Woodworkers of Head Case unite!

[Hopstretch]

Hi gents. A rather random question for the hive mind.

This is the new mudroom-in-progress. During the design, we opted to keep the "seat" small to preserve full width access to the elevator that's in the left corner of the space. Sadly, we were a little too conservative and it's ended up looking downright vestigial. It's just under 6" and really needs to be at least 8" to be much use. (That's what she said!) I'm wondering if there's any practical way to add a "lip" extension made from the same wood. Obviously it would be load bearing -- a considerable load in my case -- so secure attachment would be the major consideration? There is less than half an inch of overhang of the current seat from the supports and the cross members are only 2" by 1". Suggestions welcomed, including "it's a dumb idea, just live with it as is you big maroon."

[swt61]

It can certainly be done, but you'll have to attach wood under the current cubby holes, then build that up to support the seat extension. That support piece should be at least 8" deep. With about 2" to 3" sticking out past the cubby hole. Does that make sense?

The other alternative, that might look more purposeful, would be to make a 4" or so seat extension. Hinge it to the existing seat, so that it can fold down when not needed. You can make triangular support pieces that are also hinged, and would fold out from the sides of the cubby holes to support the seat when upright. Fold them back in and the seat extension folds down. You loose a little bit of cubby space while it's folded, but none when it's extended.

[swt61]

This type of mortised hinge is completely hidden when the seat extension would be up, and only visible when folded. Assuming you'd leave the seat extension upright most of the time.

[Voltron]

The hinged seat idea might work although it would make the space below far less usable for shoes, etc. I might opt for scrapping the existing vestigial bench altogether, sad as that may be. They could bring it back flush with the cabinets and either leave it walnut or else paint to match. Either way, I would make a couple of little bench stools that you can slide in and out as needed. They could be simple three sided inverted U shapes that are a little shorter and shallower than the cabinets and you can still stow shoes under them. Or just make two smaller stool cubes with a cutout hand hold that sit on either end. 

You could also leave the walnut the way it is and make stools of some sort, although I don't love the look. 

Oh, and bonus vocabulary and creative writing points for an excellent use of "vestigial."

Edited October 11, 2023 by Voltron

[swt61]

If you choose the stool route that Al suggest, you could mount those on full extension drawer slides. Making them quite easy to pull in and out, without having to try to tuck them in carefully. 

[swt61]

Ask your contractor for a mock up first, or a "stool sample".

 

[Knuckledragger]

I rescued what I believe is my grandfather's old table from my father's barn today:

My grandfather went into a nursing home in 1994.  My grandmother lived another 3 years but passed in 1997.  My grandfather actually outlived my father by 6 months(!)  There was a lot of chaos in my life between August of 2000 (when my father died) and uh ...today, really.  At some point in the last 23 years I figured out that my father had grabbed a bunch of my grandfather's tools from the Vineyard and dragged them back here to the mainland.  I don't think he ever actually did anything with them (he was already sick with the cancer that would take him.)  I am far less inclined with anything involving woodworking than the previous two generations of men in my family.

My grandfather build this house in the 50s, and expanded it in the 70s:

(Seen here in regular digital, HDR, and Velvia 50, because I am a different kind of nut.)

He also built this barn he called "The Doghouse":

He also built the toolshed we moved next to it.

My father, who was inhumanly energetic, invariably the smartest person in the room, and relentlessly competitive, was not going to be outdone.  He built barns bigger than most people's houses:

This was the "woodshed" he built, but he never actually put firewood in it.  It turns out that he was even better at stuffing buildings full of ...shit, really.  Meanwhile I'm barely qualified to assemble a shelf.  Also I find most power tools kind of scary.  Especially spinning blades.  On the plus side, I still have all my fingers.  Either way I'm dragging my grandfather's tools back to MV where they belong.

[swt61]

I would caution that you don't use that tablesaw. In the hands of an experienced woodworker it would be less than optimal. With an inexperienced person it would be quite dangerous.

I can see from the pics that the fence is out of parallel from the blade. Not at all uncommon for that type of fence system. And the older they are, the worse they get. 

But the most dangerous thing about that saw is the lack of a riving knife. Most saws didn't have a riving knife back in the day, and indeed I used saws without one up until the last 7 years or so. But being aware and being experienced is a giant plus. I wouldn't want to use one today if I could avoid it. The riving knife keeps wood from bending back onto itself while cutting.  This happens from pressure in the wood itself, and it causes the wood to bind the blade. This causes kickback which can be very dangerous,  even to a very experienced wood worker.

No one knows this better than Dr. Wood himself!

[Craig Sawyers]

I bought a 8 inch thick, 6 foot long plank of London Plane from a guy, and asked if he could reduce the width so it would go through my planer.

He fired up the scariest table saw I've ever seen. Three phase, 48" blade "it can take 60 inch" he chirped up, and massive riving knife to suit. It took a good 20-30 seconds to get up to howling speed.

