What are you working on currently?

Zebbedee

Excellent.

How many hours involved?

Sparks

Hm. Not sure of the hours; I spent about six or seven workdays and one weekend on it or to be more accurate, the spare time I spend in the shed over those days. So maybe nine or ten hours? Ish?

That's the thing with doing this as a hobby, you don't track hours because it'd be depressing to know how inefficient you were

Zebbedee

Sparks wrote: »

That's the thing with doing this as a hobby, you don't track hours because it'd be depressing to know how inefficient you were

Time efficiency doesn't matter when you're making little beauties like this.

Sparks

Girl’s doll’s school locker in beech, stained with Crimson Guitars "stunning stains shot" in purple (can you tell), with a top coat of gloss lacquer and a final polish of renaissance wax.

http://www.stochasticgeometry.ie/2018/06/24/done-5/

spookwoman

Have only started in the last few months with making and putting up shelves. Don't have the equipment you guys would have eg router tables etc. Just using tape measure, saw and sander. Door is slightly off on one side but it does the job I put in a socket behind the doors that has usb ports so it's handy for charging camera batteries etc

chillyspoon

Keeping up the tradition that you can never have too many clamps..

magicbastarder

am working on a natural edge cedar bowl - not a wood i'm particularly used to turning. any suggestion of finishes; i suspect it'll drink up whatever i put on it?

logcabins

I made this! Yesterday I had finished this log cabin. Today I will make a new one. 

See my yesterday's work!!! Why I can't upload an image?

..Brian..

Had one of these trunks or whatever you call em lying around with a broken lid for a ages so turned it into a piano stool!

rich.d.berry

Hey Sparks, I just saw your work featured on Paul Sellers's website, Woodworking Masterclasses. Nice one!

Sparks wrote: »

Walnut desk stand with maple stringing in a kind-of-sort-of-line-and-berry-if-you-squint style (and poplar feet with walnut stringing). Osmo oil finish (which proved not perfect and is now getting a coat of shellac over it).

stuchyg

Proper workbench for my shed, all made from 4 X 2.

Only screws used are in the slats for the shelf

Next up is a mallet from iroko and then a tool cabinet/chest just so I can organise my meagre selection of tools

..Brian..

nice solid top! looks great!

magicbastarder

i always wear a full face shield while turning, just take it off while applying finish and the like, where the lathe is turned right down. this evening was the first time i've needed it in several years of turning - you can see where the piece came off; probably should have spotted that would happen long before it did!

nothing dramatic; it actually was thrown off and hit the wall behind the lathe first and bounced onto the top of the visor, so a gentle knock compared to what it would have been had it come straight off at my face.





it's a lovely piece of applewood. pictures don't do it justice. a little bit more unbalanced now on the lathe than it had been..

mayo.mick

magicbastarder wrote: »

i always wear a full face shield while turning, just take it off while applying finish and the like, where the lathe is turned right down. this evening was the first time i've needed it in several years of turning - you can see where the piece came off; probably should have spotted that would happen long before it did!

nothing dramatic; it actually was thrown off and hit the wall behind the lathe first and bounced onto the top of the visor, so a gentle knock compared to what it would have been had it come straight off at my face.





it's a lovely piece of applewood. pictures don't do it justice. a little bit more unbalanced now on the lathe than it had been..

That would have resulted in a nice few stitch's, or worse:eek:

The Master

Another guitar of mine finished recently.
The body is made from Ash, burned Shou Sugi Ban style
The neck is maple and rosewood

chillyspoon

I made a little apartment block for the cats: https://www.chillyspoon.com/2018/10/pallet-wood-kitty-condo-for-two-cats.html

Zebbedee

Lucky cats.
Are they using it?

chillyspoon

Zebbedee wrote: »

Lucky cats.
Are they using it?

Honestly don't know yet - I'm thinking of borrowing a trail camera to see what goes on in there during the night. Might end up finding them sub-letting it to the neighbours' cats!!

spookwoman

chillyspoon wrote: »

Honestly don't know yet - I'm thinking of borrowing a trail camera to see what goes on in there during the night. Might end up finding them sub-letting it to the neighbours' cats!!

