Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Nick's Two-Car Detached Vdub Garage

[kaymccampbell]

I feel like woodworking is half setup and half fixing **** that didn't work how it was supposed to.

Those are called design opportunities.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Those are called design opportunities.

That's not nearly corporate enough. How about... "pivoting to respond to unforeseen changes in circumstance"?

 

[zanyad]

Those are called design opportunities.

That's not nearly corporate enough. How about... "pivoting to respond to unforeseen changes in circumstance"?

 

[kaymccampbell]

That's not nearly corporate enough. How about... "pivoting to respond to unforeseen changes in circumstance"?

It wasn't meant to be corporate. It's what happens when your lovely planned woodturning blows up on the lathe, and you still make something out of it.

 

[bj383ss]

Looks damn good to me Nick. I definitely would use 1/2" for the drawers. Man you need a planer.

Rockler does sell dimensional wood but its on the expensive side.

Bret

 

[wreckdiver1321]

It wasn't meant to be corporate. It's what happens when your lovely planned woodturning blows up on the lathe, and you still make something out of it.

Absolutely, just having a little fun.

I've actually done just that. It's why the Indiana Jones Holy Grail I made in high school doesn't quite have a straight bottom

 

[nicholam77]

Man those are turning out cool! It's good to see the whole process, mistakes included. I feel like woodworking is half setup and half fixing **** that didn't work how it was supposed to.

Great work, can't wait to see it come together.

Thanks Tom!

You are completely right about the setup time and fixing mistakes. I would even go further and say it's a sliding ratio. Less time and effort preparing, the more time you'll end up fixing stuff. The more time spent on practice, jigs, setup, etc, the less time spent fixing things that went wrong. Not always, but that's the goal. And even when fully prepared, stuff can still go wrong.

Even though this project is relatively simple in the grand scheme of things (essentially a glorified plywood box), because it's furniture for my house, I need it to look pretty damn close to perfect. I want to feel like it could have been bought in a store. I've never understood the "don't worry, no one else will notice your mistakes" line... I mostly build this stuff for myself to enjoy, so I'm the one who needs to be ok with the end result haha. So I've spent a lot of time planning (CAD model, cardboard model, MDF prototype, doing tests on the materials, experimenting with the joinery). And beyond that I've spent a lot of time just thinking about the project.

There is also the cost aspect. Nice building materials are expensive (I know this is somewhat subjective, but they are expensive to me), and even small mistakes can be a big deal. So I like to invest extra time to make sure expensive mistakes don't happen. You better believe my b*hole is going to be clenched when I cut those miters... at this point I'm approaching $800 on the line. (although that would be less if I didn't have to buy the veneer twice!!)

I'm starting to get on a tangent here, but since you were commenting on the whole process, another part of that is tracking costs and materials. After all, I am trying to build these for less than what I could buy something of comparable design and quality in a store for. So far I'm still on track with that, but I've had a few painful mistakes with the veneer and drawer slides. As a project goes on, things get added, you might find a new tool to be needed, etc. So one thing I do for every project is keep a spreadsheet with all the costs and where I ordered stuff from. This helps me have an ongoing 'reality check'.

Those are going to look really good!

Thanks @pat9198 !

Looks damn good to me Nick. I definitely would use 1/2" for the drawers. Man you need a planer.

Rockler does sell dimensional wood but its on the expensive side.

Thanks Bret! You're opinion counts for a lot

I went with 1/2" for the drawers. I got baltic birch because I like the look and want to see the exposed plys on the drawer sides. Also ordered the Blum slides this morning. My wallet is crying but those were the last items I needed, so now I can block it out of my memory and focus on the finish line.

The white oak I got for the "edge banding" was from Rockler. It was S4S, and yes it was expensive. I don't think I'm quite ready to move into the full milling of rough lumber, but someday I'll get there. I do agree that at least a planer would help me out from time-to-time. My brother-in-law does have a DW735x I could use in a pinch.

Thanks for following along.

 

[Trapps]

Great progress Nick!

I'm a fan of 80/20 theory in most things. 80% prep and 20% execution leads to excellent results.

Of course being a fan of the theory is easy. Actually using it in practice is something I'm guilty of failing to do on occasion.

As an absolute certified Excel Junkie who lives it and loves it every day, I love seeing spreadsheets used for non-day job activities. I won't comment on the blasphemy of Google Sheets I see some people using...

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Great progress Nick!

I'm a fan of 80/20 theory in most things. 80% prep and 20% execution leads to excellent results.

Of course being a fan of the theory is easy. Actually using it in practice is something I'm guilty of failing to do on occasion.

As an absolute certified Excel Junkie who lives it and loves it every day, I love seeing spreadsheets used for non-day job activities. I won't comment on the blasphemy of Google Sheets I see some people using...

I use Excel for EVERYTHING!

I've used it to make blueprints! I've used it to write up a budget for our family. I've used it to make workout lists. Packing lists. It's just so damn useful for everything.

 

[Matias]

Thanks for sharing those house tour pics, really nice to look around and absorb the ambience!

And for the car show, I must say I'm jealous:
a) all the cars you got to see in one place (I especially liked the Singer)
b) your kids are with you, my daughters have no interest in cars, starting from the first years. And I'm not going to push it to them neither, but they have kind of a big uninterest in cars

I think with the price of all lumber and supplies which have gone up in the recent years, it's surprising to make anything cheaper than something that is produced in multiple numbers. You should instead of making two night stands, make 8, and just add nice plaques on them stating no 3/8 to 8/8 and sell them on with some profit, with your own getting to be collectibles in the future

 

[nicholam77]

As an absolute certified Excel Junkie who lives it and loves it every day, I love seeing spreadsheets used for non-day job activities. I won't comment on the blasphemy of Google Sheets I see some people using...

In my defense I don't know how to use Excel (or Google Sheets, really). Google Sheets works for the very, very basic use case I need it for.


