It was indicitive and not a final design. This was accepted along with the quote, but put on hold until further notice. Well I was called about 3 weeks ago and told to go ahead with the build, so I repriced, just to make sure that the timber was still within the budget, and ordered the oak. I collected it on Wednesday and quickly realised that there was no way that my humble shop tools were going to handle this stock! A quick call to my Dad, and all was sorted. I took the newly acquired American White Oak to his shop and began to make some saw dust!
He has a 10” planer thicknesser which made short shift of the rough timber. I ran the oak through this, taking about the same amount off of either face, until nice and flat. I then jointed one edge, and ran the other edge through his big Jet bandsaw. (sorry for the truly awful photo)

Then jointed that edge also

Finally for now, I arranged the boards in a pleasing order and dry fitted them

I first drew full size the layout of the desk onto the ply.

From Recently Updated

I then found the centre point if the radius using a straight edge (not really clear from this photo)

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Using the same trammel, I attached my small but trusty bosch 500 POF router, which is one of the first power tools I ever bought just after I finished my apprenticeship

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Then I just cut the arc by running the router over the ply. I did the cut in four passes with a 1/2” cutter. 4 passes because the router is only 500 watt, and it keeps the cut clean also

From Recently Updated

I will now use this ply back as a template to cut the MFC top. For this I will use a profile cutter with my bigger Makita router

I had some 1/2” ply and some smooth softwood taking up space in my shop, so that is what went into this project.

From Steam Box

I fitted some dowling that I had left over from another job to keep the timber off the floor. I then fitted the top, and a loose fitting end cap with a notch cut out to take the steamer hose in, and let the water out.

From Steam Box

The steamer is just a domestic wall paper steamer I already had.

Dimensions for this are 4 foot long by about 8 inches square. This was plenty for what i needed, which was strips of oak at about 3 foot by 2 inches

From Steam Box

On the trial run it appears to have worked pretty well

My advice is, if you are afraid to try something new, try it anyway. What have you got to lose!!

Some questions about this project….

Are the spaces between the tongues too wide? This is fairly close to the plan I think

My plan now is to router grooves along the base of the tongues to try and get more reverb. Will this work?

I have also not put any holes in the sides to let the sound out, would this help perhaps?

I still have some work to do to the finish, just one coat of tongue oil as yet (a first for me).

I welcome your feedback and suggestions,

Thanks

Garry

They are all charred to some degree, not sure how, and all curved to form the cask shape. I have in mind one project, which is to make a small workbench for my daughter. She has discovered, at age 2 1/2, that she likes working with Daddy! So for this I needed some flat boards.

I have just taken delivery of my new planer thicknesser, so thought i would put it to the test! I realise that, to some of you, this new toy, I mean tool, will look like an actual toy, with it’s size and capacity, but it’s still mine all mine! It is a SIP 8”x4” planer/thicknesser, 1500w (about 2hp I think), and the first brand new shop tool I have bought, so I was exited to try it out.

I used the jointer to dress the face that bent upwards (the bottom in the first picture) down to a fine finish, then from here used it to dress the edges. The most challenging part was to put the board through the thicknesser to dress the second face. Because it is so uneven I couldn’t put it through as it is, so I decided to hot glue some sacrificial waste timbers to each edge, made from some old softwood stock. This was true square profile so it allowed the rollers to hold the piece flat against the thicknesser table. I hope this makes sense, as I never took any photos to show what I mean. The result was a perfectly flat, square piece of oak, as you can see from the top photo. This is a very long drawn out process, and I’m sure there are other, easier ways. But it makes me happy to know that my new tool works well.

Those panels are around here somewhere!

First Panels go up at last!

Roof on and cladding complete,almost!

Internal OSB cladding

Fitting out begins

This has so far been a very long process, but I am in at last! I start a job tomorrow for a client to build some storage. I will make all the cabinets in my new shop! Hooray! I still need to build my benches and install the power, but it is a dry and reasonably warm space to work for now. So hopefully I will be able to post some new projects, and, the progress of the shop fit soon!

My pile of timber (existing garage/shop in background)

Some sections complete

Ridge detail

Completed roof timbers

I like my DeWalt!

I finished cutting the roof timbers today and took delivery of the final load f weather board… HOORAH!

All i need to do now is demolish my existing concrete monstrosity, fit the wall plate and erect the new frame!

I’ll post pictures as soon as i set up flickr!