Here's the latest image after the first coat of mineral oil & bees wax. This will probably take a few more days to finish up

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nichollswoodworks

Charles,

Very nice!  Love the wood.  How do you like the mineral oil and beeswax - which is my favorite finish?

SQ

Charles Nicholls said:

Here's the latest image after the first coat of mineral oil & bees wax. This will probably take a few more days to finish up

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nichollswoodworks

Phil,

Looks good!  I'm anxious to see the finished product.

SQ

Phil Chestnut said:

oh here is a better look at the humming birds.

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http://www.prchestnut.webs.com/

Allen,

Wow, great looking utility box!   Really like the design and finish.

SQ

Allen Worsham said:

Well, for the last week and a half I have been working on building a new storage box for the side of the house. I had to move my wife's shed that she keeps her teaching stuff in as well as organize some stuff on the side of the house. After looking at it all sitting out there, I had to make the storage box to make things look nicer as well as keep the stuff out of the elements as this is on the west side and gets a lot of direct sun. What started out as basically a platform to sit stuff on to keep it off the concrete expanded into this 6.5'x2.5'x4' beast made from three 4'x8' sheets of Home Depot siding, a sheet of exterior plywood, a few pressure treated 2x4's, some standard 2x3's and some facia trim. I had a gallon of Kilz primer and an 5 gallon bucket of paint that been sitting in the shed for a number of years which was still decent so I had it shaken up at HD. Total cost was about $150. It ain't pretty (or plumb, square and level) but it works.

As for what is on my bench for this weekend....nothing now. Tami and I are getting away for a few days up to Mammoth, CA in the Sierra-Nevada mountains to spend some R&R time hiking some trails and shooting some photos of fall colors nad just plain relaxing. We got a condo for the week so we will have it for 4 days and my son and daughter-in-law will have it the other 3 days. According to the weather report for the next week it should be pretty much clear with no rain/snow in the forecast with temps down in the 30's at night and up into the mid 60's to mid 70's during the day. It will be nice to wear long pants and long sleeves again since we have had such a hot summer here. 

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Allen Worsham
Corona, CA

allenworsham@earthlink.net

'Graze in every man's field, but always give your own milk' J. Vernon McGee

Well Hi Susie, glad you are here. The bees wax & mineral oil finish is a bit dull for my liking at this point, but i prefer it over the mineral oil and paste wax just in case someone decides to put cookies on it or whatever. i doubt an adult would but you never know about kids

Oh a bit of history on this too. I forget who it was now but someone here was having a wood sale as a test, and had it going at a really good price. I bought like 15 pieces of it, and it starts out at 6x6x1". It all has spalting to some degree, so it looks great. I'm a bit confused on this one though. To the right center of the bowl/plate, is a reddish orange streak. At the very edge of the dish on that side, is a orange red dot, I wonder how it got there. Makes it more colorful though.

SQ said:

Charles,

Very nice!  Love the wood.  How do you like the mineral oil and beeswax - which is my favorite finish?

SQ

Charles Nicholls said:

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Happiness is wood chips flying!

John & Gene,

With our version of " This Old House " fitting drywall is an adventure. Try to get a level line and work from there.

As to the plumbing, and electrical. I redid all of it about seven years ago. The water supply lines are sweat copper, drains PVC. 

The electric is all ran in conduit. I used a 200 Amp Main-Panel, with three 100 Amp  Sub-Panels spread throughout the house.

Glad we did it back then, the price of copper skyrocketed shortly after we did it.

Passed both first inspection.

The Building Inspector only had one question.

" Do you know the meaning of the word Overkill ? "

Larry

Overkill?? What's That? LOL

Larry Buskirk said:

John & Gene,

With our version of " This Old House " fitting drywall is an adventure. Try to get a level line and work from there.

As to the plumbing, and electrical. I redid all of it about seven years ago. The water supply lines are sweat copper, drains PVC. 

The electric is all ran in conduit. I used a 200 Amp Main-Panel, with three 100 Amp  Sub-Panels spread throughout the house.

Glad we did it back then, the price of copper skyrocketed shortly after we did it.

Passed both first inspection.

