18 month shelf project

[sniks7]

I thought I'd sling a few shots up of my extremely long-term shelves. They just about qualify as amateur-woodworking-cum-firewood and I've included a close-up so people can see how not to do things.

They were made out of low grade ash (lots of knots, olive bits) and I got them planed before I picked the boards up. I've spent 18 months learning about the subject of tear out.

My workshop is freely available for all to use: open a window and stick your nose out and somewhere out there is me working. I did however buy a black and decker workbench for 25 quid for the sanding and finishing. A well chosen close-up would show lots of little rain spots where i didn't get in in time. pipper!

My tools were a japanese saw from Axminster, two blunt chisels and a belt sander and a palm sander. I read somewhere that the better the finish, the more it shows up the original mistakes: very true - there are sanding divots all over the place that only showed up on the 6th coat of shellac. Sigh.

The timber moved continually over the year and a half of the project and the eventual construction was biscuit jointed and screwed to try and pull out some of the warp. I spent ages dreaming about a low angle bevel wiggle tiddley pom plane. I should have bought it and tried to use a shooting wibble. And I should have taken the advice from someone on this forum and done rebates for the shelves. More sigh.

However, the finish is very smooth: I used 400 grit and wire wool. Of course you can't see that under a load of books.

As an aside, I'm quite keen on using knotty low-grade english hard woods, the sort of stuff most people reject. On a pretentious level I find it give more of a natural feeling of the tree and on a practical level it seems a shame to waste useable wood. The irony is that the poorer the quality, the higher the skill needed to deal with it. Another lesson!

Damn! After all that I can't work out how to post images! You'll just have to trust me: the glue lines are appalling![/url]

 

[sniks7]

How do I get images up?!

 

[miles_hot]

have a look at the sticky "advice to newbies" at the top of the turning forum for more details but basically
1) post them onto photobucket site
2) ensure that the options on photobucket include "show thumbnail url"
3) hover over the image you want to post here
4) click on the thumbnail url think which appears at the bottom of the picture in photobucket. This should result in it saying that you've copied it
5) paste the resultant url type bunch of stuff into your post here.

There is other stuff that you can do to have just the image pop up rather than an image with adverts however that is on the sticky

Good luck - looking forward to seeing the shelves.

Miles

 

[Mike Saville]

I can totally relate to this. I think all of us interested in wood have been there at some point. Thanks for sharing.

 

[joiner_sim]

Sounds like quite a journey there! Get the pictures up and online soon!

Upload pictures to the internet somewhere> right click the image, select properties copy and paste the address> come on here press the Img button and then paste the address, then press the Img button again.

Job done. :wink:

 

[Ironballs]

Ha! Definitely, as I've only been doing this again for about 3 years after my last foray into woodworking when back at school I can sympathise immensely.

Keep at it and it will all come good - though a little guidance or tuition helps. You can come a long way very quickly, somewhere in the projects section is a table I did in my second year of evening class, came out okay.

Still want pictures of your shelves though! If you use photobucket then you just copy the IMG code and paste into your post

Cheers

Damian

 

[sniks7]

here's my attempt at shelf posting... You may notice a couple of my favourite tools. A Japanese saw, which is like any other saw, but Japanese which means it comes with lots of brownie points and makes tea in the morning.

The other tool is a hammer. People underestimate the hammer: if something is wonky, a hammer will un-wonk it. If you hand planed a surface and it's not quite flat and quick spanking with a hammer will disguise the problem. If you completely mess up and smash the nearest wall a hammer will save your knuckles.

When my workshop got dark (about sevenish these days) I found a hammer was very handy for banging shelves into the right position. If Charlesworth were dead (but may he live forever) he'd be rolling in his grave.

 

[sniks7]

Following from the success of the last pic, I shall try and post the rest.

The second pic is of the shelves in situ. My original plan was to build the shelves (way more stressful than having a baby/buying a house/noticing some random tear-out) and then get a crane and move the house so the shelves would fit just right.

As you can see, the crane did a really bad job. However, thanks for small mercies - I looked at the cost of sash cramps and alternatives and decided the house was so all over the place no one would ever know that I just stuck the whole lot together with a big pot of glue and a large dollop of hope.

On the third pic you can see a large knot. And another large knot. There's very little else to be seen. If anyone says they can see a glue line I shall self combust and a large swathe of Hampshire will cease to exist.

On a serious note, I spent three days sanding shellacing and wire wooling the shelves. Five minutes with a damp cloth. I should have just spent five minutes with a damp cloth. My workshop was dark by then and I had to rush everything inside and sort the baby out. But still.. Arghhhh.

