Things I Have Built

I built a kiln with a solar powered fan. We were building a house and we had to take down a nice white oak. I had a portable saw mill come out and we made mantels and boards I'm going to use to make a kitchen table. I needed a way to quickly dry the wood. This kiln dried out the mantels in about 3 to 4 months and reaches a max temperature of 160 degrees. I'm now putting firewood in it :)


Kiln.jpg
 
I needed to replace a Walmart bookcase and found a picture of a case built in the 1790s that I liked. I built this using African mahogany and old style glass that is wavy and bubbly. The casework is constructed with hand cut dovetails. The size of this pushed my small work space to the limit. Glad to have this finished! I can now get the lawnmower out without moving things around.
View attachment 394097
Beautiful. I struggle mightily with hand cut dovetails. Every time I think about making or buying a dovetail jig, I feel like it's cheating. Just need to bear down and develop the skill which you obviously have mastered. Nice work!
 
Beautiful. I struggle mightily with hand cut dovetails. Every time I think about making or buying a dovetail jig, I feel like it's cheating. Just need to bear down and develop the skill which you obviously have mastered. Nice work!

Dovetails are easy once you get the hang of it. I stumbled across a method of using blue tape that helps a lot. I think I found the trick on this site, http://www.inthewoodshop.com
 
Question for anyone who knows what they are doing. Wasn’t sure where to post this but found this thread. We are planning to replace our floors. Planning to put in laminate. How do you go about replacing under a beam? I have attached a picture

2D8815B6-26C9-49E9-81B3-E213019A5C41.jpeg
 
Question for anyone who knows what they are doing. Wasn’t sure where to post this but found this thread. We are planning to replace our floors. Planning to put in laminate. How do you go about replacing under a beam? I have attached a picture

View attachment 408761
May need a crain jamb saw. You tearing out the old floor and the new floor won't slide under?

Anyway, you don't replace under the entire beam, just close enough that the boot covers the gap. You may also be able to cut the caulking around the boot (I call the decorative piece at the bottom of the beam a "boot") and slide the boot up the beam, to let you install closer to the actual beam. If the boot doesn't move, you can use the jamb saw to create a perfect cut for the new flooring to slide under.

Look at your door jambs and see how they installed it there. Around the beam is similar.
 
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May need a crain jamb saw. You tearing out the old floor and the new floor won't slide under?

Anyway, you don't replace under the entire beam, just close enough that the boot covers the gap. You may also be able to cut the caulking around the boot (I call the decorative piece at the bottom of the beam a "boot") and slide the boot up the beam, to let you install closer to the actual beam. If the boot doesn't move, you can use the jamb saw to create a perfect cut for the new flooring to slide under.

Look at your door jambs and see how they installed it there. Around the beam is similar.
Yes planning to tear out and replace. Just wanted to make sure this wasn’t a major undertaking before starting to tear out. Thanks for the response.
 
Yes planning to tear out and replace. Just wanted to make sure this wasn’t a major undertaking before starting to tear out. Thanks for the response.
It looks like older hardwood flooring to the right in your photograph. What are you removing?
 
Yes planning to tear out and replace. Just wanted to make sure this wasn’t a major undertaking before starting to tear out. Thanks for the response.
Well, is it glue down hardwood? Best place to check is by starting in a closet. If they glued it down, that will be pretty labor intensive. Hopefully its just staples. If you get started and are having an impossible time, I can refer you to a place that rents a machine that will tear the gluedown wood out for you. I'll have to double check, but I believe it is United Rentals where we rent ours. It's about $2-300/day, but it will be worth it in the long run, especially if you're paying someone to help you.

Glued down or nailed down? . . . either way, take a skill saw and set it just barely deeper than the hardwood thickness. Then cut lines across the floor about 12" apart, from Wall to wall, opposite direction of flooring. This will save you a lot of pain and time when you tear it out. Next, use a pry bar, longer the better, and start tearing it out.

Maybe you already knew this, but if not, it should save you some time and pain.
 
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I cannot fathom tearing out perfectly good hardwood flooring...
It happens a lot. We tear it out about twice a month. Most of the time it is not 3/4" solid. Usually engineered glue down that doesn't hold up like real 3/4"

If it's 3/4", in decent shape, I try to convince them to just let us sand it and pick a new stain to change the look.
 
Old 2&1/4 solid flooring is increasingly rare and valued. Save it, refinish it, or, at the very least, salvage it.
 
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It looks like older hardwood flooring to the right in your photograph. What are you removing?
It is. It’s a small area of hardwood. I know it seems crazy to tear out hardwood but we are just wanting a consistent look throughout. Right now we have tile, hardwood, and carpet.
 
It is. It’s a small area of hardwood. I know it seems crazy to tear out hardwood but we are just wanting a consistent look throughout. Right now we have tile, hardwood, and carpet.
OK. Salvage it if you can.
 