The Building Inspector only had one question.

" Do you know the meaning of the word Overkill ? "

Larry

Hey Larry, Want to come to Indiana and help re-do my Plumbing and wiring. I don't know who did it befor I moved in. One thing for sure they had no I deal what the where doing.

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http://www.prchestnut.webs.com/

Gene I will be happy to on my next one , or at lest try to do a blog from start to finish. feel free to jump in and ask any questions. If it's ok I'll even post a few links that show how to get you VSL. That the length from the nut to the bridge, a very import thing to know.

Gene Howe said:

Very nice, Phil. 

Please share your techniques. Looks interesting.

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

Thanks Phil. I'm very interested in your inlay techniques. 

Charles, every try Behlen's salad bowl finish. It's food safe. I used it on a couple router bowls. It's OK, I guess but, it doesn't deepen the colors at all. At any rate, I like the mellow tones you got with the bees wax and mineral oil. 

SQ, Those are going to be some pretty fine trivets. Be sure and let us see the finished ones. 

Larry, I feel your pain re: unsquare walls. In another life, I worked for a contractor who wouldn't hire any framing subs that didn't hang dry wall as well. They usually took care to square up their walls. 

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

Phil,

We gutted the house prior to redoing both plumbing and electric. The whole works was a messterpiece.  The wiring was old BX that was spliced using cloth friction tape, and was not done in junction boxes. There were areas that looked like an octopus.

The plumbing was a mix of whatever pipe they had on hand, there was even some black pipe in the mix.

Where I live the homeowner can do their own plumbing and electric. It has to pass inspection. Most times the homeowner has to take and pass a test before being allowed to perform the work. I didn't have to due to having worked as an electronics technician, and at the time was going through an apprenticeship for pipefitting. The building inspector asked me a few basic questions about both, and determined that I would not need to take the tests.

I was rather surprised when he passed both on the first inspection. I had both roughed in at the same time. He had been by the house before we started, and knew what I was starting with. I have a friend that was having a new house built at the time, same building inspector. His failed the electric inspection three times, plumbing once. He asked me who I had do the work, and about fell over when I told him I did the work. He had contractors doing his house.

It made me feel pretty good when Joe the inspector told me you do nice work, and that he normally doesn't pass work on the first inspection. The only thing he could find that I did wrong was having put the bonding screws for the neutral line in the sub-panels (just a matter of removing them which I did while he was there) and he wanted another mounting bracket put on the supply mast.

Believe me I thought he was going to fail my work, the way he was checking everything.

The drain lines have to pass a pressure test which they did without a problem.  Joe was rather surprised that I had tied all the vents to a single vent stack, and even pulled out the code book to verify some of my work. He liked the way I ran the supply lines all in copper. He said nice clean job. 

 

So, maybe when I get done with my HDL, that is about the size of a set of encyclopedias.

 

Larry

Phil Chestnut said:

Hey Larry, Want to come to Indiana and help re-do my Plumbing and wiring. I don't know who did it befor I moved in. One thing for sure they had no I deal what the where doing.

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http://www.prchestnut.webs.com/

Hi Gene, no I haven't tried that yet but I have tried several others including tongue oil. No matter though. The bowl that I was working on fell to the floor and broke as I was trying to turn it around to get the waste block off. So basically I just worked 2 days for nothing.

Ok, after my initial anger was gone over this thing breaking a huge chunk when it fell off the lathe, I decided I'd re chuck it and make the best of a bad thing. I got it shaved down andf looking great and decided i would again try turning it around to get the waste block off and finish off the back. I got it turned around and got half way through getting the waste block off, it catches on the tool and slams into the tool rest pops in the air and hits the lathe and breaks again. I get the hint. I'm not working on anything else this weekend. I'm done!

 

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nichollswoodworks

My goodness, Charles. What a bummer! It was a very nice looking piece, too. I'll bet the air was quite blue for a while.

Here is a pic of some candy dishes finished with 3 coats of Behlens. They are red oak and walnut. Not the greatest photography. But, I think you can see that the finish didn't alter the wood tones at all. I guess one could stain before sealing with the Behlens.

