Spring Time Raised Bed Planters, Part 2

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Greg

Yesterday I finished the construction of the first planter box.

In the first part of this post I explained the beginning of this project.

After all the wood was surfaced to size I cut the posts to length.

The panels were positioned in the posts by cutting a 1/2″ groove in the posts and a 1/2″ tenon on the top and bottom of each panel.

The posts were attached together by creating mortises in the posts and cutting tenons on the ends of the horizontal supports. The lower support was notched into the vertical posts with a 1/4″ relief, which I am hoping will be sufficient to handle the load of the wet soil inside.

After it was assembled I added the Lattice to the back and hauled it out into the backyard for Alicia to apply the Minwax Oil based Stain.

Spring Time Raised Bed Planter Boxes

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Greg

During the end of winter I happened across a large pile of culled lumber at Lowes. This section of lumber is where they mark down wood for super cheap because it was ordered to a job site, delivered, rejected and returned to the store. The original sales price for the wood was 237$.

The discount price 30$. I took a look and thought it could be used for planter boxes. Douglas fir isnt necessarily ones first choice for planter boxes as I dont expect that they will last longer than a few years. That said 30$ is cheaper than a half wine barrel so I was sold. I brought it home and stacked it in the garage for a few months to dry out a little more.

After drying I began to flatten and square up all the lumber.

To do this I used my Planer and Jointer.

Because at the time I only had a 4″ jointer ( 6″ is home but needs some work and … another blog post about it) I wasn’t going to be able to face joint the lumber flat.

So I built a cheap planer sled for face jointing and cut the 2×8′s into 60″ lengths. I then ran them through the planer until one side was flat. I did for same process for the 4×6′s.

This step was necessary because the lumber was very cupped and bowed. The wood was shimmed to prevent deflection from the planer wheels and was all flattened on one face.

After this I put the sled away and flattened the corresponding face. For the 4×6′s the final planed thickness was 2.75″ I eventually ripped them to 2.5″ square poles for the project construction. For the 2×8′s I was able to flatten them to a thickness of 1.25″ and a width of 7.125″. Once I finished this step the weekend was over. The shop was also COVERED in shavings. It filled the entire yard waste bin.

During the next week now knowing what I was able to flatten the lumber to, I learned how to use Google SketchUp.

This is my first draft of the planter that I had been planning.

I knew that since the 4×6′s were splitting I would need to rip them into smaller square poles. Also because of the cracking and imperfections of the 2×8′s I wasn’t going to be able to use them in long lengths. Due to these limitations I researched some options and built this model in sketchup. It kinda looks like a Bed … Get it .. Raised Bed ..

In the next post i’ll show more construction photos and (hopefully) the finished product.

After doing the rough assembly tonight I realized that there are some changes in the final bed that will I will have to update in the Model as time permits.

New (to me) Air Compressor

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Greg

A while back I started the Loft project. Not much progress has been made there but, when I got around to painting the plantation shutters we got from CraigsList I purchased a HVLP sprayer from Harbor Freight ( yes I frequent HF )…. The sprayer I got needed 12 CFM to power the paint gun. It is a well loved gun (customer reviews from all over the Internet) but has high CFM needs as many HVLP guns do.

Well needless to say my Craftsman 3/4 HP of unknown capacity air compressor was not up to the task. When the first coats of paint were applied to the shutters it was a long painstaking process of waiting on the compressor. 3 Minutes to fill, 7 seconds to paint. Yeah, it was frustrating and took an entire day standing in a paint filled garage.

This started my quest for a new ( cheap ) big ass compressor. I originally thought I might try and build a compressor out of a large propane tank, a HF pump or CL sourced one, and a new 5hp motor. The quest began and eventually I broke down and posted in the want ads to trade for lumber for an upright air compressor.

That afternoon I got a call. some back and forth, and a compressor was mine.

This compressor came to me filled with tall tales, some of which I’m sure are true, needless to say they included Elephants, Landmines, Chinese tractors, Thailand, Rosewood, Jeff Gordon, Adultery and … a compressor was born.

It is a mash-up of older Craftsman single stage parts, a replacement motor, and tank of unknown size, though it is definitely smaller than a 60 gallon which I had set out for.

Once I got it I ordered a new pressure switch, check valve, and pressure indicator and got it all connected and up and running.

The next project would use this compressor and the compressor would DEFINATELY prove itself. More in my next post… for now lets just say I can use the HVLP gun without stopping and the compressor does kick on but will catch up and shut off while spraying. MUCH BETTER.

