What did you do today in the Northeast?

allen levine

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new york city burbs
I gotta say, you guys that live up in the tundra and Canada, and those cold places like Minnesota, how do you do it?
It was 12 degrees this morning, with a wind chill below zero, I walked out into the garage to hopefully attempt work, impossible. It felt like 50 below out there.

I hated to waste a day.

I spent the last 4 hours picking through, schlepping a ton of lumber from the boat restorers warehouse to my driveway. Unfortunately, I ran out of steam, have to take a breather, and go unload it all.
It is a great load. I purchased beautiful mahogany, almost 8/4 thick, really nice hondurian, about 40-50 bf of 8/4 or more clear pine, 100 bf of maple, another 100 bf of birch, something I never touched before. He had no cherry left, and walnut is something he only puchases for orders.(he gave me a 3 inch wide piece around 30 inches long that was laying around. hard to bellieve he would toss that)
I tried to squeeze some alder out of him. He had some gorgeous 18 inch wide boards, but he needed them for doors, and I couldnt even pursuade him to part with the narrower alder.(Another species I never worked with)
He had some beech, but I passed this time.
He threwin alot of excess,(cause it seems I got a ton more than I paid him for) making up for the knots and splits in some of the birch, but at 2 bucks a board foot for that and the maple, I was ok with his stuff.
Ill shoot some shots once I get it sorted and unloaded. It was a good purchase for me, now I can start planning out the six dining chairs I need to put together with the table I made.(on another note, I saw why Im such an amateur. He had this beautiful wall unit he made for a friend of his in the shop, not finished, but its clear to see the difference between his work and my work, like 20 lightyears apart, and he made like oh, I wont get paid for that..its for my friend. And Im thinking to myself, what?, that custom built 25 foot 8 foot high unit is a favor? Ya gotta love the real pros, god bless all you guys with so much talent)
 
and ofcourse, some mystery woods, the last picture, I know its mahogany underneath, but I got a few pieces of this dark brown stuff.(Im too old to be loading and unloading this stuff)
 

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Wow Allen, you make me jealous with those wood prices. I think the last maple I bought was north of $10 per board foot. Sounds like your new boat restorer buddy is a good friend indeed.
 
Im not sure if I was clear, but the mahogany was the same 5 bucks bf as before, but this time I purchased alot of 8/4 and just about 12/4 and I was charged the same. That is huge for me cause I cant touch 8/4 or 12/4 locally for double that price.
I paid more for the clear pine, 2.50 bf, then the maple, ash and birch.(I wanted more pine, 4/4, but he didnt have any left, so he offered the ash for 2/bf.which was another great deal)
Im also quite sure the maple is alot of soft maple(not a big deal for me), not all of it was very white, some had some color, pinkish/grey almost.
All in all, I gotta take it while its offered.
He had used the pine and showed me a table he made for a client, he bleached it, and it was stunning.(I cant figure out why Id never turn out anything like that) I wish I had my camera, although I dont know if he would have allowed me to show his work.
 
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Well to answer your question...dealing with snow. As I predicted, winters come in pairs so since last year had the most snow on record (197½ inches) this year cannot be far behind. In one week we got a storm that dumped 28 inches of snow on us, then less than 7 days later came another foot.

My sheep fence top wire is at 42 inches...between settling and some rain, the snow pack has hoovered around that mark since January. They are predicting March will bring us 101 inches of snow and yes they are forecasting more this week.

The rest of my time is spent trying to tell the unemployment people I am actually trying to find employment. No joking...I spend about 50% of my time being on the phone, doing paperwork, and emailing them explaining that I am actually trying to find a job. If they just left me alone, I would have probably already found one by now.
 
Hey Allen, on your last pic, the bottom board? What are you hiding on us:huh: Sure looks like a nice piece of curlie maple hiding down there :rolleyes::thumb: Pull that one out and give us another shot of that one :D Nice score overall :thumb:

Tom
 
its all put away, but there were a few boards like that, that was a cut off of the 10 footers, he had to cut them down to 8 feet for me to be able to haul.
I saw those waves and kinda liked it.
When I move some wood around again, Ill look for some of those long boards with the waves.
 
Wow Allen, you make me jealous with those wood prices. I think the last maple I bought was north of $10 per board foot. Sounds like your new boat restorer buddy is a good friend indeed.

I'll make you more jealous, Vaughn. "My" sawmill in West Tennessee charged us $2.00 a foot for the last load of maple we brought home!! And he gave me a load of 2-foot cutoffs of walnut, cherry, maple, and some others and didn't charge me for them. I love my lumber guy.
 
yes, I was very lucky and very happy he offered the 6/4 through 2.75 inch wide at the same low price.That is why I took as much as he offered.

My only regret this trip was that I didnt have the money on me to buy some rift sawn white oak, which he told me is beautiful, he used alot of it for cabinets, looks as nice as quartersawn he said, and this was after I filled my truck and emptied my wallet. I would not have minded 100 bf of rift sawn white oak(not sure what rift sawn looks like though, but he said it was beautiful) for something in the future.
Maybe next trip,(if he has any left) right now I cant fit anything else.
 
CHAIRS, CHAIRS, CHAIRS, CHAIRS, CHAIRS..........

Just because someone makes a nice set of dining chairs, errrrrggggggghhhhh, I have to have my head examined, again, for thinking, hey, make a nice set of dining chairs.............gggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr............eeeerrrrrrrrrggggggggg.....yeeeechhhhhhhhhhhh, grrrrrrrrrrrrrr...................
And so thats how it goes in the northeast today.


this is how an amateur attempts to make dining chairs:

First, he designs, them.
Then, he draws them all up and puts in measurements.
Then he checks his measurements.
Not quite sure, he checks his measurements again, alot of mortise and tenons, wanna make sure if cutting all together, they will fit.
Ok, now hes sure, but just for the hec of it, measure them all again.

Now figure out how much wood of certain thickness hell need.
Dont want to use glue ups on legs if he can avoid it.

Double check that list, maybe triple check it. Go buy the wood.

OK, overcome the fear of failure and start cutting.

So the legs were all going to be 1 and 6/8 thick, around 1 7/8 wide, front to back.
So that quickly changed, the front legs became 1 and 5/8th, ooooopsss, didnt have the wood I thought, so make the front legs 1 and 4/8ths, ok, and cut them square all the way around. Not a big deal.
Back legs, lets cut them out rough on a band saw, Should be a fun experience.
Ok, they also went from 1 6/8 down 1/8th, dont know if the 1/8 difference will make a difference from front leg to rear, but Id rather the rear legs be a bit stronger.
Im leaving it.
I had no spare wood to cut an extra rear leg. One goes, or mistake theres going to be a set of 5 chairs.
Ill just have to explain to the wife I cant count.

Frustrating, a few too many notches above my woodworking level, but Im being patient.
Only got the rear legs roughed out and front legs all nice cut to size and planed nicely.
Ok, thats me, the wife couldnt resist, listening to me curse and wondered why I was throwing things. I had some issues, not with the bandsaw, I had another power failure. Another fuse.(those are my clean work clothes.)

(front legs on bandsaw, I cut one extra of every part in case one drops or cracks, whatever.....only rear legs no extra wood)
 

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Hi Allen.

I do not know if it was your first attempt at chairs, but if I had been you I'd cut the wood for only one first, and made it so that I would learn from my mistakes.

At least this is what I did with my first chair ever, and boy I did learn a lot!
 
How are you liking that new bandsaw, Allen? Looks like you are giving it a workout.

It tood me over an hour to change out the blade the first time.
I wasnt sure exactly the sequence of things, so I had to use the manual and still had some doubts.
ONce I found all the right thumb screws, and got out a dollar bill and understood the settings and kinda saw how it all works, the 3/8th blade worked great for cutting the rear legs rough shape.
I think I had that maching running 4 hours thursday and most to of the morning and early afternoon today.
Im picking up the pace and how fast of slow I have to use it.
Resawing 7 inch wide mahogany is not a fast moving event.
But its a great machine, and I think Ill have no problem with it, and it will be in my regular rotation of use as is everything else.

one thing bill, I was having a tough time keeping my line of cut as straight as Id wish without a fence when I was rough shaping. Are there any little tricks to keeping the cut straighter, or am I just moving the wood too fast?
 
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Hi Allen.

I do not know if it was your first attempt at chairs, but if I had been you I'd cut the wood for only one first, and made it so that I would learn from my mistakes.

At least this is what I did with my first chair ever, and boy I did learn a lot!

Ive made outdoor chairs with similar construction, just not as thick or out of mahogany.

I was never the type to reach down and see how cold or deep the water was, I usually just dive in so I dont change my mind.

Originally, I was going to cut one chair, see how it came out, then do the other five.
But if I make one design error, I want it to be consistant with the others so they all look alike. And if I fail, hey, so what.
Ill start over another day, another time.
Besides, my wife isnt that picky.(she chose me, how picky can she be)
 
Great haul of wood Allen. You still got white stuff down your way? Ours is all but gone. Seeing that picture of your driveway with the wood stacked in it makes me think you got more than us this year.

Best of luck with the chairs. By the way on another post of your BS where you resawing some lumber what size was that blade you had on the machine, I mean width wise?
 
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