DIY Furniture

[tirebob]

Originally posted by blitz
Nice work! For the frame and panel on your kitchen island, is it an actual rail frame with an insert? Or did you built up the frame on the existing flat surface?

Love the dovetails. Eventually I'll get into them, I've had so many large products over the last 5 years I haven't done anything that intricate.

I'll take a picture of my Festool collection for you

I didn't mortise and tenon it or lap the joints, no...

Honestly, for me these types of jobs are more "construction" rather than "woodworking", and I tend to go the easiest route to get them done quickly and effectively rather than for the enjoyment of creating joinery. Because these were being mounted to a flat plywood surface and were to be painted white, I just banged it out with brad nails. If I start getting nitpicky with the joinery my wife would be living in a construction zone for far longer than she would let me live peaceably within... lol

I LOVE Festool!!! I would have outfitted myself completely by now if I didn't have a handtool fetish. I get a little overboard but that is the area I truly love woodworking. Planning, dovetailing, sawing etc by hand just has a different level of satisfaction associated with it for me. Just having a game or some tunes on the radio and quietly working away is my sanctuary away from my business...

[blitz]

Originally posted by tirebob
Honestly, for me these types of jobs are more "construction" rather than "woodworking", and I tend to go the easiest route to get them done quickly and effectively rather than for the enjoyment of creating joinery. Because these were being mounted to a flat plywood surface and were to be painted white, I just banged it out with brad nails. If I start getting nitpicky with the joinery my wife would be living in a construction zone for far longer than she would let me live peaceably within... lol

Oh no judgement here, I'm thinking of doing the exact same thing with some new cabinets I'm building, but I'm not sure I even want to go to that level as it's about 50' of floor to ceiling cabinets. I think I'm just going to do MDF slabs and add in some walnut ply accents.

My wife is pretty understanding. I have a habit of getting 90-95% through something and then moving on to a new project.

[tirebob]

Originally posted by blitz


Oh no judgement here, I'm thinking of doing the exact same thing with some new cabinets I'm building, but I'm not sure I even want to go to that level as it's about 50' of floor to ceiling cabinets. I think I'm just going to do MDF slabs and add in some walnut ply accents.

My wife is pretty understanding. I have a habit of getting 90-95% through something and then moving on to a new project.

Haha! Sounds like me totally... Pisses my wife off to no end. The Island project started because I ripped the fireplace tile, mantle and hearth out and then realized that the tile we wanted is 45 to 60 days order time, so to make amends I pounded out the island in record time. Only took me about 5 days, which is really fast for me!

[RawB8figure]

Here is a bench I made a few years ago out of a sheet of construction grade plywood. Used a CNC router to cut out shapes then laminated together with walnut veneer and clear coat. Wood/foam wrapped in black leather.

[project240]

Apologies in advance for not resizing...

Two Butcher Blocks I built



Dining Table/Poker Table




Wall Texture

[blitz]

Those are insane butcher blocks!

Here's my festool collection, minus my long guide rails.

[chathamf]

Picked up a 12" Ridgid mitre saw from Kijiji on the weekend. Seems pretty decent and got a good deal. It shall do for now. Also picked up a Kreg jig.

Thinking of starting by building a basic work bench so I have something to work on for my other projects. Any suggestions for a bench design?

[project240]

Impressive festool collection. I had a kapex mitre for awhile and as much as I love the tools, it is so tough to justify the cost still for me. My current 12" Milwaukee scms is less than half the cost, but equal quality in my opinion.

[blitz]

Kapex is something I couldn't justify. My non-sliding 12" Dewalt has been running like a champ for about 10 years now.

The panel saw, sanders, domino and dust collection are another matter though

[jeffh]

Raw88...that bench is sweet. Nicely done.

[tirebob]

Originally posted by blitz
Kapex is something I couldn't justify. My non-sliding 12" Dewalt has been running like a champ for about 10 years now.

The panel saw, sanders, domino and dust collection are another matter though

Me too... My buddy was the Festool factory trained guy at Lee Valley (moved on now) and as expected he LOVES the Kapex. One day he came by my house as I was taking delivery on a couple hundred BF of curly cherry and we were messing around doing some cuts with my Bosch SCMS and even he was suprised at how close the quality, cut and action was to the Kapex. If it was free I would select the Kapex for sure, but for less than half the cost, my Bosch is almost all the way there...

[chathamf]

Went to home depot today to get wood for a bookshelf I was planning to make for the kids. Wanted to go with pine but the smaller boards I needed (1x2 1x3) didn't exist in pine. The 1x3 didn't exist at all. Is there someone else I could grab my wood? Also if staining pine would it look like shit if mixed in with a stained spruce?

[tirebob]

You generally are buying the wood in available widths and cutting to size or just use what is available and alter your plans accordingly... I usually buy rough wood and dimension it myself, but if you have zero tools that will be tough so you will have to deal with what is available or ask someone with the tools to help you dimension it.

[chathamf]

Yea all I've got is a mitre saw so rather limited. How does the stain take to different woods? Would I just be better off using all spruce if I'm going to have to mix the woods anyways?

[tirebob]

Stain can take differently piece to piece even on the same type of wood... Depends on a lot of things such moisture content, how dark or light the wood was initially, preparation etc..

If you want a good stain that is very easy to use and consistently gives good results, use a gel stain, specifically these...

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/pag...90,42942,64181

I use pretty much exclusively this brand now. Works WAAAAYY better than anything else I have tried...

You should get yourself a table saw. It opens your doors up quite a bit. Obviously high quality saws are not cheap, but I got by with a cheapie contractor type saw for a long time before stepping up to a cabinet saw. Yes you need to be careful and make sure you are not doing anything stupid above the usability of the saw, but in the end it is still just a spinning blade and will cut wood and if you use it for simple ripping of small pieces to width you will find it quite useful. You already have a miter saw for crosscuts...

[blitz]

+1 for General Finishes stuff, my favourite is the gel stain, very easy to apply especially if you're building in place or have a lot of vertical surfaces.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/pag...at=1,190,42942

[chathamf]

Where do you buy your wood? Do you find HD is basically no different than Lowe's & Rona for quality/selection?

Can you buy Lee valley stuff in Calgary?

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by chathamf
Where do you buy your wood? Do you find HD is basically no different than Lowe's & Rona for quality/selection?

Can you buy Lee valley stuff in Calgary?

IMO HD/Lows/Rona wood is crap comared to smaller outfits like TimberTown.

And https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Lee...53ea29a4e36072

[spikerS]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok


IMO HD/Lows/Rona wood is crap comared to smaller outfits like TimberTown.

And https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Lee...53ea29a4e36072

+1

The woods you are going to find at a HD/Rona/ whatever big dept store is mostly construction grade timber. Stuff to build houses, decks, sheds, etc. that sort of stuff. They won't bring in oak, cherry, whatever for woodworking.

Windsor plywood usually has a really good selection of more desirable woods for woodworking, and their prices are fairly decent. They are my go to place for the times when I need something other than a 2x4 or plywood.

[tirebob]

Black Forest has some amazing wood selections but they are not the cheapest. Look for anotger guy called the "wood hippie". He often has great stuff and usually priced pretty well...