My new project is about to start......

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Paul,

I found the marking on the 3/4" oak plywood. It' is rotory cut. So I paid $72.22 for 3/4" A-2 Rotory cut red oak plywood.

I was making good progress getting carcass cut out. I had to stop a couple times to talk with contractors. We are getting bids to reroof the house and replace our domestic water line coming into the house. I should have all the parts for the carcass cut tonight and worry about joinery tomorrow.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I had forgotten how much I enjoy working in my shop as it has become better outfitted.

Prior to this project, my last major project was some cabinets for my shop. Those are great but frankly they were utilitarian and I didn't even have drawings. I just knew about what height, width, and drawer depth I wanted. I bought a bunch of 3/4" A/C plywood and got with it.

This time since it's for the LOML and our living room, I made real drawings and am cutting things to a specified size to make a product that comes out in a shape, size and design that was predetermined, agreed upon and authorized by the Boss.

I put some saw horses up in one corner, placed a full sheet of 3/4" CDX on it...then some 2 x 4's and layed the 3/4" oak plywood on that to slab it to near size with a circular saw and straight edge. Then I set my table saw up to cut one width and cut everything to that width. Then reset the table saw for the next width, and cut everything to that width.

Even though I bought a new plywood blade for my c/s and remembered to put the best side down, some of the edges splintered badly. I cut every piece 1/2" over-sized and then took a 1/4" off at the table saw, swapped the piece end-for-end and took another quarter off. Using my first zero-clearance insert on the table saw, all the splintering was removed and I was impressed! Zero-clearance inserts work as advertised. All the plywood carcass parts are cut to size.

Tomorrow I'll do the dados and rabbets using my new zero clearance insert for my stacked dado blade.

I'm enjoying my shop. I'd forgotten how much fun this can be.

[John Thompson]

Good luck... and enjoy Ken..

[Bob Turkovich]

Ok, Ken. How many more posts in this thread until you mention your new jointer?

BTW, what's your plans for the finish?

[Ron Jones near Indy]

It certainly sounds like you are enjoying this Ken. That's great!

[Jim O'Dell]

Paul,

I found the marking on the 3/4" oak plywood. It' is rotory cut. So I paid $72.22 for 3/4" A-2 Rotory cut red oak plywood.

Then yes, you do have to pay a little bit of a premium. The A1 3/4" here is 49.12. Jim.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Bob, I promise not to mention my new jointer. The finish will be a wipeon poly. What I haven't decided yet is whether or not to use some stain under it or just use the natural color of the red oak.

Jim...we pay through the nose here for anything that's a hardwood.

The joinery became a lesson in thought, planning and "Oh my!". Putting rabbets on pieces of 3/4" oak plywood 72" x 24" is a bit of a challenge for this old guy. A long the long axis it wasn't too bad but I thought I would have to break out my router on the short axis and then I devised a method to support it as I slid the piece across the dado blades in my table saw. It's late, I'm tired. I will worry about assembling the carcass tomorrow before I drive to Moscow to get the red oak hardwood for the face frame, raised panel doors, and trim around the drawers, top etc.

[Matthew Hills]

Borg red oak plywood was running mid-40s in sfbay area. Veneer looked fine, but had a lot of issues with voids and pringling when I cut it down. If your wood is well-behaved and the grain looks fine to you, I'm thinking you're doing fine.

I used a general finishes wipe-on gel varnish. I liked the resulting color pretty well, as far as red oak projects go (I've since decided that I prefer the subdued grain of birch for ply+trim projects). I tried a number of other stains on offcuts, but always felt I ended up with more contrast than I wanted. I think I only did 2 or 3 coats, which is pretty thin, but I was deliberately trying to stay away from the thick poly look I achieved 12 years ago when refinishing some red oak apartment furniture with brushed-on poly.

[Bob Riefer]

We need pictures! Sounds like it's coming along nicely so far!

[Bob Turkovich]

[QUOTE=Ken Fitzgerald;1722260]Bob, I promise not to mention my new jointer. The finish will be a wipeon poly. What I haven't decided yet is whether or not to use some stain under it or just use the natural color of the red oak.

That's Ok Ken....I'll just try to not let my jointer envy show through .

My question re: the type of finish was a result of practical experience. My first major project after retirement (also in my pre-Creeker days) was to also build a red oak entertainment center. In my case, I built a console and bridge to go between two existing bookcases so I carefully tried to match the stain. I did a lot of sampling - unfortunately on board samples, not the ply. I did not realize - until it was too late - that the plywood took to the stain differently than the boards. (The grain was much more definitive in the plywood.) I could really tell the difference under certain lighting conditions. After 3 years, the differences are now less apparent.

If you're going to stain, I recommend you cruise over to the project finishing forum for their recommendations on avoiding this.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

[QUOTE=Bob Turkovich;1722679]

Bob, I promise not to mention my new jointer. The finish will be a wipeon poly. What I haven't decided yet is whether or not to use some stain under it or just use the natural color of the red oak.

That's Ok Ken....I'll just try to not let my jointer envy show through .

My question re: the type of finish was a result of practical experience. My first major project after retirement (also in my pre-Creeker days) was to also build a red oak entertainment center. In my case, I built a console and bridge to go between two existing bookcases so I carefully tried to match the stain. I did a lot of sampling - unfortunately on board samples, not the ply. I did not realize - until it was too late - that the plywood took to the stain differently than the boards. (The grain was much more definitive in the plywood.) I could really tell the difference under certain lighting conditions. After 3 years, the differences are now less apparent.

If you're going to stain, I recommend you cruise over to the project finishing forum for their recommendations on avoiding this.

Well Bob.....you said that was okay....so....today I bought some S2S red oak instead of buying S4S and it was much cheaper! Of course I'll have to joint one edge, rip it to width and then joint that edge....but that's why I bought that new jointer.....There I've said it.

It will sit in my shop for at least 2 weeks before I use it so that it can acclimate to the lack of humidity here.