Night Stands — part 5 — miters + rabbets

On Friday it snowed here. Just a dusting and didn't stick, but that was a wake up call. We've had some overnight lows in the 20's. Also in peak fall color. This weekend we did another quick getaway with the kids to Wisconsin, and the trees were poppin'.




Upon returning I got some work done on the night stands. Arguably the most important part of the process — the case miters. Miters in general require your equipment to be well-calibrated. I've never done these long case miters before (except in my MDF prototype), and if they are not perfect I think it would really detract from the piece.

I started by brushing my crosscut blade's teeth. Don't want any cavities.



I really like this blade. It's a 60 tooth crosscut blade from Sears Craftsman that my dad gave to me. When sharp, it cuts like butter with no tear out. In addition to cross cuts, I use it as my plywood / veneer blade. But one time I ran some UHMW plastic strips through it and the plastic melted to the teeth. I've cleaned it before but I really need to send it in for sharpening and a proper clean.

Feeling it was reasonably cleaned up, I set my saw blade to 45° with my Wixey digital angle cube.



And made some test cuts. They seemed to be ok... so I ran the actual piece through. And did a test.

Lacking pictures for this part, but... the joint was out of square. Doh! My panels were about 1" oversized, so I had some wiggle room to try again. I made an adjustment, made a new cut, and same problem.

Not wanting to eat into my actual workpiece anymore I grabbed some spare plywood. Time after time I kept trying to make adjustments to the blade tilt, assuming the Wixey gauge was off, and just could not get a perfect miter that added up to 90°. I'd spent about 2 hrs doing test cuts at this point. I was so frustrated and hungry I stopped and had lunch for a breather.

When I went back out, I found the culprit. Because of the blade tilt I had to use the original DeWalt throat plate instead of my zero clearance one I made, and wouldn't you know it's warped and was preventing the workpiece from laying flat on the saw table.

I should also mention this whole time, while leaving relatively clean cuts, my crosscut blade was struggling in the baltic birch. Not only were the miters not adding up to 90°, but the cuts were not straight and uniform (there were some gaps when placed end-to-end).

So I scratched my head for awhile and did two things. One, I remembered I had a specialty 80-tooth "plywood" blade for my circular saw that I'd only used once. It's a 7 1/4" blade, not 10", but the arbor is the same as my table saw. I tried fitting it. Secondly, I took off the throat plate entirely.



I'm a little hesitant to share this because I'm sure it will cue the Safety Police, and it's true it's not the ideal situation. The panels are large enough that they are fully supported by the table on the right side of the blade. On the left side of the blade, I was worried about the off cut dropping in the throat plate area, so I made sure to trim just a shaving and not stand in line with the blade. Depending on how big the off cut was going to be, I did a few cuts where I put the throat plate back in to get close, and then removed it to do the final shaving. Obviously I batched this out so I wasn't adjusting the saw all the time.

Here you can see the setup.



Once one side had been mitered, I had to add an auxiliary fence to do the other side because the mitered corner lined up with the bottom extrusion slot in my aluminum fence. Solved with a piece of MDF.




Seeing how this piece mates up against the fence (above), you can see how perfectly straight it is.

The 80-tooth circular saw blade had much less resistance than my cross cut blade, which I think put some safety points back in its column. And it was cutting very clean.

16x cheek-clenching cuts later, with laser focus and attention to everything I was doing (speed, pressure, fence alignment), I ended up with really good results.

Before taping them up, I quickly cut the rabbet for the drawer fronts. They will be ~1/2" thick so I did a 5/8" deep rabbet.



Zero clearance insert back in for this. Even my homemade insert does not stay perfectly flat, I just can't get it leveled. And this causes problems with cuts like this that should be to a specific depth. I had the same issue on the rail and stile doors for the pantry.

And the result of the dry fit:





I did get some burning on the inside of the rabbet I need to figure out how to clean up.

Waterfall matched grain:



And it's actually pretty square!



So what turned out to be a very frustrating morning ended up a pretty satisfying afternoon. I am really getting fed up with my DeWalt saw, though. It's been pretty good to me over the years, but for this "fine furniture" level of building it has too many flaws. Table is not flat. The throat plate insert system leaves a lot to be desired. Miter channels are inconsistent widths, leaving my cross cut sleds less accurate than they could be. Table is not large enough to support larger panels really well. Dust collection is meh. Blade height adjustment is garbage. I could go on...

I wish I had the space and money to get an entry-level cabinet saw.

 

[MadeByMiller]

I enjoyed reading your problem solving process and seeing the beautiful results. They are going to be a very nice pair of nightstands!

 

[nicholam77]

And for the car show, I must say I'm jealous:
a) all the cars you got to see in one place (I especially liked the Singer)
b) your kids are with you, my daughters have no interest in cars, starting from the first years. And I'm not going to push it to them neither, but they have kind of a big uninterest in cars

Yeah, it was pretty sweet! I drag my kids with because a lot of times that's the only way I can go

My daughter's interest in cars is usually capped at the paint color, which needs to be pink or purple, to draw any sort of enthusiasm.

My son on the other hand... he is obsessed with anything that has wheels.

I think with the price of all lumber and supplies which have gone up in the recent years, it's surprising to make anything cheaper than something that is produced in multiple numbers. You should instead of making two night stands, make 8, and just add nice plaques on them stating no 3/8 to 8/8 and sell them on with some profit, with your own getting to be collectibles in the future

Lumber is definitely expensive. I think in a lot of cases you are right, that it's hard to beat the cost of a mass-produced product. Dressers and night stands tend to run expensive, though, at least in the U.S. I think it's because of their complexity with drawers, and especially for dressers, the large size.

The bed we bought had "matching" night stands available. My wife wanted to get them. They would have been $900 + tax + shipping for a pair. They look like this:



I put "matching" in quotes because I don't think the design cues match the bed all that well. To their credit they are solid oak.

If you take a look at commercial products that are solid wood with a similar design to what I am making, we are talking $1,400 — $4,000 for a pair.

I'm going to end up making mine for $610 for the pair. (That doesn't include the veneer I had to re-order, but that was a mistake). Even with that included it's around $800, so well under the actual product that goes with the bed.

