Woodworking / Furniture Building

Most woodworkers have an unfinished project (or several) sitting about the shop waiting patiently as they get pushed down the priority queue for other things. Mine in this case is a small “ladies desk” I started several years ago. Here is the state it was left in when I set it aside:
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I dragged this out not long after I scooped up the walnut stash I posted about earlier. One reason this was left in the corner is the walnut I did have was buried under a stack of other stuff and I was too lazy to dig it out 😔. I got the drawers for the stand built:

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I also got the lid supports and writing surface fabbed up. They will get final install when I get the back in place, then I can cut them to final dimensions and get the stops installed:
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I was able to find a piece to serve as the lid that was sufficiently wide and flat. The board is there to prop it into place:

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Still a lot to do with the gallery. More dividers to install and build the 7 drawers for the bottom two rows, plus put the beading around the drawer fronts for the stand. Then all that sanding 😬
 
Out of curiosity have any of heard of Woodpecker Tools?
My works there and I'm curious if how far their reach may be.
I know they are very busy making product and are hiring people left and right.
I do not mean for this post to be a sly pitch for the company.
 
Out of curiosity have any of heard of Woodpecker Tools?
My works there and I'm curious if how far their reach may be.
I know they are very busy making product and are hiring people left and right.
I do not mean for this post to be a sly pitch for the company.

I’m familiar. I know a lot of woodworkers that like them too. They make quality tools, but most of them are priced way too high for the problems they solve, imo.

I have considered getting their band saw drill press table though. It’s not priced too much higher than similar offerings.
 
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I’m familiar. I know a lot of woodworkers that like them too. They make quality tools, but most of them are priced way too high for the problems they solve, imo.

I have considered getting their band saw table though. It’s not priced too much higher than similar offerings.
I see the pricing & am shocked at the pricing they sell for. At the same time, they cannot make stuff fast enough.
 
Out of curiosity have any of heard of Woodpecker Tools?
My works there and I'm curious if how far their reach may be.
I know they are very busy making product and are hiring people left and right.
I do not mean for this post to be a sly pitch for the company.
I have a Woodpeckers router top and plate. That’s from back before they started developing their squares and other precision tools. If you work there then I would like to know why the eff you don’t make the router table inserts in phenolic anymore 🤬😉
 
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I see the pricing & am shocked at the pricing they sell for. At the same time, they cannot make stuff fast enough.

Yeah, I’m not opposed to paying a premium for a tool that solves some problem, but I just haven’t felt the value was there in most of their stuff for me, personally. There’s almost always another way to do something with cheaper tools that I already have.

Plus, their red anodizing really turns me off. My shop is a place for relaxing into an enjoyable hobby. I don’t want a bunch of aggressively red stuff hanging in it.
 
I see the pricing & am shocked at the pricing they sell for. At the same time, they cannot make stuff fast enough.
Well, woodworkers can be a strange lot. Most of us will pay a premium for a reference tool (square, rule, etc.) to use for setups and to check other “everyday” tools against. Many try to be frugal (like pulling nails out of a pallet for the boards, or picking through a firewood pile for a nice piece to use). But then they’ll turn around and be tool hoarders/collectors who will buy the new Woodpeckers 3” square, even though they have the 4” and the 6” (and only lack the 12” because it’s out of stock).
 
@JohnSinVA I’m curious. Did you have any problems with wood movement on that desk?

I had to stop woodworking for a while due to tendinitis shortly after I started my bench. When I came back to it seven or eight month later, I had some really bad twisting in my legs. I made it work, but my bench isn’t as nice as it would have been if I didn’t have to take such a long a break. Granted I was using construction lumber, but now I’m really hesitant to start a project if I’m not sure I’ll finish it in a timely manner.
 
