Any woodworkers?

Okay, so here is my test swatch; I have like some really shitty burns on there just to see if it got overtaken by the stain, just ignore it haha. I've never used a wood burner and am not amazing at it off the bat.

So, I put pre-stain down the left sides of the 4 swatches:



I used 4 different stains; 2 I bought, the other 2 I had laying around. The one on the bottom right used to be this really rich brown. I have no idea what happened. The can is like 2 years old.



Then, along the tops of the swatches, I applied a layer of the varathane satin ultimate polyurethane finish. Wasn't a huge fan of the look or feel of it. Might let it dry overnight and see if I feel different in the morning, but this is after about 2-3 hours of drying

 

What you are feeling at the end is prob caused by the stain lifting the grains. To help with this sand the box with 320grit then wipe off with a damp paper towel, (it doesnt have to be dripping wet). Wipe down all the stuff you sanded. Let it dry, then sand with 400grit. Wipe down with damp paper towel let dry and sand again with the 400grit.

Now you can apply pre stain, let it dry, then stain, let it dry, apply thin coat of poly, let it dry so its not tacky to the touch. If its rough sand lightly with 1000grit sand paper, wipe of dust with slighty damp paper towel. Spray or apply second coat of poly, let it dry, by now it should be pretty smoothe, last thing i do is wipe it down one last time with a clean microfiber.

I dont know what color you are looking for but i like special walnut or golden oak. It will be a little different on pine since it has a tint of yellow already.

 

Thanks!
No color in particular; I'll be offering them in a lot of colors depending on what art I put on top of the box. I did want some darker browns to start out with, though.

The Kona used to look like this, for instance:


No clue what happened

 

The stain does settle over time. If you stir the bottom i bet its just settled

 

Laminate day! Spraying the 3m high strength contact adhesive on the laminate.

And to the plywood top.

I use some stickers so I can get the laminate positioned, once it touches its stuck!

Here you can see how the stickers hold the laminate off the surface.

I pulled the center stick out and worked from the center out with a J roller to stick the laminate down.

My little dewalt trim router was great for trimming the laminate.

Then I sanded all the edges so they weren't so sharp.

 

Time to take the crappy mdf table off.

Next I have to remove the fence rail so I can get at the screws.

And I drilled 4 holes in my new saw cast iron wing. Something just wrong about drilling your new saw!

Holes drilled to bolt the table on.

Old table and spindly legs are off.

New table is going on. It's bolted to the saw wing but not the rails, I need to pick up some flat head countersunk screws.

Project is getting there. Much more solid and flat. Adds mass to the saw and that's a good thing. The legs will give much better support too.

When this side table is done I'll position the outfeed table and mark it for the miter gage slots and rout them out. I don't think I'm going to attach the outfeed table to the saw, it's very heavy and the rubber feet have a good grip, it doesn't move.

 

I think the top weighs about 25 pounds.

 

Neat! Good job!

 

Here's a bookshelf I was making for my son, he did the sweeping...
And one for my nephew...

One in progress for my sister,

And of course a table that my wife wanted.

 

Nice work!

 

Thank you! My projects do seem to take forever though!

 

Very nice

How did you accomplish the long gradual curves on the shelf?

 

That was actually quite easy, I just bent a batten to the right curve to draw a line, then sawed it on the bandsaw, then long broad sanded it to smooth out the bumps.

 

Do you have a set of plans for it?

 

I found the plans in Woodcraft magazine and modified them for my needs. It's called "Bookcase with Flair"
It's in the Dec/Jan 2011 issue.

 

Ill add that to list of gonna do that some day...

 

It's a fun build. I'm almost finished with my 4th one now. I finally got smart though and decided to use my Domino instead of hand cutting the M&T.

 

@wilcam47

It's time for a new saw... this POS won't even go to 45 degrees.

 

Ouch. What brand you got?