What could I make?

[Water-Mark]

Firstly hello, I'm new to the forum and woodworking in general though it's something I've often admired but always thought I lacked the patience for.

Here is my dilemma, due to a minor (read monumental) mistake by our kitchen fitter some years ago I saved several pieces of wenge block wood worktop from the skip that my wife now wants moved out of our dining room.
I had no real plans for this apart from a shelf in the kitchen and a lid for the concealed cistern box in the cloak room and now these are done the pressure to "do something" (read bin) is mounting so I've decided to give wood working a proper stab and make something, but what?
Can this type of block wood be used for anything?

Just to give you some idea of the tools and skills I possess I'm a plumber by trade and have worked as a tree surgeon in the past but have never done any woodwork since school though I have restored several cars so I'm not entirely useless.

I have basic tools that I use for work, jig & circular saw, drills and drill press a 1/4 plunge router, that I only used to butcher one piece of skirting board as a practice run and a £5.99 set of wickes chisels that are normally found chasing out soft block work

So with minimal sarcasm what should (could) I make?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Whatever you do with it, the dust is noxious and the splinters horrible - be careful.

 

[Water-Mark]

Thanks for the heads up, the fitter who eventually got them right said they were unpleasant to work with but I thought he just meant it's a really hard wood.

 

[ColeyS1]

What kind of sizes have you got?

 

[Water-Mark]

It's all 40 mm thick so starting with the biggest
1300 X 650
600 X 740 (two of these)
600 X 640
550 X 500
800 X 200
640 X 210
640 X 270
300 X 300 (two of these)
Some upstand off cuts, and a few scraps here and there.
Most would need the edges squared so use able sizes would be smaller so anything from a jewelry box to a coffee table, or even both.

 

[Water-Mark]

Just a thought, I also have some brass plate.
And sizes are mm.

 

[andersonec]

Cut them into chopping board sizes, glue on a nice contrasting edging, Maple, Lime, Sycamore, sand and finish them and put them on ebay.

Andy

 

[Togalosh]

some years ago I saved several pieces of wenge block wood worktop from the skip that my wife now wants moved out of our dining room.

..what is it with women not seeing the bigger picture? :roll:

If you knew someone who could rip them to 20mm thickness you could make a chest of drawers, bedside cabinets, bathroom cabinets or if not then how about a chunky tv stand or coffee table? Doing anything is better than nothing. Exotic wood should be used to the very end IMHO.

You could do most things with dowels or biscuits & clamps or cargo strapping if you didn't want to buy more tools (which is an enjoyable but steep & slippery slope) or not have the space for a garden workshop.

If you are good with your hands your already half way there & all the advice you need is here .. but patience is trickiest.. for me at least.

Good luck

 

[rileytoolworks]

If this is a block wood worktop is it not made of 40mm x 40mm strips laminated together?
That would limit the usability of it for furniture, I would have thought.
As has been said, chopping boards are probably your best bet.
Worktops express list wenge boards @ 450mm x 300mm for £35 each. They are simply rounded and sanded/olied.
OR get them ripped into blanks that you could sell to woodturners. You could get a fair few pen blanks from it.
IF you could sell them, it could pay for some woodworking toys. I mean tools....

All the best.

Adam.

 

[RogerM]

.............., due to a minor (read monumental) mistake by our kitchen fitter some years ago I saved several pieces of wenge block wood worktop from the skip that my wife now wants moved out of our dining room.

You've had a skip in your dining room for "some years"? No wonder you're wife is getting a bit "sniffy"!

I had no real plans for this apart from a shelf in the kitchen and a lid for the concealed cistern box in the cloak room

Hmmm. I can see the skip hiding the concealed cistern, but not sure about the shelf.

So with minimal sarcasm .........

Ooops! But hey! That's what counts as minimal sarcasm around here. Welcome to the forum btw and well done for saving the Wenge from the skip. I agree with the sentiment that something like Wenge should not be wasted. Small decorative boxes? Bookends? You could also ask your wife what she would like as recompense for having a skip in her dining room for years.

 

[disco_monkey79]

Welcome to the forum, and (as stated by others) well done on saving the wood. Why do none of the skips I come across contain decent timber like that?

Re what to make - what do you need? Are you lacking shelving anywhere? Does your wife need a jewellery/trinket box? The only way I can come up with a project idea is to identify a need. My OH promised to get rid of her horrid glass chopping board if we replaced it with a similar-sized wooden one. Hence her unwrapping a chopping board on Xmas day...

 

[Water-Mark]

Thanks for the reply's, firstly there's a skip in the dinning room because my car is on the drive, this means my van has to be parked on the road leaving no room outside for a skip and all because my garage is full of toys. I mean tools.
I'm going to use some of the up stand to make a string jig for making bow strings (hobby crossover)

My wife doesn't really have much jewelry and usually describes ornaments and such like as clutter.
I'll look into cutting some pen and bowl blanks and see if I can trade or sell for tool money etc, though right now it's looking like giant jenga and chopping boards all round at Christmas

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Chopping boards? I don't think I would risk eating wenge splinters, having seen the mess they made of my hands.

 

[Water-Mark]

Just out of curiosity how strong are the glued joints of block wood like this?
I'm not thinking of making anything structural bit it might be handy to know what it's limits are.
Thanks.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Welcome Walter-Mark!

Commercially-made glue joints: stronger than the wood usually, nowadays. Your pieces have been well stored, insofar as the conditions. If you kept them horiznotal*, they're probably also not warped either - another good thing.

Put us out of our collective misery by telling us what tools you do have, to work with it. Do you, for instance, have a decent saw, powered or otherwise? Wenge can look pretty good, and as discussed, there are all sorts of things you might do with it.

To gain the crucial Brownie Points, is there anything else she might want for the kitchen, for example saucepan stands, bread bins, plate racks, etc., even a lid for the microwave or a biscuit barrel**? It ought to match in nicely.

E.

*that's one for the New Dictionary: horiznotal n. Being kept horizontal by a heavy cold.
**er, cube.

 

[Water-Mark]

Thanks for that, good to know the glue is strong.

As for tools it's as dire as I said I'm afraid with the circular saw and router my only salvation.
I'll know more about what I'm capable of when I do the string jig.

She does bake, but I'm struggling for inspiration.

 

[JakeS]

As for tools it's as dire as I said I'm afraid with the circular saw and router my only salvation.

If you can find someone with a bandsaw to resaw the stock a bit thinner you could probably rout some grooves in bits to make trivets fairly easily... although it might take you a while to get a smooth finish if literally all you have is a router and a circular saw! ;-)

It's possible to make bowls (probably the finger-food or key-keeping kind) with just a router to cut the hollow and a saw to cut the outside edge. Either cut an MDF template with a fretsaw or something and use a bearing-guided cutter, or clamp stops in place to keep the router in the right area, then make a series of shallow cuts with a half-circle cutter or something to give a rounded-edge to the bottom. You can get special bowl-cutting bits if you look around. Then cut out from the blank and round over the underside edges. Search around the Internet for 'router bowl', there's a lot out there.