Post a photo of the last thing you made

[danst96]

that looks extremely neat though - it's a bit of the same herringbone pattern I did here and here, though yours look much cleaner. @PaulArthur did an awesome job at his bench as well with a similar pattern.


For this project I just did it over with the random orbital sander. I think yours look much 'flatter' than anything I've ever done though

Yours looks great and thought it was better than mine haha.

I burnt out my belt sander getting a flat surface and then used a plane. It was more the stage before the image although I dont have a picture of it, almost every strip was a different height after I glued it all together, i had to remove a ton of material. This is a better picture of the outcome

I learnt the lesson on the first one and pre flattened on the first glue up stage before the second cut and glue up. Not sure if using a plane on ply like that is a good idea or not but it worked:

 

[D_W]

no problem on using the plane. The glue is often a little abrasive, but it isn't abusive to the blade other than abrading some off more quickly. FAR better than hitting staples and nails, which leave a notch that's got damage somewhat deeper than the depth of the notch.

Don't tell anyone, but you can also use "normal" handsaws on plywood if you're willing to resharpen them.

Both also work on corian, though you'd not want to flatten a large surface on corian (great for trimming and cleanup where power tools might be risky - if you're incompetent with power tools like I am).

 

[D_W]

by the way, the pattern looks just wonderful - very pleasing.

 

[danish]

on this one I actually ended up using an angle grinder to thin it down to the ~15mm I was looking for. And then about 18h of sanding after

 

[PaulArthur]

Another cracker, @danish

 

[Mick p]

Made with all materials from skips my brother has a skip hire business but we did drink the gin so all recycled including screws and varnish

 

[akirk]

latest projects...
jenga set - large - made from hardwood...
in the foreground, laminating wood to make a paddle with my godson...

 

[rafezetter]

I don't agree about natural talent - it's more about opportunities and inspiration given, if you are lucky.
There's no known way to discover talent instantly though plenty have been tried. But the slow way works - invest more in education, provide more opportunities and so on.
Education is supposed develop learning skills, encourage interest, open doors to new opportunities - it's not just about remembering a load of stuff!

Just offtopic for a second, nice theory Jacob, now if you can just convince the people who insist on throwing as much muck at children in the hopes some of it will stick (including muck like calculus, or the history of the Roman Empire or any number of other topics that have no bearing on actual life), to STOP doing that and STOP making parents beleive that poor SAT scores means thier children is somehow "lacking" and their children's life will be the poorer for it.

There's a reason why there are some private schools that use a different education system, almost like the one Cabinetman suggests and I wholeheartedly agree with. Most children by thier early teens usually have a pretty good idea of what really gets thier interest, so why do we INSIST on another four years of "general nonsense", rather than giving them the opportunity to focus in that area that much earlier, and sometimes actually DRIVING OUT that initial spark, by telling them they SHOULD NOT focus on a particular topic to the detriment of others.

Children now are lab rats, subjected to the schools desire for better performance reviews, and only "good grades" matters, those that struggle academically get left behind.

 

[Jacob]

Just offtopic for a second, nice theory Jacob, now if you can just convince the people who insist on throwing as much muck at children in the hopes some of it will stick (including muck like calculus, or the history of the Roman Empire or any number of other topics that have no bearing on actual life), to STOP doing that and STOP making parents beleive that poor SAT scores means thier children is somehow "lacking" and their children's life will be the poorer for it.

There's a reason why there are some private schools that use a different education system, almost like the one Cabinetman suggests and I wholeheartedly agree with. Most children by thier early teens usually have a pretty good idea of what really gets thier interest, so why do we INSIST on another four years of "general nonsense", rather than giving them the opportunity to focus in that area that much earlier, and sometimes actually DRIVING OUT that initial spark, by telling them they SHOULD NOT focus on a particular topic to the detriment of others.

Children now are lab rats, subjected to the schools desire for better performance reviews, and only "good grades" matters, those that struggle academically get left behind.

The answer is lack of resources. They don't throw enough muck and they can't do it selectively.
At the top end schools like Eton have massive investment in training for music and the arts for instance. They have a large fully operational theatre and also concert rooms. This is why there are so many posh people on the stage and in the arts.
If you train people up they get good at it. If you cram education, backed up with every possible privilege and opportunity, you can get total morons as prime ministers!

 

[J-G]

including muck like calculus, or the history of the Roman Empire or any number of other topics that have no bearing on actual life

I note that you 'don't care' but that statement can't go unchallenged - it is so wrong in so many ways!

You may not need to use the Calculus (or care about how the Romans influenced democracy) but there are vast swathes of people who do and without their knowledge scientific progress would be much ********.

 

[danst96]

In my opinion, the point of the education system is to learn how to learn. Yes we get taught some stuff we consider useless but what we don't realise (particularly at the time) is we are subconsciously learning how to learn which is possibly the most important life skill. Some schools do this better than others. I was privelaged to go to a private school and the ethos was to learn how to learn but when you stop and think about it, all education is just that, just executed better in some ways.

The issues we have today is we have kids who don't want to learn (not all, but quite a large proportion it would appear) and it's easier to Google an answer to anything.

Ultimately life is one non-stop lesson when you stop and think about it. If you keep an open mind and broad outlook, you learn something every single day.

