Walnut Nightstands

[minorhero]

I am definitely not going to use just Danish oil, but rather want to add some pigment to the wood to hopefully stop the wood from bleaching as it ages. In a perfect world there would be a finish with stain in it already mixed that I could apply to the snightstands in 3 or so coats and never need to worry about the walnut bleaching.  That doesn't appear to exist.  So right now I am thinking of rubbing walnut Danish oil on my walnut nightstand then putting on something else to provide additional protection,  that definitely could be arm r seal. I have used it before and like the product.  I am quite open to suggestions here but I do want my nightstands to remain dark in the decades to come.

[Eric.]

1) FWIW...while walnut does "lighten" a bit over the decades...it literally takes decades, and it's not that significant.  It's not like you'll wake up one morning next year and your walnut nightstands will look like maple.  It takes a long long time and it's no big deal.  Your great-grandkids won't care if they're a little lighter, I promise.

2) There is a finish with stain in it...it's called Watco Danish Oil, Walnut.  However,

3) I prefer the natural color of walnut with clear finish.  The walnut DO just makes the wood look...I don't know, muddy.  Dull.

To summarize...just let the wood be the wood and let Mother Nature do what she wants.  The EGO to think YOU can do a better job than she can...get a hold of yourself man!  

[minorhero]

Hmmm it does give me something to think on. There are a few Windows in my bedroom near my bed. I think it quite impossible to keep them completely out of the sun. And I definitely like to plan for the ages as it were. If there were a good compromise I would seize upon it. I will need to see how the Danish oil affects the wood. 

[wtnhighlander]

What Eric said about Watco walnut DO. Muddy, for sure.

[minorhero]

While pondering the finish options rough cuts continue! But at a snails pace since I seem only to get into the shop for 20 minutes at a time. Here are the legs all rough cut with ends trimmed (though not to final length yet)

 

So a lot of my joinery is going to be based around long dados made for the floating panels. My drawing calls for the panels to be 1" but in reality they could be just about any width still thick enough to be structurally sound and make for a solid feel. Once I know my final width I will be able to make the joinery for my legs and stretchers between. That means that my next task is to rough cut my panel pieces then flatten and begin glueing them up. Since the walnut is proving to be wonderfully flat even in rough cut form I think my panels might end up being quite thick indeed. My legs are rough cut to be 3"x3" and my drawing only needs 2.5"x2.5" I almost certainly won't need to go that small in order to get flat square wood. I am then left with the proposition of making my legs considerably thicker then my drawing calls for. This is my natural inclination but since the top will definitely be constrained in thickness I am concerned that the table may aesthetically appear unbalanced. Le sigh, talk about first world woodworking problems ;p

[Coop]

Try a test piece with ARS and put it in the sun for 20 years before you add a finish to your piece and you'll see. Either that or just use the ARS, satin as mentioned, and you'll be happy. Staining walnut is probably against the law, or should be!

[Cliff]

10 hours ago, K Cooper said:

Try a test piece with ARS and put it in the sun for 20 years before you add a finish to your piece and you'll see. Either that or just use the ARS, satin as mentioned, and you'll be happy. Staining walnut is probably against the law, or should be!

Trying to imagine a world where every project requires 20 years. It hurts.

[minorhero]

The finish question has been resolved!  I have thought about it a lot and it seems there is no good way to go about locking in the dark color, preserving the grain and using the nightstand in a practical way. I have also put the question to the wife who hath spoken in favor of simply cutting around sapwood and allowing nature to take its course.  So finish will likely be 3 coats of arm r seal satin. 

In other news I had another 20 minutes in the shop this morning.  It was enough to lay out cuts for my panels and from 5/4 layout cuts for the lower shelf. This is my first project where I am  making more then one of a thing. It is pretty wild having this much material lying around.  Here is what that looks like:

[Chestnut]

All these new journals are making me want to start a new project even though i know i shouldn't until i finish some house renovations.

I tihnk the wife is wise and letting nature take it's course is probably the best way to go. I have some walnut that was reclaimed from a 100 y.o. building. It was used for window trim and it still looks really good.

[..Kev]

Good choice!  It's always nice to have a good stash of lumber laying about!

[Coop]

What? You're using ARS? Great idea. Good luck on your project bud!

[minorhero]

Some progress has occurred once more!