Of course you could go to IKEA or undercut that with a lot of cheaper products, but they won't be quality or as good of design I think. In the end I'm pretty satisfied with the cost to build, when you consider the design and the market.

As far as making a larger batch and selling them, that's a Future Nick endeavor. Maybe in 5 yrs when my kids aren't running me ragged

I have considered making stuff to sell, though. I just haven't done the legwork to figure out what would be easy to make in volume that people would actually want, while staying true to what I like to make. I know sites like Etsy take a pretty big chunk off the top, too, so it would have to be worthwhile on top of my full-time job. More research required.

I enjoyed reading your problem solving process and seeing the beautiful results. They are going to be a very nice pair of nightstands!

Thanks!! After I get the glue up done I can relax. The rest of it (finish and drawers) will be easy.

 

[nicholam77]

A quick survey for anyone in the know:

I was playing around with finishes today:



The bed is "oak". It doesn't specify the exact type of oak, but it has a brownish tone. It's actually darker than the product photos, which appear like natural finish white oak. I might just have gotten one with darker boards. The bed doesn't appear to be stained, I believe it is an oil finish.

Obviously my goal would be to match the night stands as close as possible.

I tested:

— General Finishes High Performance Top Coat (water-based polyurethane)
— General Finishes Arm-R-Seal (oil-based polyurethane)
— Minwax Wipe-On Poly (oil-based polyurethane)
— Watco Danish Oil "Natural"
— Watco Danish Oil "Walnut"



In terms of color, the Danish oils are the best match. But I don't like how they "pop the grain", especially the Walnut in the upper right square. They also have a bit of sheen under varied lighting.

I really like the Arm-R-Seal and the Minwax Wipe-On. They look very natural and matte. But... too light.

The High Performance is out because it's way too light, and I think will look to shiny and film-y compared to the bed.

So my question is to all the woodworkers out there... got a favorite finish that would look natural and matte, but darken up white oak a bit more?

One more pic of more of the bed and the finish swatches I had on hand:



I think out of these the natural Danish oil (upper middle) is the best, but looking for suggestions!

 

[kaymccampbell]

That almost looks like Stickley fumed oak. They don't actually fume it anymore, there's stain you can buy that matches it.

 

[Bakafish]

Upper middle has my vote as well.

And if you are going to spend space budget on a cabinet saw, why skimp? Get a good one and be done with it.

 

[jar944]

Based on the bed not having pronounced grain I would guess it's either grain filled before stain, or dyed and not stained. The third option would be neither stained or dyed, but a toned top coat with a tinted clear.

 

[jbrentd]

Thanks for sharing those pictures from the home tour. Although I don't think I could ever get my wife on board with a home of that style, I love the look and appreciate the design. That 3rd one, to me, was the best of the bunch.

And the nightstands are coming along nicely. I'm always impressed by the woodworking skills on GJ, as I can't cut a board straight to save my life.

 

[Trapps]

Deja vu from my beam project.

So far I like the Natural Danish Oil. But with the effort, time and coin you have wrapped up in these, it seems some more experimenting would not be a bad investment.

I'd add Rubio Precolor in Smoked Brown followed by Monocoat 2C to the list. No sheen on my walnut mantle with uncolored 2C. Even in direct sunlight.

 

[bj383ss]

There is definitely a Transtint dye you could use and mix your ratio until you get a close match. Also the toner sprays like Jar mentioned. I think Mohawk makes good toner sprays. That definitely might take some experimenting depending on how close you want to get.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NC7DRG2/?tag=atomicindus08-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DSXGZ4/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Bret

 

[nicholam77]

And if you are going to spend space budget on a cabinet saw, why skimp? Get a good one and be done with it.

I consider an "entry level" cabinet saw to be something like a Grizzly or Laguna, in the $1200-$1800 range. I don't know that those are necessarily bad saws. It would require more research, but I'm guessing something like that would be just fine for me and solve a lot of the problems I have with my job site saw. But I'd be willing to stretch that a bit if necessary to make sure it suits my needs.

Based on the bed not having pronounced grain I would guess it's either grain filled before stain, or dyed and not stained. The third option would be neither stained or dyed, but a toned top coat with a tinted clear.

Of course I don't know 100% but I don't think the bed is dyed or stained. The product photos on their website look much more natural and light. In fact I was surprised it looked browner, more like walnut, when I got it. I don't mind the look but I think they are just darker boards to start with. It's oak, but they don't specify exactly what type. Thank you for the suggestions.

Thanks for sharing those pictures from the home tour. Although I don't think I could ever get my wife on board with a home of that style, I love the look and appreciate the design. That 3rd one, to me, was the best of the bunch.

And the nightstands are coming along nicely. I'm always impressed by the woodworking skills on GJ, as I can't cut a board straight to save my life.

No problem, glad some people found it interesting! I think Modernism in residential architecture is very polarizing. Either you love it, or you don't. Obviously it's extremely pervasive in the public sphere — offices, skyscrapers, banks, schools, even churches. In residences, though, I think it was largely a failed experiment over time, outside of enthusiasts today who still appreciate its goals. Most people do not live in, or do not want to live in, a Modern house.

Many people refer to Modernism as a "style", and I understand that, because most Modernist buildings follow similar visual restraints like "clean lines" and "open spaces". But there's a quote I came across that I really like that says something along the lines of "Modernism is not an architectural style, but rather an abstraction of design principles". Which is true. It's not limited to a certain form like Arts & Crafts, Spanish, Tudor, Colonial, etc. Those all have a specific toolkit for what they should look like, and it's fairly strict. Modernism on the other hand is more about the ideas behind it — natural light, indoor-outdoor living, connection to nature, lack of adornment, etc. The form these take can be extremely varied. If you look at buildings by Le Corbusier, John Lautner, Frank Lloyd Wright, Oscar Niemeyer, etc, they are all considered Modernist architects but their buildings look wildly different. Even the houses on the tour were quite different from one another. When I first realized that it was eye-opening to understanding the movement better.

