I am looking forward to working tomorrow! I cant remember the last time that I have ever said that I look forward to work. I am doing woodworking projects in my garage and I am loving it. I havent sold anything yet and that is mostly because that beautiful table that I built a couple of weeks ago was from reclaimed lumber and that lumber still had some moisture in the center of it. One way to know if there is moisture in the wood is to cross cut it at least a foot from the end on either end and then pick up a handful of sawdust and feel it. If it seems cool, it has moisture in it but if it seems warm to the touch, it is dry. This is not a foolproof method but it works 90% of the time. The wood that I used for the tabletop had dry sawdust and even in my rip cuts, the wood seemed to be completely dry. I assembled the top, sanded it and then finished it and it looked awesome but after about a week, the seams started splitting in a couple of places. If you see it now, there are 1/8 inch gaps between two of the boards and that is completely unacceptable. So I ponied up and I went to Home Depot and bought a 16 foot 2x12, cut it into three 61 inch long boards and then started working on assembling it. I used a completely different technique for joining the boards and I also took some precautions to be sure that no seam would ever split again. The lumber that I bought was construction grade and was a bit warped and had a couple of twists but I worked all day Thursday and Friday to level the assembled rough table top blank and to start shaping it into the table that I desire. I have to say it is GORGEOUS!! There are a couple of knots in the top surface that are cut off abruptly on the joint lines so when I am finished shaping the top and smoothing it, I will take my dremel and extend those knots past the glue lines, fill them in with wood putty and then score them, sand them and dab some darker stain into those surfaces to give the illusion that the knots are whole knots and not abruptly cut off. If I were to have put those knots to the outside edge when I rout the edge to give it a profile, the knots might crack or loosen, compromising the integrity and the overall shape of the profile. One thing that I did on this one that I didnt do on the other one is to round the corners and I have to say it looks SWEET!! Friday, I was giving thanks to YHVH for not only pointing me into the direction of doing my own wood working but I also gave thanks that the table that I built did not sell because that would have destroyed my name in one fell swoop. I will post pictures tomorrow if I think to take them. In the meantime, you can look at my cat on the bathroom rug. :D
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 05:25:29 +0000
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