The Woodworking Thread

You can always let the current finish set, protect the table for the rainy season/out of town bit, and then start the re-sand later.

 

I thought you were trying to get it fixed before heading out of town and that just sounded like a recipe for a post on r/tifu

 

That looks great, Nett. I made the same mistake a while back when finishing a table outdoors. I went and bought a zip system from Home Depot and built a 2x4 angled frame, 45 degrees, to protect it from the elements. I used a forstner bit to drill a slight hole to secure the base of the poles. Works well.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/ZipWall-ZP4-Contains-4-10-ft-Steel-Spring-Loaded-Poles-4-Heads-4-Plates-4-Tethers-4-Grip-Disks-2-Zippers-and-1-Carry-Bag-202620/202223614?cm_mmc=Shopping|G|Base|D24|Multi|NA|PLA|All_Paint_Smart|71700000048001153|58700004793621602|92700041080546281&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=CjwKCAjw7anqBRALEiwAgvGgm3A6LK4sPXqUIzBfgcgQGvnkbCifb864KcOA5LtAKMS1vThDVnhytxoC8wQQAvD_BwE

 

We recently finished our basement and we had the contractor build an alcove in the family room area so we could create a dry bar setup as our little piece of the project.

I built the countertop on Tuesday. It's just 1 1/4 common boards that were clamped and kreg joined with 60-70 screws. The wife put two coats of stain on it. It's just dry fit right now. We'll put a few coats of poly on it and then mount it properly. I've stained some quarter round molding as well. The alcove is slightly wider in the back than the front, so there are some gaps along the sides that will need to be covered up.

After that I'll build and install a couple floating shelves over top with the same stain to match.

Pretty happy with how the counter came out. I've been acquiring new tools with each project and bought some larger clamps for this one. Made all the difference in the world when I was screwing the boards together, which especially helped when sanding since the seams between boards were already almost perfectly flush.

 

I came back just to tell you that the wood you're working with that you've been referring to as "zebra" isn't zebra, it's wenge.


Nice work, old man.

 

And an emoji, too. Buuuuurn.

 

Good to see you, sir. I just did a little browsing. You're making nice things, man. And you're a serious gear hound!

 

Festool. Very fancy. I can relate, but in a whole different way: I'm just getting rolling on a project for which I have to learn 18th and 19th century appalachian woodworking techniques. Just bought myself two carving axes, a couple hook knives and scorps, one straight and one curved adze, and a pair of carving knives. I feel like a total newbie again, it's amazing.

 

Totally fair. And I was just mining through old posts and realized I totally ghosted on ol' $100T2, however many years ago that was (sorry about that!). I've got me a fancy new teaching position taking up an absurd amount of time, but I'll come back and show y'all what I'm learning.

Is it cool to plug the project here? It's a long term public art project based in Richmond, VA, and it's kinda political-but-not...

 

Thanks, Brother.
So if any of you actually remember me, I'm a bisexual atheist New York Jew artist/academic who sits politically just barely to the right of Karl Marx. My latest project "Decency," recreates in reverse an experience we've all had over the last few years: You're having a perfectly pleasant conversation with a stranger, and one of you says something that makes you both freeze in your tracks and think, "Oh. You're one of those..." and suddenly you hate each other.

I've just started teaching at VCUArts, in Richmond, VA - the seat of the Confederacy, the home of Monument Avenue and massive statues of Lee and Jackson and Stuart, an hour from Charlottesville or just a few from Charleston, SC. In talks with the Richmond Committee for the Republican Party of VA, the Daughters of the Confederacy, The VA Museum of History and Culture, and other institutions of unlike mind from my own background/philosophies, I'm making a proposition to members: One at a time, one on one, come hang out with me, in a charged public space, and let's make an object. I'll teach you how. Depending on your timeframe, a spoon, a bowl, a stool, hell, a chair. When we're done, the object is yours. Let's talk, and connect through labor.

There are two "catches":
1) We will not talk about politics - no immigration policy, no abortion rights, no Trump. We will talk about what it means to be human - what should I do? what should I not do? Decency, and Shame.
2) The objects we will make will be based on the objects made by newly freed persons in the late 1800's, here in the region they were made, for their own use. I'm going to teach you to make a useful object out of essentially firewood, without electricity, using only your hands, and then you get to keep it. You're going to live with an object that will carry with it the history of craft in the United States, and all the amazing and horrific things that come with that.

So in order to do that, I have to become proficient in a style of woodwork that is pretty new to a city kid, "green" woodworking. Just got a pile of proper tools and this weekend I'm going to the woods to get me some fresh logs, and I'm going to split those fuckers and crank out some spoons and bowls and maybe a stool or two. I'll let you know how it goes...