late night shop time & random shop thoughts

[Ned Bulken]

I work 3- midnight (well 12:30 technically), so shop time is either before work, or if I'm not dead tired by the end of my shift, late night. Last night was a 'good' night so I headed over to the shop for some sawdust making.
Nothing special going on, just planed down some pallet wood, our planer has nicks in it anyway thanks to a brain cramp the other day, figured that now would be a good time to get some free wood, before I put on the new blades. I hauled a couple of pallets home from work (I'm in the trucking industry, in the office) and cut them up, leaving the nails. Got a bunch of short boards, but for little projects they'll work fine.
I found some beautiful cherry and maple which I'll put in something fun in the near future. Normally I buy rough lumber, but thought I'd recycle some wood for a change. I still have one to tear apart before the new blades, nice wide boards and not too grungy looking.

I also have some butternut and maple which have been adjusting to the shop for about three weeks now, air dried, when we picked it up they were at 12% moisture content so we figure it should be decent by this coming weekend.

I have some cabinets to build for the LOML. Our old pantry cabinet lost a shelf the other day, luckily it was only wax paper and such, nothing too messy to pick up. I got the distinct impression it was time for me to start on the replacement for it. Going to the BORG this coming weekend, hopefully will find some decent birch ply for the carcass, will do maple for the face frames and doors. Picked that maple up for a mere $2 per BF, think I'll be able to swing more than just one cabinet from what I have on hand, and there was some more left where I picked that up.
Have a great day!

[Jim Becker]

The birch plywood sold at the orange borg for about $40 is just fine for cabinet carcasses. I used it for our kitchen last year with great results...put the "good" side on the inside as those were clear coated and left natural.

[Ned Bulken]

Jim,
thanks, the real question is, of the local Borgs, which one has it on hand this week? we have 4 in the local area , so I'm pretty sure I can find enough. I'm working up my cut list, think I'll need at least two sheets of 3/4 and the LOML wants an internal storage grid in one section, so I'll need some 1/2" as well. I'll trim out the front edges with maple on the storage grid, the face frames will cover the rest.

[Jim Becker]

'Just a warning...the 1/2" costs more than the 3/4"!

[Chris Padilla]

When I was picking up 8+ sheets of A-1 Maple 3/4" plywood, the guy at the lumber place told me the same thing for 1/2" Maple. So I ended up buying 12 sheets of 3/4" Maple ply!

I use HD 3/4" Birch all the time for cabinet carcasses. It also paints up nicely. If you get to HD at 6 when they open, you'll have time to sort through some sheets if you like. I've found some some nice clean sheets as well as interesting figure.

[Ned Bulken]

I just got done putting the dimensions through cutlist plus (really need to upgrade to a paying version so I don't have to save multiple designs...). It looks like i'll be picking up 4 sheets of ply, will see what they have in either maple or birch, cheaper one wins. will probably wind up slogging through the piles with the thundering masses on saturday . I have to rely on my shop partner to help haul it home, he has a full size van. Oh well, at least he is happy to help!