Shopsmith Forums

ERLover wrote: Nice work

ERLover wrote: I never used Butternut but my supplier has it, is that Natural or has it been dyed or stained?

dstensland wrote:

ERLover wrote: Nice work

Thanks. I just followed the plans except for the veneered panels.

ERLover wrote: I never used Butternut but my supplier has it, is that Natural or has it been dyed or stained?

Try some. If you dig through the pile you might even find some nicely figured stuff. The wood is super soft and fun to use with a pleasant scent. Go easy with the orbital sander until you get a feel for how quickly it chews up this soft wood. Only Natural Watco oil was applied. No dye or stains.

ERLover wrote:
thanks for the info, I know Carvers like it because it is soft and easy workable, my provider, 4/4 rough is 5.14$ a Brd Ft for select, $3.70 for common. How was your pricing?

dstensland wrote:

ERLover wrote:
thanks for the info, I know Carvers like it because it is soft and easy workable, my provider, 4/4 rough is 5.14$ a Brd Ft for select, $3.70 for common. How was your pricing?

Mine was "free" from the woods beside my house. Given all that's involved with making specialty lumber your dealer's prices sound fair to me.

dstensland wrote:I worked on this mostly over the course of the last two months but completed this month, so I guess that qualifies as a July project. It was a birthday gift to my wife who had asked for a desk for many years. My Shopsmith(s) were used in table saw and bandsaw modes along with many other dedicated tools.

desk_small.jpg

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I used Bruce Kieffer's plans. They are very good and available free here... http://www.popularwoodworking.com/proje ... esk-system

All of the wood was harvested from our property. That aspect was mentioned here https://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/view ... 71#p168771 but at the time I did not realize this wasn't red oak. It turns out that this was actually butternut. I knew it could not be oak as it dried; way too light. Normally, most people would say not to use such a soft wood for a desk, but my wife loved the look of it. In the end, it was the right choice (she's almost always right). I was impressed with it's durability, gluing, workability, and finishing qualities. If I had a complaint about butternut it's that it tears out easily. A sharp blade or the belt sander help clean things up.

Some of the veneer was cut with a Shopsmith bandsaw, but I wanted larger sections (>8") to better match the desk design. The vast majority of that veneer (about 50 square feet) was cut with an antique band saw that I fixed up especially for this project, but that's another story.

The Shopsmith was especially useful in tablesaw mode for this project for cutting the wide panels. I also cobbled an outfeed table using ideas I've gathered here and on Youtube.

davebodner wrote:Let me lower the bar here. I just finished this a couple of days ago.

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My wife wanted to buy this $90 bookcase from Ikea. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20302285/ The last thing I wanted was more mdf in the house, so I said I'd make something. The plan was to paint the bookshelf, so I just used pine boards from Home Depot. But it ended up looking nicer than I'd anticipated. For kicks, I splashed some stain on the wood, and we're keeping it that way.

I used the Shopsmith 510 for just about everything. Ripping, crosscutting, making the moulding (using a moulding head), biscuits. When crosscutting the long pieces I chose to use a handheld circular saw. But, then I used the Shopsmith as a sawhorse. Same as when I routed the dados.

The middle and lowest shelves are permanent. The others are adjustable. I think my wife wants one more. I used a piece of pegboard as a template for all the shelf holes. I was going to use a hand held drill for the holes, but I didn't have a stop-collar for my bit. So, I just put the Shopsmith in drill-press mode and used the built in stop.