Category: Cutting For a Project

Woodshed Progress

I have moved on a bit with the woodshed, arriving at a point where I need to cut a few more timbers, and consider the final design that I am going to go with. As much as I would like it to resemble an old English cottage, it has to be open on one side, and it is best if it is breathable on at least one more. Since sunlight will help to dry the wood inside it as well, the south wall needs to expose the interior completely. It is positioned for that, as that is where it will need to be accessible. So it looks like it will look like an animal shelter when it is done. I will be able to just squeeze about eight and a half feet out of the top height of the tall side, the one facing south, and the back, or north side, will probably come in around seven or so. Even though the longest I could do in sills took the length of the shed down to about 17 feet four or so, I think the final shed will still be able to fill completely and hold enough wood for the entire winter, using it as the primary heat source.

So, I am foreseeing a two-bay shed that will stand on a whole bunch of cinder blocks for a foundation. I would love to be able to close that off completely, leaving the bottom as just an empty cavity, but of course there are not enough to finish fully closing it in, so I will have to be able to do with what I have got here. The idea is to build this as cheap as possible. I only anticipate buying a bag of nails to keep the purlins on and the siding on the purlins, and places like that; the flooring and such. The frame is meant to be timber framed. Every bit of wood will come out of logs and off my sawmill. As such, the wood members will be robust. I am cutting the siding at an inch thick, and even though a good deal of it will go on green, I think it will still come in at over three-quarters of an inch thick when it is dried.

When it is finished, I expect I will put up a place to hang a lantern so I can see alright when I go out to get wood. Seems like a good idea, as long as it is secure, and the lantern cannot fall and set the winter’s wood on fire!

As for my work on it today? It is raining, so I am not. Documenting the ideas and progress instead! The rest of the week shows a small chance of rain with the temps falling in at the low seventies, so as long as it is dry, it ought to be great! More progress! I’ll start with some milling tomorrow.

Interesting. There is a tree trimmer on the road cutting back trees that are encroaching upon the power lines. The truck just drove past the tree that arced and set in motion the truck coming out here in the first place. Ain’t that typical?

A Sore Sawyer’s Tale

I got the sawmill tuned up a bit this morning, and ready to run. It’s not perfect as the bed could use some flattening, but then, one sets boards down flat to dry and to allow any odd shapes to come out. Why could they not come into the board if one were correcting a very slight malformation caused by a slightly off saw bed? I’ll give it some more work when I am feeling better, but for now it is tuned enough.

I put a new blade on to try to correct some wave in the cuts, too. That worked instantly. I cut a four-and-a-half-foot pine log to test it all out, and once the blade was on, the cuts were immaculate. I put the boards right into the shop to dry out of the sun, though at the moment they are stood on end, and I put AcnchorSeal on one end. I’ll have to flip them and coat the other end soon.

By 11:30AM I was out of order. Arthritis pain got to be too much, and I could not work any longer. A quick lunch, some painkillers and a nap soon followed. It’s coming up to 2PM now, and I am waiting for the time to come when I can take a second round of painkillers to give a try at something different than I have already had. But that’s all by-the-by.

The boards I got from the board were fairly dry at the ends and pretty wet in the middles. I have a selection of one inch thick and a couple of two inch, and even a 1/2 inch thick one. There are also slabs from the outside edges that I may clean up and try to laser etch something into. If not them, there are the natural edge rough cuts first in from them that I may try as well.

The test log went fine, but next I need to cut up some of the big poplar trees I have out back and get a few boards, some beams, and some posts from them. I am not sure how fast I will get through that project if my body is not going to hold up for very long at the work. But I will give it a try and see. I expect to try another log later today. I just need those painkillers to kick in!

End of Summer Break

Summer officially ends three weeks into September, but the end of summer break is already here on this little farmstead. The wind kicked up last night and the temperature dropped, with today and tomorrow’s high expected to reach 76°F before we warm up a little again. All workable temperatures! On top of this, my wife’s sister flew back to the UK yesterday, and we have confirmation that she is landed and home safe now. That’s all good news, apart from her actual leaving. We all really enjoyed her stay! She’ll be missed till next time she can come out for a visit.

So, what does this all mean? I have a few projects I need to get going that I did not want to try to consume Sister’s time with while she was here. Just didn’t seem fair on her while she was only out for a couple of weeks, and I wanted to be sure she got her break from work while she had the chance. There was plenty for her to do here without putting her into a hole in the ground, or under a falling tree!

