This is going to be 1 of 2 small lamp bases. Look at the color of that wood! That isn't stain, that is natural. I have about 12 more feet of that stuff, at least, I haven't check all of the pile yet, so I'm excited to keep making stuff with it. I'm leaving that gray indentation/imperfection for some contrast.
Made a seat for the shower so I could better enjoy Shower Beers more. And maybe wash my feet easier, without fear of falling through the shower glass. 100% legal Indonesian Teak. Weighs probably 40lbs. Ripped off the design from Amazon, but was stupidly easy to make. Finished with 4 coats of epiphanes spar varnish. Between this comfy seat, and the on-demand hot water heater, I can drink beers and pass out for ours and life the good life. Hell yeah.
New toy just showed up on Friday. New miter saw. Ordered it last Oct, but with COVID and all the renos going on, it's been tough getting inventory of some tools. It's SOOO much better than the Ridgid or Bosch Glide that I've had.... night and day. Just the 30mm arbour alone makes for such a more stable cut, never mind the blade stabilizer. And lasers. And the dust collection is out of this world. Excuse me while I go cut some stuff.
I've been lacking a nice straight edge for a while now, so a while ago I bit the bullet and ordered a Woodpeckers 24" straight edge, and it just showed up. This thing is a precision work of art, and weighs way more than I was expected. Incredibly solid. Even comes with a routed out wall hanging unit for it. Yeehaw!
Ha. Jokes on you. All Canadians use hellish fractions instead of metric. Except for my dial calipers, which are in decimal, thousands of an inch.
Hey, y'all - popping my head back in. After a year and a half of delays pandemic and otherwise, this project is finally getting back on track just in time for the release of this series. Which features yours truly running his mouth, as the first episode: https://www.smallbatchfilms.com/the...-id=VFclAnzknh0&wix-vod-comp-id=comp-kl4ayen3
Just finished watching it... really solid message, and I'm really happy for you being able to find your calling like that. Well done!
Hmm. Excellent point, given the present context. Thanks, man. There'll be a couple socially distanced performance versions in NYC this spring and summer, I'm hoping to get funding to document those and push the project further as (if?) the ability to actually interact with strangers returns.
that's awesome and I am really interested to see how well this goes. We need more people in the world doing what you're doing and it really makes me happy to see. congrats
I just painted an old bookcase. Is it worth spraying it with a light coat of polyurethane? Would that make a difference? I don't know shit about woodworking.
I would. Paint in and of itself can flake and peel, and a spray-on coat of poly just gives it that little bit of extra protection. Might want to be sure that the paint is really dried first so there is no more offgassing under the poly, but yeah, go for it. If you're worried, then YouTube it a bit (you'll find tons of examples), or do up a small test piece with the paint you used to see if you like how the finish comes out.
Just be aware that finishing projects is a religious calling... much like what oil to run in a race car. Everyone has their own ideas. Some people will say that a few good coats of good paint will be fine... and that a coat of poly will cause the paint to yellow over time. I gave it some thought and I broke the decision making process into this: if it's a bookcase that is not going to be seeing lots of work, then a few coats of GOOD paint are probably fine without poly. A lot of that will depend on how well that paint dries, sticks, coats, etc. If it's a super nice piece of fine furniture that will be in your main showing room and the guests will talk shit about the slight yellow sheen in 10 years, probably stay away from the poly. If it's just a fucking bookshelf that will probably get a lot of use / wear and tear, then I'd go with the poly for that added coat. Just a thin single spray to help protect it.
Thanks. It’s going in my yet-to-born son’s room so it’s going to have the shit kicked out of it. It’s not a well-made piece of furniture at all and it was in my room when I was a little kid.
Then I'd throw a few coats of poly on it, as it's bound to have shit and piss all over it at some point. Never mind what the kid does to it.
The new shaper showed up. It is... heavy. One thing I'm finding with upgrading some tools is that I'm getting to the point where it almost requires things like forklifts to move shit around. As it was I uncrated the thing, and then using a series of levers, ramps, and hydraulics, managed to get the thing into the shop. Next up is wiring it for the 220v that it needs to run. I'm hoping to be making sawdust within the next few days. "What's in the box?" It's heavy. Greasy, and heavy. It was harder to get it into the shop than I wanted to admit. Found a precision cutting tool shop in Florida that supplies industrial cutting knives, etc, at scale... for stupidly cheap compared to anything local. These are all high-end carbide cutters that I got for about $40 each, compared to the $200 Freud equivalent here from the local supplier.
I need to do some sheet good cross cutting coming up this weekend. My mom wants to do beadboard on the lower part of her bathroom wall and I told her I could handle it. I've been looking into some cross cut clamps from Kreg and another one from a company called Bora that I haven't heard of before to act as a fence for my circular saw. Both seem to operate the same way. Both have decent and "this thing sucks" reviews. Any thoughts on these? I figure I'll use them for this project and maybe for the random project here or there, but not terribly often. I just really want to ensure that I get a straight cut.
These work fine, just don’t rely on the built in clamp system, add a clamp on either side. https://www.lowes.com/pd/BORA-50-in-WTX-Modular-Clamp-Edge-Ruled I break down sheets with it, using a good blade in your skil saw and measuring carefully it’s straight every time.