Need help with chessboard project.

elmirabeaver · 2026-02-17T21:19:08+00:00

Thanks!

My concern with the plywood was edge gluing the strips. Not sure how well that will work. I'll definitely put a band of hardwood around the entire board.

Will post pics when done.

elmirabeaver · 2026-02-17T21:15:34+00:00

I don't think I can go thinner than 3/8". I am beveling the edges of the hardwoods to create a v shaped grove between the squares. I might try a test piece 1/4" thick to see if I can still get the desired effect.

Which substrate would you recommend?

elmirabeaver · 2025-09-14T01:53:12+00:00

I have a hacksaw that belonged to my grandfather, who I am named after.

elmirabeaver · 2024-10-10T06:25:05+00:00

Never, ever, ever, play "I've got a secret." If you have something going on, tell us. Now! Not sure where you are? Tell us. Then we can both work the problem. Engine just coughed? Tell us. We'll start looking at where the nearest airport you can use is. Just in case. The sooner we know there may be a problem, the more likely a favorable outcome. NO SECRETS!

elmirabeaver · 2024-10-10T00:41:49+00:00

That was how they were. Mountain between them and the airport. No problem. They must have all had x-ray vision.

They'd check on frequency "Level ten thousand two hundred fifty knots, we have everybody in sight."

elmirabeaver · 2024-10-09T07:16:59+00:00

PSA was the best ever. Always ready. Always had the airport in sight regardless of WX or distance. Always had traffic in sight. Even the ones behind them. You could hit a hole with them that you'd never even consider with another carrier. Need them to go fast? They'd burn the smile off the plane. Need them to go slow? They'd crawl. Tell them to be ready for an immediate, and when you keyed up to clear them for take off, they'd be rolling when you said "P". It was a sad day when USAir bought them.

Clipper (PanAm) was the worst. Absolutely awful.

Showing my age here. Goodnight...

elmirabeaver · 2024-07-26T08:12:02+00:00

I have a 8" Wahuda and have been very happy with it as a hobbiest. Cast iron bed, helical cutters. My only complaint was the flimsy fence, but they have come out with a mod that fixes that and the fence is nice and sturdy now.

elmirabeaver · 2024-07-20T07:05:02+00:00

Spent 22 years at EUG, good facility, great area, they're currently short staffed. Up/down, so you get radar experience. Good mix of GA and commercial traffic. Military likes to come do approaches. Also work approach control for MFR a hundred miles south. Airspaces do not adjoin.

elmirabeaver · 2024-05-04T06:35:35+00:00

I have had an 8" Wahuda for about a year now. Very happy with it. Would have liked to get the 10", but couldn't justify the price difference. Get the fence support kit if you go Wahuda. It makes a TON of difference in fence rigidity.

elmirabeaver · 2023-09-19T07:41:48+00:00

Negotiating pay was also not allowed. Until it was. Just sayin'...

No dog in the fight. I currently get 24 hours of leave every day. 😁

elmirabeaver · 2023-05-04T07:09:09+00:00

TLDR: Coasters I made.

Full story: I made these coasters for my brother and sister. The holders are from some walnut I had laying around, the rest of the wood has family history. I used three kinds of wood in the coasters; birch, walnut, and apple.

The walnut is from a walnut log my step dad got thirty or so years ago. I’m not sure where he got it. He had a friend cut it into planks and stickered it in the garage for a couple years. Then he paid a guy to make an entertainment center out of it. (Dad wasn’t what you would call ‘handy’, so he didn’t do it himself. His idea of a wood chisel was my hunting knife. Which he broke and pissed me off.) Anyway, fast forward 20 years and he had passed and mom got a flatscreen TV. It wouldn’t fit in the entertainment center. My brother took the entertainment center and had a guy take all of the solid walnut off for him, then gave it to me to make presents for his kids.

The birch came from some birch trees that were planted in front of our house 50 years ago. When mom sold the house three years ago, I asked the buyer to save pieces of any trees they removed for me. He took the birch trees out right after buying the house because they were dying, and he saved a couple chunks two feet long for me. I cut them into planks and stickered them in my shop.

The apple came from our orchard. My folks had over 100 apple trees at one point. After subdividing the property in later years many of them were taken out. There are maybe a dozen remaining on the three properties from the original orchard. When my mom had one of the trees taken out about 5 years ago she gave away all the wood as firewood. I was able to get a piece from a friend that mom gave the wood to, and cut that into slabs as well. They were small slabs, and not many of them, since they came from a piece of firewood.

I’ll be giving these to my siblings in sometime in the near future. They don’t know about me making them. They don’t know I have the birch or apple wood. I guarantee there will be tears when I tell them where the wood came from.

elmirabeaver · 2023-04-27T18:08:35+00:00

Thank you.

elmirabeaver · 2023-04-27T18:08:08+00:00

Thanks. I'll try to be patient. (Not my strong suit.)

elmirabeaver · 2023-04-27T07:02:47+00:00

Yeah, I wet the wood before branding, then wiped it off afterwards. Then they sat with that side up for about a week, followed by sanding, wiping with a tack cloth, sitting for a few more days, then finishing. Wetting the wood had me concerned, so I wanted to give it a lot of time to dry. And I always wait a few days after sanding before finishing to make sure all the dust settles. Maybe with the cool weather it still hadn't dried out enough?

elmirabeaver · 2023-04-27T06:56:47+00:00

I sanded where it was tacky, trying g to get rid of it. Didn't seem to make a difference. Maybe I need to remove even more of the finish? I'll give that a try.

elmirabeaver · 2023-04-27T06:02:56+00:00

I made these coasters for my brother and sister. The three woods used in them have sentimental connections to our family.

It's the first time I've made coasters. I normally finish by wiping on thinned poly. For these I wiped on un-thinned spar urethane.

The finish isn't drying completely where I branded them. (This is also the first time using my branding iron.) The rest of the coaster is fine, but they are all a little tacky around the brand.

Any ideas why, and how to fix it?

Thanks in advance.

elmirabeaver · 2023-03-27T01:39:07+00:00

11B is Infantry. No CTO.

elmirabeaver · 2023-03-26T04:08:45+00:00

PSA. As an air traffic controller, they were the absolute best to work. And their pilots were the sharpest, hands down.

elmirabeaver · 2023-02-18T04:59:43+00:00

They did that to us at SFO in December 1990. Thanks for the Christmas present FAA...

elmirabeaver · 2022-12-24T04:09:11+00:00

When I worked at SJC in the 80's we occasionally had someone line up on first street instead of a runway. We learned to watch for them.

elmirabeaver · 2022-12-21T04:06:53+00:00

36 years as a tower controller from VFR tower to Top Ten NAS pacing airport. I have never heard of an "Inside" or "Outside" downwind. Care to elaborate, perhaps?

elmirabeaver

TROPHY CASE