I'll have to take a photo of the village here. I'm doing a bit of work on them including insulating them at the moment with the foam roll that you put under laminate flooring and putting the radiator heat reflector foam and foil on the inside of the roof . We have have a stray that was abandoned and won't come in do he lives in them. I'd recommend putting a porch on to help stop the rain getting in.

OAOB

From the stabilising timber thread I mentioned that I’m hoping to build a few coffee tables from slices of tree trunk. I thought I should throw up a few pictures to give a better idea of my project.



A picture of the tree before we cut it up. As said earlier it was going to be just for firewood but seemed a bit of a waste. Put myself in it for context, i'm 6'5"



Having access to a tractor made a huge difference as we had to turn the main trunk to complete the cuts and the big slices weighed a lot (70kg i'd estimate) so it took some of the heavy lifting out of it.
We cut them thick to allow plenty of error in working them and some of the chainsaw cuts were very crooked



These were some of the nicest slices. I put a few coats of pentacryl on them to try stop them from cracking too much. It's an expensive product so for the sake of my wallet i haven't used it on any other pieces. Those pieces are about 30" in diameter



Used anchor seal on some of them instead of pentacryl. I know this is usually used on the end of boards to stop splitting but i said i'd try it on these slices too. To be honest i'm not sure if this is helping at all, it has a kind of waxy coating on the timber now and i'm not sure if the timber will be able to lose any moisture through this coating.



Quick pic to show most of the pieces i have in the shed now. Not sure what i'll do with all of them but if i get bored of making stuff they'll be dry enough for burning:D



Quick shot of the router frame I made for levelling them. The piece on the table is very punky



Some of the pieces that have been levelled and are drying. Problem is that they're starting to get a bit mouldy as there isn't a huge amount of air movement in the shed


So that's the project. I'm doing it with my dad so it's good to have a second point of view. We’re both complete hobbyists but have a decent set up in terms of space and tools.

This is proving to be an expensive hobby project but the feeling is that if we ended up with 2or3 nice coffee tables out of it it’ll be worth it. An approximate spend so far is

• €125 on pentacryl
• €250 on a new router (we felt our existing one wasn’t powerful enough)
• €50 on a wide router bit for levelling the slices
• €50 on timber for the router frame
• €25 for a moisture meter

Thankfully the tree was free

So far the driest pieces are still about 20% moisture so need to get it to the low teens before proceeding.

Once dried sufficiently the next step will be to get epoxy resin to try stabilise the punky wood and fill any cracks that form. Then lots of sanding and decide on how best to finish them.

The epoxy resin I’m planning to use is the west systems 105 range but trying to decide whether to go with the 205, 206 or 207 hardener. I’ve never used epoxy resin before so no experience to go by apart from youtube which is great.
As an aside, the west system is expensive stuff, I wonder what lads are using on some of those large epoxy tables

MickeyShtyles

OAOB wrote: »

From the stabilising timber thread I mentioned that I’m hoping to build a few coffee tables from slices of tree trunk. I thought I should throw up a few pictures to give a better idea of my project.



A picture of the tree before we cut it up. As said earlier it was going to be just for firewood but seemed a bit of a waste. Put myself in it for context, i'm 6'5"



Having access to a tractor made a huge difference as we had to turn the main trunk to complete the cuts and the big slices weighed a lot (70kg i'd estimate) so it took some of the heavy lifting out of it.
We cut them thick to allow plenty of error in working them and some of the chainsaw cuts were very crooked



These were some of the nicest slices. I put a few coats of pentacryl on them to try stop them from cracking too much. It's an expensive product so for the sake of my wallet i haven't used it on any other pieces. Those pieces are about 30" in diameter



Used anchor seal on some of them instead of pentacryl. I know this is usually used on the end of boards to stop splitting but i said i'd try it on these slices too. To be honest i'm not sure if this is helping at all, it has a kind of waxy coating on the timber now and i'm not sure if the timber will be able to lose any moisture through this coating.



