Lex's latest project

[lex_rooker]

Contrary to popular belief, I do have a life outside of paleo forums.  I work on clocks, watches, small models, electronic circuit boards and do metal engraving etc.  I wanted a work bench that would look nice and fit in with the other furniture in our family room and couldn't find anything commercially available so I decided to design and build my own.  The attached picture is the end result.

All the dark colored wood is Red Oak stained in Mission Cherry and then finished with MinWax satin polyurethane.  The top is Hard Rock Maple that is finished with Tung Oil and then hand rubbed. I chose not to finish the top with stain or polyurethane as it will receive a lot of abuse and varnish or polyurethane will chip or crack.  The oil finish soaks into the wood and to deal with dings and scratches just requires an occasional application of thinned oil. A varnish or poly finish, though harder and tougher to begin with, would require full stripping and redoing the finish from scratch to properly repair. The top is 26"x52" and is about 2" thick.  I think it turned our rather well.

The Rube Goldburg contraption is an articulated stand for a stero microscope I use for working on clocks, pocket watches, and doing metal engraving.  The wooden box is a circa 1940s Gerstner Machinist's Tool Chest.

Lex

[xylothrill]

Lex,

Let me get this straight. You can't have an aquarium in your family room but you can have a workbench?
Joking aside, that looks awesome as well as offering functionality! What a craftsman you are! There might be a niche for this sort of thing.

Craig

[lex_rooker]

There might be a niche for this sort of thing.

Actually, I showed this to a local family run furniture company that specializes in Craftsman style furniture and gave them some marketing suggestions.  They are looking into producing this as a combo desk/hobby center and offering a couple of different tops (oak/maple/etc) depending on requirements, as well as pre-milled slots for the most popular commercially available bench jigs for the clock, jewelery, or engraving enthusiasts.  I also showed them how to proportion and outfit this as a high-end Craftsman style sewing machine cabinet.

They seemed pleased as the market for mid-level furniture is really slow.  People are either purchasing really cheap stuff like Ikea or really expensive stuff like Stickley.  The mid-end market has pretty well dried up.  There are other hobby benches on the market that are targeted to the various interests but they are all very utilitarian and often poorly built and they just don't look good in something like a family room or other shared space.  If they think they have a market, this may just save a few jobs in a small family run business.

Lex   

[TylerDurden]

You know, I actually prefer these sort of topics, as they reveal  far more about a RPDer's  hobbies etc. than any questions about RAF diets.

Perhaps others could  also post their off-line non-RPD lifestyles here!

[akaikumo]

That's just bloody cool.  I've always wished I could build my own furniture, but I don't have any experience with woodwork of any kind.

Where'd you learn to do it?

[lex_rooker]

Hi Kae,
When I was growing up my dad had a shop with a table saw, wood lathe, drill press, and all the basic hand tools that he used to keep our old house (2-story built in 1896) from falling apart and I've always been mechanically inclined.  My profession for over 40 years has been a Telecommunications Technician where I would install, maintain, and repair microwave, fiber optic, telephone switching and other electronic and electromechanical equipment so working with my hands comes naturally to me.

Most of my woodworking up to this point has been "construction" oriented - knocking out walls, remodeling the kitchen and bathrooms etc.  Now that I'm retired I have more time to do things that interest me so when I decided to make a workbench I got a bunch of books and plans and took a little from each of them to get the final result.  One of the most amazing inventions in the last few years has been Pocket Screws.  I'm convinced that you can build anything with those things.

Lex

[Raw Kyle]

That looks great. Before the Summer is over I have a modest project to do myself, building a compost bin. I found a bunch of wood in the basement so I'm going to try and have a box base, nail four posts to it, and then just wrap some kind of wire around it. Very very modest project but I'm not at all experienced building things, however I did work construction for one Summer years ago.

[lex_rooker]

Kyle,
I did the compost thing for about 20 years.  I always used a wire cage set either on the ground or a cement pad.  I used 36" tall fence wire with 2" wire spacing and just cut a length about 9 ft long, bent over the cut ends and hooked them into the other end to make a 3 ft diameter circular cage.  Try to get fairly thick wire like 18 or 16 gauge that has been galvanized.  It will last for many years.  The wire allows the compost heap to breath and makes it easy to turn or pull out finished compost just by unhooking the cage and removing the wire.  You can also make one in about 15 minutes.

We also use 6" grid cement reinforcing wire to make 6' tall cages for tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, peas or just about any climbing plant.  Just cut a length of wire off the roll that is about 6 or 7 feet long, bend the cut ends back to hook around the other end to make a 2' to 2 1/2' diameter cage about 6 feet tall.  Cut off the bottom wire that goes around the diameter of the cage and this will leave spikes that you can push into the ground for stability.  Very inexpensive and effective.  They last a long time too.  I think the ones we're using now we've had for almost 30 years.  One of the best parts is that you can easily unhook them and store them flat during the off season.  Same for the compost bin.

I can probably muster up a picture to post if you need one.

Lex

[Raw Kyle]

That would be cool Lex thanks. Oh and btw I emailed you a while back about pemmican, have you been checking your email?