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What's On Your Workbench?

#5,441
Gary_M said:
Yep, I'm in the Lake Michigan lake effect snow region as well and I agree. We've gotten off easy compared to Western NY.

The current storm has only dropped a few inches of system snow here so far. But, it was -10 F (actual air temp, not wind chill) this morning when I got up with 40+mph wind. That's enough winter to last me the rest of the season, I'm ready to move directly into spring! :D
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought we were supposed to get more last night than we actually did, so I'm hoping that they were wrong about the overall totals that will be coming in too. I am definitely ready for spring too. I hope the rest of the season will be mild.
 
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#5,442
TerribleTim68 said:
The response from StewMac this morning was that they would like to send out a replacement part for the grey piece that the roller guides mount to. I am totally fine with that and see no reason to replace the entire unit. Just ship me the part and I'll perform the swap myself. So now I wait for the replacement part. Oh well, it's Christmas anyways.

For those of you wondering what life is like in the PNW this time of year, my morning started off with this -
View attachment 4911526
I'd say it was a solid 1/8" of ice encasing my entire truck, every square inch. :meh:
I know to some of you in Buffalo or whatever it doesn't mean much, but consider this, you get a dryer freeze that you can actually scrape off. Imagine ice as hard as concrete. Took a fairly solid 30 minutes to get the windows cleared enough I could see...somewhat. Good times. :meh:
Also, literally everything is encased. Not just my truck, but the house, the driveway, the porch, the roads, the trees, everything. I slipped stepping off the porch and landed on my J-Lo Muscle, my morning tea went flying. Luckily I have a 4 wheel drive or I'd have never made it to work. Just getting going was just spinning the tires and going nowhere. You can see in the pic the condition of the roads. Today is a fun day! I'm over it already. :meh:
Click to expand...


When I lived in Idaho we’d occasionally get a freezing fog in the winter. My work van would get 1-2” long icicles facing forward.
 
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#5,443
lbridenstine said:
Yeah, I thought we were supposed to get more last night than we actually did, so I'm hoping that they were wrong about the overall totals that will be coming in too. I am definitely ready for spring too. I hope the rest of the season will be mild.
Click to expand...

We have officially made it to a balmy -3 F this afternoon. Our poor dog has only been successful on 2 out of 5 trips outside. :laugh:
 
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#5,444
We've still got snow too, similar to @TerribleTim68 and @Dubious Aa just yuck.

My dog held everything for two days until I took her on a long walk in the slush. She was very disappointed but looked visibly relieved when after 10 minutes she shed a turd as long as she is. It took two bags to manage. She usually marks the neighbourhood while we go, but this time each mark was a long drawn out puddle-creation moment. :D
 
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#5,445
lbridenstine said:
I live in Michigan in the Lake Effect area and honestly, it seems like NY has been getting it worse than us the past couple years (I say as I'm currently in a Blizzard Warning).

But, either way, I would rather have the snow we're getting than the ice sheets!

I don't know if this will work for the type of ice you have, but I saw a video recently of someone using a leaf blower to blow sheets of ice off the road. I can't find the exact video, but here's another one. Might be fun to try.

Click to expand...


That's pretty ingenious! :thumbsup:
 
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#5,446
20221223_110504.jpg


I'm still waiting for her to poop, but at least she looks great. :laugh:
 
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#5,454
What's on the workbench these days is test finishing some pieces of quilted maple.
I'm trying to work with Tru-Oil for the first time. It's one thing to read threads and watch videos, but I needed to start seeing if I could actually do what I have envisioned, which is to put Tru-Oil over stain and get a shiny, smooth gloss with it.

Moss green stain. I used Stew-Mac WB Transtint in Bright Green and Lemon Yellow. Might be a drop or two of brown in there. I did stain it black and sand it back before this color coat.
ds7-2.jpg


After trying various things, it's not looking too bad. Some along-grain subsurface scratches. I think this was from putting too much pressure on the 0000 Steel Wool I was messing with and the surface probably needed to be a little harder/drier before I leveled it out.
ds7-4.jpg


I did another test piece in a sort of whiskey brown/orange
ds7-3.jpg


The brown one I did not use the steel wool. I wet-sanded that with 1000 and did some Meguiar's rubbing compound and then Mequiar's polishing compound. It looks pretty ok.

I've tried lots of stuff. Thin coats, thick coats, shop towels, cotton scraps, fads, wet-sanding with oil, wet-sanding with soapy water, dry-sanding at 800, 1000, 1500. Rubbing compound, polishing compound.
I'm not done, not 100% satisfied yet with the test pieces. I have some things to try that I've seen on YT.
I still want to try thinning the top coats with mineral spirits.
I also want to get and try some synthetic wool or mikranet or scotchbrite to see if I can level sand without leaving some subsurface scrathes. Might just be technique, also. It still needs work, but I have a guitar to finish soon so I better figure it out. ;)

I am convinced this could be a good cold-weather finishing solution for me if I refine the technique a little.
It's just too cold to spray Varathane in my available workspace for part of the year and I have successfully been doing various oil type finishes during the Winter for the last couple years.
 
