Post a photo of the last thing you made

[D_W]

Telecaster style guitar, spruce (from a billet I found on ebay) and cherry neck, sawn out of a table top slab that I found (it's nice to have big wood to saw guitar bits out of so that you can get ideal grain orientation. Fingerboard resawn out of a piece of birdseye maple that I bought for the purpose. Birdseye could be a little more intense, but the spruce guitar blank is divine, worked reasonably well and there was enough thickness for me to resaw off a nice piece of spruce to make a parlor acoustic out of.

Superb job!

=D>


Spruce is a beautiful timber, bit soft for furniture but I'm seeing increasing numbers of makers use Spruce for delicate pieces of furniture that won't see too much abuse. Not suitable for homes with small boys or big dogs, but for everyone else it's ideal!

Thanks, Custard. Generally, the spruce sold over here is low quality and low density, though I'm sure you can get some at a boat yard.

I haunt ebay for guitar blanks - for whatever reason, they're cheaper than I could get the lumber to make a blank, and this one was $50 dead quartered, already glued into a large enough blank to use for the body and cut off a section for a small parlor acoustic. resawn off, that is.

The key to this one, and many more than the seller is offering is that it's uncommonly dense, but it still has some of that softness in the early wood. I was shooting for a 6-7 pound guitar and didn't quite believe the seller's weight quote, but he was right (he said these were salvage logs that had sunk - a popular thing over here now) - it is about as heavy as good quality cherry and made for a guitar just north of 8 guitars despite thinning the body below fender's spec. At any rate, it makes a wonderful guitar, and I put a pretty large roundover on the back and bound the top to protect it from splintering.

I was on a guitar board for a little bit, but couldn't hack the attitude of the folks there. "I don't know why you'd get spruce, you can't plane it, it'll be too soft, it'll splinter, it's hard to work with". It planes beautifully. First time I've worked with good stuff (sitka in this case), in resawing it, the late wood stripes were uncommonly hard to go with the soft early wood and it really felt funny with the frame saw.

Of course, in the end, being that the density is similar to heavier alder or cherry or anything else that makes a decent solid body guitar.....it sounds the same as anything else.

I fancy the idea of making one out of marshmallow density quartered pine if I can find some decent, but the neck joint on these is four screws and there isn't really that much there - probably asking for trouble.

Price here that I saw for good clear quartered spruce (that would be less dense) was around $10-$12 a board foot (about three times the price of cherry). It would make for monstrously expensive soft furniture!! Making a guitar with a heavier harder piece is sort of gaming it but a couple of hundred board feet of something this density would be interesting to play with. The common solid body guitar makers are spoiled by mahogany and alder and don't know how to deal with anything that you can't just hack off with a knife and still have no tearout. I got myself banned from the forum where I posted this - first time I've ever actually been banned from anywhere. They were having none of the discussion about planing with a cap iron or trying to improve design elements / outcome. I am not a fine worker and don't position myself as such, but even hacks will get more satisfaction out of trying to do good work. Failing only hurts the ego, and only if you allow yourself to have one.

 

[DTR]

made a low oak bench for the hallway

That looks great Mike, very nice =D> =D>

 

[OscarG]

A pair of dogs made from padauk (supposed to be Cockapoos) as a birthday gift for my sister.

She liked them so much she threw one out of a window when opening the prezzie..

Hours to sand it smooth, 0.02 seconds to scuff it up!

 

[AES]

Great! When I 1st opened this, all I could see was a white tiled wall & a pair of UK power points. It took me several seconds (minutes?) of thinking "WTF?" until I then thought of scrolling down the page a bit! Woof!

Signed: "Worried of Tunbridge Wells" (and NO cuckoos yet)!

 

[El Barto]

I've been meaning to get a 2" butt chisel for ages and with Ashley Iles stock looking unlikely I picked up this old Sorby sash chisel from eBay. New handle turned from brown oak and a bit of cleaning up to remove some pitting and it's as good as new.

