New job

[russellseaton1]

Is there a reason the customer or you chose mahogany to be stained cherry color instead of just using cherry plywood and wood?

[Leon]

yes

First off they have a lot of mahogany furniture with a red-ish dark stain. Cherry looks nothing like mahogany, much more like maple especially when fresh surfaced and it really turns more of a brown than red. At least the cherry that we get in the Houston area.

Walnut on bottom, cherry on top, cedar inside. Thank you Swingman for use of the picture. ;~)

And these are cherry, they have darkened considerably over the last 6 years though.

And the oval sided base of the finial, just under the pointed oak piece is cherry. It too had darkened considerably over the last 6 years.

Mostly the grain was what I/we were after.

[-MIKE-]

Hence the old joke, "what color are you painting that cherry wood?" The general public has no concept whatsoever what cherry really is or looks like. There should be a law forcing the furniture and finish industries to use an asterisk next to the word every time they use it when referring to that reddish color instead of the natural patina occurs when cherry is left natural.

Most people also probably think cherries taste like Kool-Aid. :-)

[Leon]

IMHO if you are going to stain cherry you might want to consider staining maple instead. Hard maple is considerably harder and less expensive than cherry, at least down here. Let cherry age on its own, it needs no help. Unfortunately most furniture buyers don't want to wait for that look.

My favorite color description is "fruitwood". What the heck color is that??? Add fly specks and you are half way there. ;~)

Anyway not ragging on you Russel. You had a very valid question.

[John McCoy]

Leon wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I agree - those inner plys are far too thick to be marine grade.

John

[John McCoy]

Leon wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Well, it _should_ be a light pinkish brown. Apple trees, pear trees, plum trees and maybe some others all have lumber that's fairly similar in color.

That said, I don't know that I've ever seen a wood stain that color.

John

[Greg Guarino]

I see no mention of solid wood. The face frame isn't ply also, is it?

[Greg Guarino]

I was under the impression that Maple didn't take stain very well. Wrong? Maybe different for Gel Stain?

[-MIKE-]

You can get great results on maple by using a pre-stain conditioner. They take care of the splotchy-ness and unevenness for which maple earned that reputation.

[Leon]

Posts trim dry fit and the top of the bottom cabinet glue up.

24 Dominos to insure alignment between the 4 boards

[Leon]

More troublesome but I would think about the same as staining cherry, although I have not stained either for a job.

[Leon]

No, the front and back face frames are solid mahogany. In fact I bought

73 LF of 1x8 mahogany for the job. The tops, door frames, drawer frames will also be solid wood.

[Martin Eastburn]

If I were to guess, it was already red. Real cherry takes time to turn red and mellow. I have a Grandfather clock in Cherry wood and I'll buy a new works for it before I think of tossing it.

One could only hope to wash it in lye or like and not get stains or such. That turns it reddish. But has it's risks.

Mart> >> About a year ago I designed a wide screen/ entertainment/faux fireplace/ >> mantle.

[Electric Comet]

ambitious project

how much do the sheets weigh they sounds heavy

do you use the track saw or the table saw to cut them

[Leon]

Actually this is a small project compared to what I have been doing in the past 6~7 years. Easy and relatively small parts/components.

In the 65lb each range, typical for cabinet quality or paint grade plywood.

To get them down to workable size I use the track saw, then the TS. I also use the track saw to straighten S2S lumber before cutting on the TS, when I buy S2S.

[-MIKE-]

I would appreciate further explanation for this. Is it because the track saw doesn't yield finish quality results or is it just your preference to finish cut on the table saw?

I'm entertaining the idea of getting a track saw. However, if they don't produce a finished quality cut, that knowledge would help me make the decision to go with a cheaper track saw.

[Leon]

At best my original description was not too clear. Anyway here is the design.

The top mantel will have 3 doors to store what ever in, TV/Stereo controllers.

The bottom sides will be drawers and the bottom center will have a fabric panel and hide the electronics.

IR will pass through the fabric so you will not have to see electronics lights shining back at you.

[Leon]

The track saw produces cuts equal to the TS so no, the quality of cut is not the reason for going to the TS. In fact often at least one edge on a piece was cut by the track saw. The TS offers a consistency with its fixed fence that moving the track for each cut does not afford. This is important when every thing must be precice. I do have the Festool track positioning guides, thanks again Swingman, but they tend to be a lot of work to set up. If I had a lot of sheets to break down with the track saw the positioning guides would be used. Wish I had that set up about

7~8 years ago when Swingman sent me home with 27 sheets of plywood to cut for the two kitchens that we built.

The Festool track saws come with a standard blade, a quality blade but not the best for cutting plywood. IIRC Swingman and I both have plywood blades for our Festool Track saws.

IMHO that set up does not disappoint.

With that in mind, and I have mentioned this before, if you are looking at Festool, there is the TS75 and TS55. The bigger is the TS75 and considerably more expensive than the TS55. BUT to rip the length of standard sheet of plywood you need an additional track and couplings to join the additional track to the track that comes with the saw. The difference in price of the saws shrunk to about $100 for me as the additional shorter track was much less expensive than the longer track. Basically the TS55 saw comes with a 55" track, the TS75 comes with a 75" track.

[-MIKE-]

Thanks for that info, it is very helpful. I also fear using 2-part guides as they seem to *never* go together

*perfectly* straight. Now, the ones I've attempted to use haven't been green in color, but I still get weary of spending that kind of green (PUN!) when the cut line might be a tad off. And when I say tad, I'm talking any fraction of an inch. To me, if it's not *perfectly* straight, it's not straight at all.

[Leon]

LOL. actually......

Swingman and I both have one of these. $100.

Swingman and I both have one of these.

Or if you need an excuse to get a 6' level.

I don't see that Betterly sells the alignment tool anymore. Some thing to check on.

Still Festool does make very long rails....