Re: Jubilant babble...

[Dave Balderstone]

That's it then...

You're doomed.

;-)

djb

[Edwin Pawlowski]

"Silvan"

I just bought my first real hardwood today.

From your stores of bed rails, I suspeceted you've had plenty of hard wood.

> I decided to go check them out, figuring at least I could get poplar at a > more reasonable price. I only had $12 in my pocket, and that was scraping > bottom bigtime. > My $12 got me a board about 6' long and about 5" wide. S2S, but only > barely. The edges are raw, and the faces have enormous milling marks. I'm > not sure if that's par for the course or not.

Yes, planed just enough to see what you are getting. Some places will plane to thickness for you at no or little charge. CT Hardwoods does it for me, plus they joint one edge.

> Doing all of this work with nothing but a #4 really sucks, but I CAN do it. > I've never cut anything this well before. My jointed boards stayed > absolutely flush against the fence, and everything came out as close to > perfect as I've ever accomplished.

Sure is fun when that happens.

> The frame and box are both made from this indescribably beautiful chocolate > brown wood. I can't wait to glue it up so I can finish it, and see how > glorious this is going to look with whatever on it. I'd like to do > shellac, but the bank is busted. I may have to use poly this time, but it > will be the last time I put poly on walnut, you can be damn sure of that.

Save some and get a can of BLO or DanishOil. Gives a very nice finish and you will never want to use poly again.

> Add the JET mini lathe I'm getting for > Christmas, all these walnut turning blanks I'm generating, and I have the > makings of an exquisite chess table in the not too distant future.

Next Christmas everyone will be getting pens as a gift. Good deal.

I guess I should be keeping bandsaws in mind now. I can live without a > jointer and planer for a good while yet, but it pains me to turn so much of > this incredible wood into shavings. If I sawed these boards in half, I > could do lots of stuff with the thinner material, but my table saw is > really bad for thin work. Hmmm...

That was one of the things that convinced me to get a bandsaw. You'd be amazed at what you can do with 5/4 wood that is sawed in half.

> Anyway, I'll shut up now. I just had to babble for awhile. I've been > babbling all day. I don't think SWMBO or Mom or Dad or my kids really have > any idea why I'm so excited, but this has been one of the happiest days > I've ever had. This one will go down in history.

Yeah, "outsiders" have no clue do they? Glad you are having such a good time. Ed

[Jon]

I'm just glad you're working on wood instead of yer fingers! Har Har

Jon Veeneman

[Leon]

Silvan, feel free to show us any excitement that you have for woodworking at any time. I bought my first real hard wood about 23 years ago and it seems like yesterday.

[Silvan]

I know.

[Silvan]

Not supposed to be any secret (I always post with a real address), but it's an alias. Maybe SourceForge's mail redirector thingie was busted.

I don't give this one out, to try and keep it spam free, but you can get me at

m m c i n t y r (at) s w v a . n e t

[Silvan]

In my younger days... The wood's still plenty hard, but I don't get to stow it anywhere interesting very often. ;)

I should inquire about such services. I don't know if they'll do it, or if I'd want them to, but I can see where I might occasionally want to cheat a little.

Or maybe not. It's a lot of hard work, and it's time-consuming, but it feels right. Plus it's exercise. A little combat for my assal-fattalitis. I don't mind working, but I can't stand exercising for the sake of exercising.

Yeah buddy, it sure is. I thought I had had straight boards before, but I never had. Proves what a waste that S4S stuff from the Borgs really is.

Time is the problem more than money. I need to get it done, and I don't want to choose this most important project to experiment with a new finish. It's for my grandfather, and time is starting to kick him in the ass. No, I'll do what I know this time, but I'll be experimenting very soon.

Yup. These little 1" square off-cuts will be ideal blanks I think.

That's what I'm thinking. Or divide it into thirds and split it 1/3 2/3... looks like it would be just about right for boxes. 2/3 for the sides and

1/3 for trays and whatnot.

Probably be awhile on a bandsaw though. No use getting something crappy and then having to turn around eventually and replace it. I'm about done with that. I'll never be able to have the finest of everything, but I'll hold out for something solidly respectable. From now on, I want to get something and have it and use it without always looking over the hill to the day when I can afford to replace it with a real one.

[Silvan]

I really am glad I made that trip. :)

I'm glad about a whole bunch of things, really. This has all been the culmination of a journey that had some pretty unlikely stops along the way.

I suppose the distilled moral of the story is that I've finally learned how to take pleasure in what I can accomplish, or afford, rather than fretting about what I can't. It's all about making do, about personal bests, and about not letting it get me down that most of the people in my life just don't understand what motivates me, or appreciate the fruits of my labor.

The only one who comes close is my wife. The more I ponder on this, the more I'm coming to realize that while she doesn't really appreciate the process, or the details, she understands the drive to create. Her hobbies, while all radically different from mine, also involve creating something.

She rolls her eyes, but she doesn't give me a hard time when I tell her we need to save up and buy a blurfl. She doesn't bitch about my shop time either.

I guess it turned out OK that I married the chick from Latin class who didn't go on to become Miss Virginia. ;)

[mttt]

This is the lesson we Dads are to impart to our sons.

[John Doe]

http://64.87.34.99/music/524/ifyouwannabehappyjimmysoul.wav

[Silvan]

Probably turkeys on this one. :) It hasn't been going so well.

I had just made a frame for the board, which fit perfectly. I decided I had to re-do it in walnut, so I used the old pieces to cut new pieces, instead of just fitting it all out again from the beginning. The 32nds got me. A

32nd off here, a 32nd off there. It didn't fit at all. You know as well as I do how hard it is to drill a second hole in a situation like that. (The frame is held on with dowels, for the simplicity of it, and the look.) Things got ugly. I faked it as best I could, but the miters are pretty screwy. I had to chisel off the points on all four corners. I haven't done miters this bad since the days when I was using a Wal-Mart back saw and miter box.

Oh well. It was still a good day. As soon as I get some more dowels and figure out how to make those grooves, I should be ready to glue it up. Nothing fancy at all, really, as far as the box goes, but considering what I started out with, and how I got it there, I'm pretty pleased.

I like surfacing it by hand, but I definitely need more planes before I tackle anything remotely like a large project!!

[Silvan]

The other chick really did go on to be Miss Virginia though. At least I knew her. Maybe even touched her. Though I never really touched her quite the way I wanted to. ;)

(You want to make SWMBO madder than a nest of hornets? Just mention that name one good time, and then run like hell. :)

(I can't even remember the name, to tell you the truth. SWMBO has me trained. I think there was a V in it somewhere. Boy, that's helpful.)

(Monica? So much for the V...)

(Oh, nevermind.)

[BRuce]

yep, I still fight with miters and although I do understand the concept of "perfect miters on edge banding don't work if the base isn't square" I don't seem to follow what I know. Not enough attention to detail on the big piece and then fight the little stuff. Clients don't seem to know but it reduces my hourly rate to about $0.75 :-( Makes me happy to have a full time job.

BRuce

Silvan wrote:

[Silvan]

Yeah, but it's *square* dammit! :) It's not the base in this case. Just where I was trying to get away with using some of the original holes. I should have plugged all the holes in the base, then let the plugs dry, then started over again. Then I could have drilled new holes 1/32" away from the old ones without a tendency for the bit to do the wrong thing.

Hindsight is a bitch sometimes, but OTOH my grandfather will *never* notice what I'm whining about, so the best thing to do is just get on with my life from here. :)

Yeah, me too. I could never get paid for my time at the rate it takes me to do anything.