What is the last thing you made? (pics pls)

Just finished this today. Hopefully it will last 40 years like the last one.

No gravel board used as we wanted to be more wildlife friendly. There’s a hedgehog highway installed for the wee beasties.

Cut ends all treated before fitting and are on top as I wanted the treated end down but off the deck.

Kayak why does the mdf look kinda funny?

Do you mean as in it’s green? It’s moisture resistant mdf which comes green. It paints better in my experience. The edges do anyway.

Yep that’ll be it. Also useful point re taking paint. Will be making use of that tidbit. Thanks.

Love the fence! Good job there. Think I need to replace some fence soon but have not really looked into it. What timber did you use and what sort of cost is it per meter?

[EDIT – imgur seems to have mangled my images 🙁 )

]Not quite to Kayak et al’s standards but pleased with it as my first bit of proper indoor wood work for 10 years.

As wife will be WFH for the foreseeable future she needed a better desk than the kitchen table. Lockdown limited options so got hold of some old 5″x2″ pine beams that used to be in the shed of a cement factory. None of them were perfectly straight or true and were all heavily impregnated with grot and cement dust….

Pressure hosed down to get rid of dust, sanded down to get rid of the worst skelfs and edges

Sash clamped together, pocket hole screws

and battens to hold together and in alignment.

Flip over and make router frame and sledge to get a flat surface

Queue tedium of doing 175cm of routing at 10mm intervals

Saw ends off, sand down

bleach orange out of the pine with steradent (treated sample lower)

Fill gaps with grey filler and finish with 2 coats of grey flooring oil

Fold 50mm x5mm mild steel into trapezium shape for legs, screw legs on and done

Not exactly a Chippendale but considering the constraints on making it I’m happy, it works, looks good and was made for <£50

Cool desk. I like the flattening sled!

Looks great with the metal legs. 👍

Olive bread 🙂

That looks really great Simon.
I am now very hungry.
Grrrr 🙂

Love that desk.

Hi Biggles missed your comment yesterday. I used 175mm x 32mm featheredge cladding (the yard were surprised that I was using it for fencing). 3.6m lengths were £5.40 each and I cut these in two. The boards are fixed to cant rails top and bottom, the rails were 2.4m each and cost around £4 a length. The rails are bolted to the original posts with coach bolts. Total material cost including screws was under £240 delivered.

Herself said I was slow working but it was painstaking stuff as I’m not a natural wood worker and I like to start late, just over 2 days to dismantle and replace that run. I used clamps to hold the planks while I got them plumb and level before screwing them to the rail.

I’ve priced the fence to the right as that’s ours too and it comes at just shy of £800 using 1.6m x 22mm featherdedge, similar cant rail and new posts with post fix.

Another fence here.

A number of firsts for me, including using concrete and a table saw. Pretty happy with the result, just the gate to go.

I like the flattening sled!

That’s one of Nick Offerman’s (Ron Swanson) favourite jigs

https://www.finewoodworking.com/2011/09/29/level-big-slabs-in-no-time-flat

https://www.finewoodworking.com/2011/09/12/router-jig-turns-stumps-into-beautiful-side-tables

Damper.

As used on trans continental bike ride in Oz in 1890s. Flour, molasses, and water. Nought else.

Made a mud kitchen for the kids over lockdown.

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This weekend, I was mostly building a mud kitchen from old pallet wood. #mudkitchen #recycle #oldpallets #covidprojects #lockdown #diy #diyproject #forthekids #diyproject #mudkitchenfun

A post shared by Dan Postlethwaite (@danposs86) on Apr 27, 2020 at 1:37am PDT

And then painted it to match their new play shed.

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Shed and mud kitchen all done. Just need some bark chippings to finish off the area. #kidsplayhouse #billyoh #mudkitchen #lockdownprojects #kidsshed #mudkitchenideas #paintedshed #gardenshades

A post shared by Dan Postlethwaite (@danposs86) on Jun 7, 2020 at 10:45am PDT

I made a desk that goes up.

It also goes down.

It also goes up and down and in the middle.

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With so many more people working from home now, workspace ergonomics are important to get right. My client bought a @fully_us Jarvis desk base to me, wanting a bespoke top made to his exact size requirements. I made him a beautiful top in Baltic Birch Plywood, all finished with lashings of Danish oil and the base and electronics unboxed, assembled, installed with threaded inserts for easy disassembly and given a full tea drinking height test before delivery. What a great desk!

A post shared by black tea one sugar (@blackteaonesugar) on Jul 2, 2020 at 1:21am PDT

Danposs86 that Wendy house and mud kitchen are awesome by the way. 😊👏

I worked my arse off from January to the end of April this year to get my family into our “new” house. Not my first major renovation project but it was my first extension!

Block build base, timber frame with Welsh larch cladding from a sawmill 10 miles away.

Now working on the back garden.

I did nothing but work on the house and my job for those 4 months so now cycling again is very welcome indeed.

In the extension I have a bedroom, walk in wardrobe and en-suite. Underneath is my office which leads into the old underground garage now my workshop!

Finally, I’ve just made my kids a new paddling pool!

Posting here rather than starting a new topic, hopefully the woodworkerists can help.

My dear old Nan is moving house, I was clearing out the garage when I found a Stanley Bailey No.3 Plane, its very old and apparently belonged to my great grandfather who was a joiner.

The trouble is that its missing the tote? (handle). I’ve looked online but can only find handles for no.4 planes, does anyone know if these will fit?

I want to get the plane in working order for my little bro who is a carpenter, I’m not bothered about preserving the patina or anything like that, I want this to be used instead of sold.

Thanks in advance.

