What did you do in your shop today?

Sprung said:
It may be that we have to bury stuff deeper, but we're not digging into it when working in the garden!
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Oh yeah... Phone lines were always the issue up there; never knew where they put them! You'd find them at all kinds of depths, found one 7 1/2 ft. deep one time in a vacant lot, (it was a slough that had been filled in). A lot of times you'd be 4 - 8 feet from where they located and dig wires up.

And, I'm not going to say anything about finding chunks of frozen earth 7 1/2' deep clear up into June, or all them Texans will get fired up!


Sprung said:
Ahh, mosquitoes. At this point of the year, they are no longer a problem! :cool:
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To be perfectly honest we didn't have a problem until Hurricane Hermine blew through here. You could walk around after dark all summer long without a skeeter chasing you. Since Hermine, you need to fill your pockets with rocks if you go out after dark to keep them from carrying you off.


Blueglass said:
The why I haven't eaten fast food in like 20 years.
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I'm not a fan of fast food either Les, you could probably cout all my fast food stops annually on your fingers with a few left over. Only occasionally do it because it's 'fast', and given the option I'll take Subway over any of the burger chains. Seems without fail anymore, the food's cold and stale, poorly prepared to begin with, and a third the size it used to be back when it was actually pretty decent food for a reasonable price.
 
Not knowing how many more days this year I'd be able to work on getting this done, I took some time today to get the lumber rack filled. Last weekend I emptied the shed, built the rack, then loaded it with what had already been in the shed. This weekend I moved a bunch more lumber out of the garage and onto the rack in the shed.

Some observations today as I filled up the rack:
1. I really need to find more time to get into the shop to start working with this lumber.
2. I should have built the rack bigger, even though I really couldn't afford for it to take up any more space than it already does in the shed. It would be nice to have more room on the rack for potential future lumber purchases.
3. The amount of 2" to 3" thick Walnut I have is greatly disproportional to the amount of 4/4 Walnut stock I have. I need to remedy this. I also need to remedy my lack of 8/4 material in other species, especially in soft maple.

The lower level is all soft maple, with the exception of two boards.
The middle level has my few 10' boards (2 white oak, red oak, and the other appears to maybe be butternut), cherry, hard maple, and more soft maple.
The upper level has random boards on the left - a lot of stuff that I only have one or two pieces of. The two stacks on the right are all walnut.
Hiding in the back, leaning up against the wall, is some natural edge walnut. In front of it is some big box store pine for a project I'm long overdue on completing. Standing upright are a couple small slabs of buckthorn I've got drying and plan to make into a couple natural edge benched.

Also started to clean up and organize the shop a little - still have a long ways to go, but at least I'm finally making some progress.

WR.webp
 
Sprung said:
Not knowing how many more days this year I'd be able to work on getting this done, I took some time today to get the lumber rack filled. Last weekend I emptied the shed, built the rack, then loaded it with what had already been in the shed. This weekend I moved a bunch more lumber out of the garage and onto the rack in the shed.

Some observations today as I filled up the rack:
1. I really need to find more time to get into the shop to start working with this lumber.
2. I should have built the rack bigger, even though I really couldn't afford for it to take up any more space than it already does in the shed. It would be nice to have more room on the rack for potential future lumber purchases.
3. The amount of 2" to 3" thick Walnut I have is greatly disproportional to the amount of 4/4 Walnut stock I have. I need to remedy this. I also need to remedy my lack of 8/4 material in other species, especially in soft maple.

The lower level is all soft maple, with the exception of two boards.
The middle level has my few 10' boards (2 white oak, red oak, and the other appears to maybe be butternut), cherry, hard maple, and more soft maple.
The upper level has random boards on the left - a lot of stuff that I only have one or two pieces of. The two stacks on the right are all walnut.
Hiding in the back, leaning up against the wall, is some natural edge walnut. In front of it is some big box store pine for a project I'm long overdue on completing. Standing upright are a couple small slabs of buckthorn I've got drying and plan to make into a couple natural edge benched.