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

Gene,

Those are some very fine candy dishes!   Yes, I will try and post the trivets before I mail them off.  

SQ

Gene Howe said:

My goodness, Charles. What a bummer! It was a very nice looking piece, too. I'll bet the air was quite blue for a while.

Here is a pic of some candy dishes finished with 3 coats of Behlens. They are red oak and walnut. Not the greatest photography. But, I think you can see that the finish didn't alter the wood tones at all. I guess one could stain before sealing with the Behlens.

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

Sorry about your bowl Charles.  I know how disappointing it can be to add to the reject pile.  

I have also tried tung oil in the past, but never successfully achieved the finish I was looking for.  I sand my bowls through 600 grit and find the usp grade mineral oil and beewax leaves a beautiful sheen that lasts a very, very long time. I've found that if the product isn't sanded enough, it doesn't produce the sheen.  

SQ

Charles Nicholls said:

Hi Gene, no I haven't tried that yet but I have tried several others including tongue oil. No matter though. The bowl that I was working on fell to the floor and broke as I was trying to turn it around to get the waste block off. So basically I just worked 2 days for nothing.

Ok, after my initial anger was gone over this thing breaking a huge chunk when it fell off the lathe, I decided I'd re chuck it and make the best of a bad thing. I got it shaved down andf looking great and decided i would again try turning it around to get the waste block off and finish off the back. I got it turned around and got half way through getting the waste block off, it catches on the tool and slams into the tool rest pops in the air and hits the lathe and breaks again. I get the hint. I'm not working on anything else this weekend. I'm done!

 

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nichollswoodworks

Thanks SQ! 

Looking forward to seeing more of your work. 

SQ said:

Gene,

Those are some very fine candy dishes!   Yes, I will try and post the trivets before I mail them off.  

SQ

Gene Howe said:

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Happiness is wood chips flying!

Thanks all, I was pretty frustrated last night, especially when it happens TWICE on the same piece.

On the finish, i always sand to 600 also and usually use EEE Ultra shine to bring it down even further, but with the beeswax and MO I still never get the results I want. Am I maybe not putting enough coats on? How many coats do you use? I usually try to apply 3 coats

SQ said:

Sorry about your bowl Charles.  I know how disappointing it can be to add to the reject pile.  

I have also tried tung oil in the past, but never successfully achieved the finish I was looking for.  I sand my bowls through 600 grit and find the usp grade mineral oil and beewax leaves a beautiful sheen that lasts a very, very long time. I've found that if the product isn't sanded enough, it doesn't produce the sheen.  

SQ

Charles Nicholls said:

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Happiness is wood chips flying!

yea Gene I think you could stain it if you wanted to. Those look cool actually the way they are. The sunlight makes it a bit hard to see the finish but yea I can still see enough to peak the interest. How many coats do you use? I use 3 with the tung oil and still never get a sheen out of it.

Gene Howe said:

Thanks SQ! 

Looking forward to seeing more of your work. 

SQ said:

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Happiness is wood chips flying!

Charles, I used 3 coats on the dishes. It builds surprisingly fast after the first coat dries. 

As a longtime user of Danish oils, specifically WATCO, I'm used to and really like the way it changes the wood tones. But, for something to hold edibles, I chose Behlens because it can be wiped on and it is food safe. Dries pretty fast, too. 

For projects other than those that need to be food safe, I'll stick with my tried and true oil finishes. 

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

Right, well one thing I don't really have is a good buffer. I have 2" buffing wheels which of course is better than nothing at all so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. thanks everyone for the suggestions. I guess Behlens is another I'll want to try. I think though that I may try the tongue oil on this bowl I am working on now if I can get it balanced out enough to turn it.

Gene Howe said:

Charles, I used 3 coats on the dishes. It builds surprisingly fast after the first coat dries. 

As a longtime user of Danish oils, specifically WATCO, I'm used to and really like the way it changes the wood tones. But, for something to hold edibles, I chose Behlens because it can be wiped on and it is food safe. Dries pretty fast, too. 

For projects other than those that need to be food safe, I'll stick with my tried and true oil finishes. 

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton