Modern Vespa

And I built a chicken mansion coop.

9 ladies lived in there, now there's only 8. Came home last week and found one dead in the backyard. No clue what happened to her. She had the best name which was Big Guy White Stripe. Which is what happens when a 5 year old names a hen lol!

Since selling and giving away all my scooter stuff due to a setback, I returned back to some of my wood widdling to keep my sanity in check. This is the dry fit of all lock, barrel, trigger and sideplate before the final sanding and finish. You can see an example of the finish on the patchbox lid with the shamrock inlet. I'm trying to get it finished by Christmas, maybe it will happen.

When out of the garage, I like to cook, which is good as my wife work on second shift at the American Red Cross.

Dude sick musket! Nice job on the detail. Looks really cool...impressive

You are making me VERY hungry!

Back on topic, same as most of you I started out just cleaning the shop and in this case that meant a lot of sorting accumulated stuff fromm all over for ~10 years and THROWING OUT what was deemed worthless, or actually recycling by giving to my buddy local Gypsy junk collector. A pretty good deal, they gave or sold me cheap many fine treasures(more on this later).

But the broken wooden stuff they didn't want, so I decided to finally fix it enough so somebody might want it, and get rid of it this way because I couldn't just toss it.

Here is my first project, a nice folding chair that just needed refinishing and new canvas. Then how an old discarded and disintegrating cheap table became a nice addition to Georgi's Kafe Neo.


before, the one behind

some sanding required
actually a LOT of fussy sanding required

thick layer of old dirt

spray varnish on the chair, then I switched to brush on for the tables, because no run worries

installing the canvas on top of the 'demilune' table that is one of my next victims

Hmmmm, solid wood base, but chipboard top is a wreck

not good

thank you plentiful old pallet boards

saber saw time

prep surface for gluing

.....more table


start gluing it down

wish I had better clamps

nailing from beneath as I go

nearly done with this part

final nailing

lemme see how this planer works

then this router setup for the OD, but sorry, no pic in action on table

Thanks Voodoo for linking me to this thread - I love seeing all these woodworking projects.

I am Scooterless in Seattle (well, near Seattle anyway) and have turned my shop time from metal to wood, so I relate and am enjoying this.

Thanks, and carry on!

Len

Thanks Len, let's see what you've done then!


bored yet?


getting there

bust out the sanders

start filling the holes & gaps w/ homemade sawdust/varnish putty because lockdown

good enough, must still sand again, but babybutt this time

this might work OK, but stain w/ shops locked down?

no problem, shoe dye on hand

Hey, THAT'S not a router!

that's true

don't care

bolt on the trim

nearly done, must router radius in top edge, awaiting cutter, then stain and final varnish

in the shipping department all crudely varnished now

and one more plug for excellent client Georgi's Kafe Neo

Ok, here are a few recent projects -

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Walnut and maple tea boxes

Before oil & varnish

Small box

Bandsaw box

Bandsaw box

Step stool

Mountain fun

Desk for my grandson

Also made some of these. I picked up a bunch of hardwood from a guy who was moving to Texas, it has kept me busy for a while!

Len


Wood spatulas

I admire your craftmanship and drive, Mr. Voodoo. In the past, I have used dirty, used motor oil for stain on picnic tables and benches. Bring it on guys, I'm enjoying this thread- nice change of pace.

Wow Quasi, nice , real nice.

Gracious you guys - some great craftsmanship and creativity.
Love it!
Some silver linings Voodoo!
Been knee deep myself...

*Edit - Wait! Voodoo! your router is spectacular!


old family table - used as craft table then shoved in garage for 20 yrs... decided it was time to revive

stripped/bleached/ wet down to see how its gonna look.

Then there was this craziness I built from scratch

Which I then hung from the back of the house - it will hold a chandelier I am building...

Damn some great work you guys!

Wow. Quasi moto's the man. Nice boxes. Sometimes I make boxes with strings on them that make funny noises.

I make a lot of recycled materials furniture too:


just made this little table. I didn't have any glue or wood putty for this, and used rather unsightly bugle head screws. The tempered glass is recycled and legs came from a tossed out tool table.

Hand made guitar. Brazilian rosewood back and sides. Small body shape is due to a limited amount of wood.

recycled gun art.

funny little "snake" lamp.

here's a detail of another guitar I made a few years back. It's an original design.

I used to be an active member on the Luthier's forum.

You guys make some very cool stuff!

I think somebody may have been spying on me!


I found this abandoned in the street, but it is real wood so WCGW?

cracked and warped w/ gappy joints, poor little thing!

I started sanding but soon gave up!

but not before I saw the beautiful olivewood grain

maybe easier if I just disassemble, like a dang Vespa!

I had to pick up and move back to shop and finish sanding

patched up some cracks w/ fake filler

Now let the reassembly and finishing commence! And just like a Vespa, it's the best part.


get out the clamps & stain what gets covered
using glue AND nails

keep on gluing and clamping

do not stop now

now the tuff part, clamping the warp out of it

and nearly done, just stain edges and varnish

it was worth it, passed lockdown time pleasantly and my teacher niece will gladly use it in her primary school class.

