Woodworkers of Head Case unite!

[Voltron]

Building more feet, Doug? What for?

Do the magnets hold down the Jessem roller track? That's a  pretty cool idea, but I've already drilled my fence. 

[dsavitsk]

More feet. The pic probably looks just like the last one, but the joint is a bit more refined and rigid than previous versions as it transfers the weight across a broader area. Making a little cabinet for some audio gear.

[VPI]

33 minutes ago, Voltron said:

Building more feet, Doug? What for?

Do the magnets hold down the Jessem roller track? That's a  pretty cool idea, but I've already drilled my fence. 

Yes. Two 150lb magnet switches so I can take it off and keep the fence so fresh and so clean, clean. 
Went to the lumber store to get some Baltic Birch for a storage cabinet under the extension wing and the carcass for a MCM bar cabinet/entry cabinet I am building. 
 

$187 per sheet means hardwood for the entry cabinet and HD plywood for the saw cabinet. Got enough ambrosia maple for the entry cabinet doors and top which I think will look great with the walnut sides/wings. 

[Craig Sawyers]

Amid all the impressive stuff on this list, I offer up the chopping board. My son phoned on Sunday, and asked if I could make one for a good mate of his, explaining that he was jealous of the one I made for him some years ago. So, although my preferred wood for a chopping board is beech, I could only get oak, Picked up a raw plank on Monday, and made this:

 

 

 

[VPI]

I have contemplated some cutting boards for the holidays myself.  Need to come up with something to burn through lumber. 
 

Freshly planed walnut for the entry cabinet. 

[Voltron]

Cutting / cheese boards for the holidays, you say? These are for our French friends  with whom we will be spending Christmas, and all are cherry, walnut and maple or curly maple. I just put a coat of Tried & True oil finish on them and when done with that they will get a linseed oil wax top coat. 

 

[en480c4]

Nothing as fine as the other stuff I’m seeing here, but I finished the shiplap pine in my new office. Once I finish screwing it off and filling the holes, it’ll get a pickled white finish. Then, once I trim everything out, I’ll build a desk out of walnut butcher block. 
 

It’ll end up with my Quads, my home headphone rig and a 43” 4k TV I picked up on a Black Friday, plus my home office setup. I’m pretty excited to have the space. 
 

 

Edited December 11, 2021 by en480c4

[naamanf]

I also made a cutting board. 
 

 

[Voltron]

Looks great Ian! Enjoy your new space.

I got a peak at the other side of your "cutting block" today and it is awesome! 

[naamanf]

15 minutes ago, Voltron said:

Looks great Ian! Enjoy your new space.

I got a peak at the other side of your "cutting block" today and it is awesome! 

Well darn. I’ll leave it as is for the official christening. 

[Voltron]

Steve and I got the miter station cabinets mostly built today. Essentially the entire back wall will be work space and storage in addition to the miter station. We still have to add a ¾ plywood top, two shelves on the right hand side for wood storage, and I am still deciding about the cabinet space to the left side of the saw. And the Kapex is actually on a temporary shelf because I didn't have enough ¾ ply and we wanted a photo op. When complete, we are going to do a face frame and drawer fronts in maple, I think.

We have decided that the only miter fence needed is the Kapex fence, which maximizes the work surfaces on either side of the saw. I have ordered a Woodpeckers Stealth track system that will be inset flush into the top on both sides of the saw with flip up stops and track to mount clamps and such. It should make for happy chop sawing.

[VPI]

A mitre saw station with storage seems to be about the best furniture idea for the shop.  I have no real stops on my crappy Bosch mitre saw stand and it makes proper cuts much more difficult.  

What is the extra 4-6” dust extraction tube above the mitre saw for?

[Voltron]

The extra dust extraction port will be for vacuuming and for smaller tools like the sanding station that will sit on top of the cabinet as needed.

[swt61]

Ian, that looks awesome!

Naaman, I spilled the beans about the "cutting board" today. I wanted to give Milo a chance to pick a good spot to hang it.

[n_maher]

Not nearly as exciting as some of the other entries here but I got the east coast ping pong table back up and running today, with integral dust extraction, for another retirement plaque.  The plaque itself probably doesn't look all that impressive, but the multiple layers/depths, and clean up to have it look decent represent about 2-1/2 hours of programming - and that's after finishing the design.  Upside is that I taught myself some stuff, downside is that I've got two more projects to complete this weekend due to the number of people retiring at work.  I'll post some details on those soon enough as they use some truly incredible materials.

Intermediate phase of cutting

Raw (unfinished, but sanded) product

[swt61]

It's awesome! And just remember how much time you still saved by not having to hand carve it!

[naamanf]

Business side of the cutting board. Figure it will have a long life serving charcuterie to Marin’s finest. 

[n_maher]

Outfrickenstanding work, Naaman.

[swt61]

Indeed!

[VPI]

Spent the day trying to finish some additional storage today that will go under the SawStop. 

Trying to keep it very saw-like with cast iron and black finish but was not able to get the cast iron drawer faces (with leveling feet pulls) on today as I cannot get the finish I want yet. 
 

[VPI]

19 hours ago, naamanf said:

Business side of the cutting board. Figure it will have a long life serving charcuterie to Marin’s finest. 

That is so fucking cool. 

[robm321]

^ This. 

[n_maher]

Today's fun was working on the next two  retirement plaques for our two longest-tenured employees who are both retiring at the end of the month, one of whom just happens to be my boss (John).  They have 86 years of federal service between them.  Anyway, I'd been working on a concept for him for a while, wanting to make the plaque something that would be unlike anything else that someone would receive.  When Jackie, our Community Planning Liaison Officer, I seized an opportunity to talk to a friend who is the Director at the Naval History and Heritage Command in Boston, MA.  For those that don't know, that's the group that is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the USS Constitution.  So last week I took a few hours off one morning and drove down to Charlestown to pick up some raw materials that they were kind enough to give me.

The hardest part of the day was spent machining copper that was taken off of the hull of Constitution during her overhaul in 2015.  I decided to use a sheet that had significant patina and try to preserve that by engraving off a small portion to reveal the name of the person that the plaque will be for.  I used a diamond tipped drag bit, I'm pretty happy with the results.

My mill is unexpectedly struggling when trying to plunge into soft metal, I don't know if I've got the plunge set too fast or if it's an issue with my tooling, regardless it was way more of a hassle than it should be. 

Next up was using a piece of ash that was taken off of the ship recently.  The maintenance detachment actually is pretty much working on the ship year round removing rotten wood and replacing it with new.  Most of the ship is white oak, still grown in a specific forest in Indiana, but this piece of ash was pretty cool in that it had finish on two surfaces and had pegs that had been used to join it to other, adjacent pieces.  

Overall w/ one coat of finish

Edge detail, w/ original finish.

The top recess will get a command coin in it and the bottom pedestal will support the name tag.  I've made two matching plaques which is appropriate since they are holding the retirement party together on Thursday and I figured it'd be weird if I made one substantially different than the other.  There's not much left to do on these aside from apply a bunch of coats of finish. The end grain in particular is obscenely thirsty.  I'll try to post finished pictures but I tend to be terrible about taking pictures of projects when they are done.

[swt61]

That looks awesome Nate! Great job!

Edited December 13, 2021 by swt61

[Voltron]

Also fucking cool! Being made from USS Constitution parts is pretty fucking special, as is a combined 86 years of service. Nice work!

And I didn't mean to be remiss in saying how amazing the M&O sign is because it is amazing indeed.