new project, lumber is too heavy for me to lift

allen levine

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new york city burbs
Im about to start a bar and a long narrow table for behind a sofa same height as bar to go in my sons basement.
He is installing a large screen 3-D tv and Ill place the table behind a sofa for people to eat or drink while watching tv.(this is a poor mans home theater) The table will be the same height as the bar, so I dont have to make too many stools. Cause I hate making chairs.
The bar dimensions will be approx, 46 inches high front bar top, 48 inches wide, bartop will be approx 60 inches long, not sure how wide yet, but I want to make it from one piece, no glueup.
All raised panel construction, all mahogany(maybe some sapele mixed in)
The table will be approx 5 feet long, but narrow, just somewhere for people to sit on one side, the other side against the sofa.

So I needed to sort out all the lumber today, started yesterday.
I also moved one standard over since I emptied the lumber rack.
Look at these beautiful boards I have to make this bar, hope I dont mess it up.
The board on the floor, is 6/4, 18inches width, 8 feet long.
The boards on the cart, the front one is 6/4, 19 inches wide, approx 12 feet long. I cant lift these things other than tilt them up a few inches, not sure how Im going to break them down, cant get them up to work level.
The 2 back boards on the cart was one 27 foot board. 4/4 , 26.5 inches wide, beautiiiifullllllllllll, to me at least, but I had the guy cut it in half so it fit in the pickup. I purchased it over a year ago I believe.
The stools will be made with maple legs, but a mahogany seat so they will match, just trying to save a little mahogany. I have alot of 8/4 maple that will make nice legs for the stools. Im only making 4 stools.
the front piece on the cart is a 4x4 post , mahogany, 13 footer.
 

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ya know when you get a good nights sleep, wake up early, can move your back easy enough, feel good, decide to get up, have the first cup of coffee and then get into the shop and really dive into a project, well, do ya?
I thought today was going to be a wonderful day filled with woodworking and alot of sawdust.
There was alot of woodworking, and way too much sawdust, but 7 hours later, very, very little progress.
I believe Im cursed.

I managed to get my wife to help me lift the one long board(cut into 13 foot lengths), then I cut them down to approx sizes Id need for panels and frame work. Ofcourse, as I noticed the wood a bit more, I saw alot of splitting near ends, and some areas had cracks in the middle, alot of it might be my own fault. I stored these boards for well over a year one inch off the garage floor.
There have been some heavy rains where water got into the garage, and who knows how much damage that did to these 2 boards.
I made the first cuts, only realizing after I made too many cuts and that will cost me.
Not too much of a big deal, I can always use the left over for some other project, everything was cut no less than 48 inches.
There was 26 feet originally, I cut it down to 6 panels, each a little over 48 inches. The board was 26.5 inches wide, but alot of edge damage.
This seems like the board that was on the outside of a strapped bunch and got crushed in some areas from the tensioning of the metal banding.
As I started cutting my parts this morning, I noticed alot of splits and cracks I couldnt see on the rough lumber, only after I jointed some.
That caused me alot of headaches. Parts were measured and lumber accounted for them, then I had to recut, then recut, then recut.
If I noticed a small split on the board, no matter how small, Id lean the board over a table edge and use all my weight and when it snapped, it went into the "bad" pile.
Soon enough, the bad pile was bigger than the good pile.
The board was approx 52 total bf. I didnt pay top dollar because I remember my wood guy knew it had alot of splits and cracks and allowed me around 20%, at 5.00 a bf.
He didnt force me to take it, and after dropping the board numerous times, walking on it, storing it right near the damp floor under a mountain of other lumber, the poor condition of it now might be mainly do to my stupidity.
I fell short 2 pieces for the framework, but was too frustrated to continue so I called it a day at 3 PM.
The other crud news is that I had thought it was mahogany. It is sapele.
Very nice looking sapele, just a shade redder than the mahogany, but sapele is not nearly a happy wood like mahogany. Alot of tearout if I plane or joint against the grain. A very unhappy wood.
So heres what I managed to get out of 18 linear feet of 26 inch wide board.
And whats on the belt sander is the bad stuff, alot of it I can use for smaller projects, but not for this one, its intended use all along.
Theres a pic of the redder sapele next to a piece of mahogany, and you can see how the wood cracks, but 2 inches in, if I cut it, the grain looks fine and is strong.
The only positive about today is that besides a little sanding, the little box I made out of the last 2 projects tossed pieces came out ok and Ill be giving it as a gift this weekend for a 60th birthday. Its my wifes cousin. Shes not perfect, so neither is the box, but dont tell her I said this.

My next problem is now since most of what I have left will probably be just as bad, I dont have enough to make all the raised panels for the project.
I can use other sapele, mahogany or spanish cedar I have, but I wanted to make it all out of the same board.
So now I might scratch the matched panels idea, and use some of that mystery wood to make panels. I have plenty of that. I will not buy more sapele at 5.60 a bf, nor will I buy mahogany right now at 11.00 bucks a bf.
 

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Frustrating I'm sure.:(

Can you salvage some of the "bad" pieces by jointing and edge gluing enough for the rest of the panels you need? I know you want them all to match. Hide the glue-ups where they will be less noticeable. :dunno:

Looking forward to the rest of the project.:thumb:
 
I cant use any of the bad pieces because the panels I want are 35 and 1/4 inch high, narrow, but high,(front of bar and sides), and all these pieces are too short.
My son just spoke with me 10 minutes ago after he left work.
I was mentioning the problem with the lumber and he agreed that I should use what I have plenty of. Either ash or the mystery.
Im a bit torn over what to do right now. I was about to pull the trigger on alot of mahogany and just forget about the high cost and swallow it up, but Im looking to purchase a decent scroll saw soon, so I wanted to keep my lumber costs down for a while. I try to limit what I spend.

Im going to sleep on it tonight, finish off the few pieces for the framework tomorrow, then decide.(I can go all sapele at 5.60 a bf, or phillipine mahogany for around 5.46 a bf. Neither of them are real mahoganies, but so much cheaper)
 
Geez Allen, didn't know you took time to sleep once you started a project! On a serious note, most things look brighter after a good night's sleep. Hope this proves true for you tomorrow and look forward to seeing your decision.
 
productive day, some funny stuff.
My son and I decided last night and this morning that I should use the mystery wood for the panels. Not many 2 tone bars, but my son likes different. so I managed to get all the lumber jointed, planed and cut and glued up some panels today.
since the unit will be large and heavy, I want to be able to move it around myself when I need to work on a different part as Im assembling and building it.
I decided to take the castors off the planer cabinet and use them for a rolling platform to hold the unit while I build it.
Id put the planer back on the lift table till Im done then attach the castors again to the planer cabinet.
amazingly, I dropped the planer again, yes, again, while moving it onto the lift table.
Good news is that whatever was out of whack after I dropped it last year, now seems fixed. It always planed evenly, so I never repaired it.
I cracked off the rest of the cord holder and one of the plastic screens over the chain, but it hasnt worked this good since I took it out of the box.
lucky.
 
A new sideline? I can see the business card now...

Allen's Tool Adjustment Service
Tool knocked out of alignment?
We'll knock that sucker back in.

Sorry to see the big board didn't pan out, but I'll be looking forward to seeing the results with the mystery wood.
 
wheres my post? I think I hit delete instead of delete for a sentence.
Idiot.

I posted I decided to build a platform with wheels to move the unit around while Im working on it.
The castors I can spare are on the planer cabinet.
So I went to put the planer back on the lift table, and dropped it again.
When I picked it up, the carriage moves up and down freely again without resistance. After the first time I dropped it, it stuck at around 2 inches and took alot of force to move up past that mark. It always planed evenly, so I didnt repair it.
I broke most of the cord holder off and a small plastic guard covering the chain inside. But now it works as well as it did right out of the box.
go figure.
I did screw it back down to the cabinet and will pick up a new set of castors and stop messing around with it.



wow, it just hit me this second, I have a dolly with good castors on it I can use. (like the V8 commercial)
 
wheres my post? I think I hit delete instead of delete for a sentence.
Idiot.

I posted I decided to build a platform with wheels to move the unit around while Im working on it.
The castors I can spare are on the planer cabinet.
So I went to put the planer back on the lift table, and dropped it again.
When I picked it up, the carriage moves up and down freely again without resistance. After the first time I dropped it, it stuck at around 2 inches and took alot of force to move up past that mark. It always planed evenly, so I didnt repair it.
I broke most of the cord holder off and a small plastic guard covering the chain inside. But now it works as well as it did right out of the box.
go figure.
I did screw it back down to the cabinet and will pick up a new set of castors and stop messing around with it.



wow, it just hit me this second, I have a dolly with good castors on it I can use. (like the V8 commercial)

I read your post B4 U deleted it...lol so I restored it 4 Ya
 
I consider 16 by 20 a fair amount of space to work. A bit crowded, but machines on wheels can be moved. I dont know how guys build kitchen cabinets and large pieces of furniture in smaller work shops.
 
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