I work for a student housing office at a university in California and my department was about to throw out many solid oak butcherblock lounge chairs to make room for new furniture. I was able to claim most of the chairs for myself and my fellow woodworking instructors at our campus woodshop.
Now, after I take off all the seat cushions and hardware, I am left with many 2”x 21”x 27” solid oak pieces. Along with other smaller pieces from the supports and stretchers, I have a lot of very good wood here. I can easily give my students these pieces to make some easy butcherblock cutting boards, but that makes it too easy for them as they won’t learn how to square stock, glue and basic joinery.
So I am left with a wonderful problem; what should I do with all this wood? I know, I know, many of you are screaming, “Give it to your Lumberjock buddies!!”, well in a way, I have done that very thing with other local woodshop instructors.
So what would you make if you had these pieces? I am about to embark on my official woodworkers workbench with tail vices and all the attachments, but I already have some solid maple earmarked for that.
Please share any and all ideas and I’ll be sure to report the end results.
Thanks everyone!
-- Branden - Sacramento, California - www.ShopDogUSA.com
BPM, I am now in the process of making a butcher block table. Is going to have a 24X36 top of scrape red oak and walnut for the top. The rest of it will be oak wiht 1 1/2 legs and will be 36” tall to match a counter height.
It is going to have 1 drawer that will pull out from either side and a slide out garbage container that slides out from one end that plastic bags can be put in. Also on castors. It will make a useful tool and is big enough for 2 people to eat at.
There are enough mortice and tennons and angles and drawer parts-slides to keep any student busy.
While I would not want to destroy fine furniture and functional pieces, maybe you can cut them up to be used in other student projects. The seats could be ripped to make nice boards for their small breadbox or other such project. The legs and back might yield enough straight pieces for making small stools and such.
You could also save some of the joints to demonstrate what they should look like. Maybe saw a few in half so they can see the inner workings as well.
I cut up a mahogany table because someone sunk a bunch of deck screws in it and ruined it for what it was. I saved the legs ripped the table top down into 2 1/2” strips and then reglued them back together and made a mahogany writing table.
Take what you have, manipulate it into what you want. I’m looking into ways to stretch a board, and for some of you old school thinkers that say it can’t be done… Watch me. They have them finger joint router bits that make it so you can joint sticks togeter end-to-end , well I was thinking about doing the same thing only differently. Dovetail the ends with just the tails, and then Jigsaw puzzle them together, glue them side by side, and make a custom board. I also saw a way to stretch a board by cutting a wider board diagonally and then sliding them together to make a longer thinner board.
How about some nice bowl blanks? 21” X 21” X 2” butcher block blanks for bowls would be a temendous donation to any high school woodworking program in your area! Keep a couple for yourself too!
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