End Grain Cutting Board-Completion Photos

 Hi Everyone,

Well, I finished it and here it is:

It's hot here and the glue dried a lot sooner than I expected so I went and took it out of the clamps, trimmed the edges and sanded the top and bottom smooth with a belt sander. As for the finish, since oil finishes tend to soften soft woods, I used General Finishes Salad bowl finish on all the sides. It will probably take a number of coats of finish to really seal the top as end grain tends to absorb finishes like a sponge.

The only thing else I wish I could do is chamfer the edges but I'd have to take my table saw apart and remove the splitter to do so. But I did ease the edges with some sand paper and that will have to be it for now.

Here's several more photos:

I think this project is doable but with harder wood and given that everything is costing more this year, finding wood for this is going to be a challenge. If I can get some suitable and reasonably priced wood I'll do an initial run of 6 boards and see how this goes.

I'm going to use this in my own kitchen and see how it holds up.

Ok, I'm going be doing some painting and some maintenance on some of our deck furniture so I'm going to be gone for a couple of weeks. When I come back I'm going to make some more yarn lazy susan's with some improvements and I'll blog about that.

Stay cool everyone,

VW

End Grain Cutting Board/Working on the blank

 Hi Everyone,

Well I took the cutting board blank out of the clamps this morning and here it is:

I used Tight Bond wood glue for this:

Next I sanded it with a hand sander to smooth off the top and bottom faces of the board. I managed to get it fairly smooth and it was smooth enough to continue the project. Also the poplar strips took a bit of effort to sand down to the fir strips. After that I trimmed the edges and it looked like this:

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After this, it was time to cut across the grain and create the strips for gluing. I cut them 1 1/2" wide and that went well. Here it is cut into strips:

In the photo you can see some gaps between the strips. This means I didn't get the top sanded perfectly flat. The lesson here is to build the blank, take it to my friends the cabinetmakers and ask them to run through their sanding machines. 
I ran that last strip on the right hand side of the photo through the table saw and just barely shaved the surface and that reduced but didn't totally eliminate the gap.

Now, as to whether or not to stagger the poplar strips. Here's what that looked like:

After some reflection I decided not to stagger the strips but to glue the strips with them lined up together. Here's what that looks like:

I'll wind up with a larger board and the fir portion of the strips line up better and look pretty cool.

I'm going to leave this over night and we'll see what it looks like tomorrow.

VW

End-Grain Cutting Board Project-Preparing the Blank

 Ok I'm back,

So I got the 2x3 and trimmed it down to 1 1/2"x1 1/2" square and 12" long strips and cut some 1 1/2" wide x 1/4" thick strips of poplar down to 12" long strips. Then I alternated the fir strips so as to alternate the end grain pattern and placed the poplar strips in between the fir strips and glued it up.

Here are several photos:

Here is the 2x3-it's just a piece of wood from the local big box store:

And here are the strips I made by ripping off the edges and cutting the 2x3 down to 12" long strips:

Here is the blank with the poplar strips in place:

And here it is glued and clamped in place:

I'm going to leave this in place until tomorrow.

Stay tuned,

VW

End Grain Cutting Board/Discussion and plans

 Hi Everyone,

Something that I would like to try is making an end-grain cutting board. If you look at Etsy or Pinterest there are zillions of photographs of cutting boards with amazing patterns and colors and while I don't have the equipment or jigs to make the really complex one, a simple board should be doable with my equipment.

I found a very simple end grain pattern online at This Old House at https://www.thisoldhouse.com/kitchens/21017521/how-to-make-an-end-grain-cutting-board  The guys in the article used a section of a left over plank from a previous project, cut the board into strips and glued them together to make a board. Not a very difficult project.

I have an 8 ft length of 2x3 fir and some poplar leftover from a previous adventure and I think I'll give this project a go.

