Woodworking, DIY, and home repair thread

[thunderlounge 8318]

Just now, Okie State said:

Yeah I didn't mind the single coat look, but I could see how a lot of people would think it looked unfinished. Probably looks better on some wood species than others. I was worried the maintenance oil would bring the sheen up too much, but it's perfect. It is more matte now than it was when I took those pictures. Maybe somewhere between matte and satin.

Well that table turned out real nice. If it settles in between matte and satin, perfect. 
 

I like a tick of shine, but not full on gloss. 

[Okie State 3887]

Here are a few after just the single coat for comparison. Different lighting, but still noticeable.

And one sanded to bare wood.

Edited February 26 by Okie State

[NoRagrets 1136]

I noticed a leak in October. Plumbers were crazy expensive so I fixed it with a friend. Turn back on the water, still a leak. Call a leak detector. Open up the driveway and cap it.  Turn back on the water, another leak.

Weird thing, last one was an open 2 inch line of freshwater. When we capped it, it started or we noticed another leak a few feet up, but under a compressor so can’t get to it.

Hunch is it was plugged and abandoned when the previous owner put in a water softener.

I’m beyond frustrated. Plumber coming tomorrow. Hopefully he can loop around it or something and this nightmare will be over. Last water bill was $1100…

[NoRagrets 1136]

Fix one by the meter. Fix two 25 yards away under the driveway. You can see where the new leak popped up after we fixed leak 2.

If anyone has any ideas, let me know. 

[uoftorange 1391]

11 hours ago, Okie State said:

Highly recommend the Pure color on black walnut. It looks amazing. The maintenance oil really gave it a professional looking finish too.

Also, the sanding is really important. Tons of videos out there, but I used multiple grits all the way up to 180 and water popped the grain between each. Maroon pad by hand before the final maintenance oil coat.

That is beautiful, and was a thought, but I'm going either Charcoal, black or midnight indigo.  They will all go better than the room and still bring out what I want from the walnut

[gsoda3 3358]

21 hours ago, Okie State said:

Always looks different in pictures, but our kitchen table was long overdue for a refinish. Used Waterlox before and was never really happy with it. Tried Rubio Monocoat this time and love how it turned out. One coat of finish and one coat of maintenance oil. Super easy to use and dries to a nice matte/satin sheen that still looks like wood rather than a plastic coating like some do.

that's beautiful.  i've had a mind to refinish our island (acacia) and table (one of those butcher blocked farm tables) for a while now but haven't gotten around to it.  did you use their oil plus... product or something else? i looked at it but got overwhelmed at the different offerings and procedures.

[Okie State 3887]

5 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

that's beautiful.  i've had a mind to refinish our island (acacia) and table (one of those butcher blocked farm tables) for a while now but haven't gotten around to it.  did you use their oil plus... product or something else? i looked at it but got overwhelmed at the different offerings and procedures.

Oil Plus 2C followed by Universal Maintenance Oil

[UT_OB1 2260]

11 hours ago, NoRagrets said:

Fix one by the meter. Fix two 25 yards away under the driveway. You can see where the new leak popped up after we fixed leak 2.

If anyone has any ideas, let me know. 

If this is your supply line from the meter, might be cheaper to run a 1” Pex supply line yourself at this point. 

[Gil Bang 26174]

19 hours ago, NoRagrets said:

Fix one by the meter. Fix two 25 yards away under the driveway. You can see where the new leak popped up after we fixed leak 2.

If anyone has any ideas, let me know. 

ind

Fuck man, I'm right there with you.

I live in the suburbs, but this neighborhood was once pretty rural, and there's still a lot of weird shit.  Case in point:  my water meter is located about 150 yards away, and my main line goes across the properties of two neighbors (easements).

Thursday morning, the water company truck comes up my driveway.  Tells me the guy two houses down called the water company complaining about his yard being a swamp. He had his irrigation guy out looking for broken pipes, and he didn't find any, so the guy calls the water company. They come out to investigate, and find my meter spinning like a mofo.   Yeah, a bad leak in my line, on the neighbor's property.

