and smooth and shiny and looking pretty respectable. Shop Cat approves. I ended up using a few coats of Cherry Danish Oil for the top, followed by a couple wipe on applications of polyurethane. Came out really, really well, and the grain of the cheap-ass pine boards, the knots, and the 4 cedar strip racing stripes look quite good. I used some West Systems epoxy (with the 207 special wood finish) to fill in the knots so they are silky smooth and won't be popping out any time soon. All in all it came out quite well. I've drilled 1.5" holes into the leg posts and matching ones in the underside of the table, and have glued a big 1.5" dowel into each leg post. The table is heavy enough that it'll just sit on the dowels (they go into the table about 2", so plenty of grab), and will be nice and solid with no need for any pocket screws or anything. The initial fitting I did turned out much better than I expected, actually. Right now the top is in the garage letting the final coat of poly cure properly, and it's time for a drink or three. The next project is a dining room table, and I've started to experiment with a few things. These three pics have given me a fair bit of inspiration: Spoiler I love the look of a big-scale end-grain table like you'd normally only see in a butcher block, along with the metal fabrication and attachment of the legs in the second 2 pics. I'd like to combine the two into a black walnut (looking) end grain table, and I was thinking of using the 4x4 cedar posts that are readily available to me. (There's a cedar mill 1/2 mile from my house). To try it out, I took a few of the leftover scraps of the table legs and glued something together. It's only got a single quick application of the dark walnut danish oil, and a thin wipe of poly, but I'm really happy with how it came out. I love the grain you find in cedar, and if I cut stuff right, I should be able to expose a lot of knots and other imperfections that really add to the look. Here's a shitty pic of the test block I did. I'm planning on making this thing about 4'x8' and about 5" thick, and I'll probably treat the top surface with a healthy coat of that same West System epoxy for longevity and durability, and to stop the end grain from "leaking" out as time goes on. That block came out really, really well... better than I thought it would... so I'm excited. Sure is a hell of a lot cheaper than using REAL walnut.
Might as well add this quick thing I built for my office. I'm at a startup right now and we try to keep a handle on expenses, so I opted to build a partial cabinet that would cover all the networking and phone/security gear that was stuck to the wall. (We're running out of space as we grow so this is going to be 2 people's office soon, so might as well make it look a bit better and kill the noise of the fans from the electronics). Started off by planing, jointing, ripping and glueing up some more of that stupidly cheap fence-board cedar (it's about $6 for a 2x6x8) into some walls and roof. Then I snagged some cheap-ass fencing planks (for $3 a board), then planed/jointed them and then ran them through the router table for some tongue-and-groove action, to build up the front facing cabinet door. Here it is on it's side, before it was trimmed for size. It also got heavy for some reason, so I opted to cut it down the middle to make the one big panel into 2 smaller panels. The whole thing hangs on French Cleats that run the entire width of the cabinet, one near the top and one near the bottom. Much easier to handle than hinges or something else. Here's a pic of everything drying in the sun after a quick coating of some natural Danish Oil. The big hole you see on the piece on the left is actually the lid. Because it's full of computer gear, it gets hot, so I put an air vent (with filter) in the bottom of the left side panel, and that hole has a large, super quiet, but good CFM fan that runs off of an old computer power supply. Runs quiet enough that you can't hear it, but keeps the air flowing. And here's the finished product... don't have one with the door panels off of it, but it's got a whack of networking gear, cable boxes, security hookups, and about 4 servers on APS's in there. The room is now called the Sauna for some reason. All in it was less than $150 in materials and about 16 hours of time over one weekend... compared to quotes ranging from $1200 to $2500 for something custom (which pretty well started with a full store-bought cabinet and then cutting the back off of it so it could be attached to the wall over the gear). All in all a successful build to break the new shop's cherry.
I repped you this, but I'll reiterate: I LOVE IT. Cedar is one of my favorites and you did a great job there. I have had the desire to get into woodworking for awhile. There are a couple projects I want to build but I don't have the basic skills down. For a total beginner, are there certain tools that you recommend? Any sites or books I should read to learn the basics?
Woodworking for Mere Mortals is a great YouTube channel that coveres a ton of basics, hand tool projects on up to more complicated joinery. If you want to get started with pallet projects all you really need is a hammer, jigsaw, wood glue and some nails.
One channel that I follow religiously is Jimmy DiResta. (I've posted some of his videos around before). https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiEk4xHBbz0hZNIBBpowdYQ The guy just makes stuff... all kinds of stuff... and it's really inspirational and educational watching him go from raw materials to finished product. While you may not want to make the stuff he does, there are usually a few "oh... wow... never thought of doing that before..." moments in his videos, and watching one of them usually gets me motivated to head out to the shop.
As to tools... it depends on what you want to do. You can start off really simple (a hand saw, drill, screwdriver) and your biggest investment will be time. Start with the project, and then figure out how you're going to do it. That will define your tool list. Start into it, then realize, "oh, I need a ______", then hop into the car and head to Home Depot and get it. I find most people generally start with a project that they screw or nail together, then they slowly progress more into joinery and glueing things up. You might also want to follow Reddit's DIY subreddit, as there are some interesting project that run the gamut. https://www.reddit.com/r/diy For instance, this one was just posted today: https://imgur.com/gallery/RWSUl It's a pretty simple thing that the guy did with a few battery powered tools. Really, the best thing to do is just pick a simple project, and go at it and figure it out. There's no magic to it, just experience and perseverance. You might think things turn out like shit while you're learning, but just use those to learn what not to do the next time and keep going.
Another path to check out is to see if there's a community woodshop or a school near you. They'll have a complete shop so you can learn all the tools without having to shell out thousands for them, and they usually have classes or instructors who can get you started.
I'm going to build a small dresser next weekend and I don't have a table saw. There are a couple of pieces that I'm going to have to rip and I wanted to know if anybody here has any experience with using a jig for a circular saw. I found this online, and it looks like it'll work pretty good. http://www.familyhandyman.com/tools/saws/two-essential-saw-cutting-guides/view-all I'd rather not go out and get a new saw if this will work.