What Are You Building Today

[luvdunhill]

Since this thread has kinda morphed into a finishing thread, I thought I would ask this here. I wanted to finish a piece of mdf similarly to audio equipment shelving that you see, such as the shelved in my Salamander Synergy. Black, satin preferably. Would I just use paint (enamel? or?) to do that, or is there something better to use? Non-spray preferable, but if spray is the best way, I could perhaps deal with it.
 

I have recreated that look on some speakers I am working on using Rust-Oleum spray products. Something with a self-leveling property would work best. I don’t know the specific product used, but I can see if the can is still laying around in the garage.

[swt61]

Do not use a water or latex based paint on MDF, at least not before sealing the MDF. Spray paint is going to give you the best finish. But you can use an enamel paint with a brush. Just use 500 grit sand paper in between coats.

[swt61]

One thing I've done in the past to replicate a textured finish, is to paint the shelf Black, then with a pin or exacto knife, open up the spray hole. Test first, but it should give you a nice splatter texture as the finale coat. Even better if the sheen is a little different. 

That's best with spray epoxy.

[naamanf]

5 hours ago, Pars said:

Since this thread has kinda morphed into a finishing thread, I thought I would ask this here. I wanted to finish a piece of mdf similarly to audio equipment shelving that you see, such as the shelved in my Salamander Synergy. Black, satin preferably. Would I just use paint (enamel? or?) to do that, or is there something better to use? Non-spray preferable, but if spray is the best way, I could perhaps deal with it.

 

I would finish with Wilsonart or if you really want to paint something on, Duratex or ExoHyde. 

This is a Duratex I did on my theater speakers. Incredibly easy to roll on in one or two coats. 

[gepardcv]

I need a custom threshold built for my kitchen. (Omitting the long and completely uninteresting story about why.) Preferably in a nice wood I can finish myself. Since I have no access to woodworking equipment, I instead made a model in Fusion360, exported an STL file, and started emailing it to random woodworking shops which advertise CNC services on their web sites. It's been a week, and... crickets. The only guy who wrote back says he's moving shop and can't do it.

For anyone here with woodworking experience, is this a difficult request? STL attached. Also, if anyone has any contacts for shops which can make this part for me, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Threshold v1.stl.zip

[naamanf]

Do you have the Fusion file so I can see the dimensions? That looks like it would be easy to make on a table table actually.

[MASantos]

Refurbishing my old Pete Millett hibrid. The electrolitcs are over 15 years old, Should I replace them all or might they still be good? 

Building a new wood and aluminum case. 

[gepardcv]

8 hours ago, naamanf said:

Do you have the Fusion file so I can see the dimensions? That looks like it would be easy to make on a table table actually.

Fusion file attached. What's a table table? (I don't know much about serious woodworking...)

Threshold v1.f3d.zip

[swt61]

I'm assuming he meant a table saw.

I've built hundreds of thresholds, but I can't open your file, so not sure if it's a complicated build or not.

[n_maher]

5 hours ago, MASantos said:

Refurbishing my old Pete Millett hibrid. The electrolitcs are over 15 years old, Should I replace them all or might they still be good? 

Building a new wood and aluminum case. 

I'd wager they are all still just fine. I'd use it in good health.

[naamanf]

4 hours ago, swt61 said:

I'm assuming he meant a table saw.

I've built hundreds of thresholds, but I can't open your file, so not sure if it's a complicated build or not.

Yes, table saw. It was early. It looks easy to make on a table saw, but the dimensions didn’t look correct when I imported to Fusion. 

[swt61]

Is it overly complicated? In other words, could some measurements and a simple drawing convey the design parameters?

I've built some complex, and very nice thresholds with just that.

[naamanf]

[swt61]

That's quite simple.

A few measurements are all that's needed. And I'd recommend a very hard wood.

[n_maher]

Post some dimensions, I doubt it'd fit on my CNC (roughly 40" x 40" cutting area) but not really sure CNC is the right tool for the job regardless. Thresholds are usually quite simple and I'd think you'd just want to do the corner like a picture frame since there's almost no chance that there's a big enough piece of hard wood to mill that 'J' shape out of. 