Deja vu from my beam project.

So far I like the Natural Danish Oil. But with the effort, time and coin you have wrapped up in these, it seems some more experimenting would not be a bad investment.

I'd add Rubio Precolor in Smoked Brown followed by Monocoat 2C to the list. No sheen on my walnut mantle with uncolored 2C. Even in direct sunlight.

I 100% agree with you. I want to get this right. I'm also worried Danish Oil alone will not be protective enough.

Funny you mention Rubio, I've been looking at that as well as Osmo the past few days. I have to say I am a bit confused by all the options. I see the Monocoat 2C comes in a bunch of colors as well... is there a reason I should use the Precolor instead? And do you recommend the Part B accelerator?

Similarly, Osmo has a Wood Wax Finish that's intended as a colored basecoat for their PolyX Hard Wax Oil.

I think either would be a great choice for this and I've been wanting to try a hard wax oil. The only downside is they are pricey and I wish I could make sure the color will work before taking the plunge!

There is definitely a Transtint dye you could use and mix your ratio until you get a close match. Also the toner sprays like Jar mentioned. I think Mohawk makes good toner sprays. That definitely might take some experimenting depending on how close you want to get.

Thanks, Bret. I will look into those, too. Your rundown of the TransTint for your book shelves looks a bit tricky. I've always avoided stain, because I like the natural look, but I'm also scared of splotching, streaking, uneven finish. For me the easier the finish is to apply, the better, haha. I'd never even heard of the toner sprays, I'll do some research there.

 

[mr vw]

thanks for sharing your projects! love the details and solutions! I have great results using odie's oil on walnut , ipe and hickory you should try this.

 

[nicholam77]

3D Printer Update

@Bakafish I'm tagging you, since you kindly wrote me up the procedure to check my bed heater wiring.

I did confirm by touch that the bed was indeed NOT heating. The readout stayed at 22-23° C and was cold to the touch for several minutes until the thermal runaway alarm goes off.

After disassembling the bed and opening up the board compartment, I immediately saw the issue:



Big charred bubbly residue. I scraped the bubble off the screw and it chipped away enough I could loosen the screw. The wire was sort of melted in there but I got it out intact.

Another view from the side:



Pretty bad.

Ignore the reading on the multimeter, when I wasn't trying to take a photo it beeped and read close to zero. Was a little harder to get a good reading on the black wire that was in the melted terminal but it did have continuity.



So it appears my bed heater and wiring are ok, but the board terminal is toast.

I guess I should be happy that thermal runaway is enabled and it didn't burn my house down?

So... where to go from here. I do have that extra new 4.2.2 board Creality sent me when I complained about the layer shifts. I could install that for free and see what happens. That's the route I'm thinking because I don't want another big tinkering project, but rather to get it working again for as little money / time possible. I'm sure some will suggest a board upgrade instead. Let me know if you have any strong opinions, but that's where my head is at.

Thanks again @Bakafish for the write up, I'm a dummy when it comes to electronics, so that was super helpful.

 

[bj383ss]

That is just crazy right there! I still so bad for recommending you the printer. I have not had any issues at all with mine. Quality Assurance is a crazy ride I guess. Every time I find something I like on Amazon and look at the reviews I feel like I am playing the odds on whether the item I order will be dead on arrival.

You know what my vote would be. But maybe I should stay out of this. It's just crazy. My printer sits dormant for months and then I turn it back on hit print and goes it prints out just like it did 4 months ago. I haven't even leveled my bed since January and I have been stacking Legos and everything else on it.

Bret

 

[kaymccampbell]

Wow. Since you've got the spare board, I'd jam it in and give it a shot. You've got nothing to lose.

 

[loganb]

Wow. Since you've got the spare board, I'd jam it in and give it a shot. You've got nothing to lose.

Agree with Kay...what's there to loose other than those few fleeting minutes when the kids are asleep before you crash

It is nice when troubleshooting is that easy!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Nick, finally had a chance to get caught up again - nice work as always. Love the house tours, thanks for sharing those. That has to be super inspirational for you!

Man, can't believe issues that printer is giving you! Might as well throw the other PCB in there and see what happens.

Our daughter just turned one (yesterday) - I also can't believe how quickly the time passed. I was so worried about being in the newborn stage again, and just like that, we're well through it.

 

[Bakafish]

Okay, well the damage looks to me like something was touching the top of that fixturing screw and shorted it out. If the heater panel or wiring itself had been shorted I would have expected both terminals to have had heat damage. So I'm a bit perplexed what happened there. It is the ground terminal I believe, meaning any external short would have had to been from a voltage source. So I suppose the only logical thing it could have been is a poorly connected wire or defective fitting that had high resistance and therefore heated up and melted.

As you have a new board, I think the main goal here is determining if the heater was at fault or was damaged.

The things we need to check are if the heater panel and the heater wiring are intact and functioning.

1) With the heater wires disconnected from the motherboard, and not touching each other, check the impedance (Ω setting) of the panel by putting the probes on the two contact patches where the wires are soldered to. I would expect it to be somewhere in the range of ~2-6Ω. If it is lower than 1Ω, then we likely have a problem, and if it is open/no contact, then it is damaged and will need replacement.
2) Assuming the bed heater is okay, check the wires themselves. First check one wire from the solder pad of the bed heater, to the (freshly stripped) end at the controller board side. It should be ~0Ω. Do the same with the other wire, expect the same results. Higher than zero impedance (2-50Ω) would likely indicate a fatigue break in the wire itself and open/no contact means it is broken. Flexing it when measuring shouldn't change the impedance and would indicate a break if it did.
3) Lastly, just as a sanity check, confirm that the entire unit is okay by checking the impedance at the two wires near the controller board. It should be almost exactly the same as the first bed only measurement. If this all checks out, do a careful physical inspection, but I think it is likely healthy and can be used.

I expect all this to test out fine, as again I think we are seeing a defect or poorly fastened terminal.

