Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Story of My Desk

jlongster.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 106 posts

Re: The Story of My Desk

#71

Post by pndmnm »

hindsightbias wrote: post #40
tjic wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Greene and Greene? My favorite style, bar none! You'll find these two books quite useful. http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-Peart/e/B001JS36Q2/ref=ntt_ath... > Do you have more information on techniques to avoid cracks? 1) alternate the growth rings of the flat table pieces: one cupping up, next down, next up, etc. 2) keep breadboard ends in line with the plane of the tabletop by using splines 3) pin or glue the breadboa…

Darrell has classes: http://furnituremaker.com/Greene_and_Greene_class.htm

Oh man, I can't believe the school (I grew up in Port Townsend) both offered a Joint Stool From A Tree course earlier this year and didn't get enough signups for it: http://www.ptwoodschool.com/joint_stool_from_a_tree.html

I would absolutely love to do that. The book is a great read -- the basic premise is that you can build furniture from green wood in such a way that the drying of the wood will lock your joints and strengthen the stool: http://www.lostartpress.com/Make_a_Joint_Stool_from_a_Tree_p...

Re: The Story of My Desk

#72

Post by doorhammer »

jlongster wrote: post #5
tjic wrote: post #2

It's always great to see people jump into doing something new with their hands. That said, I predict cracks and early failure for the top. The author created something called "breadboard ends" (the left and the right side of the top writing surface have boards that run 90 degrees to the main boards of the top). Breadboard ends are a great technique - they keep the natural tendency of the left-to-right boards to cup (…

Yeah, I didn't think about that. There was so much research to do and eventually I just built the thing knowing I probably made mistakes. Thanks for the feedback; I didn't know it was called breadboard ends, and now I can research how to properly do that. If this ends up cracking in a few years, I'll just build another one!

This is how I end up doing a lot of programming. I'll start learning a new library, concept, or approach and I'll be reading and reading, then eventually I say "man, I could read all day, but I just want to bounce my brain off some code"

Course; probably a little more expensive to do that with woodworking :)

Re: The Story of My Desk

#74

Post by dfc »

tjic wrote: post #2

It's always great to see people jump into doing something new with their hands. That said, I predict cracks and early failure for the top. The author created something called "breadboard ends" (the left and the right side of the top writing surface have boards that run 90 degrees to the main boards of the top). Breadboard ends are a great technique - they keep the natural tendency of the left-to-right boards to cup (…

"Sometimes trades do have semi-secret techniques evolved from dealing with the same damned issues over and over and over again."

Where "the trades" means any and all activities, not just blue collar occupations. I'd estimate that atleast one quarter of the stories on HN are about "semi-secret tech secrets," eg "How I do X with vim/rails/AWS/ubuntu." That being said dealing with the expansion and contraction of wood is hardly a semi-secret of joinery. Expansion and contraction of wood is a fundamental concept in joinery and cabinetmaking. Any decent introduction to joinery/cabinetmaking book will discuss this basic property of wood as early as possible.

A good mental model for water and wood is inserting and removing a bunch of marbles into the business end of a broom. The broom will not get longer as marbles are inserted, but it will get wider/fatter as the marbles take up space in between the straws of the broom.

It is also worth pointing out that when you arrange the boards the end-grain should create a "wavy pattern" in order to mitigate cupping; one board will cup up and the next will cup down. My ascii art is failing me but here is a best effort:

  Good: |\\\///| |///\\\| |\\\///|

  Bad:  |\\\///| |\\\///| |\\\///|

Re: The Story of My Desk

#75

Post by dfc »

sliverstorm wrote: post #68
shoover wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are so used to tailoring one-off solutions in software that we can't imagine just taking some boring old woodworking plan and using it as is to quickly gain experience and produce a solid first result without R&D headaches. But in woodworking you really can just take someone else's design and build it. Most likely the designer already made all the mistakes before, so the thing will just work. You'll learn the tech…

Where can I get plans?

Try Popular Woodworking. They have some of the most accessible projects. For a really interesting/exciting small publishing company take a look at Lost Art Press. LAP is sort of the Pragmatic Programmers of the joinery world.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#76

Post by dfc »

ejs wrote: post #45
swalsh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been thinking about making a kind of greene and greene inspired side table for my front entry... of course arts and crafts styles in general have a lot of the breadboard ends. Do you have more information on techniques to avoid cracks?

I enjoy arts and crafts style furniture, I only consider true breadboard ends if they are mortise and tenon jointed on. When doing this you can design for the movement of the wood. Also quartersawn white oak is most used, a wood that does not have as much expansion going on. This is how I did it for my A&C style coffee table: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejschmitt/9053576208/in/set-721... Final shot of the coffee tab…

Quartersawn oak is one of the most used woods in A&C furniture. Quartersawing any wood is the best way to produce dimensionally stable stuff (I love that stuff is actually joinery jargon albeit somewhat archaic).

Re: The Story of My Desk

#77

Post by dfc »

calebrichardson wrote: post #50
changdizzle wrote: post #15

This is so awesome and inspiring - I had somewhat of an epiphany a few weeks ago (essentially I felt like I wasn't handy AT ALL) and decided to take a basic woodworking class at TechShop SF this past weekend ( http://www.techshop.ws/take_classes.html?storeId=4&categoryI... ) I was a bit overwhelmed when we dived right in as I had absolutely ZERO experience before, but it was easier than I thought, especially when I g…

I build solid wood furniture at Tech Shop SF occasionally. It can be tough in a shared space, and their wood shop is really lacking in some ways, but I think that it is worth it. Check out thewoodwhisperer.com. This guy's videos are invaluable and great for beginners. Also, don't buy cheap tools. Just about everyone has to learn this the hard way (myself included), but there is a reason this advice is parroted so oft…

There is something about the wood whisperer videos that has a tendency to annoy/irritate me, but they are definitely informative. For another option try askwoodman:

https://www.youtube.com/user/askwoodman

Re: The Story of My Desk

#78

Post by dfc »

pndmnm wrote: post #71
hindsightbias wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Darrell has classes: http://furnituremaker.com/Greene_and_Greene_class.htm

Oh man, I can't believe the school (I grew up in Port Townsend) both offered a Joint Stool From A Tree course earlier this year and didn't get enough signups for it: http://www.ptwoodschool.com/joint_stool_from_a_tree.html I would absolutely love to do that. The book is a great read -- the basic premise is that you can build furniture from green wood in such a way that the drying of the wood will lock your joints and…

The strength of green wood furniture also comes from the fact that the wood grain is left intact because it is split along the grain. Peter Follansbee is awesome, he was on the two most recent Woodwright episodes.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#79

Post by dfc »

there's no replacement for a joiner and planer

Yes there is. They are affectionately known as the #4 and #7 (or #8) and Stanley made a fortune selling them since the late 1800s.

Re: The Story of My Desk

#80

Post by mtdewcmu »

I think maybe part of the long difficulty in getting satisfaction was thinking desk when you wanted table. It could be that modern work habits have all but obsoleted the desk, but our consciousness hasn't quite caught up.
Post reply on HN