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Thread: Project: Something Flat. Very flat.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    Project: Something Flat. Very flat.

    I have this room ready for Professor Dr. SWMBO to move her office into so I can do some major renovation work to the space it's currently located in. As we are sometimes prone to do here, I repurposed a piece of existing furniture for a credenza as she needed a lower solution for this storage need because a video friendly backdrop will be going on the wall behind it for fall classes.

    IMG_E7863.jpg

    And then I remembered I had a very nice piece of mahogany that's been in my "inventory" for about a decade and a half...a nice piece that's 16.5" wide and more than long enough for the job. It was gifted to me by my cabinetmaker neighbor at the same time he gave me the purpleheart I used for my bench recently. So today's shop time was to take this:

    IMG_7873.jpg

    ...and turn it into this:

    IMG_7888.jpg

    Because my jointer/planer width is 13.68" (350mm) I had to take it from rough to smooth using my drum sander. About a billion passes were required, but the end result was great. Sanding up through 200 with the ROS completed the stock prep, it was then oiled and at the end of the day a light coat of wax-free shellac was hand-applied and later "de-fuzed" with some 600 wet and dry. Tomorrow, I'll shoot a bunch of clear coats on it so I can install it as the top of the credenza. The color/tone will be close to that of the cherry desk I made her back in 1997 as my very first "real" woodworking project.

    Yea, this isn't an exiting, complex, skill building project, but it included the basics and will please the "customer". It also celebrates a really nice piece of lumber that finally said "use me for this!"

    Here are a few more photos to bore you further.

    IMG_7874.jpg IMG_7877.jpg IMG_7878.jpg IMG_7879.jpg
    Last edited by Jim Becker; 07-09-2020 at 9:04 PM.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  2. #2
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    Just goes to show it doesn’t need to be complex to meet the need and be satisfying
    Steve Jenkins, McKinney, TX. 469 742-9694
    Always use the word "impossible" with extreme caution

  3. #3
    It got the job done and you finally got to use that piece of mahogany that's been taking up valuable storage space for 15 years.

  4. #4
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    Beautiful piece of wood, Jim. Great use for it.

  5. #5
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    How much tearout would you get without the poplar backing on the crosscut?

    Matt

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Matthew Hills View Post
    How much tearout would you get without the poplar backing on the crosscut?

    Matt
    I don't know...it just seemed prudent since due to the size of the panel, I used the larger outrigger which means no fence supporting the material on blade exit. If it was smaller and I used the miter fence on my saw, the zero clearance end of that fence, which trails the material, would have provided the support. So using a piece of scrap served the same goal. This principle applies no matter what kind of saw is being used. While I use a slider, doing the same cut on a cabinet saw would still be best served with a sacrificail trailing piece of scrap if there was no crosscut fence on a sled, etc., available.

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    Steve, Terry and Phil, I agree. No glue. No mechanical fasteners. Just a beautiful panel that will finally be showcased.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  7. #7
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    Nice piece of mahogany Jim, plus a very good use for it. I find that it is very nice when you put a smile on your wife's face over a project for her. The very first piece of "real furniture" I built (early 80's) was an entertainment center built of mahogany ply sides, dividers and shelves with a mahogany timber face frame and top. The finished top was supposed to be 3/4" thick, but ended up 5/8" thick due to my learning curve with a new hand plane and planning wood by hand with no previous experience or outside guidance at all. I have never forgotten that piece of mahogany (expensive even then) and repurposed it a few years ago when the entertainment center was replaced. I still have the ECE jointer plane I bought as my first plane and use it today. Thanks for sharing.
    David

  8. #8
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    Thanks, David. She does appreciate the work I do for her and for the house.
    -----

    So this "flat thing" project is done. Not an exciting project, not a complicated project, not even any jointery. LOL But a nice interlude between more complicated things that are definitely on my plate. Finish is BLO, wax-free shellac, a coat of brown tinted EM1000 and five sprayed coats of EM6000 satin. I didn't grain fill...probably should have, but it looks nice and natural anyway.

    Some .25" MDF and double stick tape did the deed for fastening this mahogany credenza top to the underlying piece of furniture. The MDF was needed because there is a slight reveal where the sides of the cabinet are a hair raised over the level of the top...small enough that making shims would have been a pain. So I "floated" the top on the MDF. I will hit the ends/edges of that material with a small brush and black paint to make them totally disappear. I forgot to do that before sticking things down and the particular tape I used doesn't let go easily.

    IMG_7894.jpg IMG_7895.jpg IMG_7896.jpg IMG_7897.jpg
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  9. #9
    Jim

    I can't take my eye off that gorgeous floor.
    Mike Null

    St. Louis Laser, Inc.

    Trotec Speedy 300, 80 watt
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Null View Post

    I can't take my eye off that gorgeous floor.
    Thank you, Mike. That's the replacement floor I installed a number of years ago...largely for safety reasons, but it does look good. The floor in that room when we bought the house had been "sanded within 3/8" of it's life" in some spots by the previous owner (presumably by a contractor, of course) and one of our daughter's feet nearly went through it. The spans are 30" under it, too! There was also some insect damage and no subfloor...just really old boards. So I ripped it out, put in a subfloor and capped that with 12" white pine boards normally sold for barn siding. One side is smooth and the other side is rough...rough side went down. It's not T&G, so the same gaps that the original floor had remain and it's nailed down with a little construction adhesive and cut nails. The latter need to occasionally be, um...convinced...to go back level with the surface with that old fashioned hammer thing. I'll be doing the exact same thing in the room next door once Professor Dr SWMBO's office is moved into this room in the next week or three. Hopefully, I can get the color close as it's a good match for the original "pumpkin pine" color including that on the "really wide board" floors upstairs in that part of the house. This section supposedly dates to the 1750s, but county records do not go back before 1850.
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    On the credenza top, I was not happy with the surface after it sat overnight, so I peeled it off, took it back to the shop, spent some time wet sanding with 600 and then polished it. It feels MUCH better now.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

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