I subscribe to this guy's YouTube channel, and he does a ton of his own milling (even built his own huge sawmill in his driveway).
I think my most likely option will be to find a local place to have it milled for me. Good to know that all hope is not lost due to them drying out.
I know that my local sawmill (the one I visited yesterday) charges $60/hr for their milling, so it's really not that bad when you consider the investment you'd need to do it yourself, or the mess that you'd have to clean up afterwards.
Shit that is nothing. I can't imagine commercial grade equipment would take much longer than an hour for what I have on that pile. I know how expensive boards are. I was walking around Lowes and the birchwood panels they had almost made me lose my mind. My neighbor told me a few months ago that he has a contractor friend and got a deal on birch panels and now his entire freaking kitchen is birch. The implications of what he was explaining did not sink in til that Lowes trip. I may save them for when my skill level is higher. I would love to make something special for my house but this is not our forever home, nor am I skilled enough for furniture making at this point. Thanks for the help.
No worries... but if you are wanting to use them in the future, and want to keep/save those logs, I'd recommend painting the ends because they're so short. Usually you don't have to worry about longer logs because the few feet on each end that crack (due to drying out) get cut off as scrap, but with shorter logs like you have, that wouldn't leave you too much left over.
I think I will have them milled and then save them. Once they are cut into boards they should dry evenly, right? There is no telling where we may live next and it seems easier to move a pile of boards rather than those heavy logs.
Had a question I was hoping someone could help me out with. My FIL built me a shuffleboard table for my birthday. He brought it over and it is amazing. It just needs a finished coating over the painted top. He's going out of town for a while, which is why he wasn't able to finish. He recommended a polyurethane high gloss finish, and the guy I spoke with at Home Depot sold me Varathane Triple Thick Polyurethane Clear Gloss to finish it with. I completely plead ignorance as to whether this is the best way to complete the project. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I always enjoy listening and learning from all the interesting projects you guys do.
I don't know, off hand. He probably sold you the triple thick stuff to really put on the layers for protection, given that it will see some use and isn't just going to sit on a shelf. I'd just follow the instructions on the can. Usually I'd have a test piece finished/painted the same as the one you want to do, and do a trial run on it to see how it works out. Once I was happy with that, then I'd do the "real" piece. If it's painted, it'd be a real fucking shame to fuck it up with the final coat. Maybe someone else has some better info for you...
On Home Depot's page for the product, Rust-oleum Brands responded, to a question asking if it will work over painted surfaces: Not knowing what kind of paint your FIL used, and given that statement, I'd err on the side of caution and not touch that with a 10 foot pole. Sounds like it's meant more for stains. Your best bet is to call your father in law, figure out what type of paint he used, then go to a paint store and ask them what type of clear coat they recommend for that paint and the best way to apply it. Second best bet is to just not touch it until your father in law gets back in town, then ask him the aforementioned question.
Good catch. My go-to for clear-coating shit that needs to be tough is an epoxy. I use clear-coat on things like metal that I don't want to rust any more, but for tough, durable shit, West Systems Epoxy (special clear hardener) is tough as hell and clear as glass... it's meant for boats, etc., and I've used it on a bunch of stuff with great results http://www.westsystem.com/207-special-clear-hardener/ It's not cheap, by a long shot, but it's really high quality and is easy to work with.
A shuffleboard table is going to have some fairly unique requirements as far as finish goes, just because there's no other piece of furniture I can think of that is regularly abraded as part of normal use (albeit with very fine sand). Research has indicated that while older tables are finished with polyurethane or lacquer, they require at minimum yearly upkeep. Newer tables are finished with a special polymer coating; I assume getting this coating is something you'd have to pay a professional for. May be worth emailing a manufacturer or distributor to see if they can help you.
Know what today is? New Tool Day! Who doesn't love new tool day?!? Got this beast for just under half price, plus about $400 worth of consumables thrown in on top of it. Now I'm just reading the manual to ensure I don't fuck it up in the assembly. Spoiler Full 12" of resaw capability, along with a carbide tip resaw blade.
It's now all set up, but not really tuned yet. I've mounted a home-made roller base to it and hooked up my dust extraction, and just ran a test piece through it as it was set up out of the box. Pretty impressed with it. Lots of grunt, even though it's wired for 110 right now. Spoiler One of the reasons I got it was that it can do 12" resaws, which is hard to accomplish with the cheaper intro-level saws and brands. I looked at King, Craftex, etc, and they all did about 6" but then you had to add on an extension to get to 10-12", and it just looked kind of sketchy. I'm super happy with how solid it is, even at the full 12" depth of cut. I'll be tuning it up tomorrow and slicing up some of the now dry rough boards I picked up from the sawmill last month. This was a trial run at 1/4" from a shitty piece of pressure treated scrap. While not perfect, it's plenty good enough for what I need. I figure at most I'll go down to 3/4" so that I can get proper 1/2" boards out of the planer.
Nice. I looked at getting that Laguna model when I was shopping for a bandsaw a couple of years ago- had I bought new I think that's the saw I would have gone with so I'm curious how it works out for you. Having 12" capacity and ample power is awesome.
I've only used it for about an hour so far, but compared to 3 other bandsaws I've either owned or used, it's by far the best, and is definitely a better saw than I am woodworker. I am absolutely thrilled with it and have zero regrets. This was a great tutorial on how to set it up:
The stuff that he does with a bandsaw is pretty amazing and educational. It's kind of surprising how much you use it when you have one, and how much it limits you when you don't.
Feel like I'm getting a little more proficient with my bandsaw, seeing what Diresta does makes me want to try 3D carving stuff. It is an incredibly handy tool to have around and I love mine. I used another Snodgrass video for my saw and it has been working really well. The table saw technique at 3:55 here makes me pucker up:
You know how it is working in a shop with slightly less than ideal power, so you have to be careful about what runs when and with what? For me, everything is good, except that I can't run my dust extractor with my big air compressor, because they're both in the garage and running on the same circuit. Until today, that is. I rewired the garage so that I have a 240 volt, 30 amp circuit for the welder, made a long extension cord, and then rewired the dust extractor for 240 instead of 110. Figuring that I'll never need the welder and the dust extractor at the same time I'm sharing that circuit between the two, and can swap them out as needed. Now I can run everything all at once with no more concerns, and the dust extractor spins up super fast. It's a beautiful thing.