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Originally Posted by bogey
Love this thread. Thanks for starting it! I had a nice little wood shop for several years. Used to make furniture as a hobby.  Love thewoodwhisperer website! |
Do you have any pictures of the furniture you made? I will check out that site, thanks.
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Originally Posted by notorious
You basically water popped the grain.
150 grit is more than enough for most woods. If you want to get Maple or Hickory to stain dark, a mixture of 50/50 denatured alcohol and water will do the trick. Mix it, spray it on (after sanding), and it should be dry in 1/2 hour and ready for stain.
Water popping before stain will allow it to penetrate across the entire board instead of just the grain. Put a heavy sealer and a couple coats of good finish (I use only floor finish, obviously) and you will have a perfectly smooth finished piece that is well protected.
I usually don't like to pop oak too hard because the grain is so open. I usually mix more alcohol in to minimize opening up the grain too much. If you open the grain too much you will get what's called bleedback and the product will look like shit.
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I am confused as to what you mean about water popping the wood? The quote you quoted of me I had already put the polyurethane on and had used the 400.600 then 1000 prior to buffing it out. Kind of like color sanding and buffing out the paint on a car.
The white oak I bought is hard as heck and very tight compared to the cedar. The last real woodwork I have done was over 50 years ago in school and it was all mahogany.
Thanks for your input.
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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Dowels but I don't have a jig or anything; I put them on the press and put a stop in there for depth.
I should just spend a few bucks on a biscuit joiner; I've used one a handful of times and have always been impressed by the results.
Your clamp pattern is useful there, as is the idea of using scrap to form an 'edge' on the ends. I try to do something similar but it's more scattershot. I should probably just get more pipe clamps so I can get a better hold. I don't have a good reason not to; my new bench has a 4x6 work surface so I have plenty of room to operate, especially as my table saw has a nice extension table and my assembly table is my outfeed table so I can 'borrow' space from the cast-iron top on the saw or even the extension table as needed.
I have far more shop/tool than I have the skill for is the bottom line and all I can do to address that is keep failing forward. I was looking to make some mobile tool tables (want to build a new rolling table with folding sides for my slider, for instance) and my buddy just looks at me like I'm an idiot and says "guys with 800 sq foot workshops don't need mobile tools; design your space better".
Oh.
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You can work on your bench? WTF? Mine is always cluttered with the stuff I am working with.
What is the advantage of a biscuit over a dowel? They seem to have a following. The dowel jig I bought was only about $20 and is complete with bits/collars/adaptors for 1/4-5/16 and 3/8 dowels. I have used a bunch of 3/8.