Some of my woodwork

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

When I'm prepping mesquite logs for the mill I try to cut off the limb bumps and make these.  #1 wife has first refusal.  She hasn't let very many go.


Mesquite bench with walnut legs.  My dad actually started this bench and died before he completed it.  I finished it out.


another view of the same bench.  The small bowl on the book is another one of mine.

I use a lancelot tool for the rough shaping and then work to progressively smaller grinding wheels until the final sanding.  The sanding is what takes the most time because none of the surfaces are uniform.  I left the piece on the side of the top bowl to give kind of a waterfall look.

I also made the tressle table that the bowl is sitting on.  It is cypress from an old cistern from our ranch.  It had long ago served its purpose and had fallen down.  One of my predecessors had stapled chicken wire to the inside and grouted it to get another 20 or so years of use out of it.  I could not get all the staples out and it was Hell on planer blades getting it planed.  It was tapered, random width and beveled also.  I worked with alternating ends to get it sorta square and had to jointer every piece on both sides to remove the bevel.  Seems like I'd hit a staple on every pass.  I planed it down below the staples, sharpened the blades and ran it through one more time.  #1 wife wants me to refinish the top after raising three boys and having grandkids beating on it with silverware.  I jsut can't seem to bring myself to wipe out those marks. 

I love trees and love wood.  Mankind did himself a great disservice when he stopped making his everyday things out of wood. Plastics do nothing to bring us closer to the Earth.


Alan

[Old Philosopher]

Nice work!  I agree with you about the "battle scars" on the table.  They tell a story, and are the legacy of a family heirloom.

[wsdstan]

Nice stuff Alan.  Really like the bench.

We don't cut many trees either.  Some of them along the property line are full of fence staples or nails and play hell with my chainsaws and anything else you cut them with.   

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

For my woodworking I used trees that have been down for a while.  That way there is minimal drying time.  I a live mesquite tree is cut for lumber and you don't have a kiln, it takes many years to dry even in south Texas conditions.  A dead downed tree was drying before it fell and it'll lay on the ground for lots of years before I find it.  People ask me all the time if I want trees they've cut out of fence lines or from around old barns or houses.  I very politely and graciously offer to take the tree but tell them that I won't cut it for lumber because of the possibility of nails, staples, and such, not to mention a horse shoe or two that got stuck in the crotch of a young tree and then grew over.  It only takes one nail or piece of barbed wire to ruin a bandsaw blade.

I was cutting a dead oak tree for firewood once with a chainsaw and saw sparks.  I pulled the bar out of the cut and the chain was mangled.  I sharpened it and tried from the other direction.  The chain was toast but I finally gnawed through the tree.  The culprit was a steel core from an AP round.  Long ago, someone, was shooting milsurp ammo and hit the tree.  It sat there and waited for me to cut through it at that exact place.  An inch higher or lower and I'd never have known it was there.

#1 son cuts trees for a living and sells firewood.  He uses carbide tipped chainsaw blades for most work.  for fenceline trees he puts on junk chains.  Those big carbide tipped blades will run $80- $100 and all it takes is one nail to turn them into scrap iron.  They can't be sharpened.

I'll cut a live tree if it is dangerous or is genuiney in the way.  Otherwise, it grows.

Alan

[crashdive123]

Awesome looking work.  It is so great that you were able to finish the bench that your Dad started.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Thanks Dave. My dad was a very good woodworker.  I have finished two of his started projects.  Another is a small end table.  If I ever get my "real" woodshop setup there were two or three more that he had started that need finishing.  THEN maybe I can finish the three or four I have started plus take care of those "someday" projects that I want to do for my kids. 

I have three little sisters (at least I call them that) and my dad was always making things for them.  One day after distributing a new round of furniture to them he said, "I guess you're wondering why I don't give you any?"  I replied, "Well, I haven't been wondering, but, I have noticed."  He said, "I give you tools".  And he had, a bunch of them.  A band saw, routers, planers, jointers, etc. and an assortment of hand tools.  When he died he left me even more than that.  I just have to build a place to put it and use it. 

I've been stashing and hoarding various different woods and lumber. Walnut, ash, mesquite, oak, plus some small quantities of more exotic stuff, some that I ahve cut myself and some that I have acquired.

If all goes well I should finally have the shop built and wired by this Winter and in operation by Spring. I hate to get too mouthy about it because life has a bad habit of getting in the way of my best laid plans.  But, I still plan and dream.

I love the look of wood and if it were all up to me there wouldn't be so much as a smear of paint in the whole house.  But, that's not all up to me either.....


Alan
 

[hayshaker]

it's really nice to see good work like that.
thanks for posting,

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Thanks Dave. My dad was a very good woodworker.  I have finished two of his started projects.  Another is a small end table.  If I ever get my "real" woodshop setup there were two or three more that he had started that need finishing.  THEN maybe I can finish the three or four I have started plus take care of those "someday" projects that I want to do for my kids. 