Quick pic to show most of the pieces i have in the shed now. Not sure what i'll do with all of them but if i get bored of making stuff they'll be dry enough for burning:D



Quick shot of the router frame I made for levelling them. The piece on the table is very punky



Some of the pieces that have been levelled and are drying. Problem is that they're starting to get a bit mouldy as there isn't a huge amount of air movement in the shed


So that's the project. I'm doing it with my dad so it's good to have a second point of view. We’re both complete hobbyists but have a decent set up in terms of space and tools.

This is proving to be an expensive hobby project but the feeling is that if we ended up with 2or3 nice coffee tables out of it it’ll be worth it. An approximate spend so far is

• €125 on pentacryl
• €250 on a new router (we felt our existing one wasn’t powerful enough)
• €50 on a wide router bit for levelling the slices
• €50 on timber for the router frame
• €25 for a moisture meter

Thankfully the tree was free

So far the driest pieces are still about 20% moisture so need to get it to the low teens before proceeding.

Once dried sufficiently the next step will be to get epoxy resin to try stabilise the punky wood and fill any cracks that form. Then lots of sanding and decide on how best to finish them.

The epoxy resin I’m planning to use is the west systems 105 range but trying to decide whether to go with the 205, 206 or 207 hardener. I’ve never used epoxy resin before so no experience to go by apart from youtube which is great.
As an aside, the west system is expensive stuff, I wonder what lads are using on some of those large epoxy tables

Ya went for a good router anyway.
I’m nearly certain I’m using 205, but I’ll check.
What ya gonna do about legs?

OAOB

MickeyShtyles wrote: »

Ya went for a good router anyway.
I’m nearly certain I’m using 205, but I’ll check.
What ya gonna do about legs?

Yeah i've only ever had a small router so this one is a beast in comparison. I'm pretty hard on it too, taking big depths off in a single pass but i reckon i'd better test it properly while it's under warranty

Not thought too much about legs yet but initial idea is something like hairpin legs. They're simple enough that i could try make them myself even though my welding skills are shocking bad. They're cheap to buy but I like the idea of making as much of it myself

MickeyShtyles

OAOB wrote: »

Yeah i've only ever had a small router so this one is a beast in comparison. I'm pretty hard on it too, taking big depths off in a single pass but i reckon i'd better test it properly while it's under warranty

Not thought too much about legs yet but initial idea is something like hairpin legs. They're simple enough that i could try make them myself even though my welding skills are shocking bad. They're cheap to buy but I like the idea of making as much of it myself

Best price I’ve gotten so far for hairpins is 18/leg. And I’ve bird**** dropping style welding so I’m not arsed!
I’ve a 3/4inch bit in mine.

Zebbedee

OAOB wrote: »

A picture of the tree before we cut it up. As said earlier it was going to be just for firewood.

Well done on seeing past the firewood and seeing other potential.


What type of tree is it? It looks a bit like chestnut.
If it is chestnut it wont be much good for firewood anyway.
I was swindled into parting cash for a load of well dried chestnut rings a few years ago that literally would not burn unless I added coal!

OAOB

I was told it was a beech tree but to be honest i don't even know. I usually use leaves as a guide but this was bare when i saw it

NomadicGray

Had been wanting to get in to some woodworking for the last while.After a small bandsaw box and a simple dice tray I decided to make Steve Ramseys BMW.
Was a nice experience to make, learned a few bits and Im happy with the results.
It feels very solid.

https://imgur.com/OKfJOrL

peter bermingham

NomadicGray wrote: »

Had been wanting to get in to some woodworking for the last while.After a small bandsaw box and a simple dice tray I decided to make Steve Ramseys BMW.
Was a nice experience to make, learned a few bits and Im happy with the results.
It feels very solid.

https://imgur.com/OKfJOrL

Nice job it look good

chillyspoon

A small project for me this week, a replacement boot jack for the missus:

https://www.chillyspoon.com/blog//2018/11/diy-boot-jack-from-salvaged-red-oak.html

chillyspoon

Made this lamp the week before last, must say I'm pleased with it. A combination of cherry and beech grown in Co. Wicklow:

magicbastarder

just working on a simple three legged stool. will earn my chops in the morning if i can pare off the ends of the tenons without marking the top of the stool.