Wanted: Tardis

[Timbo]

Now this might sound odd, but I've spent a couple of years researching and practising my wood finishing just so I get Royal Tudor right. I'm still making mistakes, but 'brightworking' is an art in itself!

I'm hoping someone, Martin are you listening, can supply the science behind this? But here's what I've learned from people like Doug and Matt G, the team that looks after the Cutty Sark was very helpful and Mr Finney at Finney's wood finishes is a bit of a genius! 

I always thought that you sanded your bit of wood, or boat, and slapped some varnish on it. Nope. First you 'colour' the wood. 'Natural' wood is very much a modern fashion. It wasn't until I started getting my hands on lumber such as walnut, mahogany, English and American Oak, cherry and yew that I found out the wood was not...well, wood coloured!

In the case of traditional wooden sailing ships and boats that colour comes from the 'Boat Soup' used to treat the timber. Boat Soup is a mixture of Tar, wood and plant resins and spirit, most usually turpentine and a drying oil (an oil that will air dry). Any wooden part of a boat or ship, as well as lines, would be doused with Boat Soup. Ships and boats were dark coloured, as were the tar splashed sailors. Hence the term Jack Tar.

On finer furniture, colour on timber such as oak, mahogany, walnut and other timbers were coloured using Van Dyck Crystals. These crystals are made from walnut husks and would be dissolved in water. So to answer my own question walnut, oak and mahogany are all walnut coloured. The strength of the stain could be altered by making the stain more concentrated or by applying several coats.

So then how am I going to colour my coat rack and Royal Tudor? Here are the choices for colouring the wood.

1. Water-based stain
2. Spirit-based stain
3. Water-based Wood Dye
4. Spirit-based Wood Dye

The answer is the difference between a stain and a dye. A stain is quite simply 'dirt'. That's right, 'muck'. Ground up clay is the principal ingredient of a stain. A wood dye is made from organic material. A wood stain sits on top of the wood. A dye seeps into and penetrates into the timber. A wood stain will cover over your timber where a wood dye is translucent so allows the grain and figure of the timber to be seen.

Now, this is where we need Martin! MARTIN! Water based or spirit based? Water-based dye or stain is slower to dry than spirit based. Mr Finney tells me that modern spirit based products give better UV protection than water-based products.

Stains adhere to the surface of the timber with oil until the oil eventually dries and the stain drops off the surface. You do not use stain on boats. Wood stains are used for painting your garden shed or your fence. You are literally brushing muck suspended in water on top of the wood. With a stain, you will get patchy bits. When you apply the varnish on top of it, the stain is lifted from the surface of wood.

What I'm going to use is a spirit based wood dye. Now I know there is a paintbrush in the photo, but that's what I use to clean the bench. What I use to apply stain and varnish is a sponge brush or roller (wisdom from Doug) so that there are no brush marks visible. So here's my coat rack with a layer of Rustins Brown Mahogany (I don't like red mahogany) Spirit Based Wood Dye.

It will dry a shade lighter, but I like the colour and I like the fact that it is not patchy. You work in full strokes from the centre to the outside edges when colouring in long strokes, that way you don't get runs or streaks. I then take off the excess with a lint free cloth.

Doug I think this is the colour I'm going to do Royal Tudor! I like it!

 

[Lazurus]

Various stains, long strokes, lint free cloth......... the mind boggles at what occurs in the "Tardis" at times..........

[BrundallNavy]

Is it me or is Wild Fuzz now working under cover..     ..

[Timbo]

28 minutes ago, Lazurus said:

Various stains, long strokes, lint free cloth......... the mind boggles at what occurs in the "Tardis" at times..........

It get's worse when I'm listening to the football on the radio in the Tardis. The occasional 'bang' and 'wallop' is accompanied by shouts of 'Come on' and 'you're cheating Chelsea' with the occasional 'get in there'!

[Malanka]

Solvent based easy answer. Don't be fooled the sovent based stuff doesn't penetrate that far into the timber. To make sap spurt out of a log takes 15 atmospheres pressure. It will penetrate between cells but not necessarly into them. It still works so don't worry. 