Also started to clean up and organize the shop a little - still have a long ways to go, but at least I'm finally making some progress.

View attachment 115510
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You know Matt, you have all our sympathy for having an overabundance of 8/4 lumber!!! Tony
 
Tony said:
You know Matt, you have all our sympathy for having an overabundance of 8/4 lumber!!! Tony
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rocky1 said:
That's an easy fix, just send everyone here a stick or two of 8/4 walnut, until it gets down to proportional!! :good::wink:
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I wasn't saying I had too much 8/4 and thicker walnut, I was saying I didn't have enough 4/4 walnut! :nodice:
 
Right away he starts backpedaling Tony, would you look at that. Try to help the guy out, and send him our sympathy and all! :lol2:
 
The 3" thick slab of walnut in there has been laid claim to by my wife already. We've agreed that I'm only allowed to cut it under one circumstance: She wants a big farmhouse table out of walnut someday and the legs are to come out of that slab. Seeing as we don't have a place to put a big farmhouse table right now, that slab will be hanging around for a while...

But, I'm also not certain I'd trust @Tony with any of them 8/4 pieces. He threatened to cut this board into 1" strips for cutting boards!

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You do not cut a 16" wide board of walnut up for cutting boards! You save it for a project that can make full use of that width!

And, to think, @Bean_counter thought I should cut it up into pen blanks. Sheesh. Crazy Texans...
 
Nice rack Matt and a nice stash of lumber to put on it. Your observation of imbalance in lumber thickness is a sound one. That is why when I mill a log I always cut various thicknesses out of the same log so the color will match. But like you I aquire it anyway I can get it:cool:
 
woodtickgreg said:
Nice rack Matt and a nice stash of lumber to put on it. Your observation of imbalance in lumber thickness is a sound one. That is why when I mill a log I always cut various thicknesses out of the same log so the color will match. But like you I aquire it anyway I can get it:cool:
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The majority of that walnut came from a guy who has a mill. His first mill couldn't go low enough to make the last piece 4/4, which would leave him with 8/4+ pieces as the final piece. When I was out there I saw his work and he preferred to work with entirely 4/4 material, even if it meant laminating it all back together. They got dried in his kiln and then put on a pallet with a bunch of other random boards. I paid $100 for that pallet - and there was at least 100BF on that pallet. For me, the two biggest prizes on that pallet were the above pictured 16" wide board of 4/4 walnut and the 3" x 9" x 8' slab of walnut. That score, and about 350BF of soft maple for about $0.33/BF, have been my two best scores thus far on lumber.
 
I had anticipated spending the day in the shop, but the day's plans changed on me...

Did get to head out for about 20 minutes to get some blanks that had been soaking into the oven to cure. Also got some stuff under vacuum - some solid blue, some blue will be the second color added.

Blue.webp
 
I machined a heavy 6" aluminum backing disc for using 6" stik-it psa discs. Tired of flimsy backing plates that bend and warp. Machined the disc and drilled and tapped and assembled to faceplate. Cut psa rubber backing and tried it out. Works like a dream. Use is mostly for finishing stabilized wood pieces.

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Tried to upload a video but couldn't figure out how to do it without first loading it to the web.
Anyway, rubber pad on the disc via psa, then stick-it discs, the table, then sand. Thea you disc works fantastically- don't need to push much at all. Smooth as silk.

See video here:

http://woodbarter.com/threads/6-backing-plate-for-psa-discs.29376/
 
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Made a jig for making strips from balsa sheets.

http://i60.Rule #2/albums/h23/mdlbldrmatt135/Jig%20Ideas/20161023_145907.jpg
 
The result of the Stanley and the Walnut, with a little book matched knarly Mesquite thrown in, couple of coats of oil, then after it cures will do a shellac finish:

http://i1161.Rule #2/albums/q509/neil33ny/Leather%20Tool%20Cab%205_zpsvloznskj.jpg
 
Pulled these (and some other blanks) out of their soak and baked them off. Very much looking forward to spinning them up!

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