Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Shop News

After having a couple cabinet ideas not work out, I was pretty bummed out so I turned my attention to the mindless task of flattening some of the short oak stock that had come out of the kiln with the last load. I cut most of the oak slabs in half lengthways to deal with the splits and bending in the middle, then planed them. This generated a ton of oak shavings. They went into the garden recycling bin, it's too bad they can't be used for something. Now I have a nice stash of oak for someday and I feel like at least I accomplished something finally.

I also did a bit of 'wood trading' with a guy I met who lives up in the Okanagan and so wound up with a half dozen nice slabs of fruitwood, including apricot which I have never seen locally. Happy about that!

I also have a lady who seems genuinely interested in buying a couple alder slabs from me. No idea how to figure out how much they are worth. Funny, I'll give them away to people I know, but want to make sure I get fair value when they are sold!

My "shop" energy level is a bit low right now due to the dead end projects. I have gone back to a birch slab table project I abandoned several years ago. The slab is virtually done, I am going to make the base out of catalpa. Hopefully it'll get my enthusiasm back up!

No more milling now until the new year. I am still licking my wounds (in the form of a badly beaten up chain) after hitting the rocks in the last elm I milled.

Happy holidays to all!
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3 comments:

  1. Ralph BoumenotDecember 24, 2010 at 4:13 PM

    I used to think I was the only one on the planet who had dead ends. Good to hear that you are still trying by tackling something else.
    What kind of wood is that in the picture? It looks like it would be a awesome top for a table.
    accidental woodworker

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  2. Dan McC.December 24, 2010 at 11:06 PM

    Hi RJB,

    Thanks for the note. I guess everyone has a few deadends, it's just a bit much when you get several in a row!

    The wood in the picture is alder, the lady who wants to buy it is intending it for a tabletop. I guess it's a 'natural' for that application.

    Dan

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  3. DavidDecember 29, 2010 at 11:59 AM

    HAng in there Dan, I feel the same way... The past project took for ever to finish after dealing with some problems... and the new one is allready a flop joinery wise... So I restarted over, but not realy eager to get going!!
    Good luck with your new project.
    Cheers

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