Take pictures of all the cables and connections, or mark them as you see fit. Remove the burnt board and install the replacement unit.

As I said, you want to make sure the heater wires are trimmed and freshly stripped (because those connections are sus.). Do not put solder on them, ideally you would put them in a 'shoelace ferrule' but carefully twisting them and making sure all the strands cleanly enter the new board's jack will work fine. Those jacks are really easy to misunderstand or misinsert, so take a close look at how the terminal opens and closes with the set screw, and make sure you get a good connection on the new board. I've inserted wires and thought they were between the two clamping surfaces, but were really jammed in between the screw and the body, this may have been your issue. Give the wires a gentle tug and make sure they are secure when fastened.

This should get you back up to speed. Remember that the new board may have outdated firmware, check for a newer version if you can.

As always, good luck and post if you run into trouble.

 

[sawduststeve]

Evening mate

One vote here for the Osmo hard wax oil, super hard wearing, I used it on a couple of timber floors I put down at home, might have a couple of pictures.
Not a scooby about 3d printing, good luck.

Steve

 

[TomGW]

……………I like that but, having a reference to make my own stuff is great, because I think the hardest thing to I've thought about making a Nelson slatted bench myself because that would be fairly easy, and seeing if I can order the metal leg base for it. I wonder if they let you buy "spare" parts at all. Getting off on a tangent here...

I'm going on a Modernism open house tour in the Twin Cities this Saturday. I'll try to post some pics from that if photography is allowed.

I’ve really enjoyed your Twin Cities Modernism tour. I’m from Northern Ireland but know the TC fairly well, having many relatives in MN.
Just a thought; the base/legs of the Nelson slatted bench isn’t metal. It’s ebonised timber. Making one of these is on my ‘to do’ list also. A couple of useful links for inspiration….

DIY Nelson Platform Bench — Becki and Chris

For those of you who missed the frenzy of East Coast Creative's Creating With the Stars competition , we were selected as one of 12 contestants to compete and won ! Here's a full tutorial for our round one project! The first round's theme was create a DIY knock off of an existing product. We love

www.beckiandchris.com

Saturday Morning Workshop: How To Build A Nelson Platform Bench

This is a classic mid-century modern bench design that you can buy for about $1200 or build in one day for $100. Your call.

www.familyhandyman.com

 

[mcgeedesign]

The nightstands are looking great! I really like how the dado'd front creates a lot lighter box. Definitely going to incorporate that sometime.
I've built a decent amount of floating nightstands/mitered boxes over the years and initially spent time domino'ing the joints...the glue-ups sometimes could be a pain because I was stubborn and wanted to use the tight setting on every mortise. I had one glue-up that was particularly painful and decided to pull the dominos mid-glue and just tape it up....I've now used it daily for probably 5 years, had my kiddos climbing all over it and it's incredibly strong. I built it as a basic prototype to get the dimensions we liked before eventually building in solid walnut and inadvertently learned I didn't need the dominos.
I'm a bit older/wiser now and willing to use the width adjustment on the mortise, but really don't think dominos are necessary. (I'll attach some pics of the prototype nightstand (that 5 years later is still yet to be built in walnut! haha)....don't mind the craziness of the room, I had just finished building the bed frame and was photographing it while my wife was in the process of repainting the room white).

Also, I completely agree with @Bakafish about buying a nice cabinet saw. I started with a ridgid contractors saw because my shop is just one side of a two car garage and quickly realized how limited I was by it....I returned it for the ridgid hybrid saw and learned a lot, but hated how terrible the fence was and how loud/underpowered it was on hardwoods. I ended up getting a sawstop cabinet saw 5 years ago that's been a joy to use! I never thought I'd have room for a cabinet saw, but after looking at the dimensions it was a really similar footprint to the hybrid and being on casters it's easy to store up against the wall. I built a rolling storage cabinet under the wing and with the 36" rails, think it's a pretty good fit for a small garage. Based on the projects you're tackling, I think you'd benefit greatly from a saw upgrade! It's definitely expensive up front, but if you buy once and cry once I think you'll be happier in the long run.

I really enjoy randomly checking in on your thread man!

Cheers,
Matt

 

[bj383ss]

Nick I somehow missed the post about the Tablesaw miters. I had to look away with the insert removed. In helping to provide my public service to you and GJ below is the Tablesaw I need to buy. It has a digital readout for the blade angle that is pretty slick. And of course it has a splitter. Which my Ridgid does not. I made ZCI that have splitters in them but its kinda of a pain to change when you need to run without it.

My Ridgid TS3650 has been an amazing saw and still is for the price(I got it as payment for a job). But as far as ease of adjustments and "More Power" a cabinet saw is the way to go. I'm not really into Sawstop. I know a lot of people are. I don't really want to spend money on having a spare brake when it goes off for no reason. Just my .02 Oh one other thing to consider is you will need 220 to run most of these big cabinet saws.

https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-10-3-hp-220v-cabinet-table-saw/g0941

Bret

 

[Denwood]

Nick, I appreciate the effort it takes to make a truly precise 45 degree joint ... and it sure likes you are winning The nightstands look great which is again quite a feat with that exposed 45. Then you take it up a notch by matching the waterfall grain. I'm not sure why those pics resonated so strongly but it kind of reminded me "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" which suggests that you should not feel guilty for taking time to get these small details right. It makes a big difference in the final product to the depth that only a few trained eyes will fully appreciate.

 

[nicholam77]

thanks for sharing your projects! love the details and solutions! I have great results using odie's oil on walnut , ipe and hickory you should try this.

Thank you! I've seen a few recommendations for Odie's. My only hang up is trying to match the finish of the bed. If I wasn't matching something else, I'd go for it. I'll keep it in mind though.

That is just crazy right there! I still so bad for recommending you the printer. I have not had any issues at all with mine. Quality Assurance is a crazy ride I guess. Every time I find something I like on Amazon and look at the reviews I feel like I am playing the odds on whether the item I order will be dead on arrival.

