BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Woodworking
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Really nice! I did something similar a few years ago. What a difference having clamps/blocks in line makes. How long is it?
Soygen
The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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That looks nice! It seems thinner than a typical cutting board. How did you join the different woods?
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Kovaks
Mr. Poopybutthole
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It is pretty thin, this one is a charcuterie (shark coochie) board. So just for displaying meat and cheese. For cutting boards I usually use side grain or end grain and make then beefier. I just laminated them together with some titebond 3.
Thos one is thicker and sidee grain more of a cutting board
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Soygen
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I made this coat/bookbag hanger for the kids to hang their bags on after school. Used some scraps of red oak and walnut on a piece of plywood. The frame is just some poplar painted black. Pretty happy with it, but I think I fucked up and swapped the top and bottom frame pieces when I glued up and the miters ended up not being as good as I thought they were. Either that or the pressure during glue up fucked 'em up.
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BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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To you real woodworkers. I have attempted two projects with mortise and tenon joints and one I finished to a half decent result by sheer force of will and starting over multiple times and one I totally failed and gave up on. Both were to be gifts so I was under a deadline which is probably not smart. Anyone have a project recommendation that I could build to gain some basic mortise and tenon skills? The issues are compounded by the fact that the only hardwood I can get locally is red oak in standard boards and anything else I have to get mail order for stupid prices so I hate wrecking $50 worth of wood every time I fuck up but I have a feeling building this stuff out of pine is easy mode and not really representative of what it's like doing it with hardwood.
I'm not sure I'm a "real woodworker", but here's my take:
There's nothing against pine (given that it's properly dry!) except for aesthetics and durability/hardness. A multitude of perfectly serviceable furniture is made from softwood, and we build houses from it, after all. Historically, craftsmen just used whatever was affordable in their region. Yeah, pine will get dinged up. Do you really care that your project "only" has a 50-100 year lifespan compared to a 250 year lifespan if the alternative is Ikea at 2-5 years? I've made a small pine table and bench finished with stain and poly that my kids use for their keyboard and it's rock solid after 3-4 years of daily use. Cost me maybe $15 in wood and a couple weekends.
Having made several projects from pine and hardwood, I think pine is actually more difficult to work with due to looser grain structure and inconsistent hardness across the grain due to bands of resin. Pine is less forgiving with regard to tearout and accidental damage, so if you can do it with pine there's no reason you can't do it with hardwood, skill-wise. At worst, you'll be unable to produce certain low-mass and spindly constructions because it's a bit weaker. Practically, the quality of your joinery will matter more than the materials. It shouldn't be a limitation unless you're a snob or pursuing a very specific design aesthetic.
As far as mortise and tenon, what you need is the right set of good, sharp tools and some practice. Paul Sellers has some great videos on traditional joinery techniques and they've worked very well for me. If your stock is brutally flat, square, and parallel, you "just" mark and cut carefully and it all works out. Measuring, marking, and transferring are each a bit of an art and when I started the process felt unintuitive (set a distance once, then transfer unless impossible). Given that it's a hobby, I prefer to do joinery by hand because I can be substantially more accurate than my shitty jobsite table saw.
tldr; Just make some shit out of whatever materials you can afford to allocate.
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Burns
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Any advice on how to find milling services around me, and/or does anyone know the rough cost to have boards/top ran through a planer and joiner? One of the wood shops in DFW offers some milling services, but they are pretty far from where I live (also, no cost listed on their website).
I am thinking of trying to build an entertainment center based on the following video (modified it to my needs, drawn up in Sketchup). The dude makes it look kinda easy, but I don't have access to the big tools, only a small table and miter saw. I was also looking at buying some of the panels from a carpenter; as a few places online will make to order, for fairly cheap.
Video of build:
Sketchup screenshot:
I am thinking of trying to build an entertainment center based on the following video (modified it to my needs, drawn up in Sketchup). The dude makes it look kinda easy, but I don't have access to the big tools, only a small table and miter saw. I was also looking at buying some of the panels from a carpenter; as a few places online will make to order, for fairly cheap.
Video of build:
Sketchup screenshot:
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Soygen
The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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How big is your "little" table saw? You can joint edges with a tapering jig on a table saw, so if you can get the lumber with decent faces on them, you can just joint the edges on the table saw. I would definitely put a decent planer on your wish list. Using a sled, you can also square up the wider faces on the pieces with a planer. Jointer is nice, but you can use a lot of tricks to get around not having one.
Burns
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The table saw is the portable kind with outriggers. It's old, but kinda like this: RIDGID 10 in. Pro Jobsite Table Saw with Stand-R4514 - The Home Depot
I have watched a few videos on getting around not having a planer or jointer (I can borrow a hand held electric planer from my dad). Have also read that a decent amount of places (purportedly) offer those services on proper machines (to do a whole table top) and they are worth it, to get better looking results (or save a ton of time). I'm just having a tough time finding those places within an hour drive, and wondering if I am looking in the wrong places (bad search terms).
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Kovaks
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Most big stores like HD and lowes have s3s or s4s boards. For alot more than at a lumber yard. My local yards have rough but also have s3s or s2s as well so check for a yard near you. Some woodcraft and rocklers have space where you can rent tool time for bigger milling equipment. You should be able to joint on your saw but planing is harder, can be done with a router but it is a pain. Also maybe look for local small shop groups in your area on social media folks will usually help out.
Burns
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For anyone else in the DFW area in the same tool poor boat:
In my search I did find an artisan co-op group (like a club) with access to various professional tools for a whole slew of crafts. It looks pretty good for a hobbyist for $30 a month membership. Too bad it's over an hour and a half away (in Carrolton).
dallasmakerspace.org
In my search I did find an artisan co-op group (like a club) with access to various professional tools for a whole slew of crafts. It looks pretty good for a hobbyist for $30 a month membership. Too bad it's over an hour and a half away (in Carrolton).
Dallas Makerspace – A Community Workshop
dallasmakerspace.org
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