It cost him about $8500, designed and built himself, some used parts.
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Woodworking
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It cost him about $8500, designed and built himself, some used parts.
Cutlery
Kill All the White People
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Yeah, I had to shim all of mine while I was going, I noticed that too. Crazy that he can just cut 3-4 at a time and then take them all off at once.
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Goatface
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he has a 25 part series on building it and sells plans for $95
he said would been over $13k with all new parts a few years before covid and china tariffs. wonder how much that would cost to build today.
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At the time Matt made that saw a few years ago, the Bill of Materials cost was about $13,000 USD. He did all of the welding and wiring himself. That was pre-pandemic, so it's more like 20k+ now given the rise in steel prices. You can buy the detailed plans (200 pages) from him for something like $300. (edit: maybe it was <100 like mentioned above - it's been a long time)
That motor is like 30 horsepower if I remember correctly. He sprays either water or diesel fuel as lubricant, but that motor has plenty of torque to keep the blade moving.
He has a whole series of videos on him building it and he discusses the materials, costs, plans, etc.
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Vorph
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Looking to build a desk/workspace for a spare room. I want it to be huge, but also want to spend as little as possible on it while still having it look nice. Kind of a test project to get some ideas before doing something more elaborate in my main office space.
First option I considered was the standard butcher block slab that you can find a million and one videos of on YouTube. Slabs only come in 24" and 39" though. 24" is a hard no and 39" would work if cut down a little, but those are for islands so they don't come bigger than 72" long.
So then I got to thinking about the dozen or so old ass doors that are up in my attic (the house is like 180 years old and for some reason when it was first built they put doors on literally every opening between rooms). Been told they aren't really worth anything, especially since my grandfather's brother lived in the house for a while and painted over all the natural wood doors and moldings. If he wasn't long dead I'd go shoot him myself now that I have to deal with it. This is one of the doors:
It's about 90"x30" and nearly 2" thick. I was thinking I'd clean it up, plane and square up the edges, fill the recessed panels with 5/8" scrap, then glue a sheet of 1/4" red oak to it along with a frame made of 1x3's. Haven't decided if I want legs, drawers, cabinets, or whatever to set it on yet, I'll cross that bridge once I have the top done.
Any reason this is a terrible idea, or should it work fine? My biggest concern is getting enough weight on the sheet of red oak to ensure it ends up perfectly flat, but maybe there's something else I didn't consider.
First option I considered was the standard butcher block slab that you can find a million and one videos of on YouTube. Slabs only come in 24" and 39" though. 24" is a hard no and 39" would work if cut down a little, but those are for islands so they don't come bigger than 72" long.
So then I got to thinking about the dozen or so old ass doors that are up in my attic (the house is like 180 years old and for some reason when it was first built they put doors on literally every opening between rooms). Been told they aren't really worth anything, especially since my grandfather's brother lived in the house for a while and painted over all the natural wood doors and moldings. If he wasn't long dead I'd go shoot him myself now that I have to deal with it. This is one of the doors:
It's about 90"x30" and nearly 2" thick. I was thinking I'd clean it up, plane and square up the edges, fill the recessed panels with 5/8" scrap, then glue a sheet of 1/4" red oak to it along with a frame made of 1x3's. Haven't decided if I want legs, drawers, cabinets, or whatever to set it on yet, I'll cross that bridge once I have the top done.
Any reason this is a terrible idea, or should it work fine? My biggest concern is getting enough weight on the sheet of red oak to ensure it ends up perfectly flat, but maybe there's something else I didn't consider.
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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Man, what timing. I'm doing the exact same thing right now, looking for a 30in x 96in slab to make into a desk in this weird little alcove in my den. Went to the wood shop and my options (if I want to do s single slab) are in the range of $300-$700+.
Let me know if you come up with anything good. If I don't figure out an alternative by this Saturday, I'll probably pick up an alder slab for $400
Intrinsic
Person of Whiteness
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What are you going to sit on it? Not that it is a huge pain in the ass but you may get away with just covering it with some decent 1/4” ply or 1/2” and not bother filling in the panels. Maybe, guess I’d have to decide how lazy I was being. Seems like a great idea though. My guess is those 100 year old doors are solid and not hollow core like a lot of doors these days. Sell one of them to
Bandwagon
since you have an attic full
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Why not buy a piece of tempered glass and put that on top so you can actually see it used to be a door and it’s a cool conversation piece too. Seems pointless to take a nice hardwood door and fill it with glue and shitty plywood
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Vorph
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Nothing super heavy. Computer stuff on one end and I'll probably leave the other end clear to work on my guns and other small projects. I don't think I need to worry about the plywood sagging, I was more concerned about it bulging or warping with such a large unglued area. And yeah, they're solid and weigh a ton.What are you going to sit on it? Not that it is a huge pain in the ass but you may get away with just covering it with some decent 1/4” ply or 1/2” and not bother filling in the panels. Maybe, guess I’d have to decide how lazy I was being. Seems like a great idea though. My guess is those 100 year old doors are solid and not hollow core like a lot of doors these days. Sell one of them to
I haven't gone looking for a lumber mill near me. I don't think there's any real close other than maybe the Amish and I don't know what they sell exactly. The two main things I lack in my shop are a thickness planer and a jointer, so like you a single slab of some sort is really my only option.
Mostly because I want power grommets and AFAIK drilling a 3" hole in tempered glass is just about impossible.
