Discussion
Ha! The dust got everywhere, even my hair turned a sort of vermilion shade of orange. I looked like a cross between Donald Trump and Ronald MacDonald. A nightmare alright. After the first 'coating' I went and got a face mask, - they were in high demand at the time, I can't imagine why.
I ended up sprinkling it in the garden, I thought it might double up as a slug deterrent. It didn't.
I got all my info from browsing websites, - I was surprised how little there was out there tbh, but iirc I found one with a roughly sketched plan and used this along with pics of xylophones for sale in various stores. I started off thinking I'd make just a simple kids xylophone with five keys or so, but then once I started looking into it got sucked into the rabbit hole. It was a nice project, and with a tune at the end of it!
I ended up sprinkling it in the garden, I thought it might double up as a slug deterrent. It didn't.
I got all my info from browsing websites, - I was surprised how little there was out there tbh, but iirc I found one with a roughly sketched plan and used this along with pics of xylophones for sale in various stores. I started off thinking I'd make just a simple kids xylophone with five keys or so, but then once I started looking into it got sucked into the rabbit hole. It was a nice project, and with a tune at the end of it!
loughran said:
I don't use chestnut very often but I did make a staircase and panelled a hallway in chestnut 25 years ago and have just found an old board from that job leaning against a wall... I knew it'd come in useful sooner or later. 
My concern, as ever when it comes to staining wood is the eveness of the finish. Wrong stain, wrong wood and the finish can go patchy and look rather unattractive. Try staining cherry or birch or beech with some random wood stain and it can just look terrible and by then it's too late, it's impossible to un stain stained wood.
So I tried what I've got hanging around this morning
Fiddes oil based wood dye which is Naphtha based, so white spirit solvent.
Morrells light fast stain methanol based, so a spirit stain meths as solvent.
Liberon Spirit stain which is ethanol based so meths solvent again.
I can report they all work well on chestnut and give a nice even colour. There's not much to choose between them. The Morrells is marginally brighter. None of them lift the grain.
Before you stain you need to decide what finish you're going to use on top of the stain. You can't use a french/ methylated based finish over a spirit stain, it will pull the colour into the finish... and you can't use an oil stain if you plan to use a polyurethane/oil based finish as a top coat for the same reason.
Then all you have to do is decide what colour you'd like your chair to be.
Left to right, Fiddes medium oak, Morrells golden oak with Morrells medium oak above and then Liberon medium oak.
Ps. before you stain make sure you have ALL the glue off from everywhere. Sand and sand again.
Thanks. thats awesome, i really appreciate you taking the time there. Left or right look like the sort of thing i'm after. I'm sorry to ask further, and i'll take a one word answer if you aren't in the mood to write more My concern, as ever when it comes to staining wood is the eveness of the finish. Wrong stain, wrong wood and the finish can go patchy and look rather unattractive. Try staining cherry or birch or beech with some random wood stain and it can just look terrible and by then it's too late, it's impossible to un stain stained wood.
So I tried what I've got hanging around this morning
Fiddes oil based wood dye which is Naphtha based, so white spirit solvent.
Morrells light fast stain methanol based, so a spirit stain meths as solvent.
Liberon Spirit stain which is ethanol based so meths solvent again.
I can report they all work well on chestnut and give a nice even colour. There's not much to choose between them. The Morrells is marginally brighter. None of them lift the grain.
Before you stain you need to decide what finish you're going to use on top of the stain. You can't use a french/ methylated based finish over a spirit stain, it will pull the colour into the finish... and you can't use an oil stain if you plan to use a polyurethane/oil based finish as a top coat for the same reason.
Then all you have to do is decide what colour you'd like your chair to be.
Left to right, Fiddes medium oak, Morrells golden oak with Morrells medium oak above and then Liberon medium oak.
Ps. before you stain make sure you have ALL the glue off from everywhere. Sand and sand again.
what you you recommend as a finish product? It won't get abused or smashed about hopefully, were quite careful. My concern is it feeling like its been wrapped in plastic at the end, I'd like to be able to feel that its wood, as well as see it, but have absolutely no idea what is available on the market.
Most wood finishes will look plasticky if you put enough on. With a piece like your chair I would brush on a first light coat, denib then apply subsequent coats with a cloth, wiping the finish on sparingly. Three coats should be enough.
I like clear satin polyurethane or an Osmo product, the original Polyx oil (it's not an oil) is good and their Wood Wax finish (it's not a wax) is similar but leaves a silky feel.
I'd use a spirit stain underneath all these finishes.
As always, make samples and be happy with whatever materials and methods you plan to use before finishing your chair.
I like clear satin polyurethane or an Osmo product, the original Polyx oil (it's not an oil) is good and their Wood Wax finish (it's not a wax) is similar but leaves a silky feel.