On the fourth image my immediate feeling involves lots of four letter words which could mainly be sumarised by the phrase: "What's the $xx$$&**$ing piont?!"

I spent hours caressing pieces of ash and giving them love and care and now they're all covered up by books. Waste of time. My wife said they're great. I said she didn't feel that slightly rough bit on the top right rear corner where I didn't raise the grain and finish down properly. Sigh.

Personally, I think any piece of furniture that can't be made with a chainsaw and some very large nails is not worth the time of day.

And then I suddenly had another idea: there is no woodworking problem that can't be solved by the purchase of a mind-bendingly expensive hand-tool.

I've decided not to buy a chisel because I still don't know which way up to hold one and when you hit them with hammer they either do nothing or remove a chunk the size of Wales from whatever project you're working on.

But what about a plane? With a low-up bevel wibble and a widgety woo wah? Watch this space: I promise to post my next project by 2015.

 

[mailee]

Well wortht he wait for the pics Sniks7. I was expecting something from the Hammer house of horrors but it looks good to me. With the knots in it it has given it character. As for the finish it looks like you got a good finish on it too. Only advice I could give is to get your speed up a bit. :lol:

 

[sniks7]

Arghhhh! I forgot to mention one thing.. the machining was done by a really decent joiner! That was back in January.

I mean I helped push the stuff through, but he did the biscuit joints although I did some drilling and set the dimensions.

I don't want to take credit for the clever bits that were actually mainly done by someone else..

It has to be said in my favour though, the finish is silky smooth even by the standards of some of the highly finished Georgian antiques I've got knocking around.

 

[sniks7]

Well wortht he wait for the pics Sniks7. I was expecting something from the Hammer house of horrors but it looks good to me. With the knots in it it has given it character. As for the finish it looks like you got a good finish on it too. Only advice I could give is to get your speed up a bit. :lol:

I am keen on the lower grades of timber. Some of the most treasured timbers really fall into this category: burr walnut, pippy oak, olive ash and spalted beech for example. And the more highly figured elm gets the more expensive it is.

At the lower end of the scale you get all the character at a fraction of the price (and you need about five times the skill to work with it). Most low grade oak is turned into fence-posts and beams.. Fill your boots! Even the poorest of oak will last several lifetimes.

As to the time taken.. Hmmm! Because I have no workshop I have to do everything outside, which coincides with gardening, bee-keeping, tennis and caning my italian v-twin round the lanes. So time gets a little tight.. which is why for my next project I'm making something to put a cup of tea on.

 

[Mike Saville]

Sniks,


:lol: :lol: :lol:

Fantastic posts, really made my morning, even SWMBO found it funny!! Perhaps all WIP pics/write ups should be in this vein. I'm also sure there would be a space for this type of feature in the woodworking mags.

Looking forward to the next one.

 

[maltrout512]

I've decided not to buy a chisel because I still don't know which way up to hold one

If you have intense pain on your hand and see a red puddle on the work bench or floor, its' the wrong way round. :lol: :lol: :lol: . I think the shelves look dam good to me. Getting into a problem is easy, it's getting out of it that takes the time.

 

[OPJ]

Looks good to me. Used carefully, knotty timber (like oak) can give real character to a piece. It's only dead knots that I really don't like, especially large ones that cannot easily be plugged! :x At college, I've been making a table in brown oak. Some of the boards I've bought are quite knotty (almost 'pippy' in places) and, I've decided to include them because I think it helps enhance the look of the piece.

I look forward to seeing more of your work. :wink:

 

[matt]

Has Jeremy Clarkson joined the forum? Particularly liked the comment about using a chisel...

Reminded of my "just one last sweep with the electric plane" - the last sweep when it digs in at the beginning or end...

 

[joiner_sim]

Looking great, and loving the write-up! You should be quite pleased with yourself on a job well done there! :wink:

 

[The Shark]

Hi Sniks7,
You have just made a boring night shift really enjoyable
A fantastic write-up, and a top project as well. As Mailee says, knots add character to a piece, so don't worry about them. Good to see you are getting "silky smooth" already.
Can we have another write-up soon? Don't worry if you don't make anything, just steal some of the Alchemist's photos and make it up [-(

Malc

 

[sniks7]

Thanks for all the kind comments!

I have a couple of other projects in mind so I shall post them as soon as I can. I'm just waiting for a couple of oak trees to grow, so it shouldn't be too long...