 

M

[Wildfuzz]

No I had used the wrong login after the forum update..... all sorted now

[Guest]

We tested a range of wood dyes for our boat. We disliked all the water-based dyes, which seem to me to give a muddy finish which hides the beauty of the wood. The solvent-based dyes were much more appealing and we eventually settled on one made by Luberon. I would agree that the solvent doesn't cause the dye to penetrate very far at all, but it seems to do more than just sit on the surface.

[Polly]

So what happens to the alter ego, Lazurus now?

[ExSurveyor]

27 minutes ago, Polly said:

So what happens to the alter ego, Lazurus now?

He has blown his undercover cover,  burn it Stuart and choose Phoenix as a new undercover cover,  no-one will know. 

[grendel]

1 hour ago, Polly said:

So what happens to the alter ego, Lazurus now?

it goes back to the dead 

[Polly]

Could be it goes back to  less than successful racing? 'Lazurus come forth'?

[Timbo]

"Timbo come forth!"
And Timbo did climb out of bed, walked the dogs and went into the shed whereupon he...

....used a foam brush to lay down several coats of varnish rubbing back in between each coat with some 400 grit paper. I have to hold my hands up here and say...I made an elevated male chicken of the job. I set up outside as it was a nice day. Managed to get two coats on. Then my next door neighbour, not Ellie, turned on her garden sprinklers which sprayed over into my garden and I ended up with nibs and splotches all over the place. So I sanded back a little harder on the second coat, managed to get most of the water marks out...and carried on varnishng. A couple of days and about four coats and I now have a nice glossy sheen with the grain nicely visible through the wood dye.

Now to fixing the coat hooks. Now then, what is it with people that make hinges and coat hooks and anything that needs attaching using screws that they don't supply or sell screws of the right size? I've hunted high and low for the correct sized screws for the door hooks and the only place I found them was from the Pound Shop. Yes, they do fit...but the heads chew up almost immediately.

At first, I tried gently turning the screws by hand with a No2 Philips. They chewed up immediately. In the end, I discovered the best technique was to use the drill driver set to a low torque and 'blitz' the screws in quickly without stripping the head.

Finally, I mounted the coat rack, all glistening varnish and chrome, on the wall.

From where I sit at my computer I can look down the hall and see the chrome reflected in the glossy varnished mahogany and...I don't want to cover it up with coats! It has a definite 'boaty' feel to it! 
Next project....

[Timbo]

The Doctor surveyed the landscape.
"Well faithful companion, enjoy your 'girls weekend."
He opened the doors of the transport, unceremoniously dumped the suitcase, noticed the clink of gin bottles, waved cheerio and navigated away from the metropolis.
"Hello, other faithful companions!" he greeted K9 and K1 and 1/3 on his return to the Tardis.
K9 wagged a tail from under the duvet. K 1 and 1/3 had been chewing 'useful scrap wood'...again.
"Time I did something with those scraps, it's almost time for the Christmas special and the last ever Dr Who!"

So while the cat is away I've been enjoying some serious Workshop time! I have lots and lots of thin slivers of hardwood that need using up before Toby eats them all. I need to practise laminating before I start on 'setting up' the timber for RT's bow peak, so a good time to make a few Christmas presents! I know, I know I said the 'C' word, but this year's Christmas list is starting to grow in both the quantity and the size of projects. A very special little girl has asked me to build her a princess castle in a tree house for Christmas...now this is going to be fun! I'm pleased to say the quality of my woodwork has improved over this year, so I'm also looking to do one or two craft fairs to try and recoup some more money to plough into Royal Tudor.

So with the radio tuned to Talk Sport in anticipation of a weekend's football, I start sorting through my scrap wood bins. First out of the bin, some wonky sapele left over from making RT's new aft cabin doors. Next a few thin slithers of ash from where I restored the memorial bench for my grandson....Oh, I forgot to mention, we got some good news last week we are going to be grandparents again come the beginning of April. Next some 30mm square lengths of tulip wood or American Poplar. That should be enough, to begin with.

