Woodworking

[cranky]

I know there are woodworkers here but I searched and didn't find a thread about it so I guess I will make one rather than put this in the wrong place.

To begin with I don't really consider myself a woodworker, I just kind of mess around with wood sometimes...usually using whatever I happen to come across. Like for instance, a while back I was tearing down my shed and as a result was also destroying and burning a couple of old dressers. One of the dressers had drawers made of some really nice wood that I couldn't bring myself to burn. Then I had the idea to turn the wood into a box to hold two bottles of apple brandy to send to HDNB. The result was this

I think it turned out pretty nice and have since decided to make more boxes for special purposes and have set aside some pieces of maple firewood to make them out of.

But that's not what this post is about

This post is about Mrs Cranky and a rhododendron bush.

Let me explain.

Around 30 years ago Mrs Cranky fell off our one foot high front porch and broke her ankle, then refused to go to the hospital to have it properly mended. As a result she now has trouble with stairs and sometimes has to use a cane. This isn't helped by her arthritis either.

Well, some years ago we took out our giant rhododendron bushes. When I took out the rhodies I saved 3 big branches with the thought of turning the wood or making pen blanks or something.

A couple months ago I was doing something and noticed the 3 branches. I then realized that one of them was nearly the perfect size and shape to make a cane out of. So I set about making Mrs Cranky a new cane...and she says I never do anything romantic any more

So I stripped what was left of the bark and set about smoothing the knots out. There was a crooked part at the bottom that wasn't terrible but bothered me enough that I wound up cutting it off and splicing it back in straight. While working it I noticed it looks very much like bones, It's not carved to look like bones, it just looks that way. Once I was satisfied I stained it, because Mrs Cranky likes dark wood but it turns out it didn't take the stain very well so it's pretty light colored. Then I clear coated it and showed it to her.

[cranky]

Then the other day I was walking the dog and I found a stick that someone had used as a temporary walking stick and discarded when they were finished and I decided it might be nice to make some walking sticks so I took it, sanded it smooth, rounded the top, squared the bottom, stained and clear coated it.

It's actually a very nice walking stick.

Anyway, what have the rest of you woodworkers, or guys that mess around with wood done?

[Wildcats]

Nice work. I really like the walking stick. Have done a few myself. One with the vine ingrown into it . I enjoy the whole process of stripping the bark and sanding and staining the wood. Last year I got a big vine that was growing up a Black Walnut in the yard. I found that stripping the bark when it's fresh and green is a breeze compared to it drying just a few days. Nice work man. And the box is awesome. Good work.

[TwoSheds]

Nice projects! There's definitely several more of us that woodwork, it comes up often enough, glad you started this thread Cranky!

I like to make furniture for myself, also do some turning, make a lot of bowls for gifts.

I also do some refinishing/restoring old furniture. That is actually a really good tie in with distilling. You can have the still running in one side of the shop while you strip old shellac off using stuff that didn't make the cut from previous runs in the other side of the shop. Hey, you've gotta be down there to watch the still anyway, right?

I realized some time ago that I just really like making stuff. Cooking and woodworking both feed that desire, but distilling combines many aspects of making, like designing and making your own tools to make your own booze. I'm really loving it! Not sure what I'll do when I have the brewing kettle and still in a configuration I'm happy with. Probably add another hobby!

[Bradster68]

I love it too. I was a 30 year machinist. And after working with materials you measure to the thou. Wood is a whole different ball game. And also the wood is much harder on the hand's than the steel ever was. Not sure why?
But I'm gathering an arsenal of woodworking tools now for another rabbit hole so to speak. Like 1 ain't enough
Hers my latest a pintrest picture my wife found for fold up Murphy beds. Just about got this job done.

[cranky]

I forgot to mention in that first post that I carved two interwoven hearts with Mrs Cranky's and my initials in them on the underside of the handle so whenever she uses it she can feel them Like I said above, and she says I don't do anything romantic anymore...she's wrong I just do so many things she just doesn't notice any more.

