I Quit My Job

Quote: Face

I did the table in the DIY thread, though the staining convo might have been by PM. But as a guy that dealt in antiques, I bet he knows a thing or two. I personally sold my table raw for the customer to stain to suit. You'd want to do better than that ;)

As for the flat surface, I never did suss that out. I used my basement floor, and come to find out, it was uneven as hell. If I was gonna churn out a number of tables, I'd take the time to fashion a jig of some sort. As it was, I just spent 10hrs sanding the unevenness out of it =p

Thanks, I'll go look. Will have to practice staining some wood as that seems to be a hard part to get just so. Jigs, I will need many. The plans I see say to use brackets, I think dowels are more professional and work better. I also get to have fun distressing the wood!

Doing a table using dowels was the funnest part of the job. There was just something about doing it "old world" that caused a lot of pride. Plus, when it's all done, and you jump up on it and it's sturdy, yet you can't see one single hole or fastener... it's just clean, man.

I did use "brackets" because it needed more support in the corners to keep from twisting, but said brackets were wood and were also held in by dowel. Those brackets are the only place where a connector is apparent, and the only evidence is 8 - 5/16" circles where the grain doesn't match. And they're tucked into the corners of the underside of the table. Super clean =)

A biscuit joiner is to wood as a welder is to metal,,,cool tool. Not a lot of bucks.

Quote: Face

Doing a table using dowels was the funnest part of the job. There was just something about doing it "old world" that caused a lot of pride. Plus, when it's all done, and you jump up on it and it's sturdy, yet you can't see one single hole or fastener... it's just clean, man.

I did use "brackets" because it needed more support in the corners to keep from twisting, but said brackets were wood and were also held in by dowel. Those brackets are the only place where a connector is apparent, and the only evidence is 8 - 5/16" circles where the grain doesn't match. And they're tucked into the corners of the underside of the table. Super clean =)

I looked for your table info and see that I already said I wanted to build this thing, so some research will be in order because I have to sell it. I see a few on eBay at same price point and to be honest they look way cheap. Coming down to shipping and ability to haul in my SUV to FedEx/UPS. Thinking late winter project. Hoping nobody minds another table post.

Quote: petroglyph

A biscuit joiner is to wood as a welder is to metal,,,cool tool. Not a lot of bucks.

OK, biscuits or dowels? Anyone have any input?

Quote: Face

If any part of your package can't handle that, don't ship it.

I shipped 10's of thousands of items
when I sold on Ebay. You have to
over pack everything. I had huge
6' tall 3' wide rolls of bubble wrap
delivered to my house, and 6'
tall bags of peanuts. I got all my
boxes out of dumpsters, mostly
behind a local Hallmark store.

Hallmark is a treasure trove of
great shipping boxes, I would hit
them twice a week and really score.
I also cheated like hell on the USPS.
I would ship small items media mail
and they were never qualified for
that. Screw Priority Mail, biggest
ripoff ever invented. Back in my
heyday of the late 90's early 2000's,
you filled out an insurance slip
at the PO, and they stamped it. I
would go to a local postal annex
at the local grocery, and fill out
a couple insurance slips, but I
would leave the recipient part blank.
The old lady behind the counter
would never notice because I was
in there 4 times a week. If anything
got lost or broken, I would just fill
in one of the blank slips and make
a claim. Sorry, Face, I really loathed
the PO in those days, it's too long
to explain.

Get a tape dispenser, you will never
regret it. Get the clear packing tape
that fits the dispenser. I bought one
in 98 and still have it, used the crap
out of it and it still works great.
Never ship anything big thru the PO,
always ALWAYS us FedEx. Much cheaper
and you'll have a fighting chance of
it arriving in one peace. And you have
an all important tracking number to
give the customer.

Quote: AZDuffman

Thanks, I'll go look. Will have to practice staining some wood as that seems to be a hard part to get just so.

I used oak stain on everything, it's
the most pleasant looking. Use rubber
gloves and a rag, it's really hard to
mess it up. Not dark enough, put
on a few more coats. For the finish,
use Deft in a spray can. That's the
key, the finish. It will take practice.
I used an air compressor and bought
Deft by the gallon, but I was big time,
I had a production line.

Hand sand, do not use a sander. It's a
pain, but you won't regret it.