I start planing the edges of the wood flat and square as Sensei taught me. I do this by hand for the sheer enjoyment of it. As I start to plane I get a shout from my next-door but one neighbour. He's got a plane for me. My neighbour collects and restores old hand tools, so while I'm there I take the opportunity to pick his brains on setting up my hand planes. I spend a very enjoyable afternoon sharpening and flattening the soles of all of my planes. It makes a world of difference having your tools set correctly. I also took the opportunity to try out and compare the difference between various makes of plane beside my modern ones. I've decided I much prefer old Record planes to Stanley. 

Back at home, I get back to work planing up my scrap timber. I then get out the clamps and then get covered in glue...I mean covered! Once the stock is all glued up I head indoors for coffee and then leave the timber in clamps overnight. The glue I like to use is Titebond II, which is waterproof.

After dropping Ellie off in Doncaster, a pit stop on her way to a Perfume Conference in Leicester, I head back to the Workshop and release the clamps. Not a brilliant job. I've got gaps in the outer layers. I will just have to make smaller cutting boards! First things first and I clean off all of the glue squeeze out with a card scraper.

Next I grab my recently sharpened 5 1/2 plane and flatten off and square the bottoms of both planks. I can now run them through my planing machine to get a nice flat, crisp and clean finish. I now drag out the table saw and trim the boards to width and cut the tulip and sapele board in half to make two chopping boards. Out with the router to round over the edges and a good sanding.

I'm not sure yet how I will finish them. I can either use mineral oil (got to buy some) or I can use Ozmo which is made from plant extracts, food safe and generally used for countertops and floors. I will decide later I think. But that's three cutting boards to add to the inventory. I think I prefer the smaller sapele and ash one myself.

[Timbo]

Fairly busy day in the workshop today in preparation for tackling my office tomorrow. Let's call it Autumn cleaning. I've got to tackle the mountains of timber, tools, equipment...and Uncle Albert's gubbins that is loafing around my flat and office. So I decided to make use of several bits of 3/4 ply that was taking up space and convert them into new crosscut and mitre sledges for the table saw.

So a quick rearrange of the Tardis to get to the tools I needed. It's much easier now that everything is on wheels.

So the first job was to laminate three sections of 3/4 ply to make the front fences for both sleds. Plenty of glue, and clamped from every angle, with every clamp I had. Once everything had set over the day, I popped the clamps and cut the fences to length and width. I now had two really chunky sections of plywood onto which I drew my design and then cut out the design on the bandsaw.

I then gave the cut faces a good sanding, and whipped around the edges with a round over bit in the router.  This will save me picking up splinters from the plywood.

Another quick sanding and I chamfered the bottom edge which will be used to register buy timber to be cut. This will allow the sawdust to not sit up against the face and get sucked up easily by the dust extractor.

With Ellie having a day off tomorrow I'm not sure whether I will get them finished then, but the next step is to cut the runners and the sled platforms.

[grendel]

I even have my big pillar drill on wheels, though I dont really plan on moving it a lot.

[Timbo]

Try as I might, I just cannot get the last few boxes of tools into my workshop, no matter how TARDIS like it is. Although, most of those 'tools' are things like spot lamps, veneering tools and finishing products like French Polish, various varnishes, lacquers, brushes, cloths and oils. One thing is for certain, I will not be able to store my lumber collection in the workshop. I have 'dods' of wood stacked in just about every room of my flat. Cupboards, under beds, but mostly in my hallway and in my study. 

On my way through the hall from my bedroom to the kitchen at four in the morning one day last week, I tripped over a building brick I had been using to hold some sapele flat. High time I reorganised my available space...and bought a third first aid kit for the house!

I think my hobbies and interests are slowly taking over. I still haven't cleared my way through all of Uncle Albert's possessions that still sit in boxes around my living room. It will soon be a year since the old boy left us to manage on our own, so it's time I started managing I think. So...time to tackle the house!

I have one spare room to play with, and this room has to accommodate all of my hobbies interests and pastimes. The room is 11' x 7 1/2' and contains my collection of lumber, computers, 46" computer monitor, printer, books, a small film studio, sound studio as well as various tools and potions for veneering and finishing my woodwork projects. TARDIS X2!