I cut all my panel pieces to rough length and then after that went through generally accepted properly flattening techniques to get them square on all sides. This took a while since I need enough wood for 4 panels per nightstand. This what that looked like:

 

My panel thickness is currently just under 7/8" but I will lose a bit more in the flattening process once all boards are glued up. This is where I REALLY wish I had a drum sander. My number 4 and number 5 hand planes get a bit tiresome after truly not that long at all. 

This morning I got back out to the shop and was able to do 2 glue-ups pretty quickly the panels coming together exceptionally nicely (always a good sign). Here is what it looks like now:

Next up is a bunch more glue-ups followed by a lot of handplane work. Anyone need a 30 gallon trashbag of walnut shavings? ;p

[minorhero]

 

 

Glue-ups have occurred! Specifically all of the glue-ups for the panels. I also flattened the panels after the glue dried for 7 out of the 8 panels (the 8th still in clamps as of this post). I began the day by fixing some few knots or weak spots by filling it with epoxy dyed black. I used my heat gun to help the epoxy along. Here is what that looked like:

 

Here is what it looked like flattening the panels.

Using a cross cut sled I trimmed the ends. At this point I started to try to assign locations for each of the panels. However after a few false starts I decided I was pretty tuckered out so that will have to wait for another day.

Here is where things stand now:

I am keeping everything clamped down to stop the boards from going all curvy on me just in case there is going to be any shift. 

Next up will be flattening the final panel and assigning places to all the existing panels followed finally by trimming them to their final lengths and widths. Then I can set them aside and begin joinery on the legs. The final thickness for the panels is just under 7/8". 

[minorhero]

Another small update. Got in the shop a bit last night and again this morning. Since I now have a pretty good idea where final panel thickness is I can start on my leg joinery. I began by just flattening the legs with the jointer and planer. I am not quite to final thickness yet (which promises to be more then my drawings 2.5") but I am pretty close. In the meantime I need to fill in a few knots. I used my favorite multi-tasker for that a scratch awl to pick out the inside of the knot and then mixed up some epoxy with black tint to it. Using my heat gun I made short work of the knots. Here is where its at now:

[wtnhighlander]

What are you using to tint the epoxy?

[minorhero]

29 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

What are you using to tint the epoxy?

Stick Fast black powder:

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/857083/stick-fast-black-powder-dye-for-stabilizing-resin.aspx

To make the epoxy I use (the cheap stuff you buy at home depot) truly black requires more then they advertise when used by itself. But when you combine it with the heat gun the stuff instantly darkens up to a very deep color that is actually an extremely dark green rather then black, but you can't tell that unless you get out a hand plane and take a shaving. In the knot it is just black. With the aid of the heatgun I don't need more then enough powder to dust my glue brush to tint all of those knots.

[minorhero]

Some more progress!!

Specifically leg joinery has begun. I marked out all the joinery for the legs on one set of legs and the other set I just kinda figured out which one will be front and back and left and right and top and bottom but otherwise made no marks on them. Then I setup my mortiser with a stop block so I could repeat my mortises as needed from the marked set to the unmarked set. Here are some pictures showing the progress of the mortises:

 

And that is as far as I have gotten with it. I have quite a few more mortises to make before I am done. Next up, more of the same.

[..Kev]

Looking good!  Nice tidy work with a good process going!

[Eric.]

Whoa, that mortiser is awesome...but you need some kind of pads on those hold-downs so they don't damage your workpiece.

[minorhero]

26 minutes ago, Eric. said:

Whoa, that mortiser is awesome...but you need some kind of pads on those hold-downs so they don't damage your workpiece.

Thanky! I rebuilt the mortiser myself. It is the oldest machine in my shop at 100+ years. The hold downs original to the machine were missing so I bought jet replacement parts for their mortiser and a 1/2" steel rod to make these. I could thread the end of the rod and screw on a nut to act as a point of contact but it hasn't been necessary.  The rod ends have been sanded and are not sharp. Plus nothing really gets jamed into them so damaging the wood becomes a lot harder than it looks.

[Janello]

I know you don't claim to have a problem but just food for thought. A couple of rubber pipe end caps would add some protection and be simple to add. Grainger or Mcmaster Carr should have ips or OD sizes. Way simpler than threading and adding a nut that won't offer up much more protection.