Also a work in progress coffee table made from the same brown oak. Notice ugly glue stains, they'll be gone soon. To those in the know, is brown oak more brittle than your normal English oak? This is something I've noticed (at least I think I have) and am interested to know if it's because it's infected wood, if all oak is like this after being kilned, or if I've just imagined it.

 

[Bacms]

Moxon vice made with Benchcrafted hardware and low grade English white beech and English cherry . Should have taken the pictures before using it as it is already full of dents

 

[memzey]

I've been meaning to get a 2" butt chisel for ages and with Ashley Iles stock looking unlikely I picked up this old Sorby sash chisel from eBay. New handle turned from brown oak and a bit of cleaning up to remove some pitting and it's as good as new.

Also a work in progress coffee table made from the same brown oak. Notice ugly glue stains, they'll be gone soon. To those in the know, is brown oak more brittle than your normal English oak? This is something I've noticed (at least I think I have) and am interested to know if it's because it's infected wood, if all oak is like this after being kilned, or if I've just imagined it.

Liking that table; very stylish design to my eye. Quick question about the top if I may - did you intentionally run the grain in that direction (across the ellipse rather than along) for some specific reason? I’m not suggesting it’s wrong just that my gut instinct would have been to do it the other way and I’m interested to know why you chose as you did?

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I got myself banned from the forum where I posted this - first time I've ever actually been banned from anywhere. They were having none of the discussion about planing with a cap iron or trying to improve design elements / outcome. I am not a fine worker and don't position myself as such, but even hacks will get more satisfaction out of trying to do good work. Failing only hurts the ego, and only if you allow yourself to have one.

It seems to me that everything about a guitar is - how does it play? As a one-time musician, it was always about tone and sustain - I would think experimenting with different wood, different shape and so on was to be encouraged, even applauded. Strange how hidebound and regimented some people's brains become as they specialise. I would love to have a plunk on your guitar - I bet it plays like a dream, and has a unique sound. It certainly looks gorgeous.

 

[will1983]

This was the project for the weekend just gone.

The original concrete garage is undergoing a slow conversion into a proper work-space for my fledgling joinery business, this includes insulating and boarding the walls and generally making it a nicer, more efficient environment to work in.

There are vertical tanalised studs attached to the concrete every 600mm and then 50mm of celotex insulation and 18mm OSB3 over these. I completed 3 walls a few months ago so decided to get the remaining wall started.

There was a window in this corner of the workshop but the frame was rotten and it was far from secure so I decided to remove it and replace it with a solid panel incorporating an 18" diameter axial fan. I got this from Powerstaruk along with a matching grill for the outside, incidentally I would recommend them, quick delivery, well packaged and a reasonable price.

The fan moves a substantial amount of air and should help to keep my workshop a healthier place, the speed is adjustable and on the low setting is very quiet, max rpm is noisier as you would expect but not as loud as most of my tools.

This is only a progress shot showing the fan being test fitted but I have finished the insulation and boarding for this area now. I have left a 600mm sq opening in the OSB which fits a pleated panel filter nicely. I will use this when I am spraying to capture any overspray before it is exhausted outside.

 

[El Barto]

I've been meaning to get a 2" butt chisel for ages and with Ashley Iles stock looking unlikely I picked up this old Sorby sash chisel from eBay. New handle turned from brown oak and a bit of cleaning up to remove some pitting and it's as good as new.

Also a work in progress coffee table made from the same brown oak. Notice ugly glue stains, they'll be gone soon. To those in the know, is brown oak more brittle than your normal English oak? This is something I've noticed (at least I think I have) and am interested to know if it's because it's infected wood, if all oak is like this after being kilned, or if I've just imagined it.

Liking that table; very stylish design to my eye. Quick question about the top if I may - did you intentionally run the grain in that direction (across the ellipse rather than along) for some specific reason? I’m not suggesting it’s wrong just that my gut instinct would have been to do it the other way and I’m interested to know why you chose as you did?