I'm down there up to my balls in mud fixing a 2" galvanized line.  The whole thing needs to be replaced, but that's another job for another day.  I called a leak detection guy to locate the leak.  When he pressurized the line, it bubbled like a mofo.  Not hard to find.  

[Gil Bang 26174]

[NoRagrets 1136]

4 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

Fuck man, I'm right there with you.

I live in the suburbs, but this neighborhood was once pretty rural, and there's still a lot of weird shit.  Case in point:  my water meter is located about 150 yards away, and my main line goes across the properties of two neighbors (easements).

Thursday morning, the water company truck comes up my driveway.  Tells me the guy two houses down called the water company complaining about his yard being a swamp. He had his irrigation guy out looking for broken pipes, and he didn't find any, so the guy calls the water company. They come out to investigate, and find my meter spinning like a mofo.   Yeah, a bad leak in my line, on the neighbor's property.

I'm down there up to my balls in mud fixing a 2" galvanized line.  The whole thing needs to be replaced, but that's another job for another day.  I called a leak detection guy to locate the leak.  When he pressurized the line, it bubbled like a mofo.  Not hard to find.  

I feel your pain, brother!

[NoRagrets 1136]

I’ve called in reinforcements. An actual plumber. He thinks it might be an abandoned line that is coming out of the house, not into it. I hope he’s right!

[wd40 1976]

On 1/25/2024 at 2:45 PM, Spaulding Smails said:

Only took about three months of on-again / off-again work, but finally finished up this outdoor table.  Still need to figure out what we're going to do for benches / chairs, so we're using some cheap ones from Home Depot in the meantime.  I may get roped into building some benches to match the table.  If so, those should be ready in the spring... of 2025.  

Construction was pretty easy.  Welded up some 3x3 square tube for the base.  4/4 Teak for the top.  Fastened with dominoes and left a dime gap between the slats for water to drain.  Had to go back and weld some additional supports for the perpendicular middle piece since I couldn't find any Teak longer than 10'.  Turned out nicer than I expected, but the Teak was waaaaay more expensive than I originally thought.  

love the table, and the house.  #team chairs, but benches would be good for the following:  1) will help you get laid once, 2)  when you have to entertain people you don't like and don't want them to get too comfortable, 3) magazine covers.

but what I also want to know is:  do you plan to do anything with your rainwater pipes?  I've gotten used to mine as naked white PVC, but occasionally I get ideas to help them complement the look of the house (besides paint, which I see flaking off the PVC pretty quickly and looking like shit).  

[CycleTex87 3003]

On 1/27/2024 at 9:10 AM, Armybrat said:

I don’t know squat about woodworking, but know what I like.

This is the solid teak coffee table my Mom (no pics - she dead) designed in 1958. 
Dad had it made by a local Taiwanese carpenter when we were living in a suburb of Taipei. The Asian style brass pulls (with loose tabs) are a nice touch, IMO. 
Several side tables, a dining room set, a china cabinet, and a silverware cabinet were made at the same time. I inherited the china cabinet and two side tables. One of my sons has one of the tables and the cabinet. He will eventually get the other side table and the coffee table. 
My two older brothers have the remainder.

 

 

That’s top notch stuff. You cannot buy that today.  My dad built some beautiful cherry furniture in the 80’s and 90’s that will last for generations. When my mom passes, my siblings and I will choose up who gets what. 

[CycleTex87 3003]

On a similar note, I’ve picked up a Rockwell/Delta jointer and bandsaw that belonged to my dad to help my mom clear out her garage. The tools were originally purchased by my great grandfather in the 30’s or 40’s. They mostly work though need some TLC since they’ve just sat since 2008 or so.  Anyone know a good place for spare parts and whatnot?