A nice variety of projects!

2nd that comment, well done all.

I love the talent in this group. I've made a ton of kleenex box covers out of the excess tile for customers - a small token or gift for their home and their new tile, be it a shower, counters, bathroom, floors, you name it. I've tiled a bunch of elevators even, in this sleepy town!

Half the fun is figuring out the layout and working with the homeowner to get the vibe of what they want.


Kleenex box cover out of excess tile

Wood stove hearth and backsplash with kindling box to the right. All this was from 20"x20" porcelain tile, cut and polished to make the vertical splash on the wall.

okay, my turn...

so i built this TV stand for my mom. it's modeled after a 1920's~ish small kids table. my brother's TV lives on the OG that i took measurements off of. it's birds eye maple, which i discovered after stripping and reconditioning it years back.

anyway, i tried to stay pretty correct with it, but added some bracing and newish ways of connecting. it's all reclaimed redwood siding from my house that i saved when i redid the monster back when.

here's the glue up


underside on the struts & legs


detail of the corners/edging


so, all i've got left is a quick sand and i'll finish it with a linseed rub out and just wax topper.

-g

Nice!

Love the thread. Greasy doing woodworking seems weirdly out of character, though. Kind of a shock, TBH.

Okay, I'll bite. Here's a Quarantine Project I did a few months back. This is basically copied from my build thread on GarageJournal, sorry it's so long.



The idea kind of evolved over time. It started with a rickety old butcher block table that I inherited from Patrick. It had seen a lot of abuse, and was infused with years of two-stroke oil from scooter engine tear-downs:






I turned it into a pile of halfway decent salvage maple, which sat on my workbench for another month or two:



Somewhere around the same time, I acquired this monster bench-top drill press. It's a 60s-era PowerMatic 1150, with a three-phase motor and a VFD. Importantly, it has a fully functional variable speed feature, which (combined with the VFD) makes it really useful for metal work:



I was after a bench-top model because all the wasted space around a floor-standing drill press really bugs me. Every inch of my workshop is precious space, and I really hate wasting it. The stand I initially put the drill press on was okay, and about the right height, but was only marginally useful for storage. What I really wanted was shallow drawers for all the drill-related stuff that you use around a drill press. Stuff like this:



Before I actually acquired this specific drill press, I was thinking I could set a small bench-top DP on top of a rolling tool chest, and started to investigate the offerings from Harbor Freight. Once I actually got the drill press home, though, I quickly realized that it was far too big to set on top of a typically-sized cabinet. And at 250 pounds, the weight was a bit of a concern as well.

So I started thinking about building something shorter and more appropriately sized. Around that time, I discovered the Harbor Freight 26" top box, which had the advantage of being relatively compact and had very shallow drawers. I braved the pandemic and went to HF to pick one up:







I pondered how to proceed for a couple of days, trying to come up with a way to use the pile of maple from the butcher block table with this new top box. The challenge was to make it sturdy enough to support the drill press, and I wasn't entirely sure I had it in me. After some measurements and some rough calculations, I managed to put together a SketchUp drawing of what I thought might be a workable design:



The next few months would be a long slog of working toward that idealized goal.

The top of the butcher block had split, but the dimensions were wrong. I had to split a piece off one half and glue it to the other half:



In order to put the whole thing onto heavy-duty casters, I had to sleeve the wooden legs, which ended up being a full metal base that the rest of the table would interface to.







This was a good opportunity to improve my very, very awful welding skills:




The whole project was going back and forth between metal and wood, which I actually enjoyed. When I got bored with one, I would switch to the other.

I spent a good many hours planing the top, not so much for flatness as just to shave some of the oil-soaked wood off the top:







Then it was on to the legs, and lots of test fitting:








I used my Festool Domino in order to fasten the aprons to the legs, even though I knew that I would garner much hate on YouTube for daring to use an expensive tool. It's weird how some people get offended at something so trivial. Maybe they want me to use nothing but a butter knife and 40-grit handpaper? I don't get it.



Eventually it started taking shape:




As I was doing all the dry-fit before glue-up, I realized that I didn't have any clamps long enough to span the width of the bench. Not wanting to make a trip to HD (which I knew from previous encounters to be a pandemic shit-show) I improvised by adding some threaded rod to the project, bolted through the legs and all the way through the tool box.

This turned out to be a huge improvement to the overall strength and rigidity of the bench, as it made the tool box a structural member. There is no way this thing is going to flex or wobble.

It also gave it the bench's final name, as the threaded rod sticking out of the legs reminded me of a certain movie monster from years gone by. And thus, FrankenTable was born.



Not content with merely making it sturdy, though, I continued with the original wooden bracing I had intended, sending it well into overkill territory:



I then used carriage bolts through the aprons to reinforce the inner bracing even further. Belt AND suspenders. And another belt. And three more pairs of suspenders:



The final task was to seal the butcher block top, and for this I eventually decided to try my hand at poured epoxy. It actually turned out really nicely:






And then, finally, moving day. I let the epoxy cure for a good 48 hours, but I was still paranoid I was going to destroy it right off the bat.