Quote: Evenbob

I used oak stain on everything, it's
the most pleasant looking. Use rubber
gloves and a rag, it's really hard to
mess it up. Not dark enough, put
on a few more coats. For the finish,
use Deft in a spray can. That's the
key, the finish. It will take practice.
I used an air compressor and bought
Deft by the gallon, but I was big time,
I had a production line.

Hand sand, do not use a sander. It's a
pain, but you won't regret it.

Practice will happen soon, scrap board or a few. Get the finish right. Do you put a poly over the Deft? Looks like an interim step?

Quote: AZDuffman

OK, biscuits or dowels? Anyone have any input?

I think mostly if the grain can run the same way, I really like biscuits. If the grain is opposed like the corners on a picture frame dowls add strength to the joint?

Don't know how you are cutting your miters, hopefully with a chop saw, but you can make one of those bottle trees [and call it a Christmas tree?] out of a few pallets out of wood, fast fun and easy with biscuits.

How about making kitchen chopping blocks? People love those things, free standing in kitchens. Sizes can vary. You can make them out of oak dunnage, left laying around every business that ships or receives.

When driving around, a guy should have, of course a measuring tape with him, but should have a cordless sawzall and always be scavenging wood. Do it for a while with all your driving around, leaving the staples and nails where you find them or a dumpster and you have a bunch of dried oak, ready to make high dollar chopping blocks. In each tossed out couch there is some strait hardwood underneath for the rail. Under mattresses there is a bunch of 1x3. Old weight benches have some great 2x2 metal and some strait, clear fir. Wood was really expensive on the island, and easily repurposed, right until it went in the wood stove. [I didn't mean litter the nails]

I have a handheld planer, and a tabletop Makita planer and have made tons of boards out of garbage. I even made some cabinets out of scrounged shipping containers. They looked great.

The Makita was not the best choice for a tabletop planer, but still a great product.

I have mentioned before, your local power company over the course of a few months will throw away tons of building materials including the used wire reels. I have seen many a table made out of those. I saw a tavern where old wood reels were the only tables in the place. Instead of staining, the tops were burnt and varathaned, they looked great and were quite durable. I love them for work surfaces outdoors. Roll them where you want, roll them away when not in use. Throw them away or burn them when really done. The price is right.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/301782691061

I bought this wood working bench from HF, I paid 114. If I am reading this correctly, this is an insanely good deal.

The bench comes with a built in wood vice, line drawers, a shelf. and drilled top with pegs to work with the wood vice. I could't build it for 114 if I had the wood for free.

On your flat surface AZ. does it have to be at floor level? I just thought with a shaper and a bunch of scrounged pallet wood and glue, it would be fairly simple to make a large flat surface. There is a way to incorporate bolts for leveling. Maybe even wheels to roll it out of the way and tip up against a wall when not in use?

Imagine how the chopping block surface looks. For the large flat surface, there can be a vacant space between each slat to keep weight down.

With a biscuit joiner you can make 4x4's nearly indestructible out of 1x4's. And you can make ten foot lumber out of 4 ft. lumber, by ship lapping and gluing.

You had mentioned dado's. I rabbit jointed my cabinets that I built from containers. It looked great. Pretty easy to make a dedicated routing table with a dado bit, or I set up a radial arm saw, and turned the arbor 90* and got the chuck for router bits. Old radial saws are cheap and the old tables are very sturdy and adjustable for re purpose.

Edit: I wasn't reading it correctly, but that is the table I now have in my little wood working shop. The drawers are awesomely handy.

Quote: petroglyph

Don't know how you are cutting your miters, hopefully with a chop saw, but you can make one of those bottle trees [and call it a Christmas tree?] out of a few pallets out of wood, fast fun and easy with biscuits.

Love the chop saw--LOVE IT, JERRY! Was cutting a bunch of lathe for future projects and the neighborhood kids were watching in awe. Gave me street-cred!

Quote:

How about making kitchen chopping blocks? People love those things, free standing in kitchens. Sizes can vary. You can make them out of oak dunnage, left laying around every business that ships or receives.

Good grief, just looked at the price on those things! And Methinks they are a good pallet project? Just true the three "backbone" boards and glue them together. We have a place here called Tech Shop with planer you can rent for a fee, so maybe pay the fee and make 10 or more tops in one day for future sale.

Any idea if the pallet top idea may be the way to go? A cursory search on them shows people using really expensive cuts to start, that can't be the best way.