  • Chop down the poplar tree in the back yard
  • Septic system renewal
  • Chimney cleaning and repair
  • Patch roof in dining room where chimney has leaked
  • Saw all the logs in the yard down
  • Build the woodshed
  • Build fuel storage building
  • Build Market Stand for front of house
  • Organize tractor implements
  • Build yard fence
  • Clean the barn and bring in stuff from in front of it
  • Get the last of the firewood for winter
  • Get more sawlogs
  • Finish resetting the sawmill to new temp location, then start shed/platform for it
  • Clean my shop
  • Clean up the upstairs
  • Restart candlemaking
  • Service the tractor
  • Clean and finish the front porch
  • Make bedside table/cabinet
  • Paint and service the balcony door
  • Get winter hay
  • Wire in Christmas light outlet

I am sure there is a lot more that I am not remembering, or there are many things to do that are too small to bother listing, like cutting the herb garden, or finishing out the gourd growth for the year and drying them properly.

On top of all this, I need to get an income produced here as we are running to the end of our savings, and it is high time we get it figured out.

Our grandson has been with us since Friday afternoon. It was just easier all around if he stayed with us then went to the airport to drop his Aunty off. He is seven, and was perfectly aware of Aunty leaving, and broke down in tears as she was saying goodbye. It was such as sweet little moment that he got the others crying too. Happily, that didn’t affect me, as I was the one assigned with the driving. Anyway, his folks will be over to pick him up today around noon. That usually means a visit, and that is just fine and restful, which we could all use before we let loose the kraken tomorrow.

Finally, I have decided that if I am ever going to put anything up on the YouTube channel again, I need to get filming it very soon. How I will fit that in with actually doing everything on the list above is well beyond me! But for a laugh, I thought I’d mention it.

A Roman Workbench

On Wednesday I cut a four-inch-thick slice off the big pine log that has been sitting on the mill. I rotated it first from the single straight cut, putting that on the side of my resulting board, and also moving a split in the log to run parallel to my cut, assuring none of the split would intrude. I cut the board in half so I would have two pieces about 4 feet long each, then started planing one of them on the face and then the edge with a scrub plane. Unfortunately, there was a wave in the original cut, so it was still necessary to straighten up that one edge of the board.

After working the board with the scrub plane, I used the 5-1/2 to bring it down much smoother before finishing it up a bit with a #4. I used a panel gauge to determine the width of the final board and mark a straight parallel edge opposite the original one, then planed that easily to form at 12 inches net width. Finally, I used the scrub plane again to put a scalloped surface on what will be the bottom of the Roman Workbench.

Next, I determined the position for legs, which in the end may be temporary for reasons I will discuss later and drilled one-inch holes at angles to take legs I made later. For the drilling I used a bit and brace, and the largest bit I have, I might add.

That bit is a one inch, and I used it also to set in dogholes for the bench, as that corresponds to the dogholes and accessories for my workbench in the shop as well. That way I can use the metal dogs and the holdfasts and such from it on the Roman.

The Roman Workbench is intended to fit under the workbench in the shop when not in use and will largely serve as a saw bench. So it is set to be 18 inches tall, a foot wide, and four feet long, allowing me to tip the feet of the Roman over the stretchers on the workbench and put it in. But as I am intending to build a woodshed after the manner of a timber frame, I thought it would be good to have a small, portable bench for the job.

Dogholes go in straight up and down, while the legs holes are set at an angle.

Looking through the bottom while the bench is set on its side, dogholes and leg holes can be seen through the scalloped surface.

I rested from this job on Thursday and did other things. Among them was visiting with our son and grandson. I asked son if he wanted me to easily make up the other half of the length of the original board into a small bench for his basement, but he said he didn’t think he had room. “No” to a free workbench? His loss.

On Friday I turned four legs and four dogs for the bench on the lathe. I have a problem with the legs. The wood was so wet it was spitting water at me while I turned. That means the tenons will shrink so much that they will need to be refitted or remade when it finally dries. I expect some problems with the benchtop too, but that has been oiled and had anchor seal put on the ends, to ease the water loss and cracking or warping.

The final bench with four dogs and a #4 plane sat atop it for some sense of scale. The space under the adjacent bench is where it will live when not in use.

The finished bench is a perfect height for a seat at 18 inches, and it is a sturdy one at that. Hopefully that will do as a saw bench. Also, to answer the question the keen observer has, no, I did not seat the shoulders properly. They seat where the shoulders touch the surface of the bottom, and otherwise are gapped. I still suspect the leg tenons to cause serious troubles, so I will have to find some dry wood and make new legs, then seat them properly. Who knows what shape they will be? If the wood I find is not conducive to turning, then I will cut square legs instead, and give them shoulders coplanar to the bottom.