At the beginning of this year, I fitted workbenches in an 'L' shape around two walls of my room. I made right angle brackets from 2x4's and fitted them using a half lap joint over a baton I had run around the room. I then fitted a bench top made from 3/4 ply and trimmed the edges of it with 3/8" thick strips of iroko I had loafing around the place. This gave me quite a large workbench...I was going to need it.

Next came three bookcases/two drawer wall mounted cabinets. So I now had six bookshelves and six drawers that would take 'some' of my books. One of the hardest things I had to do in sorting out some space was getting rid of my books. Sentimental and valuable books (I have collected antiquarian books for over thirty years) have gone into safe storage. In the end, I took some 1500 hardbacks and double that amount in paperbacks to the charity shops. Every second-hand charity book table I pass in local supermarkets are heaving with my old books. The temptation to buy them back is incredible. This was negated by buying a Kindle and transferring many of my books into digital format

I now added two rolling lumber racks underneath the benches. Once again I utilised some 2x4's, came up with my own design and added some cheap tin shelf brackets to support the lumber.

Finally, I began construction of a film set and soundstage in the room. I built two 'flats' from some 2x2's and some sections from an old pallet I had dismantled.I gave these a hardboard 'skin' on one side which I then coated in PVA glue and water to give me a surface to decorate on. The backs I left as a bare frame so that they could be clamped together using 'G' clamps. A baton screwed to the top of both flats acts as a brace and somewhere where I  can support the boom mic when the 'studio' is in use.

As a concession to my daughter's comfort when she comes to visit, I bought a folding bed/chair for her to sleep on. 

Over this last year I have proceeded to then stuff this room with as many cameras, lenses, hard drives, light stands, lighting, microphones and above all...as much lumber as I could lay my hands on.

Today...I cleared out that room...starting with my lumber carts! I've discovered I've replaced collecting books with collecting wood!

Dragging out my lumber collection, reorganising, restocking and putting everything back onto my lumber racks I've almost managed to clear my hallway. The only timber left in there are the old sections of RT that I have to make new copies of. Lumber racks now stored under the benches contain some rather wonderful timber.

I have ash, spalted ash oak, sapele, iroko, red meranti, tulip, mahogany, beech, yew, black walnut, pear, pine, cedar, cedar of Lebanon and maple in various thicknesses and lengths, including dowels. I also have several hundred sheets of veneer including various burrs in chestnut, walnut, oak, cedar, quince, iroko, ebony, olive ash, olive, mahogany, and maple.

Tomorrow I finish clearing the hall and stacking the lumber...I then move onto the cameras, lenses, lighting, stands, booms and dollies...although I need to use some of the lumber to make some storage! 

[grendel]

5 hours ago, Timbo said:

! I've discovered I've replaced collecting books with collecting wood!

The big difference is you cannot give the lumber to the charity shops.

[grendel]

I am finding the same thing Tim, the aim of the workshop was to replace the doing of messy jobs from the dining room modelling bench, well I have  got to the stage where when I put one of the models on the bench it leaves no room to work, thus the model work is still being done part on the dining room workbench. still a lot of the messier jobs such as metalwork are now done in the workshop, and I am starting to consider the other half of the conservatory for storage and tools, maybe a second workbench with my other big vices on. then there is clearing my daughters junk from the spare bedroom (meccano room) it was only put there while we moved her bed (honest dad I will sort it out over the next few days) a year ago,

[ZimbiIV]

Easy solution Tim.

Move everything out of the Tardis into the house, live in the shed, work in the house.

This will work, UNTIL you need just a little bit more work space!

paul

 

[JanetAnne]

Careful chaps...

I started with a shed, then a garage, then two garages, then a small workshop etc etc up to the point where I now have 4500 sq ft of barn plus about the same again as outside storage. 

And I still can't get to the bench (which is full by the way) 

Last week I had to go and hire another lock up garage....  

