What have you been doing today?

[ajoeiam]

As any woodwork starts with wood, I prepared last autumn for the coming work. Please disregard any advertisements or language, the little movie is self-explaining:

Hmmmmmmmmmmm - - - - - I don't recognize the variety - - - what kind of tree is that?

Did you plant its replacement? (grin!)

 

[metalmangler]

Did some painting and squirrel proofing (resisting?) outside yesterday, we had a lovely 62 degree day.

You only think you're successfully resisting squirrels because the devious little B******s want you to think that...

 

[Sprocket]

Some days are just better than others.
By noon the clouds were back.

 

[roncohudd]

Before someone asks. Here's the photo of my greenhouse bench. Well, the first 8ft.
View attachment 144206
This is what I call tidy, before I fill it with clutter.
K2

First thing in the morning here.
Yesterday I came off scout camp at the site just north of here, to get to church for the service.
Our club track is out of service (water leak under the platform) so no chance of running today, so left the engines in the workshop / shed.
Out all evening at the University for evening service, then home.
The grand plan (such as it is) for today is to turn up an extension For the operating knob on my wife's Maxitrak Ruston - her Christmas present - to make driving it easier.

Did some painting and squirrel proofing (resisting?) outside yesterday, we had a lovely 62 degree day.

First thing in the morning here.
Yesterday I came off scout camp at the site just north of here, to get to church for the service.
Our club track is out of service (water leak under the platform) so no chance of running today, so left the engines in the workshop / shed.
Out all evening at the University for evening service, then home.
The grand plan (such as it is) for today is to turn up an extension For the operating knob on my wife's Maxitrak Ruston - her Christmas present - to make driving it easier.

Scaffolding still reminds me of the old monkey bars in the school recess yard, but they aren't as much fun at 64 years old with a tweaked sciatic nerve.

Painted some cabinet frames and doors today. This batch of cabinets is mounted over my 3D printers, so I've printed a few Star Wars Trooper helmets as door pulls. 2 done, 2 to print. Once printed, they get primed, painted in gloss white, then I'll paint in the black details with a fine point brush. Yes, plain hardware store knobs would be more practical, certainly cheaper if I still put more value on my time than my fun, and would have it all done in just a few minutes. Then again, where's the sense of fun in knobs just like everyone else has on their shop cabinets? Prusa's site printables.com has a number of other interesting knobs and pulls should anyone want something a bit different, the filament spool knobs are a neat three part print, might do a few if the Star Wars trooper helmet knobs get boring down the road.

Best to all

I saw that there use to be a fun thread like this, and maybe it would be fun to have it again.

I'll start. I've been on the forum, and looking after my gardenia bush. It smells so good, especially at night in the mellow heat of summer.

And then I like listening to music. Since it is almost the 4th of July, I was listening to this earlier today. This has the Bicentennial presentation of "1812" with the cannons and church bells,etc.

Got my Bridgeport back on line today

Started rebuilding my Bridgeport today

Got my Bridgeport back on line today. Scraped the Y gibs a little bit. It works smoother and easier now

 

[Bentwings]

Nice work
It’s a cold day again -5 deg f earl all of + 7 now a little wind so no walk today supposed to get -12 tonight. Snow is banked around base of home so it’s warmer under neath keeps the pipes from freezing. I turn on clothes dryer that has vent pipe under home this helps keep temps up just enough goingvto be really cold in a couple day 15 deg f or do. I have RV drain antifreeze for water drains for the really cold times Only froze things once so far but I got it cleared quickly. No fresh snow so don’t have that to deal with I’ll work on steamer stuff today I think .

 

[2tinker]

Made a possum box - old pallets are so versatile

 

[johnmcc69]

That's nice! I didn't know there was such thing as a "Possum box".

John

 

[oldengineguy]

What is a possum box? Do they live in it? Have several here that come around at night under bird feeders. Wouldn't mind if they take up residence.
Colin

 

[WisJim]

Over the last 50 years we lost more chickens to possums than to all other critters combined, so I don't think much of possums.

 

[2tinker]

What is a possum box? Do they live in it? Have several here that come around at night under bird feeders. Wouldn't mind if they take up residence.
Colin

Yes, well the idea is they nest in there rather than your house roof space, now completed with floor and covered entry to keep out the weather.

 

[clockworkcheval]

Hi Ajoeiam, it is a Dutch inland oak of about 200 years old, probably planted at the time of erecting the farmhouse. It grew weak and now threatened the farmhouse. It yielded 1 ton of nice planks of 12 feet long, 20 inches wide and 1 1/2 inch thick and 1 ton of firewood. Nice material for outside furniture. The repaired dark spots you see on the bench in the picture are caused by shrapnel in WWII when there was fighting around the farm. As my brother and neighbour has a nursery next door we do plant as a matter of fact several thousand new trees each year!

