therookie's Blog at LumberJocks.com

Not Woodworking Just Exciting

therookie — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 17:42:40 GMT

I have been out of the shop for almost three months now due to football practice and work. But in all reality I would not trade it for a brand new shop that is fully equipped. I do love woodworking but with it being my senior year in high school I decided to play football one last year and what a choice. We are currently 2-1 due to our 39-42 loos in our first game. but now that we are back on our feet, we are starting to pick up the pace of our games. Our second game we won 47-6 and now our most recent game against Mt. Morris, we one 47-0 in the first half due to it being cancelled because of lightening. This past week was a victorious week for all of Lake Fenton’s Football teams with Freshman winning 44-0 J.V winning 52-22 and varsity 47-0. This is probably the wrong place to post this but it is just so exciting to see that no one in the state is talking about lake fenton going anywhere and after last night we are the talk of the town.

You ever get a feeling?

therookie — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 21:05:29 GMT

Well about two days ago, my whole world was turned upside down. I got into my first car accident. I was going down my freshly graded dirt road and got to close to the shoulder and started to slide, I over corrected from the slide and slid off the road hitting a tree and bouncing into a pond. Well after a night that I dont remember in the hospital, I came home and found out that the car was totaled, the police did not listen to my dad, and my car got towed away by a tow truck company after my dad told them to drop the car in our drive way that was 500 yards down the road. Then I got the bill from the HAZMAT crew because the fire crew thought that they saw oil and gas in the water. So I went down and looked at the car to see where the oil and gas came from, and there were no leaks, the two tanks were still full and the engine ran still. So now I and looking at the $1400 bill from hazmat saying why did they come out again? Finally this afternoon, I got a call from a police officer who was the first to respond to the scene and he asked if I was home. I told him yes and he said he would be there in 10 minutes to write me my tickets. Well ten minutes and 7 tickets later I am down in a hole that I dug for my self and no end in sight. My estimated total from the accident is around $4500 and I am just flustered to a point where I needed to get some of this anger out. I was the only one in the accident thank god, and I to a point am happy to be alive, but on the other hand where the heck do they expect a 17 year old kid working 2 jobs making $250 a month to come up with $4500 in 60 days. Any one have suggestions? I have already started by putting up some of my woodworking stuff hoping it sells so I can get down some of these bills. But advice would be nice from people who have gone through this before. Thanks Adam.

Delta rockwell 34-395 tablesaw #1: Gloat time

therookie — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 03:04:36 GMT

Well doing my search on Craigslist and I found a 14” tablesaw for sale. Will post pics tomorrow if I get it un loaded. But anyway the guy had the saw for sale for 600 bucks and it has some minor issues but it runs and the bearings and stuff are like new. It has extra large bismeyer fence rails for 72” of rip capacity to the right of the blade. And here comes the best part

Wait for it

I got the saw for $400 bucks a really good deal in my opinion because I and going to set it up like my planer with a 7.5hp single phase motor and hopefully have under $1500 in the whole saw when I am done. So $1100 for a complete restoration.

Back To Woodworking

therookie — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 01:14:44 GMT

Well I have not been getting much time to do any woodworking lately because of power lifting at my high school. But now that I am done with states and Placed 9th out of 16 in the state. I am ready to do my first commission from one of my teachers at school. He wants a Cherry Podium so I will be hopefully posting some blog entries about that. Until then stay safe and make some dust.

Deltas Coming Back

therookie — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:55:51 GMT

Just checked my email this morning and my local woodcraft had a article basically saying that delta it coming back to South Carolina and all of there stuff will be MADE IN USA. Such great news now if other companies would start doing this.

Here are my two babies

therookie — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:34:33 GMT

I have not used the planer with the new motor but I cant wait, I need to get some wire and wait for the gear on back order to come in but I just used my brand new used J-Line 12×36 wood lathe spindle goes from 635 to 4950. So i also got nine buck bros turning tools with the lathe. So i am so excited because I have everything I wanted but a dust collector. So once I pay my dad the rest of the money he loaned me I will buy that. So thanks for reading.