I finished the bench for the time being by lunchtime Friday, all while doing other things, and would say it is an easy build. I wonder what I could sell a properly built bench for? I’ll bet up to $500 or so. It does solve the age-old woodworkers’ problem that you have to have a bench to build a bench. I bought a bench originally, so I was able to work the other way around. But this still satisfies a need for the woodshed build, and it will again be useful in the shop. Being pine, it will show the abuse I give it. Being a woodworker, that should not be a problem for me.

Now it’s time to pick out the next project. I fancy a bit of furniture in the house. Maybe it is time to start the pie safe for the kitchen? Whatever the case, I am hellbent and determined to learn this skill and to let the work of it strengthen me against the future.

Table Making in Cold June Days

Today was weird. It was chilly and very windy! Tomorrow is meant to get below freezing in the morning. If it does, this will be the latest we have had frost during the year. Our previous record since we moved to Idaho in 2012 was June 11th. We will beat that by a week. I hear there is snow in Montana, and I believe it as we had a light dusting on the mountain tops here.

As the weather was cold today, I got some time in the shop and worked on the table I have been building. It is a little night table that I am working on after buying a video series from Mortise and Tenon. The video showed the principals of how to build so the wood worker could build any sized table they want. I am tackling a smaller one than in the video, but I am building from poplar and will prep some pine before I do another one. The idea of this project is not just to learn how to build a table, but to also build one quickly when I get the practice in.

I put the legs on the table this evening without any glue or screws or the like. The design in the video was to use wooden peg through the mortise and tenons. I am giving it a try. It’s not like I don’t know how to fix it if anything goes wrong.

Tomorrow our son is not able to come with to get wood, or to do work over here. That’s fine! He has been really helpful this year so far, and it is not big deal to miss a day here and there. He forgot that we were not planning to go out for wood tomorrow anyhow. The plan was to start building the woodshed. So, I went ahead and took out part of the old wood bunk. I am so done with tarps on the firewood! I want enough of a shed to hold the wood for the stove over winter, and a little one for the fireplace wood, which can be longer than what fits the stove. I’d also like to have a lean-to that will hold wood for the workshop.

The next step is to put some cinder blocks down to build the shed on top of. There is a fair few around here, so I will be using them. Then it is time to cut the wood required from that mass of logs I have out back.

That’s the report for today. I think I will be reporting the cold tomorrow. It feels like it is going to reach freezing by tomorrow morning. It is 9:30PM and already down to 42 degrees. Ten more to go, and the temperature dropped 2 degrees in the last half hour. Unbelievable! Good night!

Update: 16 July, 2024

The finished table looked like so in the end. It has a drawer and is a little tall, which can be remedied as needed. I will build another one, perhaps much like this one, perhaps completely different. That’s the whole point of this project! I can build to suit. None of the measurements mattered on this project. In fact, I took none. So I can build a table like this, or four feet wide, or half as deep. None of that matters. It only matters that I make sure it fits where I need it to go. That does not even require a ruler. Just a stick with a couple of labelled marks on it would do just fine.

Here is it mid-July. I have not yet even decided where to put the already built table pictured above. The best place I can think of for it is near my computer. But the space there is pretty hidden, and I am reluctant to hide it. But I suspect it would work there just fine. At the moment it is also very hot at my computer during the days and evenings. So I don’t use it much. That gives me till autumn to worry about it. That also gives me time to muster up and do another one, this time being more careful to decide beforehand where I want to put it!

The Woodshop & A Firewood Day

My favorite place to be is in the woodshop.  I could be cleaning up, figuring out there is no hood organization system in there, making shavings, or simply burning them.  For me time, it is my own space. 

Today is Tuesday. We could not go get firewood yesterday, so we went out to get it today. There was plenty to choose from, and why I call it a firewood day is unknown even to me. I go out, I select from the wood at the pile, and I always pick first a sawlog or three. Firewood comes in on top after that. But by the time a huge log is on the trailer, there is a bit of a load there that cannot be topped up with too much more weight. So, we grab a little firewood, and we get going. The firewood pile could be doing a bit better.

The sawlog, however, are fantastic, and I think I could build a decent woodshed without worrying about running out too soon. I think I could build a woodshed tomorrow if I had the time. I don’t. I do need to get the sawing done. To do that, I will first have to make some bolsters and stickers for proper stacking.

After we got home and got the wood unloaded today, I put the final bits of roof on the rabbit hutches. I put the panels upside-down because the bottoms are white, and the tops are brown. With it being summer, I would rather they be cooler. I sure don’t have the time to repaint them.