 

[ajoeiam]

Hi Ajoeiam, it is a Dutch inland oak of about 200 years old, probably planted at the time of erecting the farmhouse. It grew weak and now threatened the farmhouse. It yielded 1 ton of nice planks of 12 feet long, 20 inches wide and 1 1/2 inch thick and 1 ton of firewood. Nice material for outside furniture. The repaired dark spots you see on the bench in the picture are caused by shrapnel in WWII when there was fighting around the farm. As my brother and neighbour has a nursery next door we do plant as a matter of fact several thousand new trees each year!
snip

Good on you for the tree planting.

I remember when (1980) we toured parts of the then East Germany where the shell pick marks were still quite visible on many building walls - - - - momentos
of wars do tend to hang around a LONG time.
I'm wondering if that would might not even be quite useful for inside furniture after some drying.
(Don't get wood that big here very easily nor very cheaply!)

 

[Bentwings]

Power went out an hour ago everything went black . Had a tough time finding phone number then got some ***** that hung up on me because I asked him to repeat what he said at 90 mph . Filled out survey gave a big 0 rating plus added rough comment . There was a screen on my phone that came up looking for click here or there none worked. So I commented on this too I’m plain tired of lousy phone manners so I let callers know .


It’s warmed up enough to walk up to mail box so I’ll do that may be Amazon shipment stuffed in

 

[Chris_Stevens]

Turned up an extension for my wife's Maxitrak Ruston So she doesn't have to bend so far.
Small project, but it was fun to do.

 

[davidyat]

Last week I inherited a 10 year old Fireball V90 CNC router and computer for the shop. I made a workstation for it over last weekend. Have never worked with CNC, so it's time for this old dog to learn new tricks!!! The fellow said although it's made for wood, if your not too aggressive, you can do soft metals, brass and aluminum. AAHHH, a new chapter in my machining life. As always, any experienced users with this machine and CNC, I can use all your advice to get started. Thanks,
Grasshopper

 

[Bentwings]

Interesting machine.


Well home from dentist . Sports injuries have devastated my teeth so not much to work with. I don’t know how much I want to spend . It all is pretty expensive I YHINK I’ll keep what I still have as long as possible then worry about rebuilding for later.

 

[Bentwings]

More cold it’s -18 deg F . I had to turn the heat up so the heat from the floor warmed the craw space so the water and drains don’t freeze up then got up around 3am and put a load of damp clothes in the dryer the vent pipe is in the crawl space so it helps keep it warm there ran water and it’s ok I think with wind chill it’s -27 deg f so not good to be out there is severe cold warning out on alerts it’s supposed to warm up in the next few days kitty is enjoying warm bed but she is still puffed up

 

[awake]

Well I managed to prybar myself out of the house and down to the shed.

I recently acquired a router, just so I could make bases for engines. Well, one thing led to another and now I own a planer and table saw as well, and I decided that dammit surely I can make wood things?

So I bought this little chest from Grizzly years ago. I like it, it's just a simple laminate mdf chest, but it works well.

View attachment 144200

I wanted another one but grizzly discontinued them yonks ago. Unobtanium. But I can probably make one, right? I'm having a go anyway. Today I planed down some rough cut oak pieces.

View attachment 144201

And honestly, so far so good, but I absolutely was not prepared for the amount of sawdust this was to generate.

I've got it cleaned up now. Maybe tomorrow I can cut these up and see about making the various joint features. I dunno. It's been a while - 34 years or so - since I did any real woodwork.

Prop, at the risk of telling you what you already know - what I didn't know when I first started working with wood - always plan for the wood to expand and contract across the grain. If you join wood with the grain running in the same plane / direction, it can all expand and contract together. But if you create a cross-grain joint that does not allow for movement, you will likely get cracks over time.

Of course, this applies only (or at least mostly) to solid wood, as you are using. If you use plywood, the movement is minimal.

Again, apologies if I am stating the obvious!

 

[hanermo3]

Prop, at the risk of telling you what you already know - what I didn't know when I first started working with wood - always plan for the wood to expand and contract across the grain. If you join wood with the grain running in the same plane / direction, it can all expand and contract together. But if you create a cross-grain joint that does not allow for movement, you will likely get cracks over time.

Of course, this applies only (or at least mostly) to solid wood, as you are using. If you use plywood, the movement is minimal.

Again, apologies if I am stating the obvious!

+1
Wood moves a lot.
I am installing a wood premium sauna at the moment, as a sample, for future clients.

The floor moves about 10 mm in size according to the seasons / temp, so small expansion spaces are left at the edges.
Likewise, door mounts account for 2-5 cm contraction over time.
Window mounts for 3-5 cm contraction vertically.

Shower, mounted so that the log frame can move without affecting the integrity.

All this with massive (extra size) wood logs made from 3 piece laminated logs of finnish siberian pine, siperian lehtikuusi, 88 x 180 mm iirc.

 

[Propforward]

Prop, at the risk of telling you what you already know - what I didn't know when I first started working with wood - always plan for the wood to expand and contract across the grain. If you join wood with the grain running in the same plane / direction, it can all expand and contract together. But if you create a cross-grain joint that does not allow for movement, you will likely get cracks over time.

Of course, this applies only (or at least mostly) to solid wood, as you are using. If you use plywood, the movement is minimal.

Again, apologies if I am stating the obvious!

Thanks for the heads up - it’s all new to me!