Four Twenty

[strategy 4]

I almost pulled the trigger on a bunch of wartime zinc pennies for very little. the guy was selling them on behalf of someone's estate. I realized that I'd be buying this lot, holding them for maybe the duration of my life, and then someday a coin dealer will yet again collect commission on the transfer when my relatives lazily unload them. that cabinet looks awesome, but I think I'm done buying coins for now.

[El Guapo 8]

Yeah, my next one is this. I will be availing myself of a lot of help and expertise from the old guys on this one. http://www.numisology.com/Coin-cabinet-1.htmlBack in the old days of coin collecting, numismatists used cabinets to store their coins. I really like that method, since the coins are so easy to retrieve and examine without all of the bullshit of stapled 2X2 cardboard holders, mylar flips or professionally encapsulated slabs. Anyway, I'll be doing some minor mods to that design (he should've thrown those legs and casters in the trash) but overall, I can't wait to have one. I'm going with some import-banned hardwoods for the drawer fronts not because I want to, but because I want to make a statement that I support the destruction of the Amazonian rain forest, even if it's only by proxy, many years after the fact.

Are you going to modify an existing cabinet, or are you going to build the entire thing?

[JoeyJoJo 18]

I once made a spice rack.

[AmScray 355]

I almost pulled the trigger on a bunch of wartime zinc pennies for very little. the guy was selling them on behalf of someone's estate. I realized that I'd be buying this lot, holding them for maybe the duration of my life, and then someday a coin dealer will yet again collect commission on the transfer when my relatives lazily unload them. that cabinet looks awesome, but I think I'm done buying coins for now.

Unless they're all in mint state condition, they have little value, given that they produced eight hundred and fifty bajillion of them.

[AmScray 355]

Are you going to modify an existing cabinet, or are you going to build the entire thing?

Ground up, Teak and Brazilian Rosewood.

[El Guapo 8]

Ground up, Teak and Brazilian Rosewood.

Cool. I want to make my daughters jewelry box out of something exotic, like zebra wood maybe with a blood wood inlay. Since it will be pretty small I won't mind paying $20-30 a linear foot for the wood.

[AmScray 355]

Inlay as in "inlay" or just a wood blend?Inlay is a pretty intense skill-set. You must have Jedi router and hand-fitting skills.Started ordering wood today. Might go with Indian rosewood or cocobolo. Don't know. Koa, maybe. The drawer fronts will be one of those. Also, I'll probably do a blend on top, with the structural members light stained teak, then hand rubbed tung finish.Then, there's part of me that says fuck it, just make it out of oak with the design lines as sharp as possible. Really Euro-Classical'ish'y. I've probably thrown away 20 pieces of graph paper this evening.

[El Guapo 8]

Inlay as in "inlay" or just a wood blend?Inlay is a pretty intense skill-set. You must have Jedi router and hand-fitting skills.Started ordering wood today. Might go with Indian rosewood or cocobolo. Don't know. Koa, maybe. The drawer fronts will be one of those. Also, I'll probably do a blend on top, with the structural members light stained teak, then hand rubbed tung finish.Then, there's part of me that says fuck it, just make it out of oak with the design lines as sharp as possible. Really Euro-Classical'ish'y. I've probably thrown away 20 pieces of graph paper this evening.

No, not a true inlay. More like a wood blend. I have a basic Ryobi Router that I am not very good with. I will ruin a lot of wood.

[AmScray 355]

Ruining hardwood sucks and is expensive. Ruin pine. Pine is the only reason we haven't traded the state of Maine to Canada for a years supply of Molson, but still, no one cares about pine.Bought a honing guide today to use on my chisels dedicated to roughing. It doesn't seem to work very well.

[antistuff 0]

i want nice bookshelves in my new place im moving into and i can't find anything i like when i look around online. hearing you guys babble about this stuff like this makes me want to try to build my own.

[AmScray 355]

i want nice bookshelves in my new place im moving into and i can't find anything i like when i look around online. hearing you guys babble about this stuff like this makes me want to try to build my own.

Yeah... the outcome of you going DIY here will most definitely be some 'nice bookshelves'. If you aren't prepared to settle for 'adequate and functional' now, you'd better be prepared to do just that once you try to build your own- presumably with little to no cabinetry experience or tools- since the result will be absolute horseshit and more than likely wind up burning in a 55 gallon steel drum surrounded by homeless men who recovered the disassembled remnants of your failed 'project' from the dumpster behind your apartment... and while you watch bums warm themselves on the outward manifestation of what once was a great flight of fancy within your mind, you will wish you had less Rainman'ishly-rigid decor standards and just went to fucking Ikea and settled for something decent like the rest of the uninspired hordes... but yeah. Go buy your little Suzy Q Homemaker Black and Decker cordless tool set, some pressboard and go make bookshelves. Be sure to post a pic here of the outcome so we can all have a good laugh.

[GeneralGeeWhiz 0]

[antistuff 0]

Yeah... the outcome of you going DIY here will most definitely be some 'nice bookshelves'. If you aren't prepared to settle for 'adequate and functional' now, you'd better be prepared to do just that once you try to build your own- presumably with little to no cabinetry experience or tools- since the result will be absolute horseshit and more than likely wind up burning in a 55 gallon steel drum surrounded by homeless men who recovered the disassembled remnants of your failed 'project' from the dumpster behind your apartment... and while you watch bums warm themselves on the outward manifestation of what once was a great flight of fancy within your mind, you will wish you had less Rainman'ishly-rigid decor standards and just went to fucking Ikea and settled for something decent like the rest of the uninspired hordes... but yeah. Go buy your little Suzy Q Homemaker Black and Decker cordless tool set, some pressboard and go make bookshelves. Be sure to post a pic here of the outcome so we can all have a good laugh.

will do

[AmScray 355]

Been removing shitty veneer off this antique chest of drawers I found in the alley. This is what it looked like when I found it (save for a little progress on the top sheet), it's about 1/2 way done now. Beneath veneer usually lies 'surprises' to say the least. Once in a blue moon, you wind up with a perfect, hard or pine wood components beneath the veneer sheets. Usually, though, things get 'interesting' and it's so funny to see people get all excited to remove veneer, thinking there will be a perfect pine frame underneath. Expect anything from wildly glued together remnant pieces to very low quality wood, significant aesthetic defects, etc. If you think about it, there was really no reason to use top quality woods for frames that were destined to be veneered. All you need is structural stability, which ugly and/or mismatched pieces of glued-up remnant wood offer just fine. If the surfaces are destined to be covered, may as well make the structural members out of stuff that was destined to be thrown away, which was often the case. In many (but certainly not all) instances, low dollar veneered pieces were the 'pressboard furniture of their day. I think people see antiquity and assume that top quality must be there, too. It isn't always the case. Thankfully, this one looks to be a winner.

[BigDMcGee 3,355]

First time I've stepped into this thread, and all I can say is...

[BigDMcGee 3,355]

I remember that SI game having just a jillion batteries. It's so funny to think now how limited that game was, and how much power it took to run it.

[El Guapo 8]

Hey Scram. I recently bought a house and it's almost 40 years old. Ranch style, which means, no style. So it's pretty much a blank slate.This should be the last home I ever buy, at least until I am old and decprepid. I am remodeling some things right now that need to be done, like a bathroom. But I want to give the home a theme. I am thinking mix between spanish style and craftsman. So I want exposed beams, hardwood builtins, etc.Any thoughts on what wood I should look to use? I know traditional craftsman is oak, but I don't want to use that.

[speedz99 145]

Been removing shitty veneer off this antique chest of drawers I found in the alley.

Is there anything in particular that makes a piece of furniture "antique" as opposed to just old?

[El Guapo 8]

Is there anything in particular that makes a piece of furniture "antique" as opposed to just old?

100 years old is an antique. That's it.

[AmScray 355]

Hey Scram. I recently bought a house and it's almost 40 years old. Ranch style, which means, no style. So it's pretty much a blank slate.This should be the last home I ever buy, at least until I am old and decprepid. I am remodeling some things right now that need to be done, like a bathroom. But I want to give the home a theme. I am thinking mix between spanish style and craftsman. So I want exposed beams, hardwood builtins, etc.Any thoughts on what wood I should look to use? I know traditional craftsman is oak, but I don't want to use that.

Are you talking a total decor or just furniture pieces? "Spanish Style" is a pretty broad brush. If you mean Spanish Colonial/Mission, then yes, Arts and Crafts can go fine with that presuming you kept your structural materials cogent with one another- you don't want to get into the frillier (<-Arab influenced) aspects of Spanish design, then try to mash it up with a bunch of hard-lined craftsman stuff, or go full out primitive "17th Century Adobe Church in San Miguel De Allende" but with more stylized arts and modern arts and crafts pieces. Consider rough hewn structural members with lots of bright earthtones to highlight, matte salt glazed art pottery as accent pieces, etc, etc, etc. If you have the balls to go full stucco on your interior walls, terra-cotta floor tiles are a must (and are the nuts in general). Also, some select period highlight pieces can be really, really impressive. Here's a good place to look first for that kind of stuff.http://www.harlanjberk.com/antiquities/antq.aspReal-deal authenticity, reasonable retail pricing, no bullshit transactions, top antiquities (they're based here in Chicago but are world renowned)Whatever you're building in should at least have aesthetic synergy with your furniture pieces, which represents a significant decor commitment, since you can't be changing it very often without considerable effort.

[AmScray 355]

Restoring some vintage woodworking socket chisels today. Fulll buff and polish, cranked them into a metal lathe to clean up the socket walls, sharpened them. Restoring old tools is rewarding. These things are made so, so well. Next step is I think I'm going to give them some rosewood handles with brass ferrules. Just bought this antique brass and rosewood level (w/ replacement vial) from England. They have the best vintage tools. Those steel screws securing the replacement vial show a poor restorers ethic (in addition to the shitty abrasive polish), so I'll replace them with brass screws and polish the plates properly once it gets over here to the USA.

[El Guapo 8]

I have already purchased my flooring. I am doing Acacia wood, which is basically like teak. Since I am on a slab I am doing engineered hardwood, I can't afford to do real hardwood floors, it would just about double the cost.I don't like terracotta tiles. My furniture....well it is a mismash at this point. I want to do some built ins, and add some exposed beams. I can't really tie it all together in my head right now. I will try and post some pics.

[AmScray 355]

Upswung a bit today when I found a table full of Asians playing Omaha (I hate Omaha, but I do love Asians), so can justify buying some wood for the coin cabinet (which is an odd prioritization, seeing as the tiny little dorm fridge only has a rotting head of lettuce, three packs of cigarettes and an empty bag that used to contain pepperoni)Got rosewood blanks for the cabinet fronts. I think I'm going to use a weird blend where I have a maple structural frame, cherry panels and rosewood drawer fronts with brass pulls (and pine for the bullshit wood in the innards). Since I'm using some expensive hardwoods, I'm having to design the thing around the available wood, which is a motherfucker. You have to measure your cut loss down to the width of the saw blade. It will be worth it in the end, though.

[Balloon guy 158]

Alder

[AmScray 355]

Alder

Hard to find figuring I like. Alder is nice, though.