 

[Jacob]

.... Most children by thier early teens usually have a pretty good idea of what really gets thier interest, .......

To be honest what really got my interest in early teens was beer, cigarettes and girls. I never thought to make a career of it! Too late now.

 

[danst96]

In my opinion, the point of the education system is to learn how to learn. Yes we get taught some stuff we consider useless but what we don't realise (particularly at the time) is we are subconsciously learning how to learn which is possibly the most important life skill. Some schools do this better than others. I was privelaged to go to a private school and the ethos was to learn how to learn but when you stop and think about it, all education is just that, just executed better in some ways.

The issues we have today is we have kids who don't want to learn (not all, but quite a large proportion it would appear) and it's easier to Google an answer to anything.

Ultimately life is one non-stop lesson when you stop and think about it. If you keep an open mind and broad outlook, you learn something every single day.

To add to this.

I relearnt today to measure twice and cut once. Obviously didn't listen in the first lesson, completely stuffed up a very large display unit I'm building

 

[mikej460]

To be honest what really got my interest in early teens was beer, cigarettes and girls. I never thought to make a career of it! Too late now.

If you had made a career out of girls, cigarettes and beer you probably wouldn't be here now

 

[jcassidy]

If you had made a career out of girls, cigarettes and beer you probably wouldn't be here now

You'd probably be a filthy rich politician or a p**s poor tabloid journalist.

 

[Droogs]

If you had made a career out of girls, cigarettes and beer you probably wouldn't be here now

Dunno, Ronnie Wood seems to have managed it

 

[Fitzroy]

Six years ago I built one of my first woodwork projects. A garden table and bench from some reclaimed oak. They both got the ‘flintstone’ treatment, no idea how strong wood is so make it ridiculously thick!

The table has lived outside since and has weathered rather well. However, the bench came into the kitchen shortly afterwards for party seating and never left. The bench was functional, that’s about the only positive I can say. The huge dovetails were a disaster and fit so bad I had to drive little wedges in so the didn’t wobble too bad, they were obviously unglueable due to huge gaps.

A few weeks back I caught my leg on one of these wedges again, and I’d had enough. I took the beast out to the workshop for some repurposing. The tops were taken off, resawn, and glued up into a new wider top. Octagonal tapered legs, and a big bevel gave it the form I had in mind. It was great to have the skills now to build the bench I really wanted to make back then!

Fitz

 

[Orraloon]

A nice makeover.
Good to see the thread back on woodwork too!
Regards
John

 

[MarkDennehy]

Wanted to make some fancy pens, so did some simple ones for practice first:

Those are my second, third and fourth ever pens, in that order, they're just normal 7mm slimline pen kits that came in the axminster beginners kit with the mandrel. First one is a segmented blank I made from oak, walnut, some ebony veneer scraps that were in the offcut box, second is padouk and third is an acrylic blank (the Royal Courtship one from Chestnut). I made a litle keyring with the offcut from the last one as an experiment because I got some fancy pen blanks from Feinesholz for the fancy pens and at about a euro per centimeter, I didn't like the idea of discarding any offcuts

First of the fancy pens was actually a pencil, finished that today. Stabilised Karelian birch (stabilised with blue plexiglass hence the colour), finished with micromesh, yorkshire grit and microfine, two coats of melamine from a spraycan, and a single coat of microcrystalline wax.

Looks nicer in the sunshine Feels good in the hand, already been using it for sketching some ideas, it's quite nice to use.

Next three will be Alpha pen kits from Taylors Mirfield and built as fountain pens, but I need to switch over to a German or French supplier for the next fancy pens - I've been bitten rather badly by VAT/customs/duty fun and games on the last few imports from the UK. A cheap beginners bowl gouge bought on sale from Rutlands so I could try a bottom feeder grind wound up costing as much as a Glenn Lucas gouge sharpened by Glenn himself would have cost me by the time it was all done and the japanese marking knife that was in the box with it when it set out went walkies along the way and I still don't know if it's rattling round the bottom of a UPS van somewhere or if it was confiscated by Customs as a very short katana Taylors Mirfield only have one reseller here and they don't carry the Alpha kits

 

[Garden Shed Projects]

Six years ago I built one of my first woodwork projects. A garden table and bench from some reclaimed oak. They both got the ‘flintstone’ treatment, no idea how strong wood is so make it ridiculously thick!

The table has lived outside since and has weathered rather well. However, the bench came into the kitchen shortly afterwards for party seating and never left. The bench was functional, that’s about the only positive I can say. The huge dovetails were a disaster and fit so bad I had to drive little wedges in so the didn’t wobble too bad, they were obviously unglueable due to huge gaps.
View attachment 110107
View attachment 110106

A few weeks back I caught my leg on one of these wedges again, and I’d had enough. I took the beast out to the workshop for some repurposing. The tops were taken off, resawn, and glued up into a new wider top. Octagonal tapered legs, and a big bevel gave it the form I had in mind. It was great to have the skills now to build the bench I really wanted to make back then!

Fitz
View attachment 110108
View attachment 110109
View attachment 110110
View attachment 110111

Looks really smart. That’s what I like about wood, you take the surface off and it brand new again