8/1/2015 26 Comments Fence!Hey Everyone! Sorry for the post shortage. I've been busy cooking up some projects and attending to some DIY stuff that needs to be done at my house. First thing was replacing my fence between my neighbor and I. The previous owners of my house installed a cheap cedar panel fence that all of the planks were held into the panel using tongue and groom joints and barely framed. I started to dismantle the fence and the pickets all started to fall apart.. I was flustered with how flimsy the fence actually was and forgot to take a before photo. Doh! Anyway, pulling the fence apart took less than an hour which was nice because we could get to building the fence sooner! Here are some photos of the process: This fence was fairly straight forward. We reused and enlarged the fence post holes for the larger 4x6 posts and installed each post using a product called fast2k foam which is equivalent to 2 bags of concrete for every one bag of the foam. This worked out exceedingly well! Each post was leveled and installed without any real issue. The majority of the tough work was removing the old concrete and making the holes larger. Fast2k set time is 30min with the stakes holding it plumb. Cure time is 3 hours then its good to install framing and continue building. Next was framing and pickets. We installed each cross rail using pocket hole joinery with Kreg blue-coated screws. This was a very slick process. Then it was time for pickets. I recently purchased a new to me framing nailer which made the installation super efficient and straight forward. The majority of the work was installing the posts and getting the spacing just right. This made the finishing process super quick. Just the way I like it! All I have left is to chamfer the tops of each post which should be fun! Next project is installing a gate on the other side of my house which I will write a post about after that job is done. I'm hoping tomorrow we'll be done! Thanks for checking out my work! There's more finer woodworking projects coming down the pipes as soon as I'm done this diy work!
26 Comments
Hi Everyone! Monday was delivery day and 4 month photo shoot for my daughter! I was commissioned to build some photography props for our photographer and here they are! I shot some video of a circle cutting jig that I built for the table saw. I will post a YouTube video of that on my channel as soon as I can get some time to edit the video footage. I used the jig to cut a 24" diameter circle out of two pieces of 5/8" thick Baltic birch. Then I marked the center point and cut an off center circle to get the moon shape that was the same between both pieces. I used glue and brad nails first to align the planks then pocket hole screwed them together for strength. The moon is going to be used for small children and new borns, so it needs to be stable and sturdy more so than hefty. After sanding and smoothing, I had a few other projects for our photographer that needed to be painted the same color so the many coats of painting started here. After painting was done I put 4-5 coats of satin wipe on polyurethane on all surfaces to prevent scuffing and scratching of the paint. This took awhile to finish but ultimately, they all look really good and I'm happy with the way each project turned out. I'm working on editing a couple of videos for YouTube on cutting circles on the table saw and how to replace a DeWalt thickness planer cutter head with a Byrd Shelix Helical Cutter Head. Stay frosted! There's lots more going on here at home with improvement projects! Thanks for supporting me and the work that I do! 6/22/2015 Breakfast Bowls - Wedding GiftMy youngest sister just got married to her husband a couple of weeks ago so I figure I can now post about their wedding gift that I made for them. I turned a set of 4 maple breakfast bowls! I laminated two 8/4 maple slabs together to make up my bowl blanks and cut them roundish on the bandsaw to make them easier to carve round on the lathe. I mounted a face plate on each one so I could rough turn the shape of each bowl bottom. I used a forstner bit to create a mortise deep enough to receive my lathe chuck. I ended up sanding the bottom to test out how high a grit I could get to and make a super smooth finish.. After I turned the bottoms of all the bowls and sanded them to around 320 grit then took the faceplate off to then carve out the inside of the bowl. I used a carbide insert carving tool to do the majority of the work on these which was an awesome experience until I ole a check of metal imbedded in one of my bowls.. You'll notice I had six bowls there.. They were made in case I made a mistake which we'll get too shortly. More sanding.. To make the bowls a reasonable size, I had to remove about half an inche off the top of the bowl once I turned them around and mounted them on the lathe chuck. I used a fine parting tool to work my way close to the center then used a fine saw to cut the remainder off.. Then I hit a chunk of metal while hollowing out the first bowl. This was super deflating and the first real lathe event I've ever had while turning! I was hoping it was a bullet or something cool but it turned out to be a screw that was hidden in the wood that wasn't seen for some reason. Good thing I'll be checking my wood with a metal detector for future projects! Look at the chunk of carbide that was taken out of my cutter! I packed up for the night.. Then went back to work with a new carbide blade. So, in hollowing out these bowls without the proper tool rest, I had a couple of mishaps while carving. I caught an edge on the carbide cutter and on two of the bowls, the mortises weren't deep enough in the bottoms and I had two come off while carving. Now that is nerve wracking and I learned to take a break for awhile and come back to the project. So I got a set of four complete and sanded to around 800 grit which was really smooth to touch. Then I applied three coats of watco butcher block oil to protect the maple. After letting them cure for three days, they were food safe and ready for delivery! This was a long post. Thanks for sticking through it with me! I have a fair bit of really cool project work coming down the pipe. Thanks for checking out my work! 6/14/2015 Congratulations Jenn & Nick!Super HUGE congratulations go out to my sister and new brother-one-law! Great wedding and I'm more than honored to have built your guest book/cutting boards! We are so excited for you both! Once these have a bunch of well wishes filling them up for the newly weds, I will add another few coats of butcher block finish on them to make them food safe. Even if they will be kept as decorative, the will still be functional! Thanks for checking out my work! A couple of YouTube videos are coming down the pipes soon and I'm scrambling to finish up a couple of commissioned projects. This is a great wedding guest book idea if any of you are interested in ordering! More importantly, I'm super proud of both Jenn & Nick and am really excited for their next chapter! 