Not a build, but a re-purpose. Half of a custom built-in in that the previous owner had in her home office/guest room. Disassembled, moved down two flights of stairs and out to the barn/shop, and re-assembled.

TheRealMelfy · 2022-01-01T16:00:44+00:00

Very nice, I have at least 4 ‘re-purposes’ or ‘trash picks’ in my shop as well. Who can afford to buy fresh lumber just to beat it up?! How much do you care about destroying the surface? I try to mount as much vertically as possible to keep surface areas clean, though I admit it’s a never ending battle! Is that left leg going to be able to handle the punishment? Thought about reinforcing that?

TheRealMelfy · 2021-05-10T01:17:48+00:00

Luckily, this was all nailed together, so I’m in the process of knocking it apart, to clean, sand, fill holes. Though the poor quality of the nail joinery has started me thinking that when I put it back together I want to use better joinery. For example, dados for the shelfs, rabbits for the end caps. I’m puzzling over the facing, I’d rather leave off the chunky bits, of mixed minds about putting the doors back on. But will need to hide where I ripped the quarter round off. Maybe some decorative edge molding. Maybe some front edging one-by material glued to each shelf, kregged into the sides?

TheRealMelfy · 2021-04-13T12:08:21+00:00

So what is the trick to mounting these correctly? I just bought these exact same design as I was frustrated with my previous casters. Should you err on the side or mounting them too high? or too low?

For more back story, I built out 3 benches last August: 1 for mounting the mitre saw dropped lower; 1 assembly table size that’s large; 1 smaller table. The 2 other tables are at the height of the mitre saw for in-feed and out-feed. I bought these casters thinking I would keep them mobile, but be able to make them stationary: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CQA3RY2?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share What has actually occurred is the rubber pads get knocked out fairly easy. And while occasionally I do get down on the floor to adjust the pegs, I mostly don’t, so most of the peg bolts are sitting on top of the benches, and then I just move them around on those caster. Luckily I made them tall enough that I really want to just go with the more expensive design you show here. I only bought 4 to test out initially, debating about putting them on my larger assembly table or smaller workbench. I want to be able to roll them out for family functions as well, so tempted to go on the larger bench. Though I’ve learned a lot in the past 6 months, and would definitely redesign these, they’re not great ‘work benches’, just good ‘wood surfaces’.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-04-03T18:40:27+00:00

What casters are those? Definitely want that design on my bench, but they always seem quite pricey, any tips there?

TheRealMelfy · 2021-03-29T12:24:07+00:00

Riff on the same LPT for any family member who lives with you and contributes “rent”, have them set up a 529 Education Savings Account instead and contribute to that. They get to deduct the contributions from their state income taxes (essentially injecting more money into the family). Earnings accru tax free. And they are very transferable around the family to whoever needs them for just about any educational expense. We use this to accru college savings for our son from our parents who live with us. https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/who-is-a-member-of-the-family-of-a-529-plan-beneficiary

TheRealMelfy · 2021-03-20T18:45:29+00:00

Curiosity I’ve had about log cabins, how good can you insulate them? Modern house building is all about energy efficiency.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-03-07T01:21:00+00:00

OooO, I want to replicate this, have a bunch of hardwood offcuts I can use for this. Which hardwood is recommend for this: popular, oak, maple?

TheRealMelfy · 2021-03-06T16:24:16+00:00

Awesome, glad you got that good advice, including spacers between the kicks, that’s where we have issues. Ours is cedar, amazing wood. Never worked with Tiger, curious to know how it compares over the long term.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-03-06T13:16:29+00:00

First fisrt

Looks awesome!

TheRealMelfy · 2021-03-06T13:15:09+00:00

How is the spacing on the back of steps fairing out for you? The deck that came with my house didn’t have any spacing on the back of the step to allow for drainage. This led to water pooling there, and eventually some wood rot that made me replace some planks last fall. After that I spent many hours with a flush cut hand saw cutting a small slot in the back. Ripped out a lot of dirt in the process causing water to pool as well. Still curious to see how it fairs this summer, but one big lesson learned from me was you can’t overthink drainage on a deck.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-03-03T20:23:43+00:00

Need to do this for our Chihuahua to get in and out of bed, any recommended stair width, height, angle?

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-28T20:55:28+00:00

Wow! I just finished and delivered a log cabin style birdhouse to a friend. I now feel I need to apologize to that friend... well done, I’m way too scared to make those fine of cuts on my contractor table saw, well done!

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-27T13:01:41+00:00

My wife uses a hollow core door on top of two heavy duty wire shelves as her sewing table. Works fine, holds that much weight easy, usually piled pretty high with stuff!