@nostrils I think they are all the same size from no.3 all the way up to no.7, they’re certainly the same on all my bailey pattern planes and the bigger ones my dad has a couple of, seem the same too. The knobs have changed shape a bit over the years, but the totes hardly vary at all.

@mahowlett, thanks for that, I’ll get one ordered. Now, which sharpening stones…

I know it is one hell of a lot of work. But have you considered hand planing ?. Rather than flattening with the powertool.
I have a thicknesser, but occasionally I’ll hand plane a board flat, because its actually really satisfying, and you feel more of a connection to the trades beginnings and the challenges the early carpenters faced.
I once made a box for someone and started with a seasoned log, reclaimed from the tree the council cut down(ASh) No powertools, the entire thing first riven out, then planed then finally jointed. If i had machined it all out i’d have lost the gorgeous ripple the timber has.
Wear a sweatband though 😉

Made a little 3-legged table as a thank you for a neighbour.

Ash, walnut and recycled broom handles.

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Little 3-legged table for a neighbour to be used for a hand sanitizing station in her acupuncture treatment rooms. A beautiful bit of Ash for the top, recycled broom stick handles for the legs, charred black except for the little natural 'socks'. The legs are jointed through the top and Walnut wedges glued in to expand and lock the legs. Small logo added to the centre in relief and a 3mm raised inlaid rim around the edges. The oval hole in the top is an exit hole for some sort of fairly large wood munching critter. I think he's gone though, we're alright.

A post shared by black tea one sugar (@blackteaonesugar) on Jul 6, 2020 at 6:53am PDT

Mintyjim – good work fella.
What an amazing house. It just looks like a bungalow from the front. Big surprise when you see the shot from the back.

Big surprise when you see the shot from the back.

Indeed. That paddling pool is very inventive. 😂 Good work.

Not something i really wanted to be making but looks like it’s going to be necessary

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Getting ready for new rules 🙂 🙁 Knew the scraps of a #spoonflower colour chart would come in useful. Pattern from @thecraftyquilter

A post shared by Elizabeth Gomm (@ebygomm) on Jul 14, 2020 at 5:59am PDT

Nice mask. Excellent pattern matching 😅👌

I’ve got a problem with one of the last things I made. A dining table made of oak-veneered MDF and black Valchromat. Well, 2 problems really. First off, the oak is getting quite stained; red wine, curry, oil & vinegar, the usual stuff, and some of the grain is has quite a texture to it. The grain isn’t raised, rather the “character” swirls are have little grain lines that are not filled up, when you run your fingernail over them you can hear the texture and if I don’t do something about it they’ll fill up with gunk.
I finished it with a couple of coats of Osmo Polyx Oil, satin.
The second problem is that the oak is inset into a border of Valchromat. I’ve experimented with Osmo on Valchromat; it looks fantastic with just one coat and bloody horrid with two.

What I’m planning to do it sand it all down with my random orbital sander to get a clean surface without going through the veneer and starting again. I’m thinking I’ll mask off the valchromat and put some really thick coats of Osmo on the oak, then take off the tape and give a final light coat over the lot.
Has anybody got any better advice? Preferably experience-based.

Another Cargo-bike. Lightweight and again with a folding rack. Pictured here at the top of a scottish tenement stairwell.

Got a few wee jobs to do to it and then will upload more photographs to:
https://www.instagram.com/colin_woof/

I really like that cargo bike. To make it even more storage friendly, could you include a folding mechanism for the handlebars?

Big John. I think if you’re such messy eaters 😉… and don’t use coasters, then maybe look to use a varnish rather than an oil.

Not too sure if that’s possible now compatibility-wise given you’ve already oiled it, but I’d be thinking of a finish that coats and provides a protective surface layer, rather than one that gets sucked into the substrate.

Either that or take it to a sprayer and get it lacquered.

Hmmm. That’s a shame. I was hoping in your Black Tea guise you’d just tell me to slather on more coats of PolyX. I’ve got a few offcuts so I’ll play around. What’s the best way to apply a heavy coat of Osmo, or is that a no-no?

I’m not sure you can. It sucks in what it sucks in. Usually if you don’t wipe off the excess you just get left with a glacky, sticky layer.

Piece of toughened glass over the top?

Looking at what I’ve got that sounds like it might be right. I’ll try emailing Osmo for their take on it before any drastic action. There’s only so much leeway with veneer before it delaminates or goes through to the MDF.

More cargo bike love!
It’s obviously still a work in progress. Can only weld in the garden which is really slowing things down, rare to get low wind and no rain on the same day in the NE.
Argh! Photos!

I really like that cargo bike. To make it even more storage friendly, could you include a folding mechanism for the handlebars?

I’ll have a think. This is a good idea. I know satori do a qr turning stem. unfortunately i’m already using a qr stem raiser so not sure how to get both functions working.

Revamping the bit where the chickens used to live.

Step 1: a bench.

It’s tight together, flat and level but the 45 degree cut could be better, didn’t realise the the circular saw moved a bit as I cut through.

Held together with rebar pins, now what’s the best to treat it with or can I just leave it?

Cargo bike Colin – there’s a few Ergotec folding handlebars that don’t look too tooth-smashy. I’ve considered some for a ghetto-folding bike build sometime.

May be slightly narrow but would ergotec folding bars help your cargobike storage issues @Retrodirect.

https://www.ergotec.de/en/products/lenker/sub/verstellbare-lenker/produkt/fhs-2-25-4.html

PS I love the diversity of stuff on this thread, all excellent.

I’ve recently finished a take down bow that fits into an arrow case, So much easier to take to the woods.

Shoots nicely too.

Damm photo sharing…

hopefully it works this time:
IMG_20200711_131810

IMG_20200711_132023