Well, woodworkers can be a strange lot. Most of us will pay a premium for a reference tool (square, rule, etc.) to use for setups and to check other “everyday” tools against. Many try to be frugal (like pulling nails out of a pallet for the boards, or picking through a firewood pile for a nice piece to use). But then they’ll turn around and be tool hoarders/collectors who will buy the new Woodpeckers 3” square, even though they have the 4” and the 6” (and only lack the 12” because it’s out of stock).
I do not work there. My wife works there off the floor shop..
I met their CS Manager and she tells stories about someone like you describe with the squares. The CSRs are amazing that this happens.
Then against if the customer wants something, they'll sell it to them. :)
 
I appreciate the posts.
Seeing someone from SW WA & VA both knowing the company works for is nice.
My wife & I never even heard of it until she had a job interview there in the fall of 2019.
And we live 5 miles from their location.
I've been in Cleveland my whole life too.
Hadn't heard of them. Then again, if I get a saw out, my wife has her phone out ready to call 911.
 
I appreciate the posts.
Seeing someone from SW WA & VA both knowing the company works for is nice.
My wife & I never even heard of it until she had a job interview there in the fall of 2019.
And we live 5 miles from their location.
I've been in Cleveland my whole life too.
Hadn't heard of them. Then again, if I get a saw out, my wife has her phone out ready to call 911.

Congrats to your wife on the new job. I’d say most people in the woodworking world, at least online, are familiar. I’m a member of several woodworking forums and almost everyone knows Woodpecker Tools.

To expand on what I was saying earlier, this is a good example of what I mean when I say a problem can be solved with cheaper tools. They sell an “edge plane” for $520 to ease sharp edges on a finished piece. I do that with a $160 block plane, which is actually an expensive, premium block plane from a company called Lie-Nielsen. In addition to being cheaper, it’s much more versatile than the edge plane which is pretty much a one trick pony. The catch is that it takes some skill to ease a corner with a block plane as perfectly as Woodpecker’s edge plane would do the job.

In a production shop that’s churning out product day after day, it’s probably a welcome productivity boost. For me as a hobbyist, I’ll spend the time to build my skill and call the imperfect edges I’ll ease in the meantime “hand built charm.” :D

 
@JohnSinVA I’m curious. Did you have any problems with wood movement on that desk?

I had to stop woodworking for a while due to tendinitis shortly after I started my bench. When I came back to it seven or eight month later, I had some really bad twisting in my legs. I made it work, but my bench isn’t as nice as it would have been if I didn’t have to take such a long a break. Granted I was using construction lumber, but now I’m really hesitant to start a project if I’m not sure I’ll finish it in a timely manner.
Yes, I had some twist develop in both the case and the stand. My plan to deal with it will be to attach the case to the stand permanently (probably with screws) and shorten whichever legs are the pivot. I did a trial where I clamped the pieces together and I think it’ll work. The drawers in the stand should require only minimal fitment to slide smoothly. Then I won’t have to worry about attaching the waist molding to only the stand 😎
 
Out of curiosity have any of heard of Woodpecker Tools?
My works there and I'm curious if how far their reach may be.
I know they are very busy making product and are hiring people left and right.
I do not mean for this post to be a sly pitch for the company.
Heard of them over here in Utah.
 
Finished up painting still some touch up work left but started adding the lights tonigh.
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I have my new Oneida Supercell installed and it is powerful. Wow. The CFM it’s moves is insane.
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Also I finished pinewood derby trophies today. They started as a slab of rough sawn cherry.
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Anyone worked with a live edge? I need to make a dining table bench and I'm thinking of doing the top as a 16" live edge. My only fear is that I'm assuming it will be extremely heavy and difficult to slide in and out. Am I correct?
 
It’s not any heavier than using a thicker piece - 6/4 or 8/4. Also, make sure the LE is stable. With as much wear as a bench can take, the LE can crack over time.
 
Just recently finished up refinishing a table. When after all the work I had done getting it down to its bare wood, due to the coloring of the wood, a stain just wasn't an option. Ended up painting it black. Used my sprayer so I probably laid down close to two or three coats of paint. After that I did at least four coats of water based poly, and my final coat of poly was a spray on water based poly again. Now I need to know what I'm missing because after all that, a week in the dining room and I've got a wood golf display that I'm shipping out, it slides across the table and it leaves a nice scratch down to the bare wood. I try to contain myself but it frustrates the heck out of me. Sunday night I'm tacking in some trim pieces on my stair railing and I bump the table with the rubber portion of my Milwaukee battery and another chip in the table. I thought the Poly was supposed to keep this from happening?!?! What did I do wrong here. between coats of poly I sanded and towards the finishing coats I used #0000 steel wool just to knock off the small imperfections. What did I miss?
 
