tl;dr: I got over whatever block I had and built a table & benches I'd been planning for years.
In High School, I really enjoyed shop class... after graduation, I bought random small tools and handled some household work, but always had some mental block about going out and buying wood and big tools to build the things I really wanted to tackle. The first project I wanted to take on was to build a replica of the picnic table my grandfather built about 90 years ago. I remember sitting with him at that table many afternoons, planning projects, talking about cars, life, etc. So, this table means a lot to me and even though I've taken care of it, the years have caught up and it is rotting away.
I built a Sketchup model of the table in its exact form, then I made a copy and started making minor upgrades (I think he'd approve). Here's the original table along with one of the benches, along with what the updated version is going to look like:
http://cl.ly/image/2a2T0S1W280rhttp://cl.ly/image/1j2q3P2d3V2X
There _is_ a certain process and inherent knowledge that people who shop for things like wood, tools, supplies, etc., just inherently know that seem like huge hurdles for nerds like us. It's "just wood" just like it's "just typing" for us. When we're rude to a n00b, think about what "old timer" thinks of you going into his parts store or lumber yard in your khakis asking about stuff you don't know about. MOST of them are encouraging and want to share their knowledge, but it's really up to us as newbies to take initiative and learn how things work.
I had an opportunity last month to buy some shop tools (table, radial arm, band saw, sanding equipment), so I decided to finally give it a real shot.
First, I got the equipment set up and watched dozens of youtube videos about each piece of equipment - from keeping them clean and working well to calibrating every possible alignment & went to work making sure they were all perfect.
Next, I bought a set of precision rulers, protractors, etc., and made some practice cuts on scrap wood I had in the house/garage/etc.
Finally, it was time to buy wood. I must have watched 25 youtube videos about not just buying wood, but learning about the various cuts and ratings of wood. All very interesting, and I felt like I could at least identify a good bit of lumber from the bad, and it helped to catch up on some of the terminology & etiquette of the lumberyard. To make a long part of the story short - if you walk into a Lowes or any real lumber yard wearing shop-looking clothes and are carrying a notebook & pen, nobody's going to bother you. You can spend all the time you want looking over the selection, noting prices, etc. Seriously, this was a major milestone for me to realize. I ALWAYS feel rushed when I'm in a store... there was something different and nice about taking time to pick through and find the wood I thought was going to be great. Of course, if you do this, don't make a mess and put everything back the way you found it.
Another hurdle was that I didn't think (at first) I could fit lumber in my car. I drive a crossover and discovered that the passenger seat folds flat, leaving plenty of room for 8' lumber. I can fit 10' in diagonally if I let it touch the dash. You might be surprised what you can fit in your car when you fold the seats down & give it a measure.
Anyway, with the wood all loaded up, I got home and started planning my cuts. I printed the sketchup model and started documenting everything - making notes of how I can get the most of each board, figuring out which order I should tackle them in, how I'd arrange the mounting bits, etc. Honestly, I probably spent 5 minutes planning for every 30 seconds of cutting. I don't know if that's normal, but it was actually kindof exciting to make some cuts, get out the protractor, and find that I was dead on with what the model said I should be.
I wrote WAY more than I expected. This particular post and topic really hit me though. Here are some more pics of the work - I have most of the table completed and ready for assembly. The benches are finished & ready to be sealed, though. They came out pretty well, especially for my first project.
Nice. In terms of buying the raw materials - you should find if there is a specialty supplier in your area. You can get a lot more interesting cuts and species from those, especially if you're working on relatively small scale projects. The major stores are optimized around people buying lots for bigger projects. You might even be able to find a sawmill somewhere that is willing to sell direct.
Also, don't forget...they're just trees. You can get them milled yourself and get your own wood. My brother in law saw an old oak tree get cut down for a new factory. It had a nice, solid straight log. He approached them (they were going to chip it) and asked that, if he had it removed within 24 hours, could he have it? They said yes, and were happy. He got a truck to pick it up, and delivered to his house. He then got a portable sawmill contractor (these are a framed saw that sit around the log and mill it in place, rather than feeding the log through a stationary mill). They then stacked the green wood in the yard (correctly spaced for airing) and covered it with a tarp and an old sheet of roofing iron. A couple of years later it was good to go. About 10-15% was warped and useless but he got lots - and I mean lots - of fantastic oak all cut too sizes he wanted. From this he worked (and is still working) on building furniture - sideboards, table, a 'piece' chair, as well as trimming for his mantelpiece and a lot of other things. He could have sold the surplus for a healthy profit, but instead chooses to keep some and give away others to people who are interested.
If you enjoy the process of choosing the right pieces, you'd love the process of actually selecting a tree and then turning that into long-lasting, quality furniture that will outlast you.
EDIT: On that point, some timber is near-impossible to obtain now because of logging restrictions. However, sometimes individual trees are cleared from urban areas that would never be allowed to be removed from a forest. If you learn what the trees look like you might get lucky one day.
Make contact with your city arborist. They know/pick when the nice old trees are getting cut down and if you get lucky you might be the only one who has inquired about reclaiming the wood.
Looks nice. Make sure you whack off a one inch triangle from the corners of the legs. This will make them WAY less wobbly. I apologize the ASCII art is not the best. Hopefully this gets the idea across:
Currently Desired
/ / / /
/ / / /
/ / / /
/______/ /\ \_____/
^
See the missing corner.
This is not something I reasoned out in my bedroom. It is knowledge passed on from someone to me who learned it from someone else and then reinforced during my own experience. The next time you see some outdoor furniture, picnic table, adirondack chair, etc take a peak at the feet. Then give it a wiggle and for bonus points pick it up and move/rotate it five or six inches. The obvious answer is that the smaller leg means that you you do not need to find as large of a flat area for the leg to stand on. It means that the leg can rest inside of a little divot on your lawn. In addition to reducing wobble it makes it less likely that someone stubs their toe and trips on the corner, but I am less sold on that one.
