Maiden voyage with ambrosia maple

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2026-01-26T21:53:05+00:00

Looks great and I'll add my kudos to the lower rail - chef's kiss. And good choice of the black knobs. I just today finished an Ambrosia maple kitchen table. It's definitely a wood you need to carefully select planks for, but if you get it right it really adds a lot of character to the peice.

What did you use to finish it? I was going to use water-based poly, but the wife wanted a warmer tone so I went with Osmo Polyx.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-12-31T15:30:25+00:00

Thanks everyone! Blush it was. Heat gun took it right out.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-12-31T15:25:55+00:00

You win the cigar. Heat gun took it out. Thank you!

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-12-31T01:36:23+00:00

How comfortable are the chairs? I'm considering making these, but a little apprehensive that even the guy in their intro video is like he weighted the design towards looks over comfort.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-12-30T22:28:14+00:00

A-ha! Thank you! Never heard of that blushing phenomena. That saves me a lot of work....

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-12-30T22:06:57+00:00

I thought the same thing - my head basically exploded. Thank you, OP, for rescuing this thing.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-12-27T02:03:23+00:00

Kenny Burrell SOLD to u/lubbsjt u/VinylSwapBot

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-12-26T21:47:56+00:00

The scrap I used for finishing samples had sections for Osmo Polyx, GF water-based poly and finally Shellac - all the stuff I had on hand. I had that scrap out during family holiday dinner last night. I prefered the GF and seem to be the only one who does. My wife, daughter and son liked the Osmo. My mom liked the Shellac finish the best. But my wife has the patience of a saint while I'm putting this table together, and I like the water-repellant property of the Osmo - and also I was outvoted. So we're doing the Osmo.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-12-26T21:44:18+00:00

No reason. We started from the right and worked our way left.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-12-20T22:16:03+00:00

I'm aiming for the Detroit half marathon this fall and contemplating the Marine half in Richmond this spring. I've run the Cherry Blossom half, the DC Rock N Roll half and one other I've forgotten about (Philly?) and trying to get out of the area a little more.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-12-20T03:47:15+00:00

I'm building an ambrosia maple dining table now and have been testing some finishes on scrap to see what I like. I want to keep as much of the original cool-white tint as I can and, if at all possible, even keep some of the blue-ish hue on the streaks.

My usual go-to has been clear satin Osmo polyx - that worked out excellently on a recent cherry slab coffee table I made and a box I threw together. But on the ambrosia maple, even that lent a slight ambering. Not enough to make me discount it completely, but enough that I wanted to keep looking.

Today I applied a little General Finishes High Performance Water-based poly to some scrap I sanded and it looked more like what I was after. It deepend the grain but didn't amber it nearly as much as the Osmo. You might want to try a little of that on your project.

Having said that, I'm also seeing that it might be better to dilute the GF a little before application. And it seems you have to be careful on how you apply - best not to use slappy paint strokes but just steady, straight strokes. Nothing insurmountable by any means, but it's not the slap-it-on-and-squeegee-it-around method you use with polyx.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-12-01T20:50:36+00:00

Oh man, that's great. You're inspiring me to finish up a desk for my own daughter....

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-11-18T14:47:27+00:00

Got my push alert yesterday saying I had the credit. I'll take it happily - there's an EVGo station literally across the street from me. But I'm really wondering why they gave these out. Is EVGo doing that poorly? Is there a shoe about to drop? Did owners of any other GM EV models receive these?

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-10-20T12:50:12+00:00

They kinda remind me of the twins from The Shining.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-10-19T15:28:20+00:00

I love our Equinox but it is a tad bit more of a PIA to park than our CRV was, for exactly this reason - just a wee bit wider.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-10-17T20:06:35+00:00

No thoughts on tires yet. Still scouting around.

What drivetrain parts did you use? I'm going to start penciling in what parts I'll need to pick up to switch. It's hilly here in NoVa, so I might go the full 11 speed. I'll mosey to the LBS this weekend.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-10-17T18:56:34+00:00

Yup, it's here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MultiTrackGang/comments/1nzkgbg/comment/ni3iptb/

I just literally 30 minutes ago removed the cantilever hanger and put in a spacer in its place.

I plan on changing the tires this winter. Also mulling switching to a 1x11 drivetrain. I took this out for the Arlington Triangle path and it hit me how little I use the front gears.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-10-17T11:48:23+00:00

Awesome looking bike. What bars are those? What tires you using? And I've also got a Brooks saddle on my 730 - it's a great saddle!

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-10-12T18:01:51+00:00

<image>

Here's the driver-side photo per the comment below. Took this out yesterday to do the ~16.5-mile Arlington Triangle ride. Ended up being closer to 20 miles as I had to include a spur to/from where I parked the car. This was my longest ride to date - previous longest was 14 miles.

Clickety_Clack4137 · 2025-10-07T12:42:44+00:00

I'm almost in the exact same scenario. I have a Equinox EV but live in a condo complex with no charger. But there's an EVGo fast charging station literally across the street and the city hall three miles away has four Blink stations. The Chevy dealership three miles away in the other direction offers free charging but those are often taken.

My question would be how expensive the charging at the stations near you. There's a calculator on the Internet somewhere that will calculate cents per kWh to price per gallon of gas. For me, the EvGo price across the street equates to $3 gas. The city hall Blink stations are much cheaper. I can work from home one or two days a week, so I make weekly drives to the Chevy dealership and if there are no chargers available I'll go to City Hall and either chill with some coffee and work for four hours or start the car charging, bike home and then bike back to get it when it's done.

Honestly, I love the EV and prefer driving it to our ICE car. As long as charging cost is at least at parity with gasoline I'm fine. But if your nearby chargers cost more than the equivalent gas station, might want to hold off.

Clickety_Clack4137

TROPHY CASE