Then ya'll reminded me of my "lathe"

I am notoriously cheap. My router cost $4 at a garage sale and my gouges were something like $3 at goodwill for a set of Craftsman gouges that are probably close to 50 years old. My "Lathe" is actually a vintage Toast Master "Deluxe home shop", sometimes called a "Saber Lathe" since it has an unusable saber saw and table as well as a lathe.

I'm sure people roll their eyes about that but it was capable of making these Cherry wood barrel bungs

I did have to make my own ring tool for the captive ring

It would be nice to have a big lathe that I could do bowls on but it would also be nice to have a lot of things I don't have money, space or time for

[still_stirrin]

I did a little woodworking for a liquor box too.

Variety Pack

This is a boxed set I made for my boss when he laid me off (and started my retirement) oh so long ago. I packed it well so I could ship it to him. My logo is burned into the wood cover, but the bottle labels are all from my early designs. The orange is pecanwood, the red is cherry, the green is applewood (of course), and the brown is oak. The whiskey was a single malt with a heavy peat malt and base malt grainbill (no corn, wheat, or oats).

Pecanwood Aged

Here you can see the color.
ss

[Setsumi]

Well crancy, I do like your cane/walking sticks. I did my fair share of woodworking to supplement my income when I was younger and the economy better. When I retire in n couple of years it will have to be again.

You are very welcome to send me one of those boxes you have send to HDNB. May I send you a location pin?

[MooseMan]

Some lovely looking work here gents.

I love working in wood, whether it's a more rough outdoor furniture job, or super high finished turned items.

I can only find recent examples in photos.

During lockdown I got so bored that I offered to tear down my sister's old deck, and was left with loads of usable wood, so I got creative and built a "Korean Barbecue" table, it makes BBQ so much more sociable for me now.

Then I found loads of unwanted timber and Ply sheet at someone's place, and decided that we needed an outdoor bar!

[Steve Broady]

I don’t have any pictures handy, but I’ve done a little woodworking over the years. When my ex-wife’s brother was killed, I built a display case for his memorial flag. Built a nice walnut hutch that I keep in my kitchen now. And a large built in pantry/liquor cabinet and wine rack that takes up one whole wall of my dining room. Lately, I’ve mostly been making cutting birds, mostly from wild cherry that I saved from a tree that came down in my yard a few years ago. Sadly, I don’t have as much time as I’d like, but maybe one day when I retire I can finally build all the things I’ve thought about. There’s nothing like seeing the beauty in a raw piece of wood, and turning it into something both beautiful and practical.

[Bushman]

Nice job! I use a chainsaw mill to make planks.

From the planks I made coffee table.

And carved out a bread bowl

[higgins]

My first real hobby was woodworking, but then I made the mistake of doing it as a job (most of the 80s) working for someone else. I built custom made furniture and copies of antiques, then moved to another job where I built pipe organ consoles. After nearly a decade of doing it commercially for 40-60 hrs a week I got burned out on it as a hobby. In '89 I left the industry and returned to college to finish my degree in IT.

I started getting back into it about 10 years ago as I approached retirement.

Here is a countertop I made for my sister a few years ago. 2" black walnut (2 adjacent slabs bookmatched), live edges with bark removed, 10 coats waterlox tung oil varnish.

I've got about 450 bd ft of cherry from a tree downed in a windstorm about 6 years ago. It was sawn with a wood-mizer mill in my driveway, and I had it flitch sawn (just slabs with bark edges) in various thicknesses from 8/4 down to 3/4, about 16" to 21" wide. It has been air-drying in my barn since then. We are planning to remodel our kitchen and I plan to build all the cabinets from this cherry.