Just recently finished up refinishing a table. When after all the work I had done getting it down to its bare wood, due to the coloring of the wood, a stain just wasn't an option. Ended up painting it black. Used my sprayer so I probably laid down close to two or three coats of paint. After that I did at least four coats of water based poly, and my final coat of poly was a spray on water based poly again. Now I need to know what I'm missing because after all that, a week in the dining room and I've got a wood golf display that I'm shipping out, it slides across the table and it leaves a nice scratch down to the bare wood. I try to contain myself but it frustrates the heck out of me. Sunday night I'm tacking in some trim pieces on my stair railing and I bump the table with the rubber portion of my Milwaukee battery and another chip in the table. I thought the Poly was supposed to keep this from happening?!?! What did I do wrong here. between coats of poly I sanded and towards the finishing coats I used #0000 steel wool just to knock off the small imperfections. What did I miss?
What kind of paint did you use?
 
I finally (almost) finished up this table for my wife's little kitchen area in her office. I have glass for the top but the place goofed it up so I'll have to put that on when they fix it and then raise the trim up a bit to make it flush. Outside of that my wife is very happy and I think it turned out pretty good.

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I've decided I need a new desk for my home office. I spend so much time in here it's ridiculous that I am still using this old desk I salvaged from an office closing. Looking around on the interwebs, it seems like for a given budget, I can build something much nicer than I can buy. I'm relatively handy with a decent selection of tools in my garage, and I have full confidence in my ability to build... but I've never built a desk or any real furniture before, unless you could things like picnic tables and benches. I tend to use my projects as an excuse to buy new tools... my wife's raised vegetable gardens got me a really nice sliding compound miter saw... I'm thinking this one will get me a table saw :D

This is a project that really catches my eye:

http://www.simplifiedbuilding.com/blog/diy-ergonomic-computer-desk-revisited/

He uses Kee Klamp fittings which aren't cheap, but combined with iron or steel pipe are very strong and easy to work with. I would make some changes to the design to fit my needs and workspace, but the concepts would be pretty much the same. If you look around on that site you will see lots of other projects using the same materials, and I think I'd end up doing the same thing. I've been toying with various ideas for the desktops, which is where the actual woodworking comes in. I want a nice looking top, on the darker side like the featured piece in that DIY article. The dimensions I'm looking to build are 30" deep, 82" from left to right, with an L on the right end that comes out to 72". Here are the options I came up with for the top:

Ikea countertop that is cheap, looks great, accepts stain and sealant, and really would almost be perfect as a desk top - http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20057854/ - the only problem is I really want that 30" depth. The countertops come in either 25" or 39" depth. They have table tops in 30" but not in colors that I like. I suppose I could stain those table tops, but I am not 100% sure they will accept stain

This seems like a lot of work, but if I was trying to avoid work I would pay someone else to do it - http://www.sawdustandembryos.com/2013/06/how-to-build-butcher-block-counter.html - and I would have ultimate control over grain, color, dimensions, etc. I like this option the best, but I have yet to find a good source for reclaimed, scrap, or otherwise relatively cheap lumber. If I can't find that, this option becomes much more expensive than the countertops. I'm still looking.

The last option I came up with for the top is some biscuit-joined planks. The problems with that are basically that I can't find 2" thickness boards that look good and are long enough. Plus, I'm not confident in their resistance to warping, even if I oppose the grains. But that might just be my inexperience with woodworking.

With either of those last two options, I'm looking at having someone else do the planing. I considered buying a tabletop planer, but good ones are expensive and even those won't handle a 30" board.

So, for those of you who are woodworkers, what would you recommend? Has anyone built a project with kee klamp fittings before? Any other DIY recommendations for office furniture? Thanks!
ls wood working a pseudonym for drawing and fading the ball ? 😁😅
 
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