What's on the bench.

[curlyoak]

On 12/27/2021 at 12:32 AM, wtnhighlander said:

Coop, I think white oak's weather resistance is somewhat dependant on the average regional humidity. My house has WRC siding that is in fine shape after 30 years, but a white oak bench I built for Cody and the neighbor kids to rest on between backyard basketball games fell apart after two years in the weather, warped until the joinery broke. Another member here ( @curlyoak?) has mentioned great difficulties with mold forming on a WO door in the even more humid climate of Florida. It may resist rot and bugs, but humidity makes it move a lot, and it stains from mold very easily.

A WO front door with the best varnish failed. Mold and mildew got under the finish and made a mess. I thought I could strip it, kill the mildew and re varnish. Wrong. After another try I realized it is the wrong wood. I was told that the cell structure allows mildew to get in. Regardless how much I varnished the door bottom. I was told that red oak would work. Didn't want to go there. So I replaced it with Sapele. Works like a champ. and has nice look. Just like mahogany. There is nothing as good as teak but over the top on cost. And teak contains silica which dulls all edges. People have asked me to do millwork on teak. I agreed only if they pay for the sharpening and the down time. No one is interested in that.

This is a subtropical issue. I know WO works in other places. Not here for outside.

[Chestnut]

10 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

Drew, it will go easier if you kerf out as much waste as possible.

I didn't do the greatest removing waste with the fret saw. I'll take it to band saw and remove closer to the base line one the next corners. This stuff just refuses to chop though ....

10 hours ago, Coop said:

Yeah, that stuff is super soft. I didn’t know that white oak was that weather resistant until listening to you guys. Compared to the red cedar, how would white oak hold up on a project like that?

I'm trying to use up scraps. If it wasn't WRC it'd be redwood. I want to save the redwood for bird houses though. One of these years I'm going to make some.

[Tom King]

We have White Oak siding on our house, and barn.  It's been hard as a rock since 1980.  I built a number of houses using it for siding, from the late '70's, to the late '80's.  I could buy a truckload back then for $100 a thousand, with 15 cents a foot more for dressed.

I built my first couple of houses with WRC.  Woodpeckers, and Flying Squirrels thought they were big, dead trees, and the siding suffered, offering homes in the attics for Flying Squirrels.  That was when I went to White Oak, and it only gives woodpeckers headaches.

Ours has never had any finish on it.  I pressure wash it about every 10 years.  It does turn black from mildew, but the pressure washer brings it right back to looking new.  Some of the houses I sold, with WO siding have been painted, or stained.  Those houses have had to have some boards replaced.  I think moisture gets under the coating, and can't get out.

We had a White Oak deck that lasted some few years past ten years, but it's really close to the ground, and stayed wet a lot.  That was replaced with treated wood, old type treatment, and that replacement is still in use.

I think as long as it can dry back out, it lasts pretty good.  No finish is going to keep moisture from getting in, and once it gets in, all of it will never get back out.

[curlyoak]

On 12/27/2021 at 9:28 AM, Tom King said:

I think as long as it can dry back out, it lasts pretty good.  No finish is going to keep moisture from getting in, and once it gets in, all of it will never get back out

I think no finish would work here in Florida. Probably need pressure cleaning more often.

[curlyoak]

I have an outdoor WRC bench. If I varnished it it would look nice bit the environment around here would require me to scrape and sand every 2 years. So I didn't varnish it and left it unfinished. Not as pretty but the best part is no maintenance. I might pressure clean the top in a few more years.

I have made a few cedar outdoor benches for people and told them about finished or unfinished. I also said if I varnish it does not mean I will refinish it. All chose unfinished.

[wtnhighlander]

Interesting observation about white oak. Part of our Christmas decor includes some 'stake lights' that go out on the lawn. The plastic stakes & brackets were all the worse for wear, so this year I cobbled together some replacements, using white oak scraps from the shop. No finish, just raw wood. When I collected them for the return trip to the attic today, the portion of the stakes that have been buried in the West Tennessee clay for the last month were india-ink black. All the rest was pretty much exactly as it was the day I made them. I guess the soil here is more acidic than I thought.

[Coop]

Along those same lines, I was talking to Ricky, aka @Spanky on the phone last night discussing wood/logs and he said that farm poplar was more colorful that forest poplar due to cows resting under them and then getting up and peeing at the base of them. 

[Chestnut]

Finished the bird feeder. I ended up bringing in some redwood because I ran out of cedar fence pickets. Redwood came from reclaimed decking material.

It is considerably larger than my previous feeder. I can almost fit a 10lb bag of oil seed inside. As I type this there are 3-4 chickadees making continuous round trips to the feeder.

Next project is already on the bench ... wait.

The bench is almost empty and I'm instead working on my smaller out feed table and table saw. My secondary bench which is the same size as my primary is also empty...! I suppose the biggest surprise is 2 horizontal surfaces that are debris free.