Stay tuned,

VW

Yarn Lazy Susan, Part 4: Assembly and Completion Photos

 Hello All,

Well, I got them done. Assembly was a bit more involved than I thought it would be so lets just jump right in with some photos:

When last we met, I had completed the wooden parts of the project and I was getting ready to glue on the washers that I had polished:

The next step was to mix up some epoxy and for this I used JB Weld. I love this stuff and I use it for all sorts of complex gluing problems:

When you mix up the two ingredients for the epoxy you'll get a battleship-grey colored epoxy:

Then I smeared a bit of the epoxy on the unpolished sides of the washers:

And set them in place on the inside faces of the wood parts. I used a couple of pieces of 1/2" dowel to help guide the washers in place:

And here is a photo of all the washers in place. I let all that set over night:

The next step was to make some non-skid patches out of some rubber sheeting like the kind you use to line tool drawers with, to apply to the bottom of the base. This will prevent the lazy susan from sliding off of a table. Here you can see 4" square patches being laid out:

And here is the patch in place. I used 3M spray adhesive to glue this on:

The last part, the setting of the rods into the top and bottom pieces, was the most difficult. I bought 1/2" diameter 12" long wooden rods for this and I used a 1/2" Forstner bit to drill the holes. The rods were just a wee bit too wide to fit into the 1/2" diameter holes so I had to sit down and whittle them down to where they would fit into the holes. Several rods had to go onto the lathe to be shaved down. But I got them in place and glued them in with Super Glue. 

Done.

Here's what they look like:

They all spin freely on the washers even though I haven't added any oil. Here's a photo of one of the lazy susan's with a skein of yarn on it:

All finished. And as an added bonus a baby deer dropped by to say hello:

The next time I make these I'm going to add more style and detail to the wooden parts and that all will be happening in August.

That's all for now. Take care and see you all soon.
VW

Yarn Lazy Susan, Part 3: applying the finish and working on the fender washers

 Hi Everyone,

Well I got going early today and I finished applying the first coat of poly to the wooden parts:

And I also finished the wooden rods.

I've been a little worried about the ability of the fender washers to move across one another so as to make the top part-wood rod-yarn skein spin easily. The washers are smooth but there is enough roughness across the surface and especially the edges, to make spinning difficult:

 The answer to that is to polish the surfaces but I don't have a buffing wheel so here is what I did instead-I have a couple of emery boards that I used years ago to sharpen a small knife I owned. For those of you who don't know what an emery board is, it's a small tongue-blade sized piece of plastic that is covered with what is essentially very fine wet or dry paper and is used for buffing fingernails. 
These are great for sharpening tools too. Anyway I had one and I also had a chunk of red buffing compound. I rubbed some of the buffing compound onto the emery board and polished the surface of one of the washers and voila! it worked!

It really smoothed down the surface of the washer so I proceeded to buff one side of all the washers. They glad effortlessly across the surface of one another so they should be good for a spinning motion.

That problem solved and I didn't have to go out and buy anything either.

The wood parts are drying and tomorrow if they are dry enough, I'll give them all another coat of poly. 

As soon as that is dry, I'll epoxy the washers, and lastly glue a layer of soft rubber lining from a tool box on the bottom and then I'm done.

Stay tuned.

VW

Yarn Lazy Susan, Part 2: sanding the parts and working on the rods

 Hi Everyone,

Well it was a hot, humid day so I went out to the woodshop and did some work. I got all the wooden parts sanded smooth and I also beveled the ends of the wooden rods. Here's today's photos:

Here you can just see the parts sanded smooth. This is the ideal scrap wood project as it uses up all the small pieces that wind up getting saved after larger project. The round parts vary diameter, anywhere from 6" to 7 1/2" in diameter and at least 1" thick. Some of the bases are 2" thick. I wanted to use hardwoods as they are denser than soft woods and a little more likely to stay on a table without tipping. For this project I used maple, birch, mahogany, goncalo alves (aka tiger wood), jatoba, and hickory :

 

And here is a shot of the wooden rods. These are all red oak and I beveled the ends on my table sander:

I'll smooth and round the end that the yarn will slip over so as not to cause a snag.

So that's it for today. Tomorrow I'll give everything a coat of polyurethane.

See you then,
VW

Making a Lazy Susan for Yarn-Making the Parts on the Lathe

 Hello Everyone,

Well, I'm finally getting started with some wood turning projects and this is the first one-making a lazy susan-like spinner for knitting yarn.