[thunderlounge 8318]

2 hours ago, wd40 said:

but what I also want to know is:  do you plan to do anything with your rainwater pipes?  I've gotten used to mine as naked white PVC, but occasionally I get ideas to help them complement the look of the house (besides paint, which I see flaking off the PVC pretty quickly and looking like shit).  

Paint will work out alright, if you use this as your base coat. 
 

https://www.amazon.com/Zinsser-Primer-Sealer-13/dp/B000MRS1XY

 

Edited February 27 by thunderlounge
add pic

[dieucla98 2954]

1 hour ago, CycleTex87 said:

On a similar note, I’ve picked up a Rockwell/Delta jointer and bandsaw that belonged to my dad to help my mom clear out her garage. The tools were originally purchased by my great grandfather in the 30’s or 40’s. They mostly work though need some TLC since they’ve just sat since 2008 or so.  Anyone know a good place for spare parts and whatnot?

Do you need motor replacement parts or blade replacement? I assume the jointer must be a straight blade vs. spiral/helical cutter head so you could even just have the blades sharpened instead of replaced. Replacement straight blades are generally cheap too (just did this on our planer). Lots of options for blade replacement. Motor replacement would be a different animal given the age of those tools.

[Shoxthemonkey 1992]

1 hour ago, CycleTex87 said:

On a similar note, I’ve picked up a Rockwell/Delta jointer and bandsaw that belonged to my dad to help my mom clear out her garage. The tools were originally purchased by my great grandfather in the 30’s or 40’s. They mostly work though need some TLC since they’ve just sat since 2008 or so.  Anyone know a good place for spare parts and whatnot?

Ebay has been a good source for restoring my Granddad's old stuff but the forums at The Garage Journal were really helpful with the more obscure stuff. They have a classified section and specialized forums for just about any brand you might have.

https://www.garagejournal.com/

[Spaulding Smails 1610]

4 hours ago, wd40 said:

love the table, and the house.  #team chairs, but benches would be good for the following:  1) will help you get laid once, 2)  when you have to entertain people you don't like and don't want them to get too comfortable, 3) magazine covers.

but what I also want to know is:  do you plan to do anything with your rainwater pipes?  I've gotten used to mine as naked white PVC, but occasionally I get ideas to help them complement the look of the house (besides paint, which I see flaking off the PVC pretty quickly and looking like shit).  

I've threatened to post pictures of my rainwater setup on this board before but keep forgetting.  I actually just had them painted last week when we had some good weather.  We experimented a bunch and found that STIX primer worked really well on the PVC.  Sherwin-Williams makes a product called Bond Plex that is available in an aluminum finish.  It worked really well, matches the gutters and seems to be holding up.  Our AirBnB on the property was painted 18 months ago and still looks great.  

[CycleTex87 3003]

On 2/27/2024 at 8:28 AM, dieucla98 said:

Do you need motor replacement parts or blade replacement? I assume the jointer must be a straight blade vs. spiral/helical cutter head so you could even just have the blades sharpened instead of replaced. Replacement straight blades are generally cheap too (just did this on our planer). Lots of options for blade replacement. Motor replacement would be a different animal given the age of those tools.

The motors are OK I think, just need new wiring to the switch and plug.  Blades need sharpened. I’m missing the guard from the jointer, may take a look in my mom’s garage next time I’m in town to see if it’s laying around somewhere. 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10761]

On 2/26/2024 at 7:41 PM, Gil Bang said:

Wow, that is not a deep burial. That sucks

[Gil Bang 26174]

believe me, I was happy it was shallow

[dieucla98 2954]

22 hours ago, CycleTex87 said:

The motors are OK I think, just need new wiring to the switch and plug.  Blades need sharpened. I’m missing the guard from the jointer, may take a look in my mom’s garage next time I’m in town to see if it’s laying around somewhere. 