5/31/2015 Circle cutting jig for the table saw!Hi Everyone! I've been working away like crazy to get my project cue caught up. Yesterday I built a large diameter circle cutting jig for my table saw which enabled me to cut 2 - 24" diameter circles out of Baltic birch plywood for a photography prop project that was requested. This jig worked like a charm! Check out some photos below: I made a maple miter slot bar that I glued to the bottom of a piece of 3/4" thick mdf and then screwed it to the rail once the glue was set. I'll go into more detail in my tutorial. I set the radius of the circles that I needed and used a cut off finishing nail to drill my holes to insert the centering pin. I drew the layout of the circle shapes I want after marking center. The hard part was putting the board onto the centering pin but it doesn't take long if you center punch the center point so the nail falls into the center point. I spin the material with the blade below the surface of the jig and turn the saw on raising it about a 1/16" or 1/8" with each spin. CAUTION: this type of cut makes a TON of sawdust so be sure to have good dust collection and a respirator. Done! I made two 24" diameter perfect circles and spent the rest of my time cleaning up the dust in the shop. Next cuts I make with this jig will be with the table saw face plate removed so I can utilize the dust collection hooked to the table saw better.. I'll post a YouTube video of the jig build and more photos of this project build soon! Thanks for checking out my work and supporting me by clicking on the ads. Every little bit helps and hopefully you find value in the project work that I do! 5/26/2015 0 Comments New Ultra Magnetic Bottle Opener!Hi everyone, I just shipped out my latest bottle opener which looks similar to my last one but it very much is the next generation of bottle openers that I've made. This one is predominantly walnut with a maple strip that's off center. It's finished with tung oil this time around. I've learned that tung oil will dry and seal the wood with a mat finish that will harden over time which is great for a project like this. The grain stood out immediately upon contact with the finish. I sanded the material to 220 grit which gave it a fine baby's face smooth feel. Now, the update is in the magnets!! I used larger magnets on the back to allow for a stronger hold to the refrigerator and I added more large magnets to catch the bottle caps better when they fall from the opener! This one turned out better than I expected and I now have a better magnet formula for putting these together. Thanks for checking out my work! 5/9/2015 0 Comments May craziness!Hi Everyone, Sorry for the post shortage lately. Work has been super crazy and Audrey is now two months old! Time is flying and my project list is growing exponentially. Here's what I've been working on: I've been learning about casting pen blanks and have ordered the necessary components to start making my own. There are basically 2 different methods that I'd like to try but I'm going to start with the cheaper of the two first before diving deeper into this craft more. The rack I built out of scrap wood and cut a pvc pipe into 6" lengths. Then you plug the bottom of the pipe with a cork and rubber barrier. Mix up your resin and pour it into the pipe. Leave it to set for 24hrs and then PPP out the new pen blank. Sounds simple. Let's give it a try! I'm going into the shop today to hopefully finish carving 6 maple bowls like this one. It's the prototype and I'm carving the remaining 5 to match this one. Lastly, I tried my hand, finally, at tinting epoxy and using it as grout between veneer pieces. This looks pretty cool! It needs a bit more sanding but man is it a different procedure that looks great! I have a feeling that I'm going to go into box production mode soon. That's all for me right now. Thanks for sticking with me and coming back to check out my work! More projects are coming soon. 4/10/2015 Projects!Hi everyone! Whew it's busy these days! I'm coaching rugby, my daughter is almost 6 weeks old and I'm working hard to finish my project list that I built up before she was born. So here's a few things that I started and am now working to finish. Isn't ADD a fun condition? Haha This is a birch log bowl in the making. I need to make a circle cutting jig for my router template bit still. I covered the edge and top surface with epoxy to bond all of the cracks together and hopfully stop the bark from falling off as it continues to dry. I cut the legs of some bar stools for a coworker's new bar island. I made a cutting jig to ensure that the length removed was even. This project turned out way better than I thought it would! Bunk bed rail extensions. I started this project by disassembling the old rail assembly and cut new pieces of maple to match the old pieces but made them 5" taller to accommodate a new thicker mattress for my client's son. I have put three coats of wipe on polyurethane on them so far and will assemble them on Monday when I'm back in the shop. Ok, last one! My youngest sister is getting married in June and she asked me to make her and her fiancée a set of six breakfast cereal bowls. I made the blanks a couple of months ago and then got distracted from finishing them. They will be quick to finish but challenging to ensure they match. This project will be fun and very saw dust filled! That's it for now but there's more project work coming down the pipe! Thanks for checking out my work!! 3/27/2015 0 Comments Pens!Hi Everyone, It's been awhile since I've been able to set aside a couple of hours to turn some pens and I've heard of a few different techniques to try in the process. I found some scrap Purple Heart pieces in my shop that weren't large enough to make projects with so I cut them into pen blanks for some slim pens. One issue I've had with Purple Heart in the past is that it ends up not as purple as I'd like it to be so I found a few different sites that said to try using a flame to heat the wood and it will darken the purple and make the grain stand out. So I tried it finally and boy am I happy that I did! They look so sharp and smooth and, of course, purple! Here are some pictures. Thanks for checking out my work! More projects are coming! 3/24/2015 Last Important Date Blocks - for now...Hi everyone! Here's my last set of the batch of important date block sets I made. I'll be collecting a few more orders before I make up a batch of them again. These ones turned out really well! I'm really liking the real green color contrast between the ages look of the blocks. They are all made of spruce and were finished with child-safe Tung oil. Delivery this weekend!! Thanks for checking out my work! I'm in the process of making a bunch of different moves for the "business" side of things. More projects are to come!! |
AuthorWelcome to WoodProjectsbyBagel! Archives
March 2018
|