Posted: 11/27/2001 11:28:27 PM EDT
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I went out the day before Thanksgiving and bought some new toys - drill press with morticing bit, biscuit jointer, larger clamps and some #2 pine. Granted, #2 pine is not great stuff to make furniture out of, but it's really cheap, and when you're learning, cheap is good. [:)] I also picked up a table saw about a month ago. Anyway, I decided to build a couple end tables to put next to our bed. I found some simple plans on the net at [url]http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu:8080/~cswingle/woodworking/images/bedside_table.pdf[/url], and armed with my tools, I dove in. Here's the new drill press with the morticing bit, which is a square chisel-like attachment with a drill bit in the middle. Kicks butt for making mortices. [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/End%20Table%201/01%20-%20Drill%20Press%20with%20Mortice%20Bit.jpg[/img] Here are the rails & legs. I cut the tenons on the table saw, which took a while since I don't have a dado blade yet, but they turned out pretty good. The table top is also visible. It consists of three 6"x16" pine boards joined with some biscuits. Notice the ammo can being used to keep it flat while the glue dries. [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/End%20Table%201/02%20-%20Rails%20&%20Legs.jpg[/img] Here's what the top looks like. Still rough and in need of some trimming on each side. It's also getting a breadboard piece to cover the end grain on each side. [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/End%20Table%201/03%20-%20Table%20Top.jpg[/img] Here's our legs & rails [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/End%20Table%201/04%20-%20Rough%20Fit%20of%20Rails%20&%20Legs.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/End%20Table%201/05%20-%20Close-up%20of%20Rails%20&%20Legs.jpg[/img] Basic idea of what the table will look like. Approx 16x16" top and 24" tall. [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/End%20Table%201/06%20-%20Table%20Rough%20Fit.jpg[/img] The stock used for the legs was pretty rough. The planer took care of that. It works very well at turning wood into sawdust. [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/End%20Table%201/07%20-%20Planer%20&%20Sawdust.jpg[/img] |
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Here are the breadboard pieces getting glues on. I made a tounge on the table top and a groove on the breadboard piece to attach the two. It will also get some dowels, mostly for decoration. [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/End%20Table%201/08%20-%20Table%20Top%20with%20Ends.jpg[/img] Here are the legs getting the final sanding after planing. Notice the difference in color between the sanded piece on the right and the rest of them. [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/End%20Table%201/09%20-%20Legs%20Getting%20Final%20Sanding.jpg[/img] The legs and rails are getting glued together. I bought two more clamps the next day. [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/End%20Table%201/10%20-%20Legs%20&%20Rails%20Getting%20Glued.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/End%20Table%201/11%20-%20Final%20Gluing%20of%20Legs%20&%20Rails.jpg[/img] All that is left is some final sanding on the top, putting a finish on the base and top and then attaching the top to the base. I will probably be finishing the piece with several coats of tung oil. I have a test piece that has been stained and has about five coats on it so far, but still hasn't reached the point where I'm satisified with it. I may just cheat and put a few coats of polyurethane on them. Since the wood is so soft, it needs a really hard finish to protect it. I'm also building a second one with a larger top for the wife's side of the bed. I'll get some more pics posted once they're all done! |
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Looks good, man! I'm looking forward to the day that I have a full-blown woodshop at home. For right now I do all my woodworking at work, here's one of my latest: [img]wsphotofews.excite.com/038/z0/nw/ZE/hD83536.jpg[/img] Well, there's also aluminum, plexiglas, plastic body filler, steel, vinyl, carpet, neon, a bunch of math, and a crapload of electronics...[;)] More here: [url]community.webshots.com/album/17579453xiwbeLwucM[/url] |
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Nice work, DVD. My stepdad started his own woodworking company back in 1980. I worked with him for 14 years before I finally went out "on my own." Learned the whole trade in the years I spent there, from rough-sawn kiln dried lumber to polishing the final coat of finish. Dad spent some money on some cool equipment too, including a Timesaver 36" wide belt finishing sander. We made a bunch of [b]solid [/b]oak roll top desks one time, IIRC the tops were 32" x 72" and glued up like your tops are (although I think the widest piece we'd use was around 3 1/2" to cut down on warpage). Once the glue dried, a simple scraping and off the the sander. In about 4 or 5 passes you'd have a ready to stain surface that would have taken [b]Days[/b] to do by hand. Kinda spoiled me actually. One day I realized how long I'd been doing it and that I still had 8 functional fingers and 2 functional thumbs, I considered myself lucky and hung it up for good. I'm a keyboard & mouse kinda guy now - 'cept for guns of course. edited to add: "Think twice, measure twice, cut once." [:D] |
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I'm a keyboard & mouse kinda guy as well, though I've been thinking that I'd like to open a woodworking shop (after several years more experience). The local lumber shop had barely any high-quality grade pine to work with, so I had to go with the regular stuff. This might be a niche I can fill eventually. Well, several years down the road, I won't be in PRK anymore, so we'll see. [:)] |
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DVD, best of luck starting a woodworking shop! I'd definately recommend that you try to keep it on a "second job" or "hobby" level for a while. There is so much furniture out there that's cheaply built, and so few potential customers with a discerning eye for quality. I don't know how many times I've heard people say "Why would I spend that much to have you build it when I can go down to Meijer's/Lowe's whereever and buy it for $XX.XX?" All the time they are forgetting that whoever is building them for the chain stores is doing very high-volume production, with practically slave labor and poor quality materials. (MDF board covered with contact paper is NOT solid oak - I don't care what the box said!!) Hopefully you'll be able to have alot of fun, and gain a great deal of pleasure from your woodworking ventures. Not trying to discourage you but it's [i]hard[/i] to make a living doing woodworking! (I tried.) |
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DVD & gman, Here's a tip that might be worth sharing. Invest in a small router or laminate trimmer and a 1/8" & 1/4" radius (or "rounding over") bits. Go carbide if you can afford it. Before you do your final sanding, radius all the sharp corners on your project - like even the legs on DVD's end table. Then do your final sanding, making sure you go over all the radiused edges too (or they will show a lighter color when stained). This accomplishes 2 things. 1.) It will have a "softer" feel to it and be alot less likely to cause serious injury should someone fall into/onto it and 2.) it will make it a much more durable finished piece, because bumping a sharp corner with a sweeper (or whatever) will nearly always dent the wood and cause the finish to chip off. Radiused corners aren't anywhere near as prone to chipping as sharp ones are. You can get into a good trimmer w/ bits for around $150.00. Trust me on this one, you'll use it all the time! |
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Don't know what size rounding-over bits I have, but I do have a router and had planned on rounding the edges over. Oh, and here are the new wheels on the range cart. Sadly, I haven't been to the range in over a month, so I haven't tested them out yet, but they should do much better. [img]http://www.petenelson.com/Photos/Misc/Woodworking/Range%20Cart/13%20-%20New%20Wheels.jpg[/img] |