He took this monster plank, and it went through the 6 foot length like through butter. He walked away from the machine (still running with the plank in place), I thought to get a push stick. It was to get a wedge to hammer into the cut end to stop it gripping this howling blade and riving knife.

The craziest thing is it got towards the end, and he pushed the last bit through with one hand on one side of the blade and one on the other. I could not watch this. I actually closed my eyes when I realised that is what he planned.

[swt61]

The scariest thing I can remember doing is using a hand router with a quite large spiral downcut bit to cut a piece of soapstone.

This was an old project of Marc's. He was making a plinth for a turntable project. I think the soapstone was about 2" thick, and I believe we were trying to cut a section out for a Lenco idler drive, if memory serves. Maybe Marc will chime in with a better memory.

Anyway... I thought how hard could it be, it's soapstone. I remembered carving things out of soapstone in elementary school art class, with a plastic tool.

Well, this was Brazilian Soapstone, and it was a whole other beast entirely. 

We ended up killing my Porter Cable 2 1/4 hp router on that attempt. Marc also set the router on it's head, but let go before the router had stopped spinning. This caused the router to topple off of the workbench, and my brilliant first response was to lunge after it, instead of letting it hit the concrete slab. That giant bit skimmed across the outside of my pinky finger and hand. It looked bloody and potentially bad, until I went inside and washed up. It turned out to be pretty superficial. I do however have a pretty cool looking swirling scar that always reminds me of a day that could have been catastrophic. In my own defense, I wasn't a complete idiot trying to save a $100 router. It was just a knee jerk reaction with no time to contemplate any outcome. 

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by swt61

[Craig Sawyers]

This instant reaction to catch something is common. Back in the day my soldering iron was an Antex 25W yellow handled one. Astonishingly half a century on, they still make them https://www.antex.co.uk/products/precision-range-soldering-irons/xs25/ . Note there is no stand.

So it sat on the table while I was building something - and then the mains power cable pulled it off the bench. Instant reaction - catch the hot stick. Number of times there was the smell of cooking meat when I grabbed the business end as it fell.

More recently (couple of years ago) I was stripping ptfe sleeved wire with a scalpel, which skittered off the bench. So some hardwired reaction in the brain caused me to catch the falling scalpel between my legs. I then had the horrid job of pulling the scalpel out of my thigh into which it was embedded.

Really makes you wonder why the brain's wiring causes us to do something so daft.

[VPI]

Spent the morning sort of woodworking. Thinking of selling these as a craft kit, as the cutting is by far the easiest part and the painting and gluing is a pain in the ass. 
 

[swt61]

Pffft. I could cut all of that out on a scroll saw. It'd only take me 372 hours.

Seriously though...

A kit is a great idea, because parents love to get their kids involved in these type of holiday crafts, and there's nothing dangerous left to do.

[VPI]

Kit No. 2

 

[VPI]

The kits are taking off, and I haven’t even shown them my Christmas offerings. 
 

In the meantime, I got commercial rights to a ton of 3Dish images printing. They come out pretty great and will be even better when the Thunder Fiber laser I ordered for fun engravings shows up.  

 

[VPI]

All Christmas all week here as the orders are piling up. 
 

[Dusty Chalk]

I will not pretend to be anywhere near the caliber of the talent here, but I just bought two electric saws.  Suitable for framing.

[naamanf]

24 minutes ago, Dusty Chalk said:

I will not pretend to be anywhere near the caliber of the talent here, but I just bought two electric saws.  Suitable for framing.

Well, they look amazing. 

[VPI]

Started the process of naming all of my equipment after Marvel characters. Still have the Cyclops graphic for the Fiber laser that is still in bound. 
 

[VPI]

HC’ish Ornaments. 
 

[VPI]

Working on a new logo for some hats made with the Lonestar Adhesives copper acrylic patches to practice for the 50 I need to make for Phase Three Brewing. 
 

[n_maher]

Did you get the cricut hat iron yet?

[VPI]

I have the IQ360 for hats.
 

Also working on 3D images for the back of Aluminum business cards.  Not bad on the RF laser but probably better when the Fiber gets here. Still need to actually build that jig since I never set up the camera in the laser. 
 

[VPI]

Cut a basic card stock jig on the laser to engrave some two sided business cards. 
 

[swt61]

I visited my Mother for Thanksgiving and she's offloading. She gave me a decent Nikon digital camera that she gifted her Husband. But both of them are legally blind now, so photography is out, as well as game playing. My family has always enjoyed playing games together. In Texas my Mom, her Husband and I had several Winter Texan couples as friends. They all lived in motorhomes/fifth wheel trailers in RV parks. There was a game popularized in RV parks called Pegs and Jokers. It's kind of like Sorry, but played with cards on homemade game boards. I thought the original boards were quite fugly, so I designed my own version. The boards join together, so you can accommodate different sized groups.

These are the original style boards, that are usually made by retired RVers.

 

Anyway, she gave me the board set that I made for her, which is the first set I ever made. I've made dozens since then, but still like that set a lot.

Edited November 29, 2023 by swt61