I'd use a spirit stain underneath all these finishes.
As always, make samples and be happy with whatever materials and methods you plan to use before finishing your chair.
loughran said:
craigthecoupe said:
I've used poly x on a maple floor years ago. Maybe i'll go that route, as it's familiar.
You're a good egg, cheers
No probs, do you live near Panzano, I have an addiction to Cecchini's sausage. You're a good egg, cheers
We had a week in greve in chianti last year, shame i never knew of it or i'd have picked some up. You know the area well? To be fair, buying a bad sausage here takes some doing. Have you tried the birolodo? Italian take on black pudding, it's the stuff of dreams, sliced on crusty bread with butter or oil, mmmmmmm
Someone in Greve has a nice Maserati 3500 Superleggera. . Mmmm indeed.
Talking of 4 wheel transport, I was thumbing through Henry Lapp's handbook last week and tucked up at the top of a page, near the end is a sketch of a kids trolly and I was thinking, I used to have a trolly like that... more than half a century ago. I loved it.
I had a quick run through any eligible nieces or nephews that might like a trolly but there are non so I thought no more about it.
A couple of days later a neighbour knocked on my door and wondered whether she could commission me to make a trolly for her grandson. She had detailed plans of what was required, drawn up by a woodwork teacher I think, so yesterday was trolly day.
I made it in cherry because it's reasonably light weight and that's what I had.
Thinking back, my trolley had building blocks in it so I'll make some blocks to finish the job off.
Henry Lapp's notebook is rather nice. It's a reproduction of the original... I'll let Lost Art Press explain.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2015/11/02/henry-l-l...
Funnily enough, Lapp was the name of the Amish family in the film Witness.
I must get on.
Talking of 4 wheel transport, I was thumbing through Henry Lapp's handbook last week and tucked up at the top of a page, near the end is a sketch of a kids trolly and I was thinking, I used to have a trolly like that... more than half a century ago. I loved it.
I had a quick run through any eligible nieces or nephews that might like a trolly but there are non so I thought no more about it.
A couple of days later a neighbour knocked on my door and wondered whether she could commission me to make a trolly for her grandson. She had detailed plans of what was required, drawn up by a woodwork teacher I think, so yesterday was trolly day.
I made it in cherry because it's reasonably light weight and that's what I had.
Thinking back, my trolley had building blocks in it so I'll make some blocks to finish the job off.
Henry Lapp's notebook is rather nice. It's a reproduction of the original... I'll let Lost Art Press explain.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2015/11/02/henry-l-l...
Funnily enough, Lapp was the name of the Amish family in the film Witness.
I must get on.
Never done anything more than replacing decking and basic home DIY but was inspired by this thread to try something more.
We had some rattan garden furniture that has seen better days so I thought I'd try and revive the table by removing the rattan bits, cladding the frame and reusing the glass top.
Removed the rattan and decided it was a bad idea so decided to repurpose an old and partly rotten lounger. The lounger bits:
I have a state of the art al-fresco workshop
Straightening and trimming the pieces to size
My saw fence was an 8 ft long bit of OSB and took ages to get in place for each cut so this took forever!
Mitred and rebated top
Routed slots for everything to get aligned
Had to paint it as the wood was quite varied in colour. Really pleased how it turned out but it took forever.
Got the bug now though so have bought a proper DeWalt table saw. Wish I'd just gone and done that at the outset as it would have saved me days and given a better finish.
We had some rattan garden furniture that has seen better days so I thought I'd try and revive the table by removing the rattan bits, cladding the frame and reusing the glass top.
Removed the rattan and decided it was a bad idea so decided to repurpose an old and partly rotten lounger. The lounger bits:
I have a state of the art al-fresco workshop
Straightening and trimming the pieces to size
My saw fence was an 8 ft long bit of OSB and took ages to get in place for each cut so this took forever!
Mitred and rebated top
Routed slots for everything to get aligned
Had to paint it as the wood was quite varied in colour. Really pleased how it turned out but it took forever.
Got the bug now though so have bought a proper DeWalt table saw. Wish I'd just gone and done that at the outset as it would have saved me days and given a better finish.
Special order this one from the wife of the man who's signed the tin as Head and Master distiller of the whisky that it once contained.
American Cherry, (an offcut from a fireplace I made many years ago), finished with a few coats of danish oil.
I think I've put one of these up previously; but if you hadn't seen previously; it originally was a tin that the whisky came in, flattened and used as the base.
Splines on the corners are offcuts from what was our hardwood decking.
The feature on the ends are to represent the gates they used to have outside the distillery.
|https://thumbsnap.com/HkLgx541[/url]
[url]
American Cherry, (an offcut from a fireplace I made many years ago), finished with a few coats of danish oil.
