Post your woodwork here

[Hairy]

5 minutes ago, patches said:

Black Friday sales got the better of me and I ended up with one of the big-boy rails...

At 3m it would have been perfect for all the sheets of ply I was breaking down last week... haha oh well, it's here for next time.

Now I just need to find somewhere to store it in my already cluttered garage. Might try do something like this, one of my garage doors is juuust wide enough.

just keep buying those tools, and soon you will need a bigger house

[patches]

4 minutes ago, Hairy said:

just keep buying those tools, and soon you will need a bigger house

That's the plan! and with average house prices in Auckland being about $1.3m (R14m equiv.), a bigger house might require a move to the South Island (my not-so-secret agenda) ????

Side Note: Last year Feb we went and looked at a 4ha plot of land about 45min from Queenstown. The vendor had built a new 250sqm garage/workshop on it and had architectural plans, services and foundations in place for the main house, but decided to sell before building.

The garage had a bathroom so was habitable while one is constructing. They were asking around $450k. I was sold! The wife, less so. I'll convince her yet!

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, patches said:

That's the plan! and with average house prices in Auckland being about $1.3m (R14m equiv.), a bigger house might require a move to the South Island (my not-so-secret agenda) ????

Side Note: Last year Feb we went and looked at a 4ha plot of land about 45min from Queenstown. The vendor had built a new 250sqm garage/workshop on it and had architectural plans, services and foundations in place for the main house, but decided to sell before building.

The garage had a bathroom so was habitable while one is constructing. They were asking around $450k. I was sold! The wife, less so. I'll convince her yet!

you just wanting to follow Scott Brown who just moved down there

[patches]

A fair amount of working with wood was the order this weekend.

Whether it took the form of chopping wood for the pizza oven...

Or making brackets from offcuts to store the 3m guide rail...

or continuing work on the outdoor kitchen bench...

(Cabinet internals installed. It was a slog adding the 4 coats of marine varnish, each requiring 6hrs dry time between. Not fun!)

(Outer cladding added. It's 18mm ply with 3 coats of Dulux Weathershield . Was going to use marine grade hoop-pine, but at over $300/sheet, I took my chances on the Weathershield).

(The rough idea)

So yeah, busy weekend. Next steps will be making drawers and doors, then trying my hand at casting a concrete (or "concreete" as they say in the biz) countertop.

Edited December 6, 2021 by patches

[patches]

Been squeezing in a different type of "woodwork"... this time a concrete form for the concreeeete counter-top (patent pending).

Finally got to use the 3m rail to quickly knock up a simple box out of formply

Then said form was placed onto the outdoor dining table (flattest, most level surface I could find), with a stern warning from my better half that the table better not be damaged. 

The plan was to

• mix up about 100kg of multi-crete in a big plastic tub, 20kg batches at a time. (pretty tiring!)
• spray the form with silicone as a releasing agent and hopefully the un-boxing will go smoothly.
• scoop in about 3/5 batches into the form, leveling out between and tapping the edges between each batch to release bubbles
• add reinforcement, in the form of 5mm mesh at 100mm centres (I didn't feel like using seats or convoluted suspending wires etc)
• fill in the remaining 2 batches, once again vibrating/tapping the form
• screed off the top
• gently float with a trowel
• cover with the tarp
• then wait!

Although I do have delicate office-job hands, the hands in this picture are of the wife loading in the first spade-fulls of concrete mix.

 

Filled, reinforced, screeded and some dodgy trowel-work. Fortunately this will be the underside of the counter-top and the top should (in theory) be smooth from the formply.

 

After a couple of days it was time for the big reveal! (the underside)

(the top side)

Despite all my tapping (probably about 1hr total), there were still numerous voids caused by bubbles. Next time I may deviate from the concrete mixture directions (as I don't need the full 28 MPa strength) and water it down a little more. This mix only required 2L water per 20kg. I could go full slump test (which takes me back to university material science class, the last time I actually paid attention to concrete, haha)

So to fix the voids, I made a slurry and worked it into the gaps. It was messy work, but it came out alright

 

 

Then half a dozen coats of sealer...