I enjoy knitting but I don't enjoy having the yarn roll around all over the place. I've made myself a yarn bowl only to watch the yarn roll out of the bowl. I've tried cloth bags, paper bags, a large soup pot (the cats got into that one and had a field day), and a very large old fashion bread dough bowl. And none of them either kept the yarn skein from rolling around or cat hair off of the yarn or dust bunnies from getting all over everything. So after trying out a stationary stand with a wooden rod for the yarn, I've decided to make a lazy susan yarn spinner. 

These are designed to be placed ideally on a side table next to the person doing the knitting, but they could be placed on the floor as well (cat alert here). I've designed these to have a heavy base on the bottom and a smaller round disc on the top. Both the top and bottom have a 1/2" hole in them to accommodate a 1/2" diameter wooden rod. The top and bottom parts will spin on two 2" diameter fender washers, which also have a 1/2" diameter hole. So the whole thing is essentially a metal-wood sandwich.

Let's take a look at some photos:

This first photo shows the two different versions I'm making. The one on the left is has two parts cut out of some scrap lumber with a wooden rod in place. The second one on the right has a lower part made with 2" thick scrap mahogany and a 1" thick birch top. The next two photos are closeups of each spinner: 

I've refined the parts on the lathe to give them a more finished look. But these could be made square or have multiple sides. They do have to be sanded smooth however on the edges and both faces so as not to catch the yarn as it's being unwound. 

Here's some more photos:

The spinner with the thick base was made a little differently than the one in the first photo above:

I turned a 1/2" depression into the thicker bottom piece so as to inset the top into the base. I think this might help to keep the spinner from being too tall or too tippy:

This photo shows the placement of the washers:

I have made enough parts for 9 of these which I'm going to be donating later this year. 

This project is a win-win kind of thing: a non-profit will be getting the proceeds from the sale and I get to turn wood and shrink down my scrap wood pile. 

My next step to to finely sand everything and apply a finish-I think polyurethane will work well for this. Then I'll epoxy the washers to the base and top parts. Lastly I'll sand and fit the wooden rods in place. 

Stay tuned,
VW

The Desk Project

 Hi Everyone,

Well finished the desk project. It was cold here last week so I decided to just go ahead and finish it and here it is:


Well here's Rhubarb the cat who had absolutely nothing to do with this...

And here is the finished table. This wasn't a terribly difficult build. The legs are attached to a simple frame underneath the top at 85 degrees instead of 90 degrees. There are stretchers between the legs to stabilize the structure.  It's built out of pine and it was finished with General Finishes gel stain in prairie wheat. I topped that off with several coats of polyurethane, with sanding between coats. It has a nice smooth finish. 
The total price of materials came to about $120.00. 

Ok, it's still too cold to turn on the equipment so no wood turning this week. I'm occupying myself by making an archery rack for my youngest son. Keep your fingers crossed that spring time finally gets here.

Stay tuned,
VW

Hello and Welcome Back! Project #1 for the Year: Desk Table out of Pine

 Hello Everyone!

Well, it's been a long and very cold 6 months here but the weather is gradually warming so it's time to go back to work.

The first project of the year is a desk for myself. I've gone back to college and I really need a place for books and other stuff. And I haven't owned a desk of my own since high school and that was about 100 years ago. So it's time to build one.

I purchased 6 2x4s yesterday and this morning I went back to the lumber yard and got a glued up pine panel that is 1 1/4" thick for the top. The panel will save me a lot of time edge gluing. 

Here in this first photo you can see the framework parts. They're just butted together on the underside of the panel. I ripped one of the 2x4s down to 2 1/2" wide for the legs as I think that will look a little more refined and less bulky: 

My next steps are to sand all the frame parts, legs, and panel smooth and apply the stain. I've had good luck with General Finishes gel stains and I've used it for several projects and it comes out very well. I'm debating between the Prairie Wheat color on the left and the Nutmeg color on the right. All the parts will be stained and given a preliminary coat of polyurethane  before I assemble the table:

I still have to figure out the length of the stretchers and make those but that will be in a few days. 

I'll save you the agony of a post about sanding.

I'll be back in a couple of days-stay tuned.

VW