working on first commissioned piece

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Central (upstate) NY
My mother-in-law has asked for me to build her a table. I need to get it done by the first of May when she moves into her new apartment.

I cleaned the shop up enough today to have space to work, went out to the lumber pile and brought in the planks I'll be turning into the table. I also crosscut away the end checking on the RAS with a thin kerf Freud 12" 44 tooth blade.

Here's the wood at the end of the day.

wood_premilled_legs_apron.JPG

wood_premilled_tabletop.JPG

Tomorrow I'm going to rough rip the edges with my EZ Smart system and then make and use a planer sled for jointing, as I don't want to use the flip method on so many pieces on my 6" jointer.

I will use the jointer to make square glue-lines on the edges after planing to uniform thickness. One of the pieces has significant cup and has a defect that would prevent it from being proper length, so I wrote "RIP FOR APRON" on both faces.

Depending on timing, I may inlay some walnut as a decorative border on the top.
 
That's some nice looking wood Mark...

:lurk:

Thanks! It is maple (Acer freebeerius) from Chenango County, NY. Not quite three years ago, a coworker had a tree fall during a storm. He let me harvest some logs and another friend happened to have a bandmill on loan from one of his friends.

The friend whose tree it was is an ESF (SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry) looked through his old forestry text and we're pretty sure it is a soft maple, maybe a silver? Now I don't remember if silver was one of two species we narrowed it down to or was one we decided was not the right call.
 
How did it treat your planer? I've got some Rock Maple that is going through my dewalt blades like the blades were butter! :eek:
 
Done with rough ripping. My wife took a some pics while I was ripping a piece.

EZ_Rip_begin.JPG

EZ_Rip_middle.JPG

One usually gets better results while wearing a motivational t-shirt. :D

Here is everything rough ripped (a couple were already rough square from the band mill. These were edge jointed instead of ripped. I appreciate the desirability of long jointer beds. Six feet for either bed no longer seems as excessive as it once did.

EZ_Rip_all_done.JPG

Now I am going to take a break before making a planer sled. The fence of the planer sled should be fed first even for a Ryobi AP1300, right?
 
Heh, I've got that same saw on my 'EZSmart'...

Yeah, the fence goes in first, so that as the rollers try to roll the wood, the wood pushes against the fence to take the whole unit through the planer.
 
I butchered an attempt at installing a DC hookup in the front of the guard. This is my first time using duct tape over the hole I made. Sawdust shoots out of the rear like it should once again.

OK, enough break time, back out to the shop!
 
How do ya like that EZSmart'? I can't imagine life with out my festool version of that. The only draw back I have run into with mine is it's not long enough. I could(and will some day) buy more track, but think I would like it better if they offered 8 foot sections. That way there would be only one joint in a 16 foot rip instead of two.
 
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I wish I had a festool, but just being a hobbiest, couldn't quite convince myself to part with the cash for one.

I can say the Ez smart I have has two sections, is straight, alll I have to do is line up the guide on the cut line and I'm good to go.

Slides smooth, is accurate and does everything I want it too, which is mainly breaking up sheet goods accurately on the first try! :thumb:
 
I like my EZ Smart so much that I'm not sure if I'll ever get a table saw even once I move to bigger shop space someday.

Didn't quite get as far as I wanted, but made some good progress. I decided to face joint the less than 6" wide pieces. I also edge jointed the 8/4 (maybe closer to 10/4) piece for legs. Took a pic with and without flash - wasn't sure which was better, so here they both are. I just jointed them flat enough to send through the planer.

face_jointed.JPG

face_jointed2.JPG

I also built the planer sled. It is about 12" by 6'. I used an offcut from the boards I'm going to plane on it as the fence.

sled_MkI.JPG

fence.JPG

So, this weekend I brought wood up from the lumber pile. Crosscut to rough length, ripped or jointed to straight edges and face jointed the narrow stock. Milling lumber is a lot of work! MIL likes the wood so far though, so that is good.
 
The weekend is here and I was able to get in more shop time. Everything is almost all surfaced and I was hoping to spend an hour or two more choosing pieces and glueing up the top. Sadly, my DC filled up and I have a clog of planer debris from at least one DC hose to the DC shroud of the planer. I'm calling it a night and will clear the mess tomorrow morning.

DC_full.JPG

The cardboard box leaning on the full DC will be beginning a journey to Budapest next Saturday. :D

almost_done_milled.JPG

For anyone in the pen blank swap, the stickers in this pic are a sneak preview of blanks you may be seeing.

My maple might have a little birdseye in it. Well, it isn't birdseye, but I do have some very pretty quartersawn maple pieces. :D
 
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I took yesterday as a day of rest. Dumped the DC bag today. It was non-trivial to put back on. If I set aside $50 per week, I can get an Oneida system in less than a year. Hmmm....

Anyhow, I started getting ready to finish using the thicknessing planer and a clamped DC hose fell off. It was also less than trivial, my frustration level spiked and I decided to do the hose tomorrow. I didn't throw anything or cuss loud enough that the newest minister in the Family could hear. It's a good thing NY and AZ are so far away from each other. :rofl:
 
Ministers hear all sorts of language - and occasionally use some colorful language as well. :rolleyes: So AZ could be next door to NY and I would not be offended. ;)

However, the standard I expected in the classroom was whatever was proper in your mother's hearing. :thumb:

So my friend, do not pull your punches for my sake. :wave:
 
Looking forward to see it finished as well as all the process. Gee I have so many posts to catch up when I'll get home:eek:

Thanks for posting it Mark
 
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