 

Free-handing some sketchy drip-grooves on the underside with the angle-grinder and a tile-cutting disk

 

And finally, lifting the 100kg slap into place...

 

All in all, and considering I have not mixed concrete since uni experiments 13 years ago, I think this turned out pretty well.

Now I need to finish off the actual woodwork on this cabinet!

[stefmeister]

10 hours ago, patches said:

Been squeezing in a different type of "woodwork"... this time a concrete form for the concreeeete counter-top (patent pending).

Finally got to use the 3m rail to quickly knock up a simple box out of formply

Then said form was placed onto the outdoor dining table (flattest, most level surface I could find), with a stern warning from my better half that the table better not be damaged. 

The plan was to

• mix up about 100kg of multi-crete in a big plastic tub, 20kg batches at a time. (pretty tiring!)
• spray the form with silicone as a releasing agent and hopefully the un-boxing will go smoothly.
• scoop in about 3/5 batches into the form, leveling out between and tapping the edges between each batch to release bubbles
• add reinforcement, in the form of 5mm mesh at 100mm centres (I didn't feel like using seats or convoluted suspending wires etc)
• fill in the remaining 2 batches, once again vibrating/tapping the form
• screed off the top
• gently float with a trowel
• cover with the tarp
• then wait!

Although I do have delicate office-job hands, the hands in this picture are of the wife loading in the first spade-fulls of concrete mix.

 

Filled, reinforced, screeded and some dodgy trowel-work. Fortunately this will be the underside of the counter-top and the top should (in theory) be smooth from the formply.

 

After a couple of days it was time for the big reveal! (the underside)

(the top side)

Despite all my tapping (probably about 1hr total), there were still numerous voids caused by bubbles. Next time I may deviate from the concrete mixture directions (as I don't need the full 28 MPa strength) and water it down a little more. This mix only required 2L water per 20kg. I could go full slump test (which takes me back to university material science class, the last time I actually paid attention to concrete, haha)

So to fix the voids, I made a slurry and worked it into the gaps. It was messy work, but it came out alright

 

 

Then half a dozen coats of sealer...

 

Free-handing some sketchy drip-grooves on the underside with the angle-grinder and a tile-cutting disk

 

And finally, lifting the 100kg slap into place...

 

All in all, and considering I have not mixed concrete since uni experiments 13 years ago, I think this turned out pretty well.

Now I need to finish off the actual woodwork on this cabinet!

Next time, you can use a make shift poker by using a plank and a orbital sander. Getting your settings dialed in and it can create quite a lot of vibration.

Why don't you mix up some cement with permabond to fill in those voids, then wet sand afterwards for a mirror smooth surface?

[Capricorn]

23 minutes ago, stefmeister said:

Next time, you can use a make shift poker by using a plank and a orbital sander. Getting your settings dialed in and it can create quite a lot of vibration.

Why don't you mix up some cement with permabond to fill in those voids, then wet sand afterwards for a mirror smooth surface?

or a hard tipped hose pipe attached to the bit of a hammer drill with dedicated chipper function, work's really well for getting into the slurry for projects with depth

[stefmeister]

1 hour ago, Capricorn said:

or a hard tipped hose pipe attached to the bit of a hammer drill with dedicated chipper function, work's really well for getting into the slurry for projects with depth

Sounds even better. *making mental note*

[DJR]

Nobody else wondering whether a tool or two from the adult toy store could work?🤪

[geomark]

5 hours ago, DJR said:

Nobody else wondering whether a tool or two from the adult toy store could work?🤪

Sure, but can you find one that takes any of his battery systems?  Maybe there's an untapped market niche there 😁

[Capricorn]

4 minutes ago, geomark said:

Sure, but can you find one that takes any of his battery systems?  Maybe there's an untapped market niche there 😁

untapped niche

🤣

 

[patches]

15 hours ago, DJR said:

Nobody else wondering whether a tool or two from the adult toy store could work?🤪

10 hours ago, geomark said:

Sure, but can you find one that takes any of his battery systems?  Maybe there's an untapped market niche there 😁

Well, Makita does make one, but its probably not available in most adult stores

[patches]

After residing on my wish list for a while, but being almost impossible to find locally, I finally found and purchased a "Scott Brown hammer"

 

 

Vaughan Dalluge 16Oz Titanium Framing Hammer. So far I've only used it for knocking some loose decking nails back into place, as well as tapping some drawer bottoms into dados (with a wood block to protect the drawer pieces of course.