Its not too pretty to look at but I’m happy to have it in the shop. You can see its older baby brother next to it.

I Can Do That Step Stool Part Two!

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Greg

I am posting this post about two months since I have last seen this project but since I finally got the pictures back from the finished product I figured I could draw it to some closure.

The stool which I have blogged about previously here I finally finished sometime on the day after Christmas 2010. I had hoped that we would be able to get it to Camden so that it was under the tree on Christmas Day but sadly, my time management skills, life and learning woodworking came in the way.

The project was finished by smooting all the milling marks with my Stanley Bailey #3 hand plane and all the edges were champhered with a block plane.

The plugs used on the seat and seat back were made with walnut and once sanded the whole project was finished with 4 coats of shellac (spray) and paste wax. In retrospect, and after reading about finishing more it seems a stool, which may find its way into the bathroom someday, would have been better served with a more water resistant sealer.

I really wanted the cherry used in this project to POP! It was cherry that I got from the downgrade bin in the hardwood store but when I saw it thought it was beautiful!.. I guess that is all that matters… well that and 80 BF of Cherry @ 1.25 a ft .

I also learned a really important lesson about taking your own pictures of the projects that you want to remember. If you want to take a good, quality, rememberable picture, do it before you gift your work. Otherwise it will take months to finish your blog post series. I got a wild hair and asked my brother to send me the pictures this week so that I could finally write this post so here they are

Standing on the edge of a very slippery slope… Hand Tools.

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Greg

Up until last week I had managed to keep my shop almost entirely filled with power tools. I have spent countless hours managing to get relatively decent power tools to meet my budget and help me learn this art. Table Saw, Router(s), Band Saw, Jointer & Planer… Dust collection system even. How is it that after getting all this in the shop, setup, and working, that I now find myself wanting to use good ole fashion hand tools? What tools am I talking about? Hand Planes mostly, at least here it begins.

Growing up I watched This Old House and New Yankee workshop and learned about the art of recreating classic furniture and building techniques with the latest spiffy power tool. Seemed like Norm always had the latest and greatest power tool to cut just those few dovetails on his drawer… This is the way I learned about woodworking. I watched Norm and I read about it in books and on the internet. If you saw my previous post about the I can do that stepstool ( not yet finished ), the seat bottom and the step/seat back are screwed and plugged with plugs. I have never used plugs yet so I google… read .. and decide ”I need a block plane”. Well being the avid craigslister and freecycler that I have become I immediately post on craigslist and on freecycle for “Old Rusty Hand Woodworking Tools” as wanted ads on both. A few hours goes by and my first response comes in: ”I have an old plane you can have”… A day later a call, I have some planes sitting on the shelf, A half dozen or so ill sell you for $25 for all, then another call ” I have 3 you can have”

After collecting all of them and the few extra that they threw in I collected the following lot.

Last Count

Stanley Bailey #4

1 Bailey #5 that is broken and welded

2 Bailey #3 one is a sweetheart

4 Random other Stanley #4 equivalent

2 Spoke shaves

2 Wooden Fancy Pants ones

2 sets of old school wooden bar clamps

2 old Craftsman block planes

14 Planes for 31 $

Plus you can seem some files and a oil stone

[picasaView album='HandTools']

I Can Do That Step Stool Part 1

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Greg

This is the first of postings about building the I Can Do That Step Stool by Popular Woodworking.

I am planning on building this stool to give as a gift for my Nephew Camden for his first Chirstmas. For materials I am using 4/4 Cherry which I purchased locally from my hardwood supplier.

The plans for the project call for using some tools which I have but don’t trust so I am going to do the project a little differently.

To Begin with I selected two of my best boards of Cherry and marked them with rough cut lines using chalk. I then took the wood and cut in lengths that would allow me to use my planer sled to flatten the first face. I used the sled here because my 4″ Magna jointer isn’t wide enough to handle the face jointing and my 6″ Cman jointer died

(Still waiting for CL to produce a replacement for these two

)

I Flattened the first face of each board and then flipped them to flatten the back of the board down to 3/4″.

Using my table saw I squared up the remaining two sides and cut all pieces to length and width.

Additionally I ripped some pieces of 3/4″ x 3/4″ Cherry which I am planning to use to make the dowels that are called for in the project.

Once I had the pieces cut to size I decided that since I just don’t trust my jigsaw that much and because I love my band saw I used double sided tape and stuck

the sides and the step support pieces together prior to doing the layout of the holes and curves.

On the sides I marked all the holes and using a compass as described in the article marked the curve at the base of the side supports.

