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Official Pit Home Improvement/DIY thread

Looking good, LK. You've got mad skills, I'm jealous. I'm in the process of building two side tables for the living room, and it's been stressful. I'm having a hard time making consistent cuts; my measurements seem accurate, but the end product tends to be ever so slightly off (1/8 of an inch or so). How do you account for the thickness of the saw blade to make accurate cuts?
 
LK where do you get wood from? Big box or building supply/lumber yard? Great work. Really impressed.
 
leftcoastdeac said:
Looking good, LK. You've got mad skills, I'm jealous. I'm in the process of building two side tables for the living room, and it's been stressful. I'm having a hard time making consistent cuts; my measurements seem accurate, but the end product tends to be ever so slightly off (1/8 of an inch or so). How do you account for the thickness of the saw blade to make accurate cuts?
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Measure the length you need and make your mark. Then always cut so you leave the mark on the piece. Be consistent with this. When you cut, find a saw tooth that sticks out toward your mark and use that as the saw alignment. The 1/8 you are off is the "kerf" or the amount of material that the saw blade converts into sawdust to make the cut.
 
What is involved in installing electrical outlets? Do I have to kill the main or just that room?
 
Deaconblue said:
Measure the length you need and make your mark. Then always cut so you leave the mark on the piece. Be consistent with this. When you cut, find a saw tooth that sticks out toward your mark and use that as the saw alignment. The 1/8 you are off is the "kerf" or the amount of material that the saw blade converts into sawdust to make the cut.
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Thank you - will focus on this today when I'm working on the other table I'm building.
 
tsywake said:
Just kill that individual circuit, but test the plug before you start working on it to ensure its dead.
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dot com said:
I have one of these devices for swapping out outlets (put in the childproof ones all over the house):
http://www.amazon.com/GE-50542-3-Wi...&qid=1389479339&sr=8-2&keywords=outlet+tester

Since the wiring in my house makes no sense, I'm never certain I've killed the right breaker, and this helps greatly.
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Outlet testers are well worth the money. More than once, they saved me a nasty shock. One outlet I was going to work on had power from two breakers in it! Knew about the one circuit, didn't know about the other. If I hadn't checked...
Outlet tester also told me when a "professional" electrician had screwed up the polarity. Kept me from damaging some equipment that was picky about the polarity issue. Just pay attention to what it is telling you. Never had one be wrong.
 
Can anyone provide any advice on staining oak floors? We have a company coming to refinish the floors in our new house this week, and we're going to have them test out some samples we buy to see which we like best, but I've read and been told that finishes tend to come out darker than expected when being used on oak in particular. Any advice?
 
Here is the finished table:

1521837_10202779004936806_1198951228_n.jpg


Inspired by this Pottery Barn table:
img76o.jpg
 
Deaconblue said:
Measure the length you need and make your mark. Then always cut so you leave the mark on the piece. Be consistent with this. When you cut, find a saw tooth that sticks out toward your mark and use that as the saw alignment. The 1/8 you are off is the "kerf" or the amount of material that the saw blade converts into sawdust to make the cut.
Click to expand...

My cuts were MUCH better with this advice; very consistent and right on the money. Thank you.

The bad news though, is that I was not careful about watching my hand placement last night and put an 18ga brad nail into my finger. Hurts like a bitch today.
 
Wow! that is definitely an ouchie! Need to be careful. Just be glad it was an 18 gauge brad, and not a 16 penny nail.

Get a tetanus shot if you haven't had one lately. Even if the nail wasn't rusty, puncture wounds can still lead to tetanus if your shots are not current.
 
ImTheCaptain said:
ouch, dude #nosat
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More like #whitecollarworkertryingtobehandy

Deaconblue said:
Wow! that is definitely an ouchie! Need to be careful. Just be glad it was an 18 gauge brad, and not a 16 penny nail.

Get a tetanus shot if you haven't had one lately. Even if the nail wasn't rusty, puncture wounds can still lead to tetanus if your shots are not current.
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I'm current on tetanus, so I'm not too worried about that. Got lucky that it didn't hit the bone or a tendon. I will be taking extra measures not to do that again.
 
dubs21 said:
LK where do you get wood from? Big box or building supply/lumber yard? Great work. Really impressed.
Click to expand...

WFFaithful said:
I would like to know as well.
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Currently, big box places like Lowe's and Home Depot. I am the dickhead who will pick through the entire pile of lumber checking for straightness. However, 2 items I plan to pick up this year are a thickness planer and a jointer so I can start buying the rough sawed lumber from a local yard and mill it myself. The cost savings would pay for the equipment within a year.

However, that won't solve my problem with cost of sheet goods. 3/4" hardwood plywood runs close to $50/sheet at the big box stores. I'd like to see it down around $30-35 so I can take on some more complicated projects.

My long term shop project is going to be building a mobile workstation for my table saw and router. I currently have a huge mobile workbench that is in need of replacing, and I'd like the next one to have the tools built in, have integrated dust collection, and have as much tool storage space as physically possible. It's a pain in the ass trying to locate stuff in my shop sometimes. I spent an hour looking for one of my router bits the other day.

I'm planning to build something similar to one of these:

25883-438x.jpg


29285-438x.jpg


I anticipate this being a long term project that should take most of the year. I've got a very large space this can be stored in the garage. I'll likely chronicle it on here. Currently I'm creating plans in Sketch Up. The things I know for certain I am going to put in it:

* Ryobi 10" table saw
* Ryobi router
* Dust collection system that will tie into my shop vac (planning on adding a cyclone filter to the shop vac next month to maximize dust collection)
* Base will be torsion box construction for rigidity
* It will ride on 6-8 casters, all of which will have leveling wheels to adjust because my garage floor has a 2-3 degree slope.
* New fence system to span the entire length of the table. Looking at aluminum extrusions for the materials. Cheap, lightweight, and would have slots for jigs that I like to use.
* Storage, storage, storage
* Folding outfeed table that will double as a downdraft table for fine sanding.
 
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