16Oz is pretty light for a framing hammer. Most are 20-24Oz. The lighter head and simplistic handle makes it kinda versatile. One can choke up on it and use it for finer/finishing work. Or take advantage of the handles length and drive home framing nails with power.

For a pro-sumer like myself though... I just like the "vintage ice climbing pick" look.

[stefmeister]

On 12/24/2021 at 10:05 PM, patches said:

Well, Makita does make one, but its probably not available in most adult stores

Everything's a dildo if you're brave enough.

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

On 12/21/2021 at 9:39 PM, patches said:

Been squeezing in a different type of "woodwork"... this time a concrete form for the concreeeete counter-top (patent pending).

Finally got to use the 3m rail to quickly knock up a simple box out of formply

Then said form was placed onto the outdoor dining table (flattest, most level surface I could find), with a stern warning from my better half that the table better not be damaged. 

The plan was to

• mix up about 100kg of multi-crete in a big plastic tub, 20kg batches at a time. (pretty tiring!)
• spray the form with silicone as a releasing agent and hopefully the un-boxing will go smoothly.
• scoop in about 3/5 batches into the form, leveling out between and tapping the edges between each batch to release bubbles
• add reinforcement, in the form of 5mm mesh at 100mm centres (I didn't feel like using seats or convoluted suspending wires etc)
• fill in the remaining 2 batches, once again vibrating/tapping the form
• screed off the top
• gently float with a trowel
• cover with the tarp
• then wait!

Although I do have delicate office-job hands, the hands in this picture are of the wife loading in the first spade-fulls of concrete mix.

 

Filled, reinforced, screeded and some dodgy trowel-work. Fortunately this will be the underside of the counter-top and the top should (in theory) be smooth from the formply.

 

After a couple of days it was time for the big reveal! (the underside)

(the top side)

Despite all my tapping (probably about 1hr total), there were still numerous voids caused by bubbles. Next time I may deviate from the concrete mixture directions (as I don't need the full 28 MPa strength) and water it down a little more. This mix only required 2L water per 20kg. I could go full slump test (which takes me back to university material science class, the last time I actually paid attention to concrete, haha)

So to fix the voids, I made a slurry and worked it into the gaps. It was messy work, but it came out alright

 

 

Then half a dozen coats of sealer...

 

Free-handing some sketchy drip-grooves on the underside with the angle-grinder and a tile-cutting disk

 

And finally, lifting the 100kg slap into place...

 

All in all, and considering I have not mixed concrete since uni experiments 13 years ago, I think this turned out pretty well.

Now I need to finish off the actual woodwork on this cabinet!

A thinner slurry to start off with and then adding the concrete and reinforcing would help but you would probably need to somehow make a vibrating setup, to help settle into those pockets.

Curious to know why you went with the concrete over the before mentioned concreete?
Jokes aside, that really looks good, well done.

[patches]

6 hours ago, Steven Knoetze (sk27) said:

A thinner slurry to start off with and then adding the concrete and reinforcing would help but you would probably need to somehow make a vibrating setup, to help settle into those pockets.

Curious to know why you went with the concrete over the before mentioned concreete?
Jokes aside, that really looks good, well done.

Well, it came down to cost. that extra "E" in concreEte stands for "Extreme" and and everyone knows that if you call your product "Extreme" you can charge double for it (triple if it's just "Xtreme" and quadruple if you add "Factory" or "Team").

But yeah, next time I'll try the wood-block and sander trick or similar as well as mix it extra slushy!