What did you do in your shop today?

No work in the shop for me the last 2 days, i used the good weather to get some things done outside. Supposed to rain for the next 2 days so that means shoptime!:yipee:
 
Made a pen blank mold as experimenting with overage when casting. Tired of dealing with flimsy little molds with aluminum foil and duct tape.
3/4” sq x 5-1/2”
Used some silicone mold from Amazon but need to make some other molds and this stuff just too expensive for amount of material. It does a good job though so not unhappy with results.
Thinking about something called Cast a Mold 25T from Specialty Resins, if anyone familiar with it or other options...would appreciate it.

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I wasn't in my shop but more like outside of shop. I made a platform for our seasonal inflatable pool. The ladder will have an area to rest on outide of the pool, and we'll have a place to remove shoes before getting in.
I used a few 8' trex planks and 2, 2x4 pt for underneath em.
Nothing fancy.
Here's some pix.
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Well today was a total rain day, so that ment shop time, lol.
I didnt have a base plate large enough to clear the bit. So I just slowly lowered the base a cut through it with the bit, essentially made a zero clearance plate for the bit, lol. But man talk about stink! I dont know what the material of the base is but man did it stink cutting it.
20200429_161446.webp I figured I would try the bosch 1617 because it's easier to handle and is variable speed. If it didnt have the power to turn the big bit plan B was the 3hp porter cable. But that things a beast. The bosch worked fine.
20200429_161500.webp First pass, each consecutive pass was shallower and slower. This is a big bit. There was lots of burning no matter what I did mostly on the endgrain.
20200429_161520.webp Before I made the final pass I fixed this defect with some ca and sanding dust from the same wood.
20200429_171521.webp Then I flipped it and gave the new trim router a test run with an 1/8" roundover bit.
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At this pointe it was lots of hand sanding to remove the burn spots.
 
Once I finally finished sanding everything to 220 and the top surface to 320 it was time to stain. I dont normally use stain but on this project it really balanced the wood and richened it up. Minwax.is my go to stain because it's a penetrating stain.
This one is called colonial maple and I'm putting it on maple. It does have a very slight reddish tint.
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This is the bottom half done so you can see the contrast.
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It really brings out the grain of the wood.
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The bottom done and wiped off with a clean white rag.
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The top bare wood.
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And fully stained.
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Its hard to capture the true color with a cell phone.
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The side profile of the table top.
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I'll let this dry overnite and seal it with a coat of amber varnish, that will darken it a bit and remove some of the reddish hue. I did a test board and it came out nice.
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woodtickgreg said:
Once I finally finished sanding everything to 220 and the top surface to 320 it was time to stain. I dont normally use stain but on this project it really balanced the wood and richened it up. Minwax.is my go to stain because it's a penetrating stain.
This one is called colonial maple and I'm putting it on maple. It does have a very slight reddish tint.
View attachment 186255
This is the bottom half done so you can see the contrast.
View attachment 186256
It really brings out the grain of the wood.
View attachment 186257
The bottom done and wiped off with a clean white rag.
View attachment 186259
The top bare wood.
View attachment 186260
And fully stained.
View attachment 186261
Its hard to capture the true color with a cell phone.
View attachment 186262
The side profile of the table top.
View attachment 186263
I'll let this dry overnite and seal it with a coat of amber varnish, that will darken it a bit and remove some of the reddish hue. I did a test board and it came out nice.
View attachment 186264

View attachment 186258
Click to expand...

Greg, I made a few custom bases for my router with some plexiglass, set the factory one of top of the new one, drill the holes and mark the center, then drill whatever size hole I needed in the middle.
 
Tony said:
Greg, I made a few custom bases for my router with some plexiglass, set the factory one of top of the new one, drill the holes and mark the center, then drill whatever size hole I needed in the middle.
Click to expand...
I keep telling myself I need to do that, but for some reason I never get around to doing it. I need to do it for the big porter cable too. I guess I need to put it on my list, if I dont write it down it wont get done, lol.
 
Nubsnstubs said:
It also looks like it would be a hard or catastrophic landing if you jumped in or dove into it.:lol2: Wasn't it just last week yopu guys had snow there, or maybe two weeks ago? ............. Jerry (in Tucson)
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We did have snow. This week its all rain though....
 
Shop time was minimal yesterday. Luckily, one of the scrap yards opened up last week, so yesterday wife and I made the run. Funny, New York based company, in NY considered essential, so they defied PA order as the PA yard feeds the NY yard.

We had stuff from that camper we demoed, a metal roof from an old shed rebuild, and an oil fired boiler. A house up the road ran out of oil and froze over winter. Lot of the lines froze too. They are remodeling, going to LP heat with radiant floors. Steel was low but copper and brass were good prices.

Kid at the scrap yard hit the wooden sides of the trailer with the massive grapple and broke 3 of the 2" x 4" pocket stakes. Wife was frustrated when I said it was OK, and was not going to make an issue of it. When we got home, took me an hour to find some treated outdoor wood, cut to length, rip to width and round the edges to fit the pockets. Only 3 of the screws snapped when backing out of the old stakes. Forgot to use the framing square to upright the stakes on the first two, but did on the third. Seeing how horribly out of plumb the center one was, I quickly backed the screws out and plumbed it. The first one was a little crooked. If others pick at it, I'll adjust it. Being the very back stake at the gate, has twice as many screws, it looks to compliment the gate and with sprinkles from above, called it quits.
 
Applying finish today. 1 coat of sanding sealer on both sides, followed up by water base polyurethane. 2 coats on the bottom. And as many as it takes on the top until I get the look I like.
After the first coat a raking light really helps to see where your finish is.
This is the bottom, second wet coat.
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The top will be sanded in between coats. This is gonna take awhile.........
 
Well I think I'm at 5 or 6 coats now, kinda lost track. I'm going to see how it looks in the morning. I think I'm there but well see. Its building finish nice now and starting to level out. It's a fine line applying this waterbase poly, if you dont put enough on it will dry before it levels out. I've sanded with 220 a few times and just layed down a heavy coat so I'm hoping it levels out some.
I wish I had a hvlp sprayer and could spray this stuff.
 
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More play by play, lol.
Today I looked at the table top after the finish dried, it had the build that I was looking for. First thing I did was sanded the dust nibs with some 400 grit paper. I followed that up with 0000 steel wool.
I use liberon brand steel wool, there is a difference, it is very high quality and super fine, doesn't crumble.
20200501_130635.webp I probably could have stopped with the steel wool as it left a very nice satin finish. But i followed it up with some automotive scratch remover and a buffer. This brought the gloss of the semi gloss finish back.
20200501_131834.webp I followed that up with paste wax and a lambswool pad on the buffer.
20200501_133459.webp it came out pretty nice, I wiped it down a few more times after this.
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TimR said:
Greg, that’s a beauty. Thanks for as much play by play as you’ve done so far. !
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Thanks man, I just try and contribute to the site and hopefully post things that others find interesting, and maybe even learn something, be inspired, or just entertained.:cool:
 
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