[Wildcats]

Wow nice. You do great work. That cherry will really pop when you do your kitchen. I have a Maple burl that I've been drying for the last 3 years. My plan is to make a table with book cut pieces. But as you said and I can relate.. I build custom homes 40 hours a week. So I'm usually covered in saw dust every day. I'm planning on making a jig for my chainsaw and cut the burl in slice. Then take two cuts from the same side and dowel join them. The burl I have is 32 x 19 in. It should give the grain a sunburst effect. That's the plan .

[Bushman]

Beautiful work Higgins. Couple other projects I did recently was a rocking horse for our granddaughter and several collapsible cornhole games for our kids.

[Archee72]

Nice work everyone

[Salt Must Flow]

Not exactly woodworking, but made this sliding wood door from scratch. It's core is 3/4" plywood. The planks are inexpensive fence pickets. It took LOTS of sanding to get the pickets decent and then I found out a friend has a planer I could have used

[Steve Broady]

Here’s the hutch I built nearly 20 years ago. All air dried walnut, with copper panels.

[Laredo7mm]

Wow, you all do some nice work. I haven’t done much woodworking, mostly messed with metals back when I was making knives. I did build this guy 7+ ish years ago out of Michigan knotty pine. It is a “kegerator” that can hold six 5 gallon kegs with a fermentation chamber on top.

When I was brewing beer it was controlled with an Raspberry Pi and a couple Arduino boards (to the left of the keg in the first pic) and I had a monitor attached that would display the different beers on tap and a button to push that would take out 16oz for each pour.

Now I just use the fermentation chamber with a simple Inkbird on/off controller and don’t run the refrigeration compressor, but use the bottom part for keg storage. The malt kiln I am going to build will have the same look and construction. Please forgive my pour house keeping skills. Lol.

65948125-CACB-4329-8F76-785D2903F9EF.jpeg

760E2F1B-93DC-4AD5-8006-ECC07CF1125A.jpeg

[Ben]

I do some, milling, design, building, turning

[Bushman]

Nice work Ben.

[still_stirrin]

Dang y’all. Them’s some nice works of art. Very impressive.

And to think … all we make here are “edibles”, I mean consumables.
ss

[Hoosier Shine9]

When I saw this post I thought I would share.
What i have done is not as impressive.
I also am trying to find pictures of an Oak Screen door that I made for our house.

here is a side table that I made from Construction grade 2X4 & 2X8.
nothing really "Fancy"
it does have tapered legs, a book-matched Bread-board top.

A fishing rod holder Made from a 6X6 Cedar Deck Post, that was a Cut off.

[Hoosier Shine9]

I know there are woodworkers here but I searched and didn't find a thread about it so I guess I will make one rather than put this in the wrong place.

To begin with I don't really consider myself a woodworker, I just kind of mess around with wood sometimes...usually using whatever I happen to come across. Like for instance, a while back I was tearing down my shed and as a result was also destroying and burning a couple of old dressers. One of the dressers had drawers made of some really nice wood that I couldn't bring myself to burn. Then I had the idea to turn the wood into a box to hold two bottles of apple brandy to send to HDNB. The result was this
image.png
image.png
image.png

I think it turned out pretty nice and have since decided to make more boxes for special purposes and have set aside some pieces of maple firewood to make them out of.

But that's not what this post is about

This post is about Mrs Cranky and a rhododendron bush.

Let me explain.

Around 30 years ago Mrs Cranky fell off our one foot high front porch and broke her ankle, then refused to go to the hospital to have it properly mended. As a result she now has trouble with stairs and sometimes has to use a cane. This isn't helped by her arthritis either.

Well, some years ago we took out our giant rhododendron bushes. When I took out the rhodies I saved 3 big branches with the thought of turning the wood or making pen blanks or something.