If I am going to get sawyering, I will have to get together a list of how many posts and beams I need, and then cut the rest into purlins and boards. Any excess boards can go to the furniture shop. That’s something for the spare time on breaks tomorrow. The rest is listed in my planner and will keep me busy for days yet to come. Enough for now.

A Lovely October Day Working

It has been a day of work and family down on the farm today. Our second son came by and helped out with the wood again, and it was very welcome help, for sure! There was a distraction from getting started, and I should have seen to it before we walked out to the log pile and started the splitter.

First things first, I sent the kids off to school. After coming back from meeting the bus I back dragged the driveway where there is a bit of mud in a couple of places. Always good to have a flat drive, and the weather promises to be in the 60’s and 70’s this week.

The distraction was the cardboard in the trailer. I suggested we could either throw it out on the ground temporarily, or we could go up to his place and get all his cardboard, take it all to the recycling bin, then come back with an empty trailer and get started on the wood. He took that option. When we got to the bin with all the cardboard a whole heap of wasps started circling one of the big boxes from his house and confused us because he has kept is cardboard inside, and it has not been there that long. Made no sense that wasps would build a house so quickly this late in the year. I grabbed the box and tossed it in the bin, nonetheless. It was only then that I realized we would be stopping into the salvage yard next door to drop off the broken microwave that I had dumped in the trailer at the very beginning of loading it a week or so ago.

At the salvage yard the guys there were friendly and helpful as always. When asked if we wanted it weighed, I passed as it was not going to net enough to walk in and collect on. There is only so much worth actually dealing with.

We came back to the house, and I took the trailer with the tractor to the back and set it down next to the end of the log splitter. Then I began the job of picking up the wood with the tractor to set it on the log splitter, rather than lifting it all by hand and back. Most importantly by back! I lift it all in the bucket and then use the bottom of the bucket as a table even to the table height of the splitter.

Son kept his self busy splitting as fast as he could, and tossing the readied logs into the trailer to carry around to the log bunk all in one go.

When it got close to time for him to want to leave to get ready to pick his son up from school I suggested we stop a little early so he could go visit with his mom a bit first, rather than run in, run out, and go. He wanted to do that rather than get in trouble with her.

After it all, I rested a spell as I was still tired from all the work. Happily, I was muscle tired, and the bones are well today. I Am thrilled about that! I got the girls from the bus stop, ate supper, then took a nap.

The evening found me putting water out for some animals that had run low, and getting a couple of huge logs from the front of the service yard, as I might was well get them processed and burned so I can clear up the service yard. It is getting to be a mess in there, and it really doesn’t need to be. Far from!

It’s 8:00PM now, and about time to start looking forward to bed. I need to get ready to do more wood processing tomorrow, and hopefully even get some boards sorted out for the long ends of the rabbit hutches. I have the water carrier ready out front so I can go fill up some more animal troughs. I suspect there are a couple who could use a top up. I am also informed that we are down to one gallon of milk in the house, and that the whole corn in the feed bin is about gone. There are two more jobs to get at as soon as I can.

So that’s it for today. Time for this old man to go wind up his day before bed.

Troubles Getting Things

Does nothing work right now? I have tried to order a set of mower spindles for the mower deck on the riding lawnmower. I ordered a pair from Walmart because I could get three pairs of them for the cost of one pair off the manufacturer’s website. Walmart’s website is still showing it as not delivered, but the tracking button leads me to the USPS website, and that shows it as delivered and left on the front porch in Boise, Idaho, which is not where I live.

I got hold of the obviously foriegn chat to secure a refund, then I went to Amazon and ordered two more spindles for about the same price. I hope since Amazon has a track-record of delivring correctly to out house, they will show up soon.

The parts are so cheap compared to the manufacturer that I don’t know if I am getting weak knock-off’s, or if the manufacturer is way over inflating their prices. I am going to have to find that out the hard way, infortunately.

Meanwhile, while all this is going on, I am watching the economic summaries of what is going on with other countries, and where the US is decoupling with China, and China has a severely crashing housing market, and there is Russia and its sanctions, and the German economy is not growing, there is a severe economic forecast on the horizon. While the US stands to do well over-all, I think we should expect a serious influx of immigrants as many other countries will be affected by the recession this will kick off. So, however wrong it feels to try to order parts now, I think things are not going to get better anytime soon. It’s the best time ever to be settled on our little farm.

