The Wood Working Woman Wields Her Tools

My Various Hobbies...

My shower felt really good tonight. I've been working out in the shed. I was sticky with sweat, powdered with sawdust, and smeared here and there with construction adhesive.

By the way, you can remove construction adhesive from skin with vegetable oil and the dish-scrubby (the one that is knitted from plastic string.) This probably works best if the adhesive is not completely set up.

Shop Table from Scrap Lumber

I'm trying to build building a shop table. I have several plans that I've printed off the internet and clipped from magazines. All of them require a bit more skill than I have, but what I lack in skill, I will make up with lag bolts and construction adhesive.

Part of the motivation for this project is to use up some of the lumber odds and ends and scraps that are piled around the shed. (Then I can buy some nice lumber when I want to build something else.)

Coping With Warps

We have a warped 2x12 that must have been 28 feet long. It was purchased by the carpenters who built the shed for us. Why? It should have been refused at the lumberyard, but here it is at our house, left over because it was too warped to build with.

I cut it into three 8-foot chunks, thinking I'd use them for the table top. They are so twisted that they don't lie together nicely. Maybe I can shim them enough to fasten them down securely on each end and then rent a power planer to smooth out the top.

I cut the pieces for the legs from 2x4's and started trying to glue them up, but they are warped too. It's driving me crazy. I finally got one leg glued and screwed together with its cross members built into it. If I hate that fabricated leg when I see it tomorrow, I'm going to make the legs from 4x4 scraps instead (no piecing together needed.)

Slow and Not Very Steady

You can't imagine how slow I am when I try to make something. Out of every hour, I swear, I spend at least half of it in heavy pondering. Another 25 minutes goes to false starts, mistakes, tool searches, and measuring a million times. Any real progress is made in the remaining five minutes.

I might have this very simple table done by the end of the week, or I might not. If I do, it probably won't look much like the original plan.

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