Don't feel bad, I've gotten a lot of good use out of it and I think I partially got a lemon. But at the same time, pretty much all of the problems I've had are not uncommon with this printer. The layer shifts, the motors overheating, fan failure, hot end clogs, extruder lever snapping, etc are all known problems. And now add this melted terminal to the list (I guess this is also a known concern because Creality solders the ends of their wires).

In the end, it's actually helped me learn a lot about the machine.

Wow. Since you've got the spare board, I'd jam it in and give it a shot. You've got nothing to lose.

Agree with Kay...what's there to loose other than those few fleeting minutes when the kids are asleep before you crash

This is what I'm going to do

Nick, finally had a chance to get caught up again - nice work as always. Love the house tours, thanks for sharing those. That has to be super inspirational for you!

Man, can't believe issues that printer is giving you! Might as well throw the other PCB in there and see what happens.

Our daughter just turned one (yesterday) - I also can't believe how quickly the time passed. I was so worried about being in the newborn stage again, and just like that, we're well through it.

Thanks!!

Happy birthday to your girl, that's a big milestone as a parent. I feel like 1 yr is the tipping point where it finally gets a little easier. Or at least my kids were terrible sleepers for the first year. It does go so fast, though. Our boy is ~15 months now and just started walking a few weeks ago.

This should get you back up to speed. Remember that the new board may have outdated firmware, check for a newer version if you can.

As always, good luck and post if you run into trouble.

Thanks for the procedure, again. According to this video, it could be the result of Creality tinning the wires. I've always heard people recommend putting ferrules on the wires, I guess now I know why.

I ordered a ferrule crimper kit from Amazon (might as well do it right this time). I'll do the checks you mentioned and try to swap out the board and see where that gets me!

Evening mate

One vote here for the Osmo hard wax oil, super hard wearing, I used it on a couple of timber floors I put down at home, might have a couple of pictures.
Not a scooby about 3d printing, good luck.

Steve

Hey Steve! I think my two options are Osmo or Rubio. They are of similar durability and appearance. The question is which color treatment will match the best. Right now I'm thinking of testing these two:

Osmo "Oak Antique Satin"



Rubio "Smoked Brown"



Either one would get the respective brand hard wax oil top coat over it (Osmo PolyX Oil or Rubio Monocoat 2C Pure)

I'm leaning towards the Osmo just because of the color, I think it might be closer. But of course it's hard to know until it goes on the wood!

I’ve really enjoyed your Twin Cities Modernism tour. I’m from Northern Ireland but know the TC fairly well, having many relatives in MN.
Just a thought; the base/legs of the Nelson slatted bench isn’t metal. It’s ebonised timber. Making one of these is on my ‘to do’ list also. A couple of useful links for inspiration….

DIY Nelson Platform Bench — Becki and Chris

For those of you who missed the frenzy of East Coast Creative's Creating With the Stars competition , we were selected as one of 12 contestants to compete and won ! Here's a full tutorial for our round one project! The first round's theme was create a DIY knock off of an existing product. We love

www.beckiandchris.com

Saturday Morning Workshop: How To Build A Nelson Platform Bench

This is a classic mid-century modern bench design that you can buy for about $1200 or build in one day for $100. Your call.

www.familyhandyman.com

Cool! Then you might know the locations (Normandale Park neighborhood in Edina, Highland Park neighborhood in Saint Paul, and Falcon Heights).

Thanks for the Nelson bench links. There is an alternate metal leg base (not sure when this was introduced) from Herman Miller that looks like this:

The nightstands are looking great! I really like how the dado'd front creates a lot lighter box. Definitely going to incorporate that sometime.

Thanks! I remember the first time I discovered that trick was at a Room & Board outlet, inspecting how a dresser was made. If you aren't going to do some sort of profile detail or bevel, I think it's a pretty nice trick that lightens up a 3/4" case.

I've built a decent amount of floating nightstands/mitered boxes over the years and initially spent time domino'ing the joints...the glue-ups sometimes could be a pain because I was stubborn and wanted to use the tight setting on every mortise. I had one glue-up that was particularly painful and decided to pull the dominos mid-glue and just tape it up....I've now used it daily for probably 5 years, had my kiddos climbing all over it and it's incredibly strong. I built it as a basic prototype to get the dimensions we liked before eventually building in solid walnut and inadvertently learned I didn't need the dominos.
I'm a bit older/wiser now and willing to use the width adjustment on the mortise, but really don't think dominos are necessary.

I'll cover this in my next post (this one is getting really long), but I came to the same conclusion with this project. @Bakafish and @jar944 basically told me as much beforehand. And it's not that I didn't believe them (I did), but I used my Domino jig anyways, probably out of stubbornness since I had put in the effort to make it. More on that later.

Also, I completely agree with @Bakafish about buying a nice cabinet saw. I started with a ridgid contractors saw because my shop is just one side of a two car garage and quickly realized how limited I was by it....I returned it for the ridgid hybrid saw and learned a lot, but hated how terrible the fence was and how loud/underpowered it was on hardwoods. I ended up getting a sawstop cabinet saw 5 years ago that's been a joy to use! I never thought I'd have room for a cabinet saw, but after looking at the dimensions it was a really similar footprint to the hybrid and being on casters it's easy to store up against the wall. I built a rolling storage cabinet under the wing and with the 36" rails, think it's a pretty good fit for a small garage. Based on the projects you're tackling, I think you'd benefit greatly from a saw upgrade! It's definitely expensive up front, but if you buy once and cry once I think you'll be happier in the long run.

I am tracking with you guys. I think it would need to be a balance of features and cost. I'm not going to go out and get the best saw on the market just because it's the best. But I definitely don't want to spend a good amount of money and still have frustrations, either.

My requirements would be
— large, flat, cast iron top
— quality trunnions and blade controls
— quality fence
— decent dust collection
— portable — in my space I need something on casters that's light enough to move. Probably every time I use it.

I'm not sure on power. I feel like I could be ok with a 2 hp / 110v saw instead of a 3+hp / 220v saw. But that requires more research on my part.

