My mornings work

[Gordon Macfarlane]

Hi guy's now that I have completed building the majority of my current dac projects I thought it was time to tidy up the cases with new front panels.

I would have liked to use Jarrah but my wood working tools are fairly cheap and I thought it wood be difficult to get a good finish.

Anyway I bought a plank of nicely figured pine and set about sawing and sanding.

Here are the results so far :

I bought some Cabot's Jarah stain and will get some Danish oil to finish the panels off.

Any tips on application of stain and oil will be greatly recieved .

[Guest JohnA]

Looking great mate.

Once all stained up and oiled they should look supurb

Cheers

John

[Gordon Macfarlane]

Thanks John , it's a good way to recycle old equipment cases.

I have bought a couple of good quality metal cases recently but at $180 each landed it starts to get expensive particularly when I consider what I could buy in terms of quality transformers , caps etc.

[Braddles 63]

Love the grain and knots in them Gordon. The stain should high light them nicely.

Edited August 30, 2012 by Braddles 63

[Batty]

Great work, very similat to what I did with my SUT, didn't like the thin aluminium front panel so cut and drilled a bit of pine.

[Gordon Macfarlane]

Thanks guy's.

The grain and knots give the wood a bit of character and Batty as my boss used to say "it's perectly cheap "

[Guest Muon]

Nice work Gordon

Yeah agreed, better/cheaper to do yourself, if you have the space and tools handy.

[A J]

Look great - beats my effort making some shed speakers out of MDF

[Batty]

Here is the SUT.

[Upfront]

Nice work Gordon. I have a few tools your more than welcome to borrow. Let me know what you need next time and I'll see what I can dig up

[Gordon Macfarlane]

Here is the SUT.

Looks cool Batty , great what you can do with just a bit of lateral thinking

[Batty]

Thanks, but mine is rough and ready compared to your work.

[Luc]

I hate pine, I hate it with a passion, when people say " it has grain+knots" I shiver: So does a road train carrying wheat.

But... (there's always at least one 'but'... ) you work with what you have and that's cool.

The workmanship looks great.

Question: Do you have access to a thicknesser? Do you have access to some of the other toys a cabinet maker might have?

The reason I ask is that next week I'll be working for a guy who is one of the 'original' hippies from the Aquarius generation of the middle seventies who moved up here and just stayed and just became more mainstream as he got older.

The end result is that he has a love for timber and he has one of the acknowledged greatest collections of rare and endangered timber piles in NSW and possibly Australia, all tucked away in the biggest shed ever seen on a local hippie property outside of a Qantas jumbo hanger.

Last time I worked for him I mentioned that a nephew of mine in Argentina makes knives, specifically knife handles out of exoctic timbers and he proceeded to give me 7 or 8 small off cuts of weirdly named timbers(all seasoned mind you) which I gave to the nephew next time I saw him and now I'm the proud owner of an Argentinian classic knife that they use to dismember ruminants and it has the most beautiful handle of Australian candlewood.

I could certainly relieve him of a piece or two and if you don't have access to a planar and a thicknesser then I do . Tell me your ideal thickness and dimensions and I'll see what I can organise.

Ever heard of 'White Beech'? I have a recovered 6m length of it, 4x1, it is light, it is tough and it has a lovely grain...this particular piece is from a 19th century hotel that was demolished just after WW1 and then used in an adjoining property which was refurbished three years ago...and I grabbed it off the burn pile. It would clean up nicely and possibly display the handmade square nails of the day (the holes I mean...if you were to look close you'd see that the holes are actually 'squarish' not round...I know as I pulled every last one of the bastards out using a metal detector)

I'm hoping to have this partly cut up to maybe make some stands(the uprights not the tops or bases) and I'm sure that I could get a bit of it cut+thicknessed. What size is all I need? If your interested.

[gainphile]

Lovely work... I love the smell of pine being cut too

Staining might be not so easy. The pine is very porous, I heard you have to put shellac on them or something (?)

I have experience coating them with satin clear too. But over time they turn to ugly yellow.

My existing pine work are the desktop speakers which i simply sand smooth and leave alone. They've stayed white for quite sometimes now...

https://lh4.googleus...40/DSC_1962.jpg

[Sierra]

Very nice work ... Timber looks classy.

Should look great once you've stained and oiled it.

[Gordon Macfarlane]

I hate pine, I hate it with a passion, when people say " it has grain+knots" I shiver: So does a road train carrying wheat.

But... (there's always at least one 'but'... ) you work with what you have and that's cool.

The workmanship looks great.

Question: Do you have access to a thicknesser? Do you have access to some of the other toys a cabinet maker might have?

The reason I ask is that next week I'll be working for a guy who is one of the 'original' hippies from the Aquarius generation of the middle seventies who moved up here and just stayed and just became more mainstream as he got older.

The end result is that he has a love for timber and he has one of the acknowledged greatest collections of rare and endangered timber piles in NSW and possibly Australia, all tucked away in the biggest shed ever seen on a local hippie property outside of a Qantas jumbo hanger.

Last time I worked for him I mentioned that a nephew of mine in Argentina makes knives, specifically knife handles out of exoctic timbers and he proceeded to give me 7 or 8 small off cuts of weirdly named timbers(all seasoned mind you) which I gave to the nephew next time I saw him and now I'm the proud owner of an Argentinian classic knife that they use to dismember ruminants and it has the most beautiful handle of Australian candlewood.

I could certainly relieve him of a piece or two and if you don't have access to a planar and a thicknesser then I do . Tell me your ideal thickness and dimensions and I'll see what I can organise.