Et Voila!



Oh, and I did end up buying the full-height HF tool chest, which will make a nice addition to my shop. This will be the new home for my machinist and metalworking tools:



Did I mention that there's a full build video? Yep. Got that too.

Part 1: FrankenTable | Drill Press Bench - Part 1

Part 2: FrankenTable | Drill Press Bench - Part 2

Enjoy!

I made some malt vinegar earlier this year and whenever i pour it over my fish and chips I have to put my thumb over the opening to control the flow, always bugs me... started looking for pour spouts and didn't find any I like. I have one for my olive oil that is functional but not nice.

So this started me drafting up a better design, in silver or maybe the better silver, argentium.

My grandfather did a bunch of silver work and I've had his tools 30 years now. Mostly I just solder jump rings or make things from flat sheet, so this was the first proper silver work for me.


The key to the design is that the vent tube comes out the top instead of the tip. this allows a finger to cover the vent to stop the flow. no mess

made a fixture to hold the disk at the correct length on the tube

the hole is made in the cork with a thin walled tube that is sharpened and then it's placed on a solid rod to sand to shape.

shocked at how well it turned out, and it even works!

The cutting board it's resting on is another story in another garage...

desperate times, desperate measures my man.
(kidding)

i usually don't build out stuff, i'm more of refinish and restore kinda guy in the whole woodworking department.

my brother has all the johnny kickass stuff (all the clamps known to man, and all the festool) so it was pretty calm seas and easy sailing. it also helps that he's master cabinet maker. i just make/machine the pulls and hinges for him.

i'm not all 2T and carb cleaner. let me show you my garden and orchard!

-g

jess, that drill press workbench turned out great. awesome awesome work. those welds look great man, no shame in that game.

super smart on the box dedicated to the drill too!

-g

patrick wow! that's awesome. sharp work.

i'm over here slumming it up with world market/marshalls pour tops and you're up in this piece putting me to shame!

-g

Thanks, man. Of course, I only showed the good welds. Weirdly, though, it was the MIG welds that were by far the worst.

ha! nah man, those look perfectly acceptable. you can come and weld roll cages and frames up with me any time!

same same. it's like you have to turn off part of your brain when you've been on the tig train and you get back to point and shoot of mig.

but you've got good heat and penetration and you're laying stacks of dimes with a steady hand. top marks all around man.

Patric - that piece is gorgeous.
Jess - just wow. what kinda joinery is that with the oval giant shaped biscuits? how did you cut the reciprocal slots?

Not to talk out of hand, but the festool jointer is the jam. I'm guessing (off the pics) that's what he used.

And yeah. They be giant!

-g

oh great! here we all go down the festool rabbit hole... (want, wish I had space, wish I had cash and more cash, hold my beer, I'm going to go look at the festool site)

Let me introduce you to the extremely controversial Festool Domino. The joint it makes is technically called a "loose tenon", though it is conceptually similar to a biscuit cutter.

It is controversial because, like most of Festool's offerings, it is outrageously expensive. There's nothing else on the market quite like it, though, which is Festool's stock in trade.

It comes in two sizes -- mine is the smaller DF500, which cuts 4mm, 5mm, 6mm, 8mm, and 10mm mortise holes (at varying depths).

It's a great tool for furniture building.

Holy Crap Jess! That Drill Press stand is BADASS! Fantastic job. Thanks for sharing.



It's very cool to see all these different projects and disciplines people become experts in. The scooter crowd is a diverse crowd, to be sure....

There's a postscript to the butcher block island story.

I had a narrow piece of the top surface leftover from the bench project, really the worst of the worst -- but Patrick did some mental re-arrangement in his head and saw a salvageable collection of bits that could become a cutting board. This butcher block came from Patrick's childhood home -- he can tell the story better than I can -- but there was some sentimental value attached to it. So I kicked off one final attempt to salvage what I could.

Starting with this:



Some selective cutting:



And I had the basic shape:



And a bit left over:



The glue joints were failing after 40-odd years, so I ripped them at the joints on the table saw:



I also trimmed a little off the worst part of the top surface, again at the table saw, and ended up with this:



Glued up:



Then it was on to the really hard (but also really interesting) part of the project. There were numerous drill holes (all full of grease) and pock marks on the top surface, and the bottom surface was originally the "less nice" sides of the wood used in the butcher block, and had defects as well. I decided I could do some inlay work to hide the drill holes, but needed a shape that would fit with the project.

Enter the snowflake!

I cut these with a handheld CNC router.






For some of the smaller holes, I just cut simple plugs and glued them in:






For the reverse side, some of the wood was actually rotten. I needed a big patch for that. In talking to Patrick, he mentioned a canyon near his childhood home, and we hatched a plan to use a the topographic outline of that canyon as the shape for this patch. I did a manual curve fit using a vector editing app, and uploaded it to my CNC router.

Pretty pleased with how this side came out.



And here's the finished product (photos courtesy of Patrick):

Impressive work by everyone.

and on that piece of maple I learned to make bread, learned to work on scooters, and built everything for more than 25 years.

So great to have it back, and better than new.