When I mentioned 'more elaborate' for my main office space, one of the things I'm considering is putting a frame around the door that's in the best condition and doing an epoxy pour over it. This door is painted (almost certainly lead, but thankfully it's only on one side) and not in great shape at all. I'm not looking into doing a restoration project on this one, I just want a desk/workspace.
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BrutulTM
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I'm not sure what you're getting from having the door there. If you just want a plywood desk it seems a lot easier to just make the sheet of plywood your desktop and don't bother with the door. You'd have to get ¾" ply but that seems a lot easier than messing around with an old door.
Intrinsic
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3/4" plywood is going to sag at 90" with out a more substantial frame / internal whereas that door will probably sit flat forever with four 1x3s drilled in to the edges. I don't know what he wants to get in to yet, but yeah. If he wants to build a whole frame out of 1x3s. I was driving or just pulled in to my hotel when I read his post though hah.
Burns
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Easy desktop is gluing 2 pieces of 3/4 ply together and slap some edge banding on it?
Even if your not from DFW, you can use this to get a rough price on ply:
This place seems to stock a huge variety of edge banding:
www.veneersupplies.com
Want to get fancy with mostly plywood, cover it with leather:
Even if your not from DFW, you can use this to get a rough price on ply:
This place seems to stock a huge variety of edge banding:
Real Wood Edge Banding in Stock: Pre-Glued & Non-Glued in Maple, Walnut, Oak, Ebony, and More
Edge banding is typically bonded to the sides of plywood and other veneered panels to give the project a solid-wood look. This premium edge banding is real wood that is pre-sanded and available in several sizes.
www.veneersupplies.com
Want to get fancy with mostly plywood, cover it with leather:
Vorph
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I guess I just sort of thought of it as reclaimed wood. Was told that due to the way stuff was made back in the 1840's there was no real standard size, and these are even more oddball than usual because they came out of door frames in rooms with 10' ceilings, so it's unlikely anybody would want them as antique doors. They're taking up space in my attic, but I'd hate to just haul them to the dump. I mean, it's basically a 90"x30"x1.75" slab of wood, which seems to me is way better than any plywood I could buy even taking the panels into consideration.
I don't think the frame is structurally necessary, it'd just be for looks. Edge banding would be sufficient and cheaper, but I've never liked seeing the seams. Haven't tried that company Burns linked though, they claim nearly invisible seams. 2' wouldn't be wide enough though, and unfortunately I don't see anything wider from them.
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Don't waste the wood. Wood from the late 1800s is old growth and is probably finer grained and denser than anything you can get today. Since you have 3 doors, you might want to see if you can cut out the stiles and rails, discard the panels, and make yourself a new slab from the thick, straight wood. If the frame boards are 4" wide, youll get 24" from just the 6 rails. You can mix in the shorter stiles for a butcherblock type slab and get 30" width easy enough. Fill the doorknob holes with wood filler or epoxy or bowties, sand to 320, and finish with your favorite finish. An option, anyway.
Edit: Looking at the picture again... If all 3 doors are similar, theres a ton of good wood in them. I'd break them down and reglue less the thinner panels. Rip everything to the same width, and glue up. Save the panels for another project, like a box, or little shelves. Just mho
Edit 2: because my reading comprehension is ass today. You have a dozen doors like this. Awesome! Make your own slab! Also, where did I get late 1800s from? Regardless of age, that wood is dry and looks straight. Definitely use it. You even have enough to make legs!
Edit: Looking at the picture again... If all 3 doors are similar, theres a ton of good wood in them. I'd break them down and reglue less the thinner panels. Rip everything to the same width, and glue up. Save the panels for another project, like a box, or little shelves. Just mho
Edit 2: because my reading comprehension is ass today. You have a dozen doors like this. Awesome! Make your own slab! Also, where did I get late 1800s from? Regardless of age, that wood is dry and looks straight. Definitely use it. You even have enough to make legs!
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Burns
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Didn't think about this when I first read it, but cutting and sanding 12+ doors is going to put a lot of lead dust in the air. Anyone worked with removing lead paint? May want to see if there is some optimal way to get it off the door without putting a ton of it the air, all over your tools/shop/garage.
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Vorph
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For something I can just take outside, simplest way is probably lead paint stripper followed by sanding whatever remains with a proper respirator on.
If I can't come up with any better ideas for the first project than gluing plywood, I'll probably just remove as much as I can with the stripper and call it good enough.
This is a good idea, just not something I can manage this summer. They've been up in my attic for 70 or 80 years, so I'm sure they'll wait a while longer. Basically I need to get a new garage built so I have enough space to finish my shop. Mostly I'm missing the aforementioned thickness planer and jointer right now, but there's also the simple fact that there's no way I could get a 90" piece of wood onto my table saw where it is now. Any trimming I do now will be with a track saw.
Bandwagon
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One of the engineers I work with said there's a crusty old dirt merchant with a home lumber mill that lives near him. I stopped by yesterday and didn't see anyone, but left my business card in the door. He called me back an hour later. He said he has about 30 slabs that fit the dimensions I was looking for. Alder, walnut, oak and a few others I hadn't heard before. Sounds like I can pick up a 30in x 96in x 1 1/8in slab for about $130 from him. Much cheaper than the specialty wood store, so I'll probably go that route.
My friend with a cabinet shop said I should just do it with the same plywood I've been using for my CNC Topo projects. He showed me a few example pics and now I'm tempted to do that too.
My friend with a cabinet shop said I should just do it with the same plywood I've been using for my CNC Topo projects. He showed me a few example pics and now I'm tempted to do that too.
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