I think I've put one of these up previously; but if you hadn't seen previously; it originally was a tin that the whisky came in, flattened and used as the base.
Splines on the corners are offcuts from what was our hardwood decking.
The feature on the ends are to represent the gates they used to have outside the distillery.
|https://thumbsnap.com/HkLgx541[/url][url]Wow, all great stuff.
Love the walker, I've been half thinking of one of those, a grandson looks like he's just about to take his first steps. Cracking al-fresco workshop, - four layers, a fleece topped with some overalls? Also been thinking of a tray similar to that one, but yet to work out in my head how the canted sides would join.
Next up for me is a wedding present for a young couple, I thought a chopping board with different woods would do the trick and should be fairly straightforward. I'll admit planing end grain is something I'm struggling to get the hang of. I usually end up skating across the top removing zilch, or digging in and fouling the blade. I've only got a small junior type plane so maybe I need something bigger? I was looking at some no 4 planes on the web, but not sure about taking a speculative punt.
Love the walker, I've been half thinking of one of those, a grandson looks like he's just about to take his first steps. Cracking al-fresco workshop, - four layers, a fleece topped with some overalls? Also been thinking of a tray similar to that one, but yet to work out in my head how the canted sides would join.
Next up for me is a wedding present for a young couple, I thought a chopping board with different woods would do the trick and should be fairly straightforward. I'll admit planing end grain is something I'm struggling to get the hang of. I usually end up skating across the top removing zilch, or digging in and fouling the blade. I've only got a small junior type plane so maybe I need something bigger? I was looking at some no 4 planes on the web, but not sure about taking a speculative punt.
Custerdome said:
Wow, all great stuff.
I've only got a small junior type plane so maybe I need something bigger? I was looking at some no 4 planes on the web, but not sure about taking a speculative punt.
I have a couple of old Record planes I bought secondhand - this Chris Tribe video has a lot of good pointers (I went on a couple of Chris' course when I was starting out woodworking, it was him that put me on to buying secondhand).I've only got a small junior type plane so maybe I need something bigger? I was looking at some no 4 planes on the web, but not sure about taking a speculative punt.
Buy well and be prepared to spend a bit of time sprucing up the sole and sharpening the blade and you can get a really good plane quite cost-effectively.
And yes, there have been a lot of interesting projects posted recently, it's good to see this thread revived a bit.
Thanks for the link EmBe, really interesting, I think I'll do a bit more browsing on his site. Shame he's not in my area (South of London), I'd definitely think of doing a course.
Crmatee, can I ask how you formed the relief for the lettering on the sides of the tray?
Andrew, interesting to see the mitered joints, mitering is something I haven't tried yet, are the joints held together with biscuits?
Crmatee, can I ask how you formed the relief for the lettering on the sides of the tray?
Andrew, interesting to see the mitered joints, mitering is something I haven't tried yet, are the joints held together with biscuits?
loughran said:
I found a bullet in a piece of Tulipwood today.
Tulipwood is a creamy timber which often has dark smears of staining and I've always thought they're the result of insect activity but this morning I found a shiny lump of lead instead.
Does it look like something that came out of a Winchester ?
Cool - Simon Bowler showed a WW1/WW2 bullet in French oak on insta last year which was interesting.Tulipwood is a creamy timber which often has dark smears of staining and I've always thought they're the result of insect activity but this morning I found a shiny lump of lead instead.
Does it look like something that came out of a Winchester ?
Custerdome said:
Crmatee, can I ask how you formed the relief for the lettering on the sides of the tray?
Yes; I designed that part on the CNC and then left it to cut out the inset for me using a 1.5mm bit over several passes. Probably takes about 25 minutes to cut out each end, so under an hour for the two.Finished the shelves with 3 coats of Osmo during the week and installed them on Saturday.
They act as a room divider in our sitting room which we tend to use as two seperate rooms and otherwise feels long and a bit corridor-like (I'm told by the design boss). Pleased with the effect and the pippy oak is very tactile.
They act as a room divider in our sitting room which we tend to use as two seperate rooms and otherwise feels long and a bit corridor-like (I'm told by the design boss). Pleased with the effect and the pippy oak is very tactile.
Looks great, nice and warm and goes with the floor.
I think I'm going to take a plunge with a plane, - I usually try and buy one tool every other project and so in theory gradually build up a decent set.
This is the one I'm thinking of going for:
https://www.workshopheaven.com/quangsheng-no-4-bed...
I think I'm going to take a plunge with a plane, - I usually try and buy one tool every other project and so in theory gradually build up a decent set.
This is the one I'm thinking of going for:
https://www.workshopheaven.com/quangsheng-no-4-bed...
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff