Ash Radiator Covers

allen levine

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new york city burbs
I will start dressing/milling/preparing(new words for me) the ash either tomorrow or monday. Wood is picked out.I never worked with ash, but have cut and used white oak.I will make no attempt to match up grains running all the same ways or even that look alike. My wife loves the different grain patterns and random order.Although I dont see much in grain patterns in the rough wood, but Ive never used ash, so its new to me.
I found some nice straight, flat pieces for the sides and maybe the top.(without having to do a glue up) If I cant get a flat enough piece in my own judgement once I start, Ill cut it up and joint and plane.(the mahogany I used on my table was so straight I never face jointed, didnt have the jointer then, but the ash isnt such as flat a lot. Im sure sittiing in the garage for months hasnt helped)
Every edge will be jointed.

Again, I understand this is mostly childs play for most here, but this is a complicated build for me. Close to 50 M and T joints, and if one is off, it will knock off the entire piece.(Ill try at least 3 times, then Ill put the metal covers back on and watch college basketball for the rest of the winter)

This is the small one, less wood, hope to do it all with less than 20 board feet.(all 3/4 inch thick)

The ash will be stained and poly'd for finishing. Color will be decided later on.

I will line the inside with a heat deflecting substance, as suggested to me in another thread.

Heres what I hope to build, as close as I can draw. Numbers are on the side.
Front face will be biscuited to side walls.(there is a 1/2 inch space between every slat to allow heat to escape, but close enough to hide ugly radiator)
Top will be laid on top, with inside cleats holding in place, but not secured down, just close to snug with cleats.(half inch overhang on sides and front, flush in back)
In back, I will add a 2 inch support piece going from side to side.

*my measurements say +1.5 on some, this is to remind me to allow 3/4 inch on each side for the tenon, I need to remind myself like this.(each square on the grid represents one inch)

If anyone sees a design flaw, please let me know within the next couple of days.I will greatly appreciate any help.Im winging it as usual.

whoa, huge error I wrote. Top is 9 and 1/4x 32 and 1/2
 

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I also realize how unexciting a build like this is for most of the group here.
Its challenging for me, and as I always say, if it puts anyone to sleep, I apologize.
A quality solid wood cover runs anywhere from 400-800 bucks.
I hope my 60 dollar investment in wood pays off.
 
now that your avatar has the hat and noise maker, it sort of reminds me of a date I had in 1975 new years eve.
I told her I was going to the bathroom 6 minutes before midnight and I ran for my life.(she had a nice personality)
 
I set up the machines this morning. Some solid advice, if ya wake up at 8:05 am, dont be in the garage at 8:10 am and lifting your tabletop planer by yourself onto a table. That sucker is ALOT heavier than it looks.

I reread the planer booklet, since I wasnt too thrilled with some of the mahogany planing I did.
I made the mental notes like not to shave too much off at once, watch the width.........I ran through a piece of ash this morning, I hope my neighbor enjoyed it.Im glad dewalt makes a solid machine easy enough for a moron to operate and get beautiful results.

I have no clue if all the rest of what I have is ash, since in the rough, it looks nothing like what I planed.
Heres a pic of the piece, I wanted to see what it looked like planed down before I leave for holiday festivities.(gotta go visit some of my staff since we had no down time)
Some of the other stuff looks like it could be maple, Im really not sure.Piece on the left looks similar, the other shorter pieces look different. So do the longer pieces I have on the shelf.
 

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allen the one on the right is ash all day long and the others with being skip planed are to tell but looks to be the same on the left the center???? run them threwe just to get them close and then let us see them.. just a smooth spot is all you need.
 
looks like ash,looks the same, I ran it through the jointer and planer.

Its just a few shades darker, but the grain pattern is the same.

short board on right in pic
 

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till this fall i would say that it didnt look righ,t but that big ash log i cut had some pink wood in it as well,, so if the grain matches allen and the end grain is the same then you must have some pink ash as well.. dont know what makes it pink.. some i had cut was pink enough to make me look twice at it when unlaoding, to make sure it wasnt cherry...
 
till this fall i would say that it didnt look righ,t but that big ash log i cut had some pink wood in it as well,, so if the grain matches allen and the end grain is the same then you must have some pink ash as well.. dont know what makes it pink.. some i had cut was pink enough to make me look twice at it when unlaoding, to make sure it wasnt cherry...
It's a female ash.:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Although yesterday would have been my day of choice to be outside, I didn't have the heart to throw out my buddies who came over for football and bbq.


I put in 3 hours this morning. I first edge jointed all the boards then cut them down to approximate size both length and width dimensions.( I cut them down from 8 footers to make them easier to handle on the jointer first)
Then I face jointed any board less than 6 inches wide, keeping the slat stock a bit over 4 inches so I could cut them in half for the 2 inches I needed.
I then planed it all down to 3/4 width, trying to feed correctly, flipping boards, and mostly it went smooth, but I will have to say the 3 wide boards werent as easy as the narrower stock. At one point I didnt realize the garbage pail I use to collect the dust from the planer was full, and the chips started to fly all over the place. I had the planer running, for some reason I took my small respirator I wear off, and pulled the hose off the chip ejector with my mouth sucking in air since my nose is clogged due to a slight cold, and I got an icecream scoop amount worth of ash chips in my mouth.
It does not taste anywhere as good as rocky road icecream, trust me on this, but I figured alot of inexperienced people make these errors and we all have to taste a mouthful of wood now and then.
Good thing I had a bottled water.

Everything is now cut to size, and I still feel as if Im not only using ash.wood stuff 445 (Medium).jpg 15-17 bf, with very little waste.

in these 2 pics, its clear the wood has different types of grain patterns not even close, at least to me its totally different.wood stuff 446 (Medium).jpgwood stuff 447 (Medium).jpg
 
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I also realize how unexciting a build like this is for most of the group here.
Its challenging for me, and as I always say, if it puts anyone to sleep, I apologize.

Not exciting? Not difficult? Boring? Apologize? I think that you have some sort of misconception about what to post or at what project deserves to be posted or not.

First: we are a woodworking family and as in most families we like to know what the rest of the family members are doing.

Second: There are no "easy" projects, what may sound easy for you can be a real challenge to another member.

Third: Nobody is born with knowledge or experience. So this is what this family is about: SHARING.
Sharing knowledge, experiences,woodworking mistakes safety mistakes (Vaughn's accident for instance). Bad moments, whatever, that's why the off-topic section exists.

Fourth: By sharing what you do, we all learn from what you share:

One person can learn how to make it.

Another one can learn that that shape doesn't appeal to him, so he can change his mind, and change the design he was working on, that was similar to what you posted.

Another can learn the way you work and improve his/her way.

Another can be envious of what you did and hence get motivated to make something better, is that bad? I do not know there but here (Spain) we call it "sane envy" or "envidia sana"

Fifth: You will get hundreds of suggestions, help, motivation and of course ego fuel, so what? I think we all need/want it.

Sixth: You can make a lot of friends.

Seventh: Sharing will help other members and yourself. If you don't share you won't be able to receive anything. That is why lurkers do not stay long on this forum.

Eigth: Taking pics, resizing them, sorting them, writing the post takes time and effort and at the begining nobody feels like posting, but one learns a lot with the process.
Some people only post finished projects pics, is that bad? Not at all, what is bad is not posting anything at all. Even posting only some comments, criticisms or good words of encouragement to someone is good.

I stop here because I could just go on and on...

So don't be shy, scared or whatever, you will find that we are a bunch of friendly people here that we even can make and take jokes.

And if after all this, you don't like it being here, nobody will force you to stay so what can you loose?

Geez... I'm getting carried away again:doh:

BTW: Thanks for posting, those covers look great so far, I look forward to see them finished and I follow this post closely.
 
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That board in the middle looks more like maple than ash, IMHO

I am just finishing up a couple projects in ash. It mills and handles like red oak (pores and fiberous texture). Depending on cut it can look a bit like white oak.
testLV.jpg
The piece Rennie speaks of looks nothing like any of the ash I am working but it does look a lot like the maple I use in a recent doorbell cover ;-)
 
Hey Allen, I am with Toni here 100%. I have wanted to make these comments to you several times. I enjoy your posts tremendously. I am not a pro just a amateur and I get a lot of pleasure seeing you progress.

Thanks Toni for putting into words what I am sure many of us have been thinking but never took time out to write.:thumb:
 
I agree that that middle board is probably a soft maple. I've used lots of ash, both black and white, and never had a stick look like that.
Black ash can have some pink tones, but never like the middle piece. Gotta be maple and some nice looking stuff at that! It almost looks quilted, but soft maple can have lots of different figure and color tones.
 
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I'lll refrain from asking or making statements regarding the amateur status of my work.

Regarding the wood. When I purchased it, it all looked very similar.
I did not pick it out, the owner of the shop did.
I guess if I really knew woods, I might be able to seperate the few pieces of something other than ash I received.

My only concern is when I need to finish it.

I tested a piece of the non ash looking stuff before, stained it with a Minwax stain/sealer, to see how it takes finish.

This is what the grill will look like. The end stiles will be closer, I haven't cut in the MT joints on the ends.. And the bottom rail will be 3 inches higher when I cut the MT joints for the slats.
I've marked them all out, I will cut most of them tomorrow as long as the temps stay warm enough for me to work outside.

I must buy a dust collector, It is very difficult to work with a jointer and planer in my garage and not have adequate dust collection.
 

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