A couple months ago I was doing something and noticed the 3 branches. I then realized that one of them was nearly the perfect size and shape to make a cane out of. So I set about making Mrs Cranky a new cane...and she says I never do anything romantic any more

So I stripped what was left of the bark and set about smoothing the knots out. There was a crooked part at the bottom that wasn't terrible but bothered me enough that I wound up cutting it off and splicing it back in straight. While working it I noticed it looks very much like bones, It's not carved to look like bones, it just looks that way. Once I was satisfied I stained it, because Mrs Cranky likes dark wood but it turns out it didn't take the stain very well so it's pretty light colored. Then I clear coated it and showed it to her.
CANE #5 - C.jpg
CANE #3 - C.jpg
CANE #2 - C.jpg

The display/Presentation box is Beautiful work.
The Cain & walking stick are very organic.
All of it is beautiful.

hs9

[Hoosier Shine9]

I do some, milling, design, building, turning

0515211834.jpg

Chair rotated.jpg

Table hero 2.jpg

20190528_075305.jpg

lamp illuminated.jpg

The Maloof style chair is beautiful, ,have you attempted a rocker yet?

[Ben]

Thank you. No, I haven't gotten there. Its sort of a later in life to-do list item.

[cranky]

Sorry I've been so slow about responding, it seems the older I get the less free time I have.

I'm impressed by all the woodworking skills of people here...but truth be told, it's not surprising. We have a lot of talented people here

I did a little woodworking for a liquor box too.

This is a boxed set I made for my boss when he laid me off (and started my retirement) oh so long ago. I packed it well so I could ship it to him. My logo is burned into the wood cover, but the bottle labels are all from my early designs. The orange is pecanwood, the red is cherry, the green is applewood (of course), and the brown is oak. The whiskey was a single malt with a heavy peat malt and base malt grainbill (no corn, wheat, or oats).

Here you can see the color.
ss

Nice work I think sending something to someone in itself is pretty monumental but I'm kind of into overkill and think that a special box is that little bit of special overkill

Well crancy, I do like your cane/walking sticks. I did my fair share of woodworking to supplement my income when I was younger and the economy better. When I retire in n couple of years it will have to be again.

You are very welcome to send me one of those boxes you have send to HDNB. May I send you a location pin?

Thank you, The cane and walking stick just kind of happened. We generally prefer things on the elegant side but I thought these were very interesting, especially how the rhodi wood looked like bones but I have now had an idea involving making and giving away walking sticks as a way to promote a means for the dog to start earning his keep.

I'll add you to my list but I think it took me 7 or 8 years to get around to HDNB Shipping tends to be very expensive these days which makes it difficult to ship bottles to people. Thene there is the fact that other than setting aside maple logs and finding some really nice bottles the next box project is kind of stalled at the moment.,,like most of my projects.

Some lovely looking work here gents.

I love working in wood, whether it's a more rough outdoor furniture job, or super high finished turned items.

I can only find recent examples in photos.

During lockdown I got so bored that I offered to tear down my sister's old deck, and was left with loads of usable wood, so I got creative and built a "Korean Barbecue" table, it makes BBQ so much more sociable for me now.

Then I found loads of unwanted timber and Ply sheet at someone's place, and decided that we needed an outdoor bar!

I'm a big fan of salvaging stuff. I can't show it here because it's too distinct but my front porch (Yes, the infamous forever front porch to those of you who followed the build )...anyway, for the balustrade I salvaged, cut and fabricated every part from rough sawn 4x4s that were used as shoring by a shipper. It is a very overly complicated design but very unique elegant.

I don’t have any pictures handy, but I’ve done a little woodworking over the years. When my ex-wife’s brother was killed, I built a display case for his memorial flag. Built a nice walnut hutch that I keep in my kitchen now. And a large built in pantry/liquor cabinet and wine rack that takes up one whole wall of my dining room. Lately, I’ve mostly been making cutting birds, mostly from wild cherry that I saved from a tree that came down in my yard a few years ago. Sadly, I don’t have as much time as I’d like, but maybe one day when I retire I can finally build all the things I’ve thought about. There’s nothing like seeing the beauty in a raw piece of wood, and turning it into something both beautiful and practical.