It's a slippery slope I tell you

[Timbo]

My mum always referred to it as 'Tim's Law', although I'm sure she borrowed it from Cyril Northcote Parkinson. The amount of sh crap expands to fill the space available. Thinking about it, I also have RT in the shed at Martham...and GT is taking up space in Doug's garage! 

[Polly]

Clutter fairies!  Well elves then.......

[KaptinKev]

2 hours ago, grendel said:

 (honest dad I will sort it out over the next few days) a year ago,

I know exactly where you are coming from, but for me it's been more than 2 years.

[Timbo]

Anyone following my 'Adventures in Woodworking' will have realised by now that, I don't know what I'm doing. I seem to leap forward three paces and then step back two, and then take one to the side. This week's 'how straight is straight' is a fine example. It's closely followed by this weekends 'how flat is flat' nonsense. I start to think I, just, might be getting somewhere when things go aspect over apex. Usually over something so basic that, even with my limited knowledge on the subject, I should have known better.

There then follows several days of researching 'this' or practising 'that' and sometimes, but not always, I will get the knack of a certain technique. More often than not I've run up an even blacker alley than the one I was on. Inevitably there is a tool or jig that if I only had the money to buy or build then woodwork would be straightforward. One thing I don't have control of is how poorly I feel or how the symptoms will portray themselves. At some point this week I must have been poorly. Poorly enough for the check-out girl in Tesco to ask Ellie 'Is he better today?'. Meanwhile, I'm left scratching my head as to exactly when I was poorly and when exactly we went shopping in Tesco and exactly what did we buy and why are we back here again if we'd already bought some? Poorly weeks are dull. The week after a 'poorly week' is just plain tedious. Well enough for my brain to start working, ill enough for me to be exhausted by lunchtime.

Just when I start wondering why I ever took up woodwork for fun and relaxation I get one of those moments when everything clicks into place. I had one of those today. And it was something as simple as wiping some mineral oil onto a breadboard I'd made. The colours of the woods glistening beneath the oil and light reflecting from curves, angles and joits that I'd created. Ah bliss...now time for a nap!

 

[Timbo]

A busy couple of days in the workshop working on a project for Ellie. I'd been requested to make a table and stool that she could use during her fragrance demonstrations/talks/special events and put displays of fragrance on.

Furniture. I mean, FURNITURE. Not something I've done before. I mean...it's got to be square, flat and not wobbly. Right? Cor! Lummy! Lawks!

So Ellie's instructions. Something Light. Easily dismantled yet solid. Not a paste table, something proper 'tableish' and something to sit on. The whole thing will be covered with a large drape.

So digging through my lumber racks I picked out some cedar. Very light...smells nice too. I also had some red meranti and a pine 2 x4. Construction I was going to use my Kreg Pocket Hole jig. For anyone not familiar with this nifty contraption it's a drill guide that allows you to drill a hole at an angle and make joints using pan head screws. The joints are strong. I have a set that Uncle Albert bought me. The fancy clamp with dust extractor as well as all of the extra bits and bobs that go with it.

So I ripped down the 2x4 to make the table legs. Ceder for the table rails and by the end of the day I had a table, minus top, that was square and straight and level! Totally stunned at my success.

Ellie comes round to view my afternoon's work. It's too tall.
'Just cut some off the bottom of each leg'. I'm instructed.
'Yeah right, that's going to work!' I think.

So today I dismantled the table frame and cut five inches from each leg. Put everything back together again, cut some 12mm ply for a top, routed over all the edges...remembering to put round overs on the bottom of the table legs so they don't split if the table get's dragged along the floor.

Now for the stool...red meranti legs with cedar rails. I had some 18mm ply left over from a job I did for Mike, so that went to make the seat. Now I should have rounded the corners of the stool seat...but I was still smarting over the height of the table thing and it was almost pitch black outside when I finished. 

So job done, just got to slap some finish on...

With Uncle Albert watching proceedings (he's in the cardboard box next to the boiler) I'm still surprised that I've got no wobble on either bit of furniture and both are square and level! Just got to see what Ellie says about the 'stool sample' I've made!