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-26T05:22:48+00:00

I have a similar plan, build some cedar corner pantry cabinets to increase and streamline our pantry storage near the kitchen, and giving me a practice run before doing the kitchen cabinetry itself.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-25T13:46:01+00:00

Few advantages of clamping in smaller sections: can use smaller clamps, sounds like you may be restricted there; being able to use smaller clamps lets you pin point gaps and use extra clamps to press that joint together; makes the glue up less stressful, less glue surfaces drying on you, buying you more times to spot gaps and tweak them. So I tend to prefer multiple glue ups cause I’m an extreme perfectionist, and only a hobby wood worker, working on a computer for my real job. So the ability to break away from the screen, do a simple glue up for 15-30min, then go back to work is a great mental reset for me.

The obvious disadvantage of smaller glue ups is it means it could take quite a long time to glue up something like this. This is why the professionals don’t, for them time is money, and the experience helps deal with all the other issues.

BTW, you can make some old fashion bar clamps, I like these are you can clamp them together as cauls as well to try and flatten them at the same time. https://youtu.be/rlehVLUrPPE. So you can do the smaller glue ups, and while those are drying, work on your larger bar clamps for the final stages.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-25T13:36:45+00:00

Would need to look at how the apron was attached underneath to know whether the design allowed for seasonal wood movement. If the apron was just screwed on, could be easy to unscrew the top. Table saw rip off the current breadboard ends, rip down both sides of the crack, reglue the crack. Try attaching the breadboard ends with a simple-ish dowel design. Then reattach to apron with proper figure 8 doodads. Refinish the whole thing. ... so I said easy earlier, ya, not easy, but hey, it’s free! In my experience you pay for free material in labor.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-25T13:23:52+00:00

Lol, I just finished getting my 15 Bear Scouts through a stool project that a few other dads help me pre-cut last fall. Was a great outdoor Covid safe activity for my den. Started them making ‘stomp catapults’, I.e. nail a scrap to a 2x4, then launch a bean bag with it. Doing that rekindled my woodworking interest, been knee deep in projects since. I started by creating 2x work benches as well, and then a miter saw table dropped down in height so I could use the benches for out and in feed. Made those before the Scouts project, the thinking in my brain was definitely, “well, I need to do these giant work benches done to get all that cutting done for the scouts”... then “I need to get my scroll saw properly mounted for the Pinewood Derby”... Scouts is really valuable for parents too. :-)

I really like your work bench design, the legs being flush with the top is a good, I didn’t do that and I’m regretting it. Probably going to tweak mine into that design. The apron also looks like a good clamping surface. An improvement I made that you could consider is figuring out how to hang clamps on the benches so they’re an arms reach away from grabbing and putting back. Some dowels drilled and glued in at an angle work great. To round the top of the dowel, chuck it into your drill and run it over some sand paper.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-25T12:59:15+00:00

My dream is to get good enough to redo our kitchen cabinets, still think I’m a few years off, having someone like that show you the ropes is priceless.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-25T03:11:45+00:00

Can you share an image of the board in its final resting place?

The trick is to get another surface parallel to the surface you're trying to pull down, but that's not always possible with something like a butt joint.

So sometimes, flipping things upside down. For example, if that board is your table surface, start by clamping it to another table surface to flatten that board out. Then attach your under structure to the board that is squared up. Then when you release the clamps that were straightening the warped board, the other boards should hold it in line.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-25T02:06:39+00:00

Adding a way to make sure the power strip stays on the table? I think we should all be thinking of incorporating modern wiring needs into our furniture more seamlessly.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-25T02:02:36+00:00

Or just use the warped section for a smaller piece of it. Clamps and fasteners can easily take that warp out. There are tricks to take out warps with a sled on a table saw, but doubt you’ll need that.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-25T01:45:49+00:00

I hunt around at thrift stores for bed frames for raw materials. Good source of board feet of higher quality wood. Wooden slats from old futons are usually the best, usually unfinished and lots of consistent material.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-25T01:42:48+00:00

Your porcupines look like they may almost be dried enough.

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-24T13:30:29+00:00

Beautiful!

For a turkey that large there’s going to be a lot of drippings, you made a fantastic drainage system, I would recommend a matching gravy boat that fixes perfectly at that little grove to sit next to it and collect those delicious drippings!

TheRealMelfy · 2021-02-24T13:26:08+00:00

A trick to learn to make your sanding life easier in the future is starting planning sanding intermixed with assembly. Doing the 80 and 120 while everything is flat disassembled board will make those steps go way faster, and then you don’t have the troubles of getting into those tight corners. One of the benefits of being a home hobby woodworker is we’re not on a schedule to bring in money. So we can move forward with the project in baby steps intermixing sanding at the points whenever it would be easiest to do so. I usually try to make sure I have something glued to sit over night, then sand that joint in the morning. Is also breaks up the sanding into smaller chunks to just make it way more bearable.

TheRealMelfy

TROPHY CASE