If you're in Austin, Shear Emporium (Roger) does great work on blade sharpening and is a woodworker as well, though almost 100% hand woodworking. He geeks out when other woodworkers stop by. He should be able to look at the blades and tell you if they have enough metal to be sharpened without rendering the blade useless.

[uoftorange 1391]

Need to do some fit and finish on the doors and drawers, but turned out pretty great.  And yes, need to paint under the cabinet on the wall.  

 

[uoftorange 1391]

That's the before on the bathroom.  Before we moved in though, I'd never let it look cluttered like that

[Incredulity 11859]

1 hour ago, uoftorange said:

Need to do some fit and finish on the doors and drawers, but turned out pretty great.  And yes, need to paint under the cabinet on the wall.  

 

Had masterbath vanity set up like this with tall drawers(kind of like spice racks) in the between mirrors cabinets at our last house.  loved it.  wish I had it now.

[thunderlounge 8318]

2 hours ago, uoftorange said:

Need to do some fit and finish on the doors and drawers, but turned out pretty great.  And yes, need to paint under the cabinet on the wall.  

 

That type of setup is what we're considering when we remodel our bathroom next year.

If looking at your picture, to the left would be a wall, then a toilet.
 

Opposite side of the toilet is a 30x30 shower, which fucking sucks. Then a wall between shower and a 6ft jetted tub.

 

We’re going to kill the shower and turn that into a linen closet. Take out the tub, and put in a walk-in tiled shower.

I’m not 100% sure on the cabinet in the middle. If I do that then I may go floor to ceiling on it. Still working that detail out, but there’s time.

 

[uoftorange 1391]

5 hours ago, thunderlounge said:

That type of setup is what we're considering when we remodel our bathroom next year.

If looking at your picture, to the left would be a wall, then a toilet.
 

Opposite side of the toilet is a 30x30 shower, which fucking sucks. Then a wall between shower and a 6ft jetted tub.

 

We’re going to kill the shower and turn that into a linen closet. Take out the tub, and put in a walk-in tiled shower.

I’m not 100% sure on the cabinet in the middle. If I do that then I may go floor to ceiling on it. Still working that detail out, but there’s time.

 

So you can see the shower and I'm standing in the tub.  About to do the same in a year or so once my bank account recovers from the kitchen remodel we're finishing up.  Ripping out the tub and putting a double sided shower in there, then putting in a linen cabinet where the shower is too.  I'm going to build the cabinet first so it's done and can be put straight in before we rip it all out.  

Sadly I'm going to have to put in flooring before I rip those out so having to be careful with how we do that so it's easy to fix later.

But I have a whiskey shelf/cabinet and a master closet drawer system to build first.  When we moved in I rebuilt the entire master closet (it's above in this thread) save for the ikea drawer system I already had on my side because it worked.  But since I have to replace the floor in there anyway I'm going to do it right this time.  Whiskey cabinet comes first since I already bought the walnut for it.      

Once those are done the only thing left to do in the house is replace the carpet in the upstairs bedroom.  This house is already pretty unrecognizable from when we moved in.  Will be completely different when all of that is done.  

Now I have to live here forever though haha

[CycleTex87 3003]

6 hours ago, thunderlounge said:

That type of setup is what we're considering when we remodel our bathroom next year.

If looking at your picture, to the left would be a wall, then a toilet.
 

Opposite side of the toilet is a 30x30 shower, which fucking sucks. Then a wall between shower and a 6ft jetted tub.

 

We’re going to kill the shower and turn that into a linen closet. Take out the tub, and put in a walk-in tiled shower.

I’m not 100% sure on the cabinet in the middle. If I do that then I may go floor to ceiling on it. Still working that detail out, but there’s time.

 

We’re also looking at a bathroom remodel in the future.  Currently we have a small (34x36) shower next to a crappy whirlpool tub.  What’s the current view on having both a shower and tub in the master bath, from a resale standpoint?  Required?  Replace the tub with a new whirlpool tub?  Or just a regular bathtub?  