EDIT - and to answer one of your original questions, yes, it's a pretty big ask for a commercial wood shop to take on a small job like this. It's all risk, very little reward. You probably won't be happy about the price, strike one, if something goes wrong they're out all the setup time for a one-off, strike two, they're probably busy and have no idea how serious you are about actually doing this, strike three.  You'd be better off finding your local makerspace and seeing if there's someone there that takes small jobs for fun.

[swt61]

If I'm not mistaken Nate, that's a cross section pic of what's probably about a 3" threshold. What looks like a J, is a step down, due to different floor hights.

I could be wrong, but that's how I read it.

I'm guessing it's less than 48" wide.

Edited December 15, 2020 by swt61

[gepardcv]

Image with dimensions attached. I figured it should be easy, and I only brought up CNC because it's a simple solution IME for turning CAD files into parts. Doesn't mean it's the right way to build this thing. That's a great tip to find someone through a makerspace, but they're all closed in my area because of covid-19.

[n_maher]

Thickness?

I'm also trying to figure out if there is perspective in that drawing above or whether or not I'm looking at a flat plane (hence the graph paper background).  Is that a section cut through the threshold? The view from the top? Side?  Basically, I need more info.

[gepardcv]

That's a flat plane, as you surmised, showing a section cut through the threshold. I'm attaching a picture with perspective. Thank you for looking into it!

[swt61]

Personally I think this is very easily accomplished on a table saw. I would think that it could be cut and ready for sanding in less than an hour. But then again I have no experience with computer controlled milling.

[dsavitsk]

I agree with Steve. This is easy on conventional tools. I also think it is really difficult on a CNC. My concern is how thin it is. Most wood will warp.

[Craig Sawyers]

Dead easy if you make it from two pieces. Make the join a feature with a row of really nice countersunk brass screws.

Make it from two contrasting woods.

Or, if you want to hone your traditional skills, contrasting woods dovetailed together.

Or a finger joint.

You also need tough woods given this thing is going to get walked on and scuffed. So for contrasting tough wearing woods that won't warp - hornbeam for the flat bit and iroko for the vertical bit. Nicely contrasting too,

[VPI]

Based on my experience, that threshold can be built with only a measly $17k in tool investments. Make sure you buy every accessory as well and the full Woodpecker catalog so everything comes out straight. Easy. 😁

[n_maher]

I'm with Doug, there's no good or easy way to do this with CNC and it's definitely not required.  

I drew this up in CAD real quick just to rough out some of the missing dimensions (thickness, heal and toe angles) and I think you could make this out of a single piece of rough sawn lumber.  I'll defer final species recommendations to others but finding 6" wide 5/4 oak might not be a bad place to start and not horribly expensive.  To me the hardest part is figuring out how to do the bevel on the heal - best thought there is with a router after using a dado blade to hog out the underside.  But with a finished thickness of ~6mm (1/4") it's going to want to flex/deflect.  I'd have to play around with it in real life to figure out any better solution.  

About the CNC solution - the real challenge is the two-sided nature and true 3D requirement.  A lot of machines and affordable software are really good at 2.5D (translation in purely the vertical when cutting in the Z direction) but struggle when it comes to shapes like what you have described in your image.  

Also, some quick Googling yielded results very near what you are asking for - No Endorsement Implied - a more focused search would likely yield better results.

Me - I'm working on fixing my Jonokuchi which had developed a problem with one channel.  I opened the chassis hoping to easily spot the problem and did.  Two caps in serious distress (one blown) and two resistors torched and failed open.  Replacement parts ordered last night due to be delivered tomorrow which will likely get deferred to Friday but hopefully repairs can be accomplished this weekend. I've spoken with Pete and we don't think there's likely anything else at play other than one of the resistors drifting driving current and voltage up in an escalating fashion that resulted in the cap expelling its magic fluid filling.

 

 

[gepardcv]

Thanks for all the advice! Guess I’d better go learn to use a table saw.