Do you ever start working on something in that corner of your shop that isn't ideal and wonder why?

[JohnG]

Not ideal layout, but should be far better than 25’ of flex coiled up.

 

Some short sections of flex to allow wiggle room for the tools. 
 

Clockwise from left: future Harvey bandsaw(offset far left), 6” jointer, 10” rikon bandsaw, SS router table, Sawstop. Testing out a new layout.

[Chestnut]

50 minutes ago, JohnG said:

Testing out a new layout.

Is the collection working well? That looks like a lot of stuff but DANG that is maximizing hard sections and minimizing flex. It looks awesome! Want to come do mine?

[JohnG]

On 12/29/2021 at 3:22 PM, Chestnut said:

Is the collection working well? That looks like a lot of stuff but DANG that is maximizing hard sections and minimizing flex. It looks awesome! Want to come do mine?

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to try it out yet. I worked on piecing it together after applying finish to a shelf so I didn’t want to forget to open a blast gate and throw dust in the air. 
 

Previously I had one long flex hose that I hooked up to the machine I was using (or didn’t, if I was feeling lazy). So even the machines that were 5’ away had to go through the 25’ flex. Even with a couple 90* turns this should be much improved. I’m not sure I’ll keep this shop layout, but the drain pipe is cheap enough and I’ll be able to reuse at least some of the lengths. I’m trying to get my shop cleaner and more organized so that I can get back to getting things made. This is all an attempt toward that. I’ll post a sketch of my new layout tonight.

[BillyJack]

Something old , yet something new.

 

[Chestnut]

Something borrowed, something blue? A sixpence in your shoe?

[Chestnut]

I've slid backwards ... bought a pocket hole jig.

Made my first pocket hole joint.

[JohnG]

The first of many to come! 

[treeslayer]

A lot of us have them, me included, they have their place, and when it is needed or called for I get mine out, strong fast assembly. 

[gee-dub]

+1 A real problem solver.

[Coop]

On 12/31/2021 at 4:46 PM, Chestnut said:

I've slid backwards ... bought a pocket hole jig.

Made my first pocket hole joint.

I bought their vise grip type clamps and they are very useful, especially for sheet goods. 

[Chestnut]

14 hours ago, treeslayer said:

A lot of us have them, me included, they have their place, and when it is needed or called for I get mine out, strong fast assembly. 

12 hours ago, gee-dub said:

+1 A real problem solver.

I've been in spots where I'm making a larger plywood piece and i need something to be able to be disassembled and reassembled on site. This is the 2nd or 3rd time I've been in this spot so i figured it was time. I'm going to have to find a special spot to hide it.

[JohnG]

On 12/29/2021 at 3:22 PM, Chestnut said:

Is the collection working well?

Had a chance to test out some of the tools last night. The collection is definitely working better than before, and is significantly more convenient and easier to switch from one machine to another. I need a few more parts to improve the line from the edge of my previous pic to the collector itself, but I’m very pleased with the setup.

[BillyJack]

On 12/31/2021 at 4:46 PM, Chestnut said:

I've slid backwards ... bought a pocket hole jig.

Made my first pocket hole joint.

I'm surprised you haven't made a pocket hole jig..

[Chestnut]

50 minutes ago, BillyJack said:

I'm surprised you haven't made a pocket hole jig..

I thought really hard about it but in the end I just wanted it to work and didn't want to sacrifice $75 worth of plywood.

[BillyJack]

$75?

[Chet]

On 12/31/2021 at 2:46 PM, Chestnut said:

I've slid backwards ... bought a pocket hole jig.

All is good as long as you don't go out and buy the pro model.

On 1/1/2022 at 5:21 AM, Chestnut said:

I'm going to have to find a special spot to hide it.

Be careful or you won't know were it is when you next need it.

I have had one for about 6 years and I was glad I did to two times I used it since then.

[Mark J]

I created the first ever ojnab!  What is an ojnab you ask?  It's banjo spelled (and pronounced) backward and what it is, is an upside down lathe banjo.  

 

I bought myself this carving stand.  The stand is intended to mount to a bench or be inserted into the lathe banjo.

The lathe chuck then screws onto the threads and the stand can then hold the workpiece in a variety of positions for best access.  

I prefer to use the stand at the lathe, because I already have a dust hood there.  Trouble is the workpiece ends up being so high up I actually had to stand on a block of wood to work on it.

Then I realized that the banjo with its "smoke stack" design was contributing a lot to the elevation.  What I needed was an upside down banjo, hence the invention of the ojnab.  Basically it's a piece of plywood with a drilled out dowel attached perpendicularly to accept the post of the carving stand.  But the difference in height compared to the banjo is about 3 inches.  The work can be raised up if needed, and in fact the two U pins were made to raise it some without relying on the set screw, but I doubt I'll be using them though as it is still a bit tall for my stature.  Way better than it was, though.

Just what I've been doing this week.