Your night stand + bed design are very similar to what I'm after! I originally wanted to make a whole bedroom set including bed, and the one you made is pretty much what I would have done. Really nice looking stuff!

Since you haven't made your real night stands yet, check out some of the models they have at Room & Board. Most use that rabbeting technique, even with one drawer + open cavity like your design. Maybe worth a consideration!

Nick I somehow missed the post about the Tablesaw miters. I had to look away with the insert removed. In helping to provide my public service to you and GJ below is the Tablesaw I need to buy. It has a digital readout for the blade angle that is pretty slick. And of course it has a splitter. Which my Ridgid does not. I made ZCI that have splitters in them but its kinda of a pain to change when you need to run without it.

My Ridgid TS3650 has been an amazing saw and still is for the price(I got it as payment for a job). But as far as ease of adjustments and "More Power" a cabinet saw is the way to go. I'm not really into Sawstop. I know a lot of people are. I don't really want to spend money on having a spare brake when it goes off for no reason. Just my .02 Oh one other thing to consider is you will need 220 to run most of these big cabinet saws.

https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-10-3-hp-220v-cabinet-table-saw/g0941

Bret

That Grizzly looks really nice. 220v is a problem for me that I'd have to think about. I think I could get away with one of their 31" rip capacity models. My DeWalt can do 30", but I hardly ever cut that. I don't think I've ever had a workpiece too large to cut. If it's large... it's likely plywood... and I have the track saw for that. All of the other features and specs I need to figure out what's right for me, but Grizzly is definitely an option.

On SawStop, I wouldn't be so worried about the cost of the brakes. The brake feature can be bypassed if you want to cut something that could trigger it (wet lumber, certain metals). Other than that, the only thing that should trigger it is contact with your flesh. I think most would agree that the replacement cartridge price is worth your fingers if you truly slip up.

I have also read they are just good saws in general, regardless of that safety feature. My problem with SawStop is the price. I wish I had $3-$5k to spend on one, but I don't.

Nick, I appreciate the effort it takes to make a truly precise 45 degree joint ... and it sure likes you are winning The nightstands look great which is again quite a feat with that exposed 45. Then you take it up a notch by matching the waterfall grain. I'm not sure why those pics resonated so strongly but it kind of reminded me "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" which suggests that you should not feel guilty for taking time to get these small details right. It makes a big difference in the final product to the depth that only a few trained eyes will fully appreciate.

Thank you, Dennis. 100% agree on the details. Even if people don't notice a certain element, or can't put their finger on on why they like something, every little part adds to the whole and can have an effect on the way an object is perceived. With the straight grain of the veneer I knew I had to match it up, I think it would look too obvious if I didn't. I know of that book but haven't read it, perhaps I should put it on my reading list.

 

[Trapps]

Sorry for the delayed response, Nick. I didn't see the Monocoat in the color I thought was a good match (smoked brown) so I threw out the precolor. Upon closer inspection, they do have the Monocoat in smoke and a bunch of other colors. I've only used the Pure - no color.

Here are some examples of the Monocoat Pure 2c on a Black Walnut slab with indirect and direct sunlight compared to a raw slab of Black Walnut (not the same tree):





In this pic you can see it does 'pop the grain' a bit, but not as much as the Danish Oil in your trial.



Off axis:



Good Luck!

PS: One saw option.

EDIT: broken link

 

[mcgeedesign]

Thanks! I remember the first time I discovered that trick was at a Room & Board outlet, inspecting how a dresser was made. If you aren't going to do some sort of profile detail or bevel, I think it's a pretty nice trick that lightens up a 3/4" case.

I am tracking with you guys. I think it would need to be a balance of features and cost. I'm not going to go out and get the best saw on the market just because it's the best. But I definitely don't want to spend a good amount of money and still have frustrations, either.

My requirements would be
— large, flat, cast iron top
— quality trunnions and blade controls
— quality fence
— decent dust collection
— portable — in my space I need something on casters that's light enough to move. Probably every time I use it.

I'm not sure on power. I feel like I could be ok with a 2 hp / 110v saw instead of a 3+hp / 220v saw. But that requires more research on my part.

Your night stand + bed design are very similar to what I'm after! I originally wanted to make a whole bedroom set including bed, and the one you made is pretty much what I would have done. Really nice looking stuff!

Since you haven't made your real night stands yet, check out some of the models they have at Room & Board. Most use that rabbeting technique, even with one drawer + open cavity like your design. Maybe worth a consideration!

My wife & I are big fans of Room & Board! Actually writing this while laying in bed on a R&B mattress on the king size bed frame I made...also have sofas, chairs, pillows, coat hooks and some other random stuff from them. My cousins live in Maple Grove and tell me some of the sample sales in the past have had some pretty good deals. I love wandering around their store in Denver and getting inspiration for builds!
You and I definitely have similar taste! I've been kicking the tires on our nightstand designs for 5 years knowing I need to build 2 and need to just get them going...I build prototypes for just about all my builds and sometimes wish I didn't because I end up just using them and moving on to another build. Actually built a prototype of the bed out of construction grade pine we used for about 6 months!

If you can, I'd definitely recommend getting a 220 saw...the power and reduction in noise is huge plus I'd wager you'll eventually end up with a jointer and you'll be glad you already have the power for an 8" (and skip getting/flipping a 6"...I started with an 8" and flipped it when a great deal came up on a 12" combo j/p) Once you start milling your own hardwood it opens up a lot of fun projects. I grew up on the Mississippi River in Iowa and on trips back I (over) stuff my rooftop carrier with walnut/white oak....I've spent my whole adult life out west and it's crazy going back to the midwest now as a woodworker and seeing all the trees and how comparatively cheap hardwood is back there. I've became friends with a guy in my hometown who operates a mill and the quality/price compared to stuff here in Colorado is insane...not to be a bad influence, but I'd definitely recommend starting to think about adding a jointer/planer!

