OCD Chilehead said:
Thats beautiful craftsmanship on the furniture. Keeping my fingers crossed for good weather.
Thanks OCD!
The pics don't do the work justice, my goal with using the Mesquite was to build fine furniture. The only dab thing about Mesquite is most of what I cut up had imperfections, I tried to incorporate it into the project as best as possible.
The weather here turned cooler this week, and it wasn't forecast. It is what it is
HillBilly Jeff said:
Some awesome looking furniture. Know a guy who made some stuff out of mullberry wood and it looked great. I got lots of them trees, but can't dry them without them splitting on me.
I will have to remember to take pics of my man cave furniture at a distance from now on lol.
Awesome work.
Thanks Jeff!
Each of those pieces took me 2 months to build, the bed is made of over 225 pieces. The top and bottoms of the head and foot boards are made like laying bricks, if you look closely you can see it in the head board pic. I had to do that because I couldn't find large pieces.
Here's what got me into wood working, LB wanted a new kitchen, so I did this all from scratch. I still after a year need to finish the "change order" LB asked for. I was done but she asked nicely. On the last pass routing the door frames I turned off the router, and as I pulled my hand back I made contact with the bit. It plowed a nasty jagged cut on my left thumb. It looked like a shark bite, I couldn't see how it could be stitched so I let it bleed some and taped it...you know redneck style.
So I've put the rest on hold, it's all cut 14 doors and 2 drawers, I just need to get back in there, the feeling has come back too.
While I was doing this I ripped off the paneling and did the sheetrock and tiled the floor. My apologies for anyone that viewed this last year.
JJJessee said:
You're pretty handy with a saw or a shovel there, Scott.
I can't wait to see those raised beds full of winter greens, onions, carrots. What is she gonna grow in them first?
You done good dodgin' that hail. I'd send that weather person a 6 pack.
Do onions usually bolt like that this time of year?
My OW scallions are starting to bolt, which is fine cause I'd like to save a few seeds, but they've had a dormancy period so you expect that from a biennial.
Thanks JJJ!
I'm one of those people who just does stuff, read and give it a shot
Well the first bed is full of Asparagus, the second will be peppers until the season ends and then we will transplant the Strawberries. I'm hoping to make 3 new ones total (until we buy more materials) and they will probably be for the winter garden, which I have trouble keeping up with because I slack that time of year. The beds are right out the back door, so we can't ignore them
Much luck not getting hail!
My Onions went in Jan 15th, they say they bolt when it goes warm, cold and warm again, so I usually lose 2-3% to bolting every year. This year I'm going to let them make seeds and see how that works out, can't really do too much with them once they bolt.
Pulpiteer said:
Well done on the furniture! You are a man of many talents! And that mesquite is a pretty looking wood.
Oh, and 500 years old - amazing! That's like when Columbus sailed to the Americas. Very cool.
Thanks Andy!
The wife got me into it, you know "I know you can do this". So I started with a few small projects that I made from plans. Mainly because the kitchen re-do she wanted would have been a second mortgage. And I worked my way up to the larger projects, the main thing is you have to take your time and NOT EVER say this is good enough. So we bought $6k worth of equipment a little at a time and I went to work. That Mesquite is a beautiful wood, it's not stained, it just has multiple coats of Minwax wipe on poly applied. When freshly cut it's a pick color and oxidizes to the deeper color, of course the finish darkens the wood too.
The guy that drilled the well said the same thing about the tree we lost.
This one:
The pics may not capture the true size, but let's just say close to 2 fridges wide in the trunk shot.
jedisushi06 said:
five gallon buckets with lids and some cheap air stones. I drilled holes in the top of mu buckets to fit the tubing in. Makes putting the lids on much easier. The holes are just big enough for the tubing. Two air stones per bucket.
I don't have air stones, but I have a compressor with a regulator I used for painting cars (in days gone by). I wonder if a sponge on the end of an air hose would create the aerated bubbles that are required. However I see a trip to San Antonio coming this weekend, so I can wally world it
Nulle said:
Beautiful furniture.You're a very talented man
Thank you!
I call it me being a hardheaded redneck that won't as the wife says settle for anything less. I'm my worst critic, it has to be perfect or it's BBQ wood..LOL
The fact that I allowed myself to use a piece with the sapwood on it when I made the bed still bugs me, it's the small yellow on the left post..OCD, anal, whatever term it is...that's me
stc3248 said:
Haha...you have the Devine split...and the Carrizo, well...it just doesn't usually make it that far south. Furniture has me motivated, I have a shadow box to get to before the end of next month so I may actually start breaking out the tools today. The joys of nots and mysteries...can't beat it! When you grow so many it sure is easy to mess up once or twice. When that once or twice affects the labeling of other plants further downstream is when you can really run into real trouble. Its pretty easy when you can stick to whole flats, rows or groups of rows, but when you start one or two of these and those then them and well...you get mysteries. The nots are expected too, especially when we all openly trade so many seeds that haven't been isolated, but I really like the potential for something new and different.
Sounds as though you've been putting in the hours! Your plants look about like most of mine do. Beat up...a little yellow here and some brown there, but way ahead of the game inspite of the ugly stick ma-nature is beating them with. Your jungle oasis in the Devine Split will be visible from the space station by early June...and the envy of all the neighbors. Heck, I want a tour!!!
If I remember correctly when you do get rain down there it's not pretty, but that's Tejas...I'm hoping we get some real rain here before it gets hot, we need it really bad. Medina lake is a mud hole now.
I don't plan on running the garden all summer like last year, that's what I say now, but I need to get in there and finish the kitchen, just not enough hours in a day it seems. And too many hobbies
Yeah the nots and mysteries, this has me perplexed. Perhaps I should just show pics and say "heres a plant podding nicely" because now I'm like what's what? What did I do here? It's all good, I'll sort them out as they roll in and find a way to do better next year.
And they are beat to heck from the wind, I'm having a hard time getting them to kick, but am hitting them with foliar and watered in nutes for when they decide to explode with growth. The 3 mornings we just had in the mid 40's couldn't have helped.
cone9 said:
The woodwork looks great! Do you also do any lathe work?
Making beautiful things with one's hands is immensely satisfying. I throw pots and make monotype prints as a hobby.
Thanks Dave!
The one thing I don't have "yet" is a lathe, I will before it's all over. I have most everything else. The two coolest are the 5hp 20" Powermatic thickness planer and the 22" Powermatic drum sander. Talk about loud, a neighbor came over when I first got the planer just to see what the racket was. The drum sand is really cool for table tops, I plane to 1/8" of desired thickness and drum sand the rest. The big planer will gobble wood but it's prone to some tearout.
I need to post a desktop I made that I hand fitted because of the stocks short length.
Thanks for reading!