More importantly, it is just wood, go try it yourself. If you don't have the saw blade on a SAK/leatherman and a piece of scrap wood try scissors and a spaghetti box or a couple of pieces cardboard taped together. "Learning" something from a comment by that ornery dude on HN is not the same thing as seeing it in practice.
> I had an opportunity last month to buy some shop tools (table, radial arm, band saw, sanding equipment), so I decided to finally give it a real shot.
The radial arm saw doesn't get enough love, probably because it has space planning requirements that table saws can bypass on account of their portability.
I have both, and use them all the time, but the radial arm saw is by far my preference.
Also often-ignored but fully worthwhile: decent dust collection. Not a shop vac.
Nice work there. It gets faster, but the pleasure is in the doing.
> The radial arm saw doesn't get enough love, probably because it has space planning requirements that table saws can bypass on account of their portability.
No, the radial arm saw does not get enough love because it is dangerous when used for anything but cross cuts and straight angled cuts, both of which are easily handled by a miter saw, which is safer and more versatile.
I used one for years and was happy when I finally gave it away. A sliding miter saw and a table saw are a safer combination, for sure.
Wholly agree with the dust collection. You can actually get far with a shop vac if you add a cyclone type pre-filter bin to it.
This is analogous to saying, I can tell you Lisp is no good because I used it for a couple of years and was glad to stop. The radial arm saw doesn't get enough love for two reasons: poorly-made department-store versions that don't keep their settings, and ill-informed people who never learned how to maintain and use one properly. The original DeWalt saws and the Northfield saws are amazing machine tools, beautifully made, safe when used properly, tremendously powerful and versatile. owwm.org and the Mr. Sawdust book are great resources.
I really enjoy the radial arm saw, but it does seem like the sliding compound miters are taking their place. I figure if these work for most of the work I need to do, then it'll be easier to justify things like a planer & jointer.
In High School, I really enjoyed shop class... after graduation, I bought random small tools and handled some household work, but always had some mental block about going out and buying wood and big tools to build the things I really wanted to tackle. The first project I wanted to take on was to build a replica of the picnic table my grandfather built about 90 years ago. I remember sitting with him at that table many afternoons, planning projects, talking about cars, life, etc. So, this table means a lot to me and even though I've taken care of it, the years have caught up and it is rotting away.
I built a Sketchup model of the table in its exact form, then I made a copy and started making minor upgrades (I think he'd approve). Here's the original table along with one of the benches, along with what the updated version is going to look like: http://cl.ly/image/2a2T0S1W280r http://cl.ly/image/1j2q3P2d3V2X
There _is_ a certain process and inherent knowledge that people who shop for things like wood, tools, supplies, etc., just inherently know that seem like huge hurdles for nerds like us. It's "just wood" just like it's "just typing" for us. When we're rude to a n00b, think about what "old timer" thinks of you going into his parts store or lumber yard in your khakis asking about stuff you don't know about. MOST of them are encouraging and want to share their knowledge, but it's really up to us as newbies to take initiative and learn how things work.
I had an opportunity last month to buy some shop tools (table, radial arm, band saw, sanding equipment), so I decided to finally give it a real shot.
First, I got the equipment set up and watched dozens of youtube videos about each piece of equipment - from keeping them clean and working well to calibrating every possible alignment & went to work making sure they were all perfect.
Next, I bought a set of precision rulers, protractors, etc., and made some practice cuts on scrap wood I had in the house/garage/etc.
Finally, it was time to buy wood. I must have watched 25 youtube videos about not just buying wood, but learning about the various cuts and ratings of wood. All very interesting, and I felt like I could at least identify a good bit of lumber from the bad, and it helped to catch up on some of the terminology & etiquette of the lumberyard. To make a long part of the story short - if you walk into a Lowes or any real lumber yard wearing shop-looking clothes and are carrying a notebook & pen, nobody's going to bother you. You can spend all the time you want looking over the selection, noting prices, etc. Seriously, this was a major milestone for me to realize. I ALWAYS feel rushed when I'm in a store... there was something different and nice about taking time to pick through and find the wood I thought was going to be great. Of course, if you do this, don't make a mess and put everything back the way you found it.
Another hurdle was that I didn't think (at first) I could fit lumber in my car. I drive a crossover and discovered that the passenger seat folds flat, leaving plenty of room for 8' lumber. I can fit 10' in diagonally if I let it touch the dash. You might be surprised what you can fit in your car when you fold the seats down & give it a measure.
Anyway, with the wood all loaded up, I got home and started planning my cuts. I printed the sketchup model and started documenting everything - making notes of how I can get the most of each board, figuring out which order I should tackle them in, how I'd arrange the mounting bits, etc. Honestly, I probably spent 5 minutes planning for every 30 seconds of cutting. I don't know if that's normal, but it was actually kindof exciting to make some cuts, get out the protractor, and find that I was dead on with what the model said I should be.
I wrote WAY more than I expected. This particular post and topic really hit me though. Here are some more pics of the work - I have most of the table completed and ready for assembly. The benches are finished & ready to be sealed, though. They came out pretty well, especially for my first project.
http://cl.ly/image/3z2C2F072M1K http://cl.ly/image/0Q06180Q2y3q http://cl.ly/image/2U3f3q1n2Y1W http://cl.ly/image/1Y3d0l123L35 http://cl.ly/image/1X410N281K11 http://cl.ly/image/3g2k3j3f3E1P