I have three little sisters (at least I call them that) and my dad was always making things for them.  One day after distributing a new round of furniture to them he said, "I guess you're wondering why I don't give you any?"  I replied, "Well, I haven't been wondering, but, I have noticed."  He said, "I give you tools".  And he had, a bunch of them.  A band saw, routers, planers, jointers, etc. and an assortment of hand tools.  When he died he left me even more than that. I just have to build a place to put it and use it. 

I've been stashing and hoarding various different woods and lumber. Walnut, ash, mesquite, oak, plus some small quantities of more exotic stuff, some that I have cut myself and some that I have acquired.

If all goes well I should finally have the shop built and wired by this Winter and in operation by Spring. I hate to get too mouthy about it because life has a bad habit of getting in the way of my best laid plans.  But, I still plan and dream.

I love the look of wood and if it were all up to me there wouldn't be so much as a smear of paint in the whole house.  But, that's not all up to me either.....


Alan

I was reading back through some of my posts.  This one from almost one year ago caught my eye for several reasons.

#1. I got the shop built and partially wired.

#2. Well that D@mn sure happened.

Maybe I should stop jinxing myself!

Alan

[Dabberty]

How about some virtual tour of the workshop? It's always interesting to see other people workplaces :-)

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

It's still in progress and looks like Hell inside right now.  #1 son and his crew are coming Friday to do the wiring and build the covered area for the boat and the Timber King.  I've got workbenches done but still need to organize and hang tools.  I'll get pics when it's closer to done, .... if I live that long...


Alan

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

A couple of outside views.





One workbench.



Overhead shelf.



The little enclosed space back in the corner is for a toilet and sink.  There's another workbench on the next wall to the left.  Garage doors on both ends to allow for drive through for mowers and other machinery.  I added more chain hangers for more weight on the over head shelf.  I put the chains instead of support beams to allow for unobstructed workspace on the bench. The table saw and planer will go in the center.  Two rows of LED four bulb 4' lights overhead and four single bulb LED 4' lights under the shelf and over the workbenches.

Work in progress.  Can't wait till I can work IN the shop instead of ON the shop.


Alan

[wsdstan]

I like that Alan.  You got something nice going there.

My shop is in a metal building that is 66 years old and I have a good thirty percent more stuff in there than there is room.

It not only looks like hell, it is hell.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Since we moved I have been forcing myself to get rid of a lot of "stuff" and not going with my deeply ingrained philosophy of salvaging EVERYTHING!  I actually threw a wheelbarrow load of perfectly good 2x4 pieces that were 4" - 6" long on the burn pile the other day.  It was sort of a milestone for me....

I'm really, really, really going to try to keep this shop clean and functioning.  I've got one of those big shop fans and open garage doors to catch the prevailing winds.  Every afternoon I crank up the blower and blow it out. 

Alan

[Dabberty]

Looks good, big enough for all kinds of woodworking.
My shed is a whopping 8.7 x 12 feet :-)

[wolfy]

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

I figured I could leave my kids some money or leave them a shop... I did the smart thing.

Alan

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Woooops.....

I got the bright idea to clean up my Imgur acct.  I didn't know that would happen.


Alan

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

When I'm prepping mesquite logs for the mill I try to cut off the limb bumps and make these.  #1 wife has first refusal.  She hasn't let very many go.


Mesquite bench with walnut legs.  My dad actually started this bench and died before he completed it.  I finished it out.


another view of the same bench.  The small bowl on the book is another one of mine.

I use a lancelot tool for the rough shaping and then work to progressively smaller grinding wheels until the final sanding.  The sanding is what takes the most time because none of the surfaces are uniform.  I left the piece on the side of the top bowl to give kind of a waterfall look.

I also made the tressle table that the bowl is sitting on.  It is cypress from an old cistern from our ranch.  It had long ago served its purpose and had fallen down.  One of my predecessors had stapled chicken wire to the inside and grouted it to get another 20 or so years of use out of it.  I could not get all the staples out and it was Hell on planer blades getting it planed.  It was tapered, random width and beveled also.  I worked with alternating ends to get it sorta square and had to jointer every piece on both sides to remove the bevel.  Seems like I'd hit a staple on every pass.  I planed it down below the staples, sharpened the blades and ran it through one more time.  #1 wife wants me to refinish the top after raising three boys and having grandkids beating on it with silverware.  I jsut can't seem to bring myself to wipe out those marks. 

I love trees and love wood.  Mankind did himself a great disservice when he stopped making his everyday things out of wood. Plastics do nothing to bring us closer to the Earth.


Alan

[Spyder1958]

Like the shop, a man can never have enough room to store and work. I need another shop. to many hobbies.