Ever heard of 'White Beech'? I have a recovered 6m length of it, 4x1, it is light, it is tough and it has a lovely grain...this particular piece is from a 19th century hotel that was demolished just after WW1 and then used in an adjoining property which was refurbished three years ago...and I grabbed it off the burn pile. It would clean up nicely and possibly display the handmade square nails of the day (the holes I mean...if you were to look close you'd see that the holes are actually 'squarish' not round...I know as I pulled every last one of the bastards out using a metal detector)

I'm hoping to have this partly cut up to maybe make some stands(the uprights not the tops or bases) and I'm sure that I could get a bit of it cut+thicknessed. What size is all I need? If your interested.

Hi Luc , my appologies for the tardiness of my reply. This is most generous of you. I need a couple of planks 44cms wide by 15cm high by approx. 1.5 cm thick..

If that works for you that would be lovely. Please let me know the cost of postage etc so you are not out of pocket.

Many thanks,

Gordon

[Luc]

Hiya Gordon.

No tardiness . I'm just tossing up whether to ring the hippie guy and say I'm right to go tomorrow(Monday) or just stay at home and do the jobs I haven't got finished this weekend :mad: (like clocking 200 hours on the new speakers to break em in...)

Either way, now that I have some measurements to go by I can sniff out some material.

Double check: 440ml long x 150ml high x 15ml thick ..yep? Is that rough sawn or dressed? (I'm guessing dressed, within reason).

cheers Lee

[ThirdDrawerDown]

There's some good Australian woodworking forums that are open to a google search.

Pine is absorbent and is prone to ridges and hollows at the detail level. If you are using a poluurethane over the jarrah stain, then make sure you apply the polyurethane in a dust-free atmosphere so little specks of dust don't settle on the work piece as it dries. They will anyway, so sand using 300 grit wetted with mineral turps and then apply the next coat of polyurethane. Then 400 or 450 grit (wetted, same method) and finally 600 grit. This will get you a good-looking finish and will take out the specks of dust.

Usual safety advice - apply in a well-ventilated area and don't drink the meths... [grin]

[Luc]

Just got off the phone with the timber guru, Gordon and sadly I have to go and work for him tomorrow and possibly the next the day and he's not sure whether he has anything as thin as 150ml or 440ml long but he does have heaps of 2.4m long by 40mm or 50mm or better so...I reckon we'll get something off him

*must remember to take some pics of this guys shed and collection...Aslan would drool at it I reckon. Is that far out in the sticks that there is no wireless connectivity at all which is a bummer but I'm taking some pics of your fronts with me via my phone camera so he knows what we're on about

Stay tuned

[Gordon Macfarlane]

Hiya Gordon.

No tardiness . I'm just tossing up whether to ring the hippie guy and say I'm right to go tomorrow(Monday) or just stay at home and do the jobs I haven't got finished this weekend :mad: (like clocking 200 hours on the new speakers to break em in...)

Either way, now that I have some measurements to go by I can sniff out some material.

Double check: 440ml long x 150ml high x 15ml thick ..yep? Is that rough sawn or dressed? (I'm guessing dressed, within reason).

cheers Lee

Yup! that's correct Lee

[Luc]

Just got back from work and I've got two pieces of dried Camphor Laurel Gordon about the right size but a little bit too long to post so tomorrow I'm taking them to another timber guru and I'm going to annoy him until he cuts them and runs them through the thicknessers and also recommends the best finish to bring out the grain :lol:

Also going to see if he'll gimme a little bit of his stuff too.We'll see what happens.

The 15mm thickness, can you use thicker or can you use thinner?

The reason I ask is that the guy today had a lot of Red Cedar(ask Aslan about that timber) and we measured and measured and some ran from 15mm down to about 10mm dressed over the length you need(440mm) and other timber like Silky Oak and Sally Wattle and Red Sassafras and Northern Rosewood(beautiful) and others he had but they were 28 mm or 30mm thick and when dressed drop back about 3mm. could you use timber that thick or that thin?

He also wanted to know whether you'd be drilling it for knobs and dials and I said I'm not sure.

[Gordon Macfarlane]

Just got back from work and I've got two pieces of dried Camphor Laurel Gordon about the right size but a little bit too long to post so tomorrow I'm taking them to another timber guru and I'm going to annoy him until he cuts them and runs them through the thicknessers and also recommends the best finish to bring out the grain :lol:

Also going to see if he'll gimme a little bit of his stuff too.We'll see what happens.

The 15mm thickness, can you use thicker or can you use thinner?

The reason I ask is that the guy today had a lot of Red Cedar(ask Aslan about that timber) and we measured and measured and some ran from 15mm down to about 10mm dressed over the length you need(440mm) and other timber like Silky Oak and Sally Wattle and Red Sassafras and Northern Rosewood(beautiful) and others he had but they were 28 mm or 30mm thick and when dressed drop back about 3mm. could you use timber that thick or that thin?

He also wanted to know whether you'd be drilling it for knobs and dials and I said I'm not sure.

Hi Luc , the thickness is not so important. If the timber is thin I guess I could glue it in place rather than screwing as I have done with the pine.

I will have to drill one hole for the power switch on the lhs.

Cheers,

Gordon

[Luc]

Ah, well that makes it easier, bugger, I could of got this great bit of Red Cedar...never mind...next time.

Can you use any other sizes, like smaller lengths? As he had a heap of stuff 300mm-400mm long and various thicknesses and heights, from 100mm upwards and above your 150mm requirement.