That seems to be all too common. I have a long list of things waiting for some day

Nice job! I use a chainsaw mill to make planks.

From the planks I made coffee table.

And carved out a bread bowl

I've thought about doing that but chainsaw mills scare me...I know, with the way I developed the apple chopper you would think nothing would scare me

My first real hobby was woodworking, but then I made the mistake of doing it as a job (most of the 80s) working for someone else. I built custom made furniture and copies of antiques, then moved to another job where I built pipe organ consoles. After nearly a decade of doing it commercially for 40-60 hrs a week I got burned out on it as a hobby. In '89 I left the industry and returned to college to finish my degree in IT.

I started getting back into it about 10 years ago as I approached retirement.

Here is a countertop I made for my sister a few years ago. 2" black walnut (2 adjacent slabs bookmatched), live edges with bark removed, 10 coats waterlox tung oil varnish.

I've got about 450 bd ft of cherry from a tree downed in a windstorm about 6 years ago. It was sawn with a wood-mizer mill in my driveway, and I had it flitch sawn (just slabs with bark edges) in various thicknesses from 8/4 down to 3/4, about 16" to 21" wide. It has been air-drying in my barn since then. We are planning to remodel our kitchen and I plan to build all the cabinets from this cherry.

Nice work! I've always wanted a portable sawmill but never could bring myself to buy one. The other day there were actually two of them brand new at a local auction but Mrs Cranky kindly explained to me that we don't currently have the space for one but maybe some day...There I go again with those "some days")

I do some, milling, design, building, turning...

Wow, VERY NICE Ben!

When I saw this post I thought I would share.
What i have done is not as impressive.
I also am trying to find pictures of an Oak Screen door that I made for our house.

here is a side table that I made from Construction grade 2X4 & 2X8.
nothing really "Fancy"
it does have tapered legs, a book-matched Bread-board top.

A fishing rod holder Made from a 6X6 Cedar Deck Post, that was a Cut off.

Nice Sometimes I watch youtube videos and see people with a million dollars in tools and thousands of dollars in a single piece of wood, it's nice to see people making nice things out of more common wood.

But that's not what this p

The display/Presentation box is Beautiful work.
The Cain & walking stick are very organic.
All of it is beautiful.

hs9

Tank you, The organic stuff isn't my normal thing but in this case it had a real appeal. In the pictures they actually aren't quite finished. The cane still needs cut to the right length for Mrs Cranky and fitted with a rubber tip, the walking stick is going to copper tip to make it a bit more durable in rougher terrain.

[Bradster68]

Finally done this room. 2 Murphy beds asmper mommas request. Now for a drink

[Bushman]

Finally done this room. 2 Murphy beds asmper mommas request. Now for a drink

I have thought about building a Murphy bed. Nice job.

[Bradster68]

Finally done this room. 2 Murphy beds asmper mommas request. Now for a drink

I have thought about building a Murphy bed. Nice job.

Thank u. Got 2 grandkids now.

[Ben]

I've thought about doing that but chainsaw mills scare me...I know, with the way I developed the apple chopper you would think nothing would scare me

Chainsaw mills are not to be feared If you have any sense of self preservation they are simple to run, once you are in the cut the business end is buried in the tree. If you slope the tree slightly downhill the blade will just pull the rig along, drop in a pair of wedges every few feet and start to ease off the throttle as it starts to come out of the cut. Way less scary than cutting firewood or downing trees. They also store compact, I have 2 92cc power heads, a rack of chains and bars ranging from 36"-60", a 35cc saw for branching and cutting out stuck bars and the mill, it doesn't take up any more space than my still and controller.

I cut about 1000BF of lumber every year on mine, way more than I can use. The excess gets sold to pay for woodworking tools, donated to schools etc. it's so much better than letting trees go to landfill. But if your wife is concerned about storage you'll be in hot water in a hurry, thousands of board feet of lumber, drying for years in the yard can be tough to manage.