Oh, and as a final, weird little side note; Hurrican Hilary is meant to make landfall in southern California Sunday night. One of the most densly populated parts of the country it about to get hit with torrential rain, howling wind, and everything its dirt-made mountains need to really raise havoc. It’s like the train is approaching the site of the broken rails on the track, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it before a crash. This stands to be not a pretty sight.

Today might be a free to work day for me. I really only have one thing left to get done to move major repairs along on the farm. Yes, I am still having troubles getting someone to show up and replace our septic. I need to get in touch with the company that currently holds a copy of our permit and has promised to get back to us. Other than that, I have been milling boards to repair the barn, and need to finish getting those set up. I may also start milling some boards to put around the front windows of the house where the old ones were taken down when siding was put up. We took the siding off the front porch, and now have to replace those.

Well, this has been a pretty Doom & Gloom post. Not to be a worried old man, but just to chronical what is going on that will undoubtedly affect everyone, and our little homestead here, too. Next we muster up our way forward.

Straightlines

Last night I brought my eight newly milled boards to the table saw to put a roughly straight line edge on them, then took them to the shop where I could use a #5 1/2 jack plane to make good on that line. They all stand in the shop against a rafter now, continuing to dry a bit out of the sun, and ready for me to put some more work into dimensioning them. Here is what I need.

The side of the barn in this location is good enough to repaint. There are other places where it would be bad practice to do so.

The boards are about 7 1/2 to 8 inches wide in a shiplap that has an angle at the deep tongue to allow water to flow off. The groove under the bottom lip is not too deep at only 1/2 an inch. It should not be too hard to make the boards into new ones, though I am a bit unsure of how much I can expect them to shrink along the width if I am to work them green and ready them to put up soon. I will of course go to the maximum width I can and put them up, though I may deepen that groove and allow for a bit more overlap, say 3/4 of an inch. I think that would be a no fail solution

When I nail the boards up, I figure it will be best not to put in many nails on the width of the board (top to bottom) so it can shrink. That should reduce the chance of the boards splitting.

The eight boards translate into about seven and a half once linear material is removed with bark on the sides that run too deep to remove when putting in the tongue and groove. Each board is about 9 feet long. I should net about 66 feet of boards, all poplar, to replace the bad sections on the barn. Shiplap should be relatively simple to remove and replace, something I think the old-timers factored in.

At $28.44 per piece, or $3.16 a lineal foot for 7 1/2 inch boards, the total value of the wood I have cut is $213.30. That is before it is shaped. The most similar shiplap sold at Home Depot is $210 without tax for the same amount, though it is sold in packages of six, and I would have to buy two of those, so actual amount is $280. But there would be three more boards. Those would require modifying as they are not really made for exterior use, as they have no angle at the bottom of the tongue and would collect water on a flat surface and rot. They are also pine.

My cost has to calculate the cost of the mill, the percentage of tractor use dedicated to wood milling, and saws and fuel and tools and so forth. I don’t charge me for my labor. Factor in that there is the truck and trailer to go get the wood, too.

What cannot be easily factored in is the most excellence of being able to take a log that was grown locally and make it into the wood necessary to repair holes in the barn. That satisfaction extends to the use of local material, DIYing, reducing waste, using slow growth trees, being old school, using hand tools, independence to a degree, and the development of personal skills.

Milling A Little Today

It was not too hot today, so I got out to the mill and put the blade through some logs. There were three 6×6 inch by 9-ish foot posts against the granary when I started the day. Then I cut up another one to finish the corners of what I need for a woodshed. I then cut three 3×10 inch by nine-ish foot beams for the same woodshed. I’ll be double-checking my books before I decide where those are going to go. I also got a couple of four-quarter boards out of the wood, but they don’t have a straight edge, so they will need to be used for spares or small pieces in some project sometime.

After adding the fourth post to the collection I have a complete set of corners for a woodshed.

Incidentally, I have some spindles on order for the riding lawnmower, which ought to improve the shape of the yard. For now, the grass and weeds are getting a bit long.

After it got too hot to carry on, I leaned the wood I had finished for the woodshed next to the granary and went in for a needed break.

I may need thicker beams for the outsides of the woodshed at the tops of the posts. No worries. There are still several logs ready. Ideally, I would like to build a woodshed in the autumn, and load it up with enough wood to hold us through three or four months of winter, then add another shed or two next summer. This would be a first build for me, and I do have several other structures I could use, such as a place to hold the tractor implements as a sort of roofed rack. I’d also like to add a free-standing chicken coop to the farm! All need to be practice before I put together a fun structure as a work-shed or something of the sort. I have no building experience, so this is all a learning curve for me!