My shop isn't set up for woodworking but I have enough tools to make the things I want and enjoy the challenge. I started playing with wood and dangerous power tools in my dad's garage at a young age, mostly speaker boxes. I started making furniture in high school wood shop and made some decent pieces for a know-it-all teenager. By the middle of college I had made pretty much every piece of furniture in my home, out of oak. Style was more 'perfect' and hence boring like a typical engineer would do. I picked out the boards with perfect grains and no knots.
With my first daughter on the way I decided to make a crib and bedroom set all out of solid walnut. The set came out very nice but took many long days, nights & beers. I was burned out and now had a family to take care of so when daughter #2 arrived she got store bought stuff.
When Mrs. rattle_snake mandated relocation to horse property, the style of my old pieces didn't fit that of the home and it was time to move on. I successfully prevented the Mrs. from buying expensive but cheaply made imported **** while I built the shop and got the place under control. I think she liked the
cabinet/workbench I built in her barn enough to wait for me to build some more custom pieces.
One of Mrs. rattle_snake's clients is a barn wood outfit in Phoenix, so I was able to get a good deal on gently used, previously owned material. I started with 150 brdft and went back to get another 75, in 8/4 and 6/4 in 'mixed' hardwoods. Should be enough for the 5 living room pieces I want to make.
I spent a long time making detailed plans while recovering from knee surgery. This was good because it forced me to have a solid plan for every aspect and construction detail. I was able to determine the dimension of every piece before starting. This helps when selecting pieces for certain places and being able to use the scraps for other known purposes. I wrote out the equations of the critical dimensions so I had confidence in cutting the pieces the next day or whenever.
Note that I am not a 'woodworker', and am more comfortable with a welder and a hammer. I adapt as needed with the tools I have to built to the plan.
1st piece is a TV stand. 3' tall, 7' long. One shelf and some doors, easy enough. Haha, well I spent over a week just staring at all the pieces of material and trying to decide and commit what to use where. But I couldn't so I started the cabinet with some plywood for the floor and back. All plywood joints are a dado/slot. Used a Caul to clamp some of the inner places.
As one would assume, old wood is not flat or straight. Each piece is unique and can be cupped, twisted, curved, bent or a combination of the four. This makes making anything square and straight very difficult. Since I don't have a joiner, I used a long piece of scrap as a joiner sled on my table saw. I taped shims in the right places for convex and twisted pieces to hold them in position as they pass though the blade. This allows parallel edges even if face is not flat.
Since all the barn wood wasn't going to get stained, I stained the plywood and started on the fascia for the doors.
Panels built face down in an attempt to make them flat out of different thickness and crooked pieces. I could have planed the back side everything but more work and some pieces have both sides exposed. I used my workbench as the basis for getting the clamps in a flat plane then positioning the strips as best as possible to get minimal twist vs. surface flatness.
The end panels got a slot to fit into the plywood. Old router took a **** so had to buy a new one. Got this Bosch 2.25 hp with a 1/2" collet to run bigger bits. Every project needs a tool purchase.
Shelf panel. Had to cherry pick the pieces that were straight for long enough to get a decent result.
The shelf also got a slots to interlock into the plywood. Cutting a flat slot into a panel of irregular thickness is non-trivial. Used shims and a cold beer to mitigate.
Panels and fascia are all connected with 3/8" or 1/2" dowels. No fasteners were harmed in the making of this piece. all connections and joints are slots or dowels.
The top is 84" and was difficult to find straight enough pieces that were also dramatic and interesting. I used cool looking but crooked pieces, and floated the resulting twisted panel into a flat/square frame that attaches to the ends.
Used 10' pipes to clamp the bigger pieces.
Cabinet complete, and in-square in all dimensions better than I had hoped. Lots of ways to f it up. Tried to keep things within 1/16 everywhere as tolerances stack and things go to poo quick.