To me, it makes a space look smaller when there’s multiple different flooring materials in a room.
Yes. My present home was built in 1960. It had the older, hefty solid white oak floors throughout excepting the bathrooms which are tiled. At some point, a previous owner remodeled. Sections of flooring were replaced with linoleum (no accounting for taste). Then there was a limited fire. Two bedrooms were rebuilt from the sub flooring up. Carpet was installed in these, the family room, and the central hallway. Vinyl flooring was put down in the kitchen and mud room. The formal living room, dining room, and two bedrooms (including the master) still have the original hardwood floors. Eleven years ago, we refinished these with a walnut stain that hid blemishes and stains which wouldn't bleach out. We looked into acquiring matching flooring to restore the rooms that used to have hardwood floors, but this option proved too expensive for our budget. We replaced the carpet instead. The continuity of the flooring in the resulting floor plan proves your assertion.
 
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Yes. My present home was built in 1960. It had the older, hefty solid white oak floors throughout excepting the bathrooms which are tiled. At some point, a previous owner remodeled. Sections of flooring were replaced with linoleum (no accounting for taste). Then there was a limited fire. Two bedrooms were rebuilt from the sub flooring up. Carpet was installed in these, the family room, and the central hallway. Vinyl flooring was put down in the kitchen and mud room. The formal living room, dining room, and two bedrooms (including the master) still have the original hardwood floors. Eleven years ago, we refinished these with a walnut stain that hid blemishes and stains which wouldn't bleach out. We looked into acquiring matching flooring to restore the rooms that used to have hardwood floors, but this option proved too expensive for our budget. We replaced the carpet instead. The continuity of the flooring in the resulting floor plan proves your assertion.
Always a nice find in older homes when carpet or vinyl is removed to find the original oak flooring underneath.
 
Old 2&1/4 solid flooring is increasingly rare and valued. Save it, refinish it, or, at the very least, salvage it.
Didn’t know it was becoming rare as its still on the shelves at HD? I think the older stuff has a more appealing patena myself. I picked up several red and white oak logs and has them sawn, air dried, then milled locally. Random width from 5”-11”. Only cost $0.60 per sq ft but the logs were free. We were really pleased with the results as it was my first install and sand job.
B78832E4-7083-4583-BDE8-EB39B7769BB4.jpeg
 
I built a kiln with a solar powered fan. We were building a house and we had to take down a nice white oak. I had a portable saw mill come out and we made mantels and boards I'm going to use to make a kitchen table. I needed a way to quickly dry the wood. This kiln dried out the mantels in about 3 to 4 months and reaches a max temperature of 160 degrees. I'm now putting firewood in it :)


View attachment 399321
Nice
 
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Didn’t know it was becoming rare as its still on the shelves at HD? I think the older stuff has a more appealing patena myself. I picked up several red and white oak logs and has them sawn, air dried, then milled locally. Random width from 5”-11”. Only cost $0.60 per sq ft but the logs were free. We were really pleased with the results as it was my first install and sand job.
View attachment 408930
I’ve priced the old style raw unfinished stuff. It’s not cheap. There’s a growing market for the salvaged stuff.
 
Old 2&1/4 solid flooring is increasingly rare and valued. Save it, refinish it, or, at the very least, salvage it.

It looks better with age when you get the raised grain. I remodeled my daughter's 25 year old home about 5 years ago. The first floor (2000') had oak and carpet. About 50/50. We bought new oak to replace the carpet, and weaved the new and old and sanded new and old flooring which had never been refinished since installation. All of it was beautiful, but the raised grain is what makes wood floors so beautiful. JMO

I wouldn't do what the OP is doing but to each their own. My sister did the same thing after a plumbing leak ruined a section of their wood flooring. They love their laminate.
 
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Here’s the top to the kitchen island. Wild cherry log I had sawn. Started out just over 2” thick before planning / sanding and is 6’ long. Still trying to decide on the legs / base. Wanting to keep it somewhat open underneath as opposed to storage space. Maybe incorporate this 2’ turnbuckle in the stretcher between the end legs? Any suggestions? This is for the same cabin.

P.s. anyone know if local black walnut and black cherry are related. Obviously the coloring is different but the character / graining of the wood is somewhat similar. Both are rot resistant. View attachment 397675View attachment 397676
Finished kitchen island - sort of a countertop height farmhouse table of sorts. Was planning to paint the turnbuckle black but when I started cleaning it up the Mrs liked the shine of the galvanized? If we decide we don’t like it then we can easily paint it later. It’s going on a natural oak wood floor so we chose a darker stain on the white oak base. The cabinets are an ebony stained maple that are much darker.
4098F6B5-53D2-449A-A9D5-F8C06C419E84.jpeg
 
Finished kitchen island - sort of a countertop height farmhouse table of sorts. Was planning to paint the turnbuckle black but when I started cleaning it up the Mrs liked the shine of the galvanized? If we decide we don’t like it then we can easily paint it later. It’s going on a natural oak wood floor so we chose a darker stain on the white oak base. The cabinets are an ebony stained maple that are much darker.
View attachment 409090
That is absolutely gorgeous. And I like the turnbuckle as is, too.
 
I needed to replace a Walmart bookcase and found a picture of a case built in the 1790s that I liked. I built this using African mahogany and old style glass that is wavy and bubbly. The casework is constructed with hand cut dovetails. The size of this pushed my small work space to the limit. Glad to have this finished! I can now get the lawnmower out without moving things around.
View attachment 394097
Great googley moogley. It must be nice to have the talent to build a piece of furniture like that.
 
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