Sorry, I've just seen this! I had wanted the grain to run length ways originally but the board I had wouldn't have allowed for the size of table I wanted as well as the legs. SO, I compromised and decided to try it running across the table and I have to say I really like it. There's something slightly unusual about it and as it won't be taking any real weight strength isn't an issue. I'll be interested to see how the top reacts over time though.

Another couple of reasons I didn't mind so much are that this was purely a prototype that will probably stay in my house AND I figured it was a good learning process. If it turned out rubbish then I'd know not to do it again. Here it is after a couple of coats of Osmo anyway.

I'm happy with it generally.

 

[Chris152]

First image doesn't work for me* Barto - looks great in the wip and last photo though.
* I mean the image doesn't appear, just an icon.

 

[El Barto]

Just fixed!

 

[Droogs]

very nice

 

[El Barto]

very nice

Thanks very much.

 

[DTR]

I've been meaning to get a 2" butt chisel for ages and with Ashley Iles stock looking unlikely I picked up this old Sorby sash chisel from eBay. New handle turned from brown oak and a bit of cleaning up to remove some pitting and it's as good as new.

Also a work in progress coffee table made from the same brown oak. Notice ugly glue stains, they'll be gone soon. To those in the know, is brown oak more brittle than your normal English oak? This is something I've noticed (at least I think I have) and am interested to know if it's because it's infected wood, if all oak is like this after being kilned, or if I've just imagined it.

Liking that table; very stylish design to my eye. Quick question about the top if I may - did you intentionally run the grain in that direction (across the ellipse rather than along) for some specific reason? I’m not suggesting it’s wrong just that my gut instinct would have been to do it the other way and I’m interested to know why you chose as you did?

Sorry, I've just seen this! I had wanted the grain to run length ways originally but the board I had wouldn't have allowed for the size of table I wanted as well as the legs. SO, I compromised and decided to try it running across the table and I have to say I really like it. There's something slightly unusual about it and as it won't be taking any real weight strength isn't an issue. I'll be interested to see how the top reacts over time though.

Another couple of reasons I didn't mind so much are that this was purely a prototype that will probably stay in my house AND I figured it was a good learning process. If it turned out rubbish then I'd know not to do it again. Here it is after a couple of coats of Osmo anyway.

I'm happy with it generally.

I like that =D>

 

[custard]

I've been meaning to get a 2" butt chisel for ages....

... is brown oak more brittle than your normal English oak?

A wide butt chisel lives permanently on my bench, it gets used for all sorts of jobs and doubles as a knife blade.

Regarding Brown Oak, it's not brittle as such, in fact it tends towards the reverse. The brown staining is caused by a disease and if it's too far progressed then the timber can become quite soft and spongey. What you want are those Brown Oak boards that are in that sweet spot of being well coloured but still quite hard.

Really nice table!
=D>

 

[El Barto]

Thanks for the kind words. The nice thing about a table like this is it’s such a simple build but produces results that look like something more complex, at least that’s how I see it. And it can be completely in quite a short amount of time.

And agreed, the butt chisel is a great tool. I’m always picking it up for something or other.

That’s interesting about brown oak Custard. I don’t really have any evidence of it being brittle, it’s just a feeling I got when working it.

 

[Simo]

Here's the latest instrument to leave my workshop.. it's a 6 string guitar, featuring an English Walnut top, Black Walnut for the main body wood, Maple and Walnut neck with a Ziricote fretboard. It has a very wide string spacing (more like a classical guitar) as requested by the customer, as he finds wider necks easier to play with his slightly arthritic hands.

 

[Austinisgreat]

Simo,
That is lovely, out of interest what did you use as a finish? I used Tru-oil on a walnut tele but it was a major pain,

Cheers

Andrew

 

[Simo]

Simo,
That is lovely, out of interest what did you use as a finish? I used Tru-oil on a walnut tele but it was a major pain

Thanks. I used a finish called Patina. It's quite a unique product, it's basically an oil/varnish blend in a thick gel/jelly form.. rub in, wipe off, repeat every 4 hours.