Very very excited

therookie — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 23:02:28 GMT

Well today was the first day of school and I got home and my dad surprised me. He said the motor for the planer has been ordered. Well I was thinking it was $800 like the motors were all going for. But nope it was 604 instead for a 7.5hp single phase motor. We decied to go the new motor route because if I ever decide to resell it it makes it more desirable because anyone with 220 single phase and a 30 amp line can run it. So with the few parts I had to replace and the new motor I bought a $3500 planer for 800+230+600=$1630 versus paying 1900+800=2700 for a powermatic and this one came with 5 sets of 24inch blades which my dad know how to sharpen. So i am stoked to get the motor and parts in and plane some wood.

Thanks for looking

Oh an ps if you guys ever need planer blades sharpend just drop me a PM and I will give you a quote.

Dang it

therookie — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 05:11:42 GMT

Just realized I missed my one year anniversery by 5 days so depressing thats what I get for 12 hour work days.

Ok I got a HUGE wood Gloat

therookie — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 23:50:30 GMT

So a man from my boy scout troop is moving to California for a job offer and he had a woodshop. Well he was in the middle of building a snake tank and asked me to finish it for him. I asked him in a nice way what can I expect as a payment. He then tells me I will surprise you in a week. Well that was last sunday. So when I brought the tank down to be delivered, he said follow me and what a nice surprise. He was like this is all yours.

The list includes the following:
158bdft 4/4 cherry
a 14’ long by 7.25” wide piece of 5/4 cherry
25bdft of Old Barn Wood
50bdft of 4/4 white oak and a whole lot of drops

Then this wednesday I get to go back and pick up $900 in drawer pulls and hinges as well as 700#’s of nuts bolts screws and washers!!!!!! and I am buying all of his clamps and incra 1000d Miter Gauge off of him. So here is a couple pics of the wood.

This is a good size portion of the load ^

The 14’ Board

What I sorted through and kept all of the best drops

First part of the cherry

All of the boards on the tractor ready to be stored.

Oh and my favorite part 2 BOARD FEET!!!!!!!

My "Bucket List" #12: Segment Four Part Two- Almost done assembling

therookie — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 05:07:10 GMT

Well today was an extremley busy day my dad and I went and did a tree clean up job for a guy in my scout troop. We hauled out 2 mounded 8’ x 16’ trailer loads of box elder and I got some pretty nice wood but thats a later blog. When we were all done with the tree and had everything cleaned up I got to get back to work on my WorkBench. So I put the end aprons on, made the clamp bars and got the holes drilled in them notched them out and put the slots in the bench top pieces and drilled the holes for those too. All in 6 hours kind of slow I know. So here are the clamp bars that are finished and ready to be put to use.

This is the entire clamp bar view.

This shows you the radius that was cut in the corner to prevent splitting thats a 1/4” radius and a 1 1/2” x 2” notch taken out.

I also got the whole base of the bench assembled.

I noticed the space underneath the bottom aprons that will support the shelf and I think that I am going to make a set of drawers to go under so I can store finishes and tools and stuff like that I have to design that yet.

Here is a couple of views of the bench top section where the slots were milled and the holes were drill for the custom nuts to go into.

And finally to close this blog entry, I was able to get one section of the top into the clamps and have the glue setting up. I am going to write another couple blog entries on how the clamps work eetc. and the final assembly as well as the drawer. So until then

My "Bucket List" #11: Segmant four part Two- the assembly of the bench has begun

therookie — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 04:31:11 GMT

!Well today I made some progress assembling the sides and “t” braces of my bench. I have to put the end aprons on then I need to make the tops sections and other stuff like that.

This is the screw pattern I used to attach the T-Braces

This is the long side. one of them.

I will be posting more as i get it done

My Very First Wood Gloat

therookie — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 03:35:54 GMT

Well recently, I went to NJ with my mom dad and sisters to see my grandparents and other family members. While there my dad and I went to one of his friends houses and picked up my dads old rockwell hardness tester. While there my dad brought up the interest I had in woodworking and John (my dads’ friend) was like wait here. When he came back he led me to where had over 500bdft of 10/4 black walnut, 8/4 cherry and some nice 12/4 red oak. All has been drying in his barn for 20 years and has stayed straight as an arrow. When I saw this I was in awe and he said this will get you started and if you can prove to me you arnt going to waist it, I will give you the rest at a later point in time. So here is the piece of 10/4×13” x 37” piece of air dried black walnut.

So the project I will use this for is a small bench and then will bring it with me out to him next time I see him. I am so excited

My "Bucket List" #10: Segment Four Part One- I am gonna tease you with this.

therookie — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:03:02 GMT

When I first started my bucket list, I had planned on making a cabinet based work bench well every good plan gets changed at least once throughout the process of planning. When I say that it gets changed boy oh boy do I mean it. The first issue that I noticed with my original design that I drew up of the bench was the overall cost of the bench. For a 6 foot bench, it would have cost me over $1500 just to get the materials to get started. So Now I go into the changes I made.

1. The wood: I know it might be Sac-Religious wood wise not to use hard maple for the top but I just cannot justify the cost for the maple when I can get some 8/4 ash for $1.50 a bdft planed versus $4.95 a bdft planed. So that was the first change that I made. Was the wood for the top and the rest of the pieces.

2. The Legs: The original plan was to use some Douglas fir for the legs and face glue them together. But When I was in the process of completing my Eagle Scout Project I had a Log Milled to give me the lumber for the 12ft tall cross that I put up. When the Mill Owner milled everything for me I was left over with some 5.25” by 5.125” by 16 foot beams all of quarter sawn/ rift sawn ash. So when I went up to Pollums Natural Resources (My wood guy) (www.pollumsnaturalresources.com) I asked him if he could plane them square and he said that he would joint them for me then plane them using his double sided planer. So the legs of the bench are going to be 5” square.

3. Top assembly/usage, when I was going over my plan with my dad and told him that the top of the bench was going to be 3”x30”x72” and that I am going to make it in (4) 18” sections he said that I should think about multi use bench top designs. When he said this, I kind was dumbfounded but said what do you mean? His reply was think “Clamp”. So I got into thinking and with a couple more hints from him, I figured out what if I left it in segments and just made hold downs to bolt the top down with. Now this may seem confusing but when I get to the point of milling the slots for the custom made nuts that I will be making, I will post a blog tutorial on how to make the top.

4. What about the cabinet? Well that was the biggest decision I had to think about. When I started changing the overall design of the bench, I looked through the woodworking magazines that my grandfather saved for me and brought out on his last trip to MI, I found a standing tool cabinet in one of the Wood Magazines that was made from ash and I thought it would look great next to the bench on the adjacent wall in the basement. So once I have the bench built I have some more money to make and save to pay for this cabinet.

5. So what did this all gain me? Well in the end I did the Math and the final saving was just over $600 when everything is done and I think that is quite substantial and will be lots of other projects. Well that’s all I have for now, stay tuned for my next entry with pictures of the lumber that I am using and some of the lay out details on the legs and top. And now for the teaser the legs. They are solid ash and boy are they nice.

My "Bucket List" #9: Segment Three Part Four- Sorry guys

therookie — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 20:20:58 GMT

Well I finished up the barristers bookcase over the past week and have the cases ready for glass, but the whole thing was put away in the attic until I make room in the basement for the bookcase. I will take and post pics when I pull it down from the attic and put it back together. Sorry I did not take pics before it was put away but I have a lot on my plate between school and other projects and football starting back up. I will be blogging about my heavy duty mobile work bench next. So until then bye.

My "Bucket List" #8: There has been some changes

therookie — Wed, 18 May 2011 04:08:01 GMT

Well after looking at my projects that I would like to complete, and getting a pretty nasty response to one of the many letters I have sent out, I have decided to make some changes to my “Bucket List”. The first part of business is the new list.

1.Pie Crust Table
2.Barristers Bookcase
3.Queen Ann High Boy
4.Spice box on a frame
5.Bombe Chest
6.Maloof Style music Stand
7.The Ultimate in workbenches
8.Shop carts with built in storage
9.Norms Router Table
10.Windsor Chair (Hand Tool Heavy style)

As you can see I took out about 4 of the original projects for some very good reasons. One the nasty enail from one of my letters. Two the cost of the wood to me I was looking at $10,000 and due to me wanting to learn more about other types of furniture and design stuff for my shop rather that focus on a maloof style everything I will just do the music stand and thats all for maloof style stuff until I can get my foot in the door in the way of furniture sales. So my list has changed dramatically but to make up for taking out the other projects, I will be blogging about some of the stuff I plan on making on the side with extra wood.

My "Bucket List" #7: Segment Three Part Four: The case assemblies are starting to take shape with the doors.

therookie — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:55:43 GMT

Well as you read above, the cases are coming together rather nicley. I have made some head way with the bookcase but was put on hold for a little while because I was taking care of the planning stages of my Eagle Scout Court Of Honor. But that is another story. Here is a pic of a case assembly dry fit together with out the door and then with the door.