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#5,455
dmarino said:
What's on the workbench these days is test finishing some pieces of quilted maple.
I'm trying to work with Tru-Oil for the first time. It's one thing to read threads and watch videos, but I needed to start seeing if I could actually do what I have envisioned, which is to put Tru-Oil over stain and get a shiny, smooth gloss with it.

Moss green stain. I used Stew-Mac WB Transtint in Bright Green and Lemon Yellow. Might be a drop or two of brown in there. I did stain it black and sand it back before this color coat.
View attachment 4913398

After trying various things, it's not looking too bad. Some along-grain subsurface scratches. I think this was from putting too much pressure on the 0000 Steel Wool I was messing with and the surface probably needed to be a little harder/drier before I leveled it out.
View attachment 4913399

I did another test piece in a sort of whiskey brown/orange
View attachment 4913412

The brown one I did not use the steel wool. I wet-sanded that with 1000 and did some Meguiar's rubbing compound and then Mequiar's polishing compound. It looks pretty ok.

I've tried lots of stuff. Thin coats, thick coats, shop towels, cotton scraps, fads, wet-sanding with oil, wet-sanding with soapy water, dry-sanding at 800, 1000, 1500. Rubbing compound, polishing compound.

I'm not done, not 100% satisfied yet with the test pieces. I have some things to try that I've seen on YT.
I still want to try thinning the top coats with mineral spirits.
I also want to get and try some synthetic wool or mikranet or scotchbrite to see if I can level sand without leaving some subsurface scrathes. Might just be technique, also. It still needs work, but I have a guitar to finish soon so I better figure it out. ;)

I am convinced this could be a good cold-weather finishing solution for me if I refine the technique a little.
It's just too cold to spray Varathane in my available workspace for part of the year and I have successfully been doing various oil type finishes during the Winter for the last couple years.
Click to expand...

Have you tried Micro Mesh papers? it goes up to 12,000 grit. I have made a piece of unfinished maple shine like glass just working up from 1500 all the way to 12000. I have used it on all of my basses that I built along with the Tru Oil. It is pretty easy to use but it has to be really dry before you start to polish it out. I live in Louisiana where the humidity is very high most of the time so I have to wait sometimes over a month for it to really dry. I got my information from Luthiers Mercantile International (LMI) years back and it was really helpful.
 
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#5,457
dmarino said:
What's on the workbench these days is test finishing some pieces of quilted maple.
I'm trying to work with Tru-Oil for the first time. It's one thing to read threads and watch videos, but I needed to start seeing if I could actually do what I have envisioned, which is to put Tru-Oil over stain and get a shiny, smooth gloss with it.

Moss green stain. I used Stew-Mac WB Transtint in Bright Green and Lemon Yellow. Might be a drop or two of brown in there. I did stain it black and sand it back before this color coat.
View attachment 4913398

After trying various things, it's not looking too bad. Some along-grain subsurface scratches. I think this was from putting too much pressure on the 0000 Steel Wool I was messing with and the surface probably needed to be a little harder/drier before I leveled it out.
View attachment 4913399

I did another test piece in a sort of whiskey brown/orange
View attachment 4913412

The brown one I did not use the steel wool. I wet-sanded that with 1000 and did some Meguiar's rubbing compound and then Mequiar's polishing compound. It looks pretty ok.

I've tried lots of stuff. Thin coats, thick coats, shop towels, cotton scraps, fads, wet-sanding with oil, wet-sanding with soapy water, dry-sanding at 800, 1000, 1500. Rubbing compound, polishing compound.
I'm not done, not 100% satisfied yet with the test pieces. I have some things to try that I've seen on YT.
I still want to try thinning the top coats with mineral spirits.
I also want to get and try some synthetic wool or mikranet or scotchbrite to see if I can level sand without leaving some subsurface scrathes. Might just be technique, also. It still needs work, but I have a guitar to finish soon so I better figure it out. ;)

I am convinced this could be a good cold-weather finishing solution for me if I refine the technique a little.
It's just too cold to spray Varathane in my available workspace for part of the year and I have successfully been doing various oil type finishes during the Winter for the last couple years.
Click to expand...

Some good R & D, worth the time. I suggest trying wiping on the Varathane, instead of Tru-Oil. Varathane cures faster and harder. It's easier to level sand and polish.
 
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