[thunderlounge 8318]

4 minutes ago, CycleTex87 said:

We’re also looking at a bathroom remodel in the future.  Currently we have a small (34x36) shower next to a crappy whirlpool tub.  What’s the current view on having both a shower and tub in the master bath, from a resale standpoint?  Required?  Replace the tub with a new whirlpool tub?  Or just a regular bathtub?  

 

While I can't speak for your area, around here if the master has a bad ass shower and no tub, it's better. I have 2 other tubs in the house though, or that wouldn't be the case. Tiny showers fucking suck. In the past I've been tempted to swap the tub faucet out for one with a shower hose option, and hang a curtain from a rod. Was overruled enough that I just gave up.

I'm a bit hesitant to do the update since we're looking to build in 5-7 years, but that's just long enough that a) I'll get to use it, and b) it should "pay for itself" in the eventual sale of the house.

Last year was a new deck, this year it's the living room and a new privacy fence. Next year is the master bath and what looks to be a new stove, microwave, dishwasher, and counter tops.

After that, I better be done for awhile.

[uoftorange 1391]

1 hour ago, CycleTex87 said:

We’re also looking at a bathroom remodel in the future.  Currently we have a small (34x36) shower next to a crappy whirlpool tub.  What’s the current view on having both a shower and tub in the master bath, from a resale standpoint?  Required?  Replace the tub with a new whirlpool tub?  Or just a regular bathtub?  

I've talked to high end remodelers and mid range, and a number of realtors about it.  It makes zero difference.  Most people prefer the updated bathroom, and most tubs go completely unused.  Especially in houses with 2+ other bathrooms with tubs.  But very few people will look at a nice shower and go "I have to have a tub, I'm out".  Though that number isn't zero.  

[uoftorange 1391]

I'm also a huge believer in if I'm going to do something, do it as soon as feasibly possible because that's one more day of enjoyment to spread that cost over.  

[Okie State 3887]

For me, personally, I'd rather have no tub, larger shower, and more storage in the master. I think one tub is required by the kids bedrooms, but other than that they are useless. We've never used ours even once.

[utee94 16065]

41 minutes ago, Okie State said:

For me, personally, I'd rather have no tub, larger shower, and more storage in the master. I think one tub is required by the kids bedrooms, but other than that they are useless. We've never used ours even once.

Wives tend to think they want one.  Too many Calgon commercials I suppose. 

[thunderlounge 8318]

20 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Wives tend to think they want one.  Too many Calgon commercials I suppose. 

Fucking this. 
 

Has she used our jetted tub? Oh hell no.  🙄

[uoftorange 1391]

My wife has used our tub, but even she realizes there are 2 others in the house if she really wants to use one.  I even told her we could upgrade one of them in one of the bathrooms once our oldest goes to college in the fall if she's dead set on a tub for soaking.  

Dual head showers are God's gifts to suburban life and I will not tolerate not having one any longer than I have to!

[utee94 16065]

To be fair, we have used our jetted tub a few times per year since we've been here.  I like it and wish I had time to use it more often.  And we already have a nice glass enclosure shower with multiple shower heads, so I don't REALLY need to get rid of it.

But it's one of those triangular monstrosities that's put against a corner of the bathroom with a tile surround built up around it, and it just takes up so much room, kinda like this one:

I want to replace it with a freestanding jetted tub that's a modern version of a clawfoot, rotate it sideways so it takes up a lot less room, which would make space for an additional vanity and more storage.  Something like this:

 

 

 

[hookem2010 2700]

First time in this thread. We bought a house a year ago that was built in 1994. I've done some small light fixture replacements, painting walls, etc. but just embarked on my first big project this week. Our kitchen cabinets are offensively orange and glossy honey oak. We had the counters and backsplash replaced, but the cabinets were too great an expense.

I put off starting the project for months, but now I've got some doors off, sanded and primed so there's no turning back. Expect some pictures of the finished project sometime in the next 3 years.

[thunderlounge 8318]

That’s what I’m going to do with our cabinets.

They’re builder grade, but in fine shape. I’ll sand them, and then going to paint them. If I were staying longer, maybe I’d replace them. But I’m not, so fuck spending that when I can spend it on the new place when we build. So I’ll paint em, give em a couple clear coats, and call it good.

 

[utee94 16065]

Yeah those builder-grade oak cabinets went into every home from about 1978-1998 it seems.  In our last house I painted the ones in the kitchen, but stripped and stained the ones in the bathrooms to a deep espresso, and they turned out looking fantastic.  Way more work than painting them though, obviously.

[gsoda3 3358]

if you're going to all that trouble please tell me you're using a spray gun to paint. makes a huge difference.

[uoftorange 1391]

I started to go that route of reusing and rebuilding, but even in a decent house they had just taken too much abuse over the years.  So we started completely over.  Cutting these checks is painful

[dieucla98 2954]

1 hour ago, hookem2010 said:

First time in this thread. We bought a house a year ago that was built in 1994. I've done some small light fixture replacements, painting walls, etc. but just embarked on my first big project this week. Our kitchen cabinets are offensively orange and glossy honey oak. We had the counters and backsplash replaced, but the cabinets were too great an expense.

I put off starting the project for months, but now I've got some doors off, sanded and primed so there's no turning back. Expect some pictures of the finished project sometime in the next 3 years.

Do multiple sand + primes or you'll just end up with white cabinets with oaky grain. There are primers out there that are geared towards really raising the grain so you can knock it back in one sanding pass but the process is at least sand + prime + sand + prime IMO.

That oak grain is just gnarly to hide.

[Jkwellborn 7006]

if you're going to all that trouble please tell me you're using a spray gun to paint. makes a huge difference.

Team Spray all the things. I’ve never used HVLP, but I’ve used several Graco Airless setups. They’re great.

[hookem2010 2700]

I think a tiny bit of the grain may shine through, but it seems almost entirely covered up with sanding p80 +p180, then adding 2 layers of primer. I've had to spot-sand some splatter areas after priming as I get the hang of the paint sprayer. I'm afraid the first door or two may not look perfect. I'll see how everything looks after the 2nd coat of primer dries to determine if I really need to sand in between primers. Ugh.

[Jkwellborn 7006]

What are you using to spray? I mean, if you don’t spray, use a foam roller. Spraying isn’t too hard to get the knack of. Use a piece of cardboard to practice on.

[hookem2010 2700]

I think it's a Wagner 3500, but I also have to use the fine detail attachment to get in all those little grooves and I think I've gotten too close or was too stationary a couple times and got a slightly raised splatter.

[Okie State 3887]

20 hours ago, hookem2010 said:

First time in this thread. We bought a house a year ago that was built in 1994. I've done some small light fixture replacements, painting walls, etc. but just embarked on my first big project this week. Our kitchen cabinets are offensively orange and glossy honey oak. We had the counters and backsplash replaced, but the cabinets were too great an expense.

I put off starting the project for months, but now I've got some doors off, sanded and primed so there's no turning back. Expect some pictures of the finished project sometime in the next 3 years.

Been there man. It sucks balls, but is worth it. Don't skimp on the prep, primer, or paint because you don't want to do that shit again.

[heso 2848]

Timely project with the talk about walnut with Rubio, this has 2 coats of pure. It’s really best to not think of it as a single coat product on really absorbent wood like walnut. It ends up really matte and if there’s much figure at all it can look pretty splotchy. Sanded to 180, water popped, sanded again with 180, 1st coat of pure, light scuff with a maroon pad, 2nd coat of pure. Gives it a really nice satin sheen.

Walnut, aluminum splines, black suede lining

[thunderlounge 8318]

Lookin sharp. 
 

Of course I’m a sucker for walnut, and cherry.