Any woodworkers?

3 done and 3 to go.

 

Thanks. Years in the planning, and saving up. I build a lot of things in my shop, mostly wood, but this was a bit out of my wheelhouse.

Here are a few more.

 

And now you learned what you are actually capable of doing. Your a better wood worker than you give yourself credit for. Great job man.

 

Still making dowel center transfers. 3 done and 3 to go.

 

Thanks. The only real tense moment was when I was locating the barrel nuts for the leg tie at the bottom. Had to wallow a hole just a smidge. Great of it was just measure, cut sand repeat. Finish, which is what is judged by all non woodworkers, turned out great. I once had nine coats of polyurethane on a project that I wanted to stop at four. Last coat kept being trashy. So, i kept going and sanding until number nine looked good

 

that really turned out great!

 

Thanks. Building a bench for the window side today and tomorrow. Already have all pieces cut except bench top. I don't have a piece of 14 inch wide in stock lol. Going to wood store in a bit. They have everything. Me going there is like a kid at Disney. I look around with my mouth open and a bit of drool leaking out. And the tools they have are magnitudes bigger and better than mine, which is to be expected but it's like looking at my truck vs a Baja 1000 truck. Both are trucks, and the similarities end there.

 

Flattening a oak slab today for a custom bartop with my router sled.

 

For those of you who source your own wood (mill it and age it yourself), what is the general rule of thumb for how long you let a piece dry out before you deem it ready to build with? I have absolutely no experience, but have been dabbling around with a family member helping him mill some pine 2x's for a hunting shooting house, and we just built it with fresh cut wood. Thats probably fine for that context, but for building nicer furniture, say a table top, how long would you typically want to dry/store the wood before building? We had a walnut tree blow down on the hunting property across the road, and I'd absolutely love to get a section of that thing on his mill!

 

The general rule of thumb is 1 year per inch of thickness. Obviously there are too many factors to give a black and white answer.

 

I follow the 1 year per inch of thickness if you're air drying. I have seen some solar kilns that get erected around the stack and stickered bundle that helps speed things up. Paint the ends of the board with tar or latex paint to help prevent checking and splitting. Of course, you'll want a moisture meter to check dryness before final milling.

-J

 

Building a hunting blind/house out of green (freshly cut) pine is totally acceptable but normally the rule of thumb is 1 year per inch of thickness. So a 2 inch thick slab will take two years of air drying. Where I live, NJ, acceptable moisture is around 10%. The red oak slab I'm flattening today air dried for 20 months and hit 12%, which for me is acceptable fior a rustic live edge bartop. It might move a little but but most slabs will no matter how dry you get them.

 

Thanks fellas! I think 2ish years would probably give me enough time to research and practice on some cheaper wood before attempting a table out of the walnut slabs, so that doesn't seem as long as I originally thought it might would be. Who knows if it'll ever turn out, but I'd sure love to try, so long as it only costs me time and effort.

 

There’s ways of kiln drying at home, depending on your set up, and so forth. That would cut down on the dry time compared to air drying.

 

Some smaller mills will kiln dry for you...for a fee obviously but still

 

Thanks Stumpy Nubs, recently posted a video about just this subject, kinda.


-J

 

Well I finally got the dowel center transfers made. These are stainless steel. It was fun running my old southbend lathe again to make these.
I'll be using this milescraft drill guide to drill the holes for the loose dowels. Much easier than trying to wrestle the heavy top sections on the drill press.

So other various projects and duties have kept me out of the shop for awhile, that's actually a good thing as the top sections are moving a bit. Probably from the glue curing and moisture in the shop is low this time of year. Gaps have opened up about 1/8" on each end. A pass or 2 across the jointer will close it up and make everything flush again.

I fully expect that the only time this will be closed up is the day I finish making it. After that there will be seasonal movement and I'm sure the seams will open up some, that's ok.

The top will be a floating top for the most part to allow for the seasonal movement.

 

those center transfers turned out great! i really need to put some time on my little HF metal lathe.

 

This is my old 1949 southbend heavy 10 lathe. I fully restored it. It's an absolute joy to use. Old school all the way.

 

that's awesome. i've got this little guy -- cheapschool for me.