Looking forward to seeing the nightstands finished up! (I've used Osmo on a few different projects and definitely recommend going as thin as possible)

Cheers,
Matt

 

[nicholam77]

@Trapps (Mark) — thanks for the pics. Your mantle looks awesome. That looks nice and flat to me and seems to match the grain definition in my bed. I've read that Monocoat Pure and Osmo look almost identical, so I just need to figure out which one is cheaper to test some colors with.

P.S. your saw link isn't opening for me

@mcgeedesign (Matt) — I don't own any Room & Board furniture but I've taken some inspiration from them at times. I got the idea for my fireplace cabinets sliding door mechanics from a piece from their store (UHMW tabs in a metal U-channel extrusion). Close to me they have an "outlet" store that has good deals so I browse that from time-to-time.

I know I made one for this project, but I think I would get worn out making full prototypes, too. It's hard to build that exact same thing twice!

Not sure how well you know your Twin Cities geography but Maple Grove isn't too far from me. I'm in Saint Louis Park. I've never made it to the Mississippi side of Iowa, I only really know the Ames area because my wife's family is originally from there. Used to do some sailing regattas at Clear Lake and Okoboji, too.

I don't have 220v service in my detached garage, so that's something I'd have to figure out first. I hear what you're saying though. I would like to mill my own lumber someday.

Being in Colorado do you follow Mike Farrington on YouTube? He is a favorite of mine.


____________________________


Night Stands — part 6 — dominos and glue up

I'm playing a bit of catch up here, I just haven't had time to do write ups. Being a stubborn dingus I decided to route the dominos for the miters.




And that part went fine.

I dry fit the boxes and one lined up well, the other I couldn't get the front edge to align on one corner. I don't think it was the fault of the dominos. That miter cut (or all of them) might not have been perfectly square, which compounds to the last joint to be connected being slightly off.

I confirmed this with blue tape alone. But here's the thing — the dominos lock it in to a certain reference. With the blue tape, I can fudge the joints a bit and bend it into submission.

So in the end, I glued up one box WITH dominos, and one box WITHOUT.



On the box with dominos, I felt like the joints weren't closing as tightly as I wanted, so I added some light pressure from a few clamps.

On the box that was miter-folded with painter's tape, no clamps.

After curing, I took the tape off and they both look great.

And actually the tape-only box was much less stressful to glue up. The domino one was more challenging to paint all the dominos with glue, force it to fit together, squeeze the joints just the right amount with the clamps.

I should have listened to @Bakafish and @jar944 and skipped the dominos altogether. But it was a good experience and sometimes you just have to come to the conclusion yourself.

I do think they could add alignment and strength in certain materials like MDF, but even using my "loose" setting on all of them, everything else has to be perfect.

 

[nicholam77]

Night Stands — part 7 — drawer boxes

I always make my drawers the same way. They are pretty easy to do, the only tricky part is making the dimensions work with the Blum under-mount slides. Blum has exhaustive and sometimes dizzying specs for their products. But once you parse through it all it's not so bad.

I decided to use metric (mm) measurements for the first time, just to simplify things. It's much easier to do the math without fractions.

I started by breaking down the 1/2" baltic birch plywood with the track saw.





I recently picked up this 2'x4' Bora Centipede workbench, on sale, and tried it out for the first time. It's awesome to have an extra place to set stuff that's so quick to set up. Instantly a fan.



A few rips and crosscuts on the table saw later...



I've always used pocket screws for drawer joinery. It's a perfect application because they will be hidden by the drawer front.



But wait a minute, why are the screw heads protruding!?



I went back and checked the setup of my pocket hole jig. Looks fine. I tested some more holes with the jig at 5/8" and the bit collar at 1/2". Better, but still, a drawer front wouldn't lay flat. My jig has a setup provision for 1/2" material... I am scratching my head and can't figure this out, but it's a problem.

In the end it left me stumped, and I decided to do something risky and radical — through-dominos with my homemade jig. I've wanted to try something like this ever since @sakurama used through-dominos on his kitchen build. It's not exactly a dovetail, but I think they are interesting to look at, and I'm a fan of contrasting joinery like accent splines. The end grain of the dominos should pop nicely against the birch.

Here goes nothing.




To use my jig with 1/2" material I had to shim it out with some thin strips.



To set the domino distance from the edge, I added some small screws as "end stops". They look janky, but it worked.



My jig is tricky to clamp and make sure everything is nice and aligned. And I have to make sure all the pieces go in the proper orientation.

The drawer fronts get two dominos, indexed from the "end stop" screws on my jig.



Then for the sides (the through mortises) I did the two end slots off the same stops, but also added a third slot in the middle just for looks. I thought it would be too tricky to line that up on both pieces as these are all "narrow" slot meaning there is no wiggle room. But I thought 3 tenons would look better, so it's a false one in the middle.



A little flush saw and sanding action and they are done:




I should note that I am only doing the dominos at the front of the drawers — the back will still get pocket screws, since it doesn't matter if they stick out in the back.

Although on one of the side pieces I accidentally did Dominos on both ends:



At first I thought I'd glue in dominos and sand them down. I did that, and then decided it would drive me nuts that just one side would have fake dominos visible in the back of the drawer.

So I made a new side. It was pretty quick, using an existing side to set up all the cuts. I've come this far, I might as well do it right even if it's repeat steps.

After gluing up the drawers, I sized the drawer bottoms, and did this on the new Centipede.




And now I have two drawer boxes!





This was another day that was initially frustrating, but turned out ok in the end. I'm pretty happy with the domino detail, and surprisingly my jig came through and the alignment was really good.

One thing about the standard domino tenons is the ends are actually more of a V-shape than a half-circle, so they are slightly gappy in the mortises. I tried to fill them with some sawdust, but if you look closely it's noticeable on a few. I can live with this.

These better fit the Blum slides / cabinet opening.

I'll cover the Blum drilling in the next post.

 

[Matias]

Good looking results, and no way I would notice those gaps unless you tell to especially look at something. Those front of the drawers look great!

Excellent work!

 

[pat9198]

I love the domino joinery you did here, it looks really good.