To make a matching profile on the sides I made a bow out of a strip of 1/8″ maple 36″ long and connected some wire to the ends and taped them to a block which I centered in the middle of the strip. I used a drill to drill a hole in the block that could fit a pencil. Using the pencil to expand the bow I pushed it out until the bow was a good arch and made the measurements on both sides of the side support.

Once all the measurements were made on the sides and the supports I fired up the bandsaw and cut the all the curves. Once all the cuts were made I sanded the bottom using a dowel with 120 grit glued to it in my SS Lathe, and then switched over to the disk and cleaned up the archs on the 12″ disk sander.

Once all the sanding was done I moved on to the drilling. I switched the SS over to Drill Press mode and used a 1/4″ drill bit to make the 1/4″ holes and also drilled a pilot using this bit for the 3/4″ hole.

I then switched out to a 3/4″ Spade bit and an MDF backing block to resist tearout I cut the 3/4″ holes.

Once all the holes were cut I split the two sides and peeled off the tape.

That is all I managed to get done this weekend .

.. Check back soon for the next

steps.

Cutting Boards Post 2

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Greg

So its been a while since I have had a chance to show the boards I have been making. First I cleaned up all of the wood that I could and squared it and cut them to length using first the jointer on two sides , then the planer on the other two to get good long square strips then I cut them to length on the table saw. Not all of them were completely uniform coming out of this process so it made the glue up a bit interesting.

Worried that the wood had been outside and not knowing its history I opted to take all the cutting board stock and bake it in the oven to sterilize it prior to glue up. Not a big deal really, I just lowered the oven rack to the bottom and filled the oven. Inside on the bottom of the oven I put a pyrex dish with water in it to keep the air a little humid. I baked at 160 (inside of oven temp) for 6 hours to make sure.

Once cool I pulled the wood out and arranged it in groups for prospective boards and began gluing them up into blanks. I only have enough clamps and cauls to glue one at a time so this took about a week to glue all the board blanks that I have completed so far. I glued some in the morning and some in the evening and on some days both

Pictures below are the mineral oil finish being applied on some of the boards.

Cutting boards before finishing

Cutting Boards Project Post 1

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Greg

This post is hopefully going to be the first in a series of posts that I will do on my journey of making cutting boards. I have read the entire Internet and found some wood and am getting started on my first endeavour to make a bunch of something.

Following up on a Craigslist ad I found an individual about an hours drive away that had 8′ long strips of what he said are Hard Maple, Walnut, and Mahogany. Ellory and I made the drive and filled up the entire back of my truck! Wood was hanging out significantly out of the back of my 5′ crew cab truck, proved to me that I might not need a lumber rack for now.

Once home and unloaded I sorted a little, saving some larger stock for other projects. I also realized that mostly what I have is maple, walnut, cherry and some red-oak or maybe mahogany. Honestly I’m not too sure what some of it is. Most of it is so small in width that I will likely have to plane it all the way down to 1/2″ prior to glue up. Some will allow wider, and some ill save for shop fixtures like torsion boxes for my table saw outfeed table I have been planning.

I began trimming out the knots and jointing two edges then squared up on the planer and table saw. Mostly I am planning on using edge grain and not end grain for the boards because I really really like the look of the long strips glued up. I am planning however on doing a few end grain so Ill post those as I make them.

Here is the first one off the press and hopefully I learned enough on this one to make the next much better.

I had to take this picture on top of the sawdust bin as the sun was setting!

The Tool that started it all

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Greg

Last year, Maybe December or so, Alicia (LOML) asks me to build some cabinets for the Mudroom. I was excited to give them a try but knew that it wasn’t going to get done well using the mini Craftsman table saw gifted to me by my Father in Law. The saw was just too small and the fence too little that I new I couldn’t build anything square with it.

So I looked on craigslist. After a while I was blown away by some of the “deals” on there and couldnt believe that people were selling these saws that sold originally for $500 for $150 on CL. During my research I found sawmillcreek.org which I learned a lot about how to buy a table saw. Reading there changed my mind about what I thought I wanted and I set out looking for an older saw in the $150 price range.

Soon enough a used Delta/Rockwell 34-338 table saw. He was selling it for 175 and it was in good condition. Also included was a Unifence and Rail which I couldn’t resist. I didn’t really want a contractor saw but this would fit the bill. I offered $150 and it came home with me.

Here is the saw as it was when I got it home.

After swapping out the Fence and the rail and building an extension table:

(need to find this photo)