Got Wood?

Yes, and cast iron is better than steel with regard to vibration.

Not much for wood here, but lots of experience as a machinist.

I got th table with the lathe. Its an older lathe but the various chucks can be afapted by a machinist.(I dont wanna screw with any changes).
Ill need a face plate but I can get those at Woodcraft (Theyll probably charge me more for the plates than I paid for the whole lathe and table)

Im gonna have it shipped by UPS and thinking about using some bigass "Tap-Cons" to drill it into the concrete floor of the old milk house in my barn.

Trid my hand at doing a fRENCH POLISH on a small curly maple table I rescued in a driveway giveaway. Im not a complete mechanic at this technique but after about 7 consecutive applications I sa the results and am going to practice this technique and apply it to a messed up guitar top. ANYBODY really good at doing French Polishing???

Life's too short, farmerman!

I envy you for being able to work with wood. I’m cuckoo 😜 for curly maple, too. I have done some wood working in the past with cherry wood at a weekend Shopsmith workshop about 20 years ago. I made a round Quaker styled (16” diameter) table. It’s still standing and in use.

I learned "On the job". I was on a project as the groups leader and got really bored becuase Ireally had nothing to do on schedule and Is just get in the way. SOOO, I started helping the carpenters make CORE BOXES (and learned some nwat tricks in cutting and mmeasuring. Ive been doing woodwork off and on most all of my adult life and didnt get really fst till I sid that core box work.

My family ad Mrs F's side all get some handmade stuff by us very few years.

Now Im into fine finishing and faux finishing I karned "French Polishing" a few yers ago and ran across a YOUTUBE thing on it and I needed a way to get a high glass finish. So I worked on the F Polish and it is time consuming but brilliant as a finish

I assume youve done it and just got tired of the work and prep. I saw this Youtube pot and a guy did French Polihing and between say every two applications with the "pounce rag" you dip two fingers in min oil and rub it on the dry shellac surface. It really speeds things up. We dont make it wet just a haze of min oil and the shellac/alk cut goes on smoothly and it takes about an hour between drying. Ive got about 10 coats on now and I can see the reflection of the shop light almost like a mirror. Its really satisfying. Our local wooshop (Robt Treat Hogg) had a guuy who was their French polisher and he does really high gloss finishes on elegant tables of figured woods

How wood shaped human history, from spears to boats to books

Great article.
Question to all.
Whats your favorite wood glue and why??
I use a lot of Titebond but now theres about 4 different grades. Not a big fan of Gorilla Glue. Still ue ELmers when I water it down slightly.

I use Tightbond 3 primarily — it has a longer open time for complicated clamping. But it will go bad in the bottle if left stored for a long time; I think that Tightbond 2 does as well. Obviously not a problem in a production shop. When I need epoxy I'm more like to buy it in the little plastic containers with the double plunger — J-Weld makes a bunch of them for different applications. I used to keep cans of West System around with pumps and various thickeners and fairing additives but I seldom have need of it anymore.

You did say youve done wooden boat building right?
I use West resins to cast and infill. always make too much so I wind up encasing arrowheads or fossil trilobites

lotsa good things about titebond 3. Didnt know there was a shelf life (or a best by date)

I used to like to make castings with metal filings and WEST 404 high-density thickener mixed into leftover epoxy. I'd go to the boatyard machine shop and sweep up filings — brass, bronze, SS, or iron — and mix it all up. My god, man, incredibly dense, tough stuff that would wear like hell.

There were some youtube spots of epoxy'metal waste casting that are then lathed to create (what the artist thought) would be some usable "Tool Steel/ epoxy " like billets. He then made some "rivets" for use in connecting several "Glue lam" boards. Didnt work too well. no compressive strength IMHO.
Nother guy tried to cast Metal powder and epoxy screws. That did not work either. Ive made knife handles out of such mixes and they really look good.Brass is a little too sparkly for my needs. I use mineral dusts like labradorite (Iridescent blues) or lepidolite crystals (peach colored) mixed into the "Westlok' epoxy and direct build on the handle while its setting (its a quick time thing)

saw rather neat tool on a YouTube site today (early AM). It as a FESTOOL Sword Saw. Ive never seen one in operation, (In fact its the first tme Ive ever seen one at all). It lloks like its a cross between a circular hand saw and a chain saw.
ANYBODY ver see one on the hoof or have you used one? It looks like itd work really well to cut deep mortises)

That's really cool...thanks!

by Michael Jones

Winner!