So as you can see the bookcase should hopefully be finished by mothers day. I am going to finish it with danish oil and maybe shellac or lacquer. But I dont know. so two more entries and the bookcase will be done. Then I will post the blog on my ULTIMATE WORKBENCH with everything on how to build it.

My "Bucket List" #6: Segment Three Part Two: I feel really accomplished today.

therookie — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:13:00 GMT

Well as I stated before I got the Ash for my Barristers Bookcase yesterday and milled it to rought width and length. So today, I started gluing up panels for the sides, backs, bottoms and the top of the bookcase. Well starting at 9am and getting finished at 9pm was good in my mind to glue up thirteen panels when you can only do two at a time because of the lack of clamps that I have. So after letting the glue set up for an hour at a time, I took the panels out and then sanded them dead flat to 150 grit to make them look pretty. So on the last one I was thinking that this makes me feel really special because I was only using 10 clamps and got all of this work done. So now here is a picture of all thirteen panels.

From left to right starting at the bottom it goes three bottoms, three backs, six side and then one top.

Thanks again and stay tuned for my next entry which will either be the top and the base or the fames for the cases to sit on.

My "Bucket List" #5: Part Three Segmant One: The BARRISTERS BOOKCASE.

therookie — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 20:26:26 GMT

Ok now this project has a lot of meaning in it. When I was going through the table part of my projects, I thought about giving up and cutting the table up into firewood and then burning it. But my mom was always there with my dad saying take a break and come back to it when you calm down. Well as a way to thank them, I would like to say thanks and make them somthing special. This will be my moms mothers day present. So I thought that I would “dedicate” my next project to them both. So my next project is the barristers bookcase on my bucket list. I got all of the wood and decided to use ash instead of vertical grain douglas fir like the plan I am referencing off of tells you to do. I used it for two reasons:
1. Its cheap in michigan
2. I like the way it smells.
So when I picked up the wood I got roughly 30bdft of 4/4 ash and 30bdft of 8/4 ash. When the bill was totaled up by my wood guy he was like that will be $110 please. So I paid hime and got the wood planed. It came out really nice and I brought it home then started milling it which was a big no no but his place where he stores the lumber is the same climate in temp and humidity as my basement.

Here is the wood for the rest of the panels. (I have four of the panels glued up and sanded and the other two in the clamps.

Four of the six finished side panels.

This is most of the other wood.

Well until next time thanks for reading. Adam

My "Bucket List" #4: Segmant 3: Finally finished with the table.

therookie — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 20:06:26 GMT

Well I can cross the table off my bucket list. I am extremley happy with the way it turned out for me being a novice woodworker and all.

Here is the completed table with the carvings and the finish put on. Now I was going to carve the pecans in but I thought they would show up better if I burned them in so that is what I did.

When I was making the center pedestal, I thought of trying to turn one but decided against it because I have never turned anything. So I made a Hexagon Base and continued them into the feet. So the feet are one third the size of the table and have mini Pie Crust Tables on top of them which are also 1/3 scale.

So this was number one on my Bucket list and now it is complete. This was made out of one of the hardest woods to use in order to make a pie crust table and that was QSWO. The finish was a Golden Oak by minwax followed by three coats of Semi Gloss Poly and a nice wax. Thanks For reading

My "Bucket List" #3: Pie Crust Table-Segment 2: Set back

therookie — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 02:52:27 GMT

Well it has been interesting since I last posted an entry, I had the table top glued up and the outside profile cut and was starting on the inside when I started this Blog entry. well when I was hollowing out the center, I forgot the wood moves. well to my dismay, the table top cupped a good 3/8” and I was think great now wat. So I put weight on it to straighten it and nothing so I made a custom frame work to go underneath it to suck it flat so I can finish the inside and get to carving. I also made the feet legs aprons and pedestal which all came out nice other than some of the surface checks. So after lots of epoxy and some time trying out mortise and tennon joinery, I had the entire base assembled and glued up. So once I screw the top dow and get it flat, I can carve the pecans in and finish sanding the whols thing. Then comes the finish. I was thinking golden oak with some polyurethane on top of it but I am not sure I will have to play with some scrap and see.