A Lump of Wood

Ive enjoyed woodworking ever since I had a class in it during early high school (about thirty years ago).
Ive built a few pieces of furniture at various times, mostly of moderate quality but getting better each time I do it :)

Years ago, before I went off riding my motorbike, I came across a really nice big slab of exotic lumber at a wood retail store near wher I lived in Vancouver. It was a really really nice piece of "figured" Bubinga (I dont know, its exotic hardwood!)... It was about four meters long by one meter wide and 5cm thick... and it "weighed a ton"... Like I said, it was really nice and just perfect for a "feature" table top (though the dimensions were a bit hard to work with in order to keep it as a single piece) and in fact I didnt even own a house to put it in at that stage, let alone any woodworking tools... Anyway , it had a price tag of some $4000 which was a lot more than Id ever considered spending on a chunk of wood before!
... So, I didnt buy it but I looked at it each time I went to the wood shop to get some other item and I thought about it every time... Id love to work on a table project like that.
Many months passed... actually I think it was a year or two!, and then one day when I went in, it was gone!... I asked at the counter as to who had bought it and they told me that it was a group of local artists... sculptors, and apparently it was destined to be cut up into small pieces and carved into sculptures...
Now it was clearly going to make the sculptors happy, and no doubt they made some beatiful pieces with it, but to me, it was a bit of a tragedy!... A single piece of wood of that size and with that "figuring" is just begging to be made into a table... To me it seems like the size of the piece is half of the beauty and it seems like a waste to cut it up into smaller pieces...
But it was gone, and I hope it made the buyers happy.
However, it was only after hearing about what was to become of it that I felt regret ... Regret for not having pursued a dream even though it was only a small one... And ever since then, whenever Ive gone into that shop or whenever I see a nice "feature" table made from a slab of beatiful wood, I feel regret...

And again, years passed!


And then, a few months ago, after I got back from my "long ride", when I went in to the wood shop to get some mahogany veneer for my model boat,... And there it was again... the same slab of wood!

Well, actually it turns out that its not the exact same slab of wood but in fact another slab of wood from the same tree... Its pretty much the same dimensions as the original one, but this one is not as good as the first one because it is a slice more from the side of the tree trunk than from the center...But the price is somewhat lower too..


Hmmm
...But I have no place to work on a piece of wood that size!... I cant even move the thing without three other very strong people to help me!... I dont have any tools to be able to machine a pice of wood this big!... I have no clue about how I would work on it!... I dont even have my house back from the tenant yet!... And it still costs a rediculous amount of money!...
So I walked away again... but the urge was still there and is still strong...
But I was left feeling that same "regret" again...

Another couple of months pass and I go and have another couple of looks at the "lump of wood"... and my little "engineers mind" (emphasis on the little! :)  ) is occasionally tinkering away with ideas of how I would go about solving the problems of working the wood.... you know, just in case... :)
And another couple of months pass and now its Christmas and the wood shop has things on sale ... And the lump of wood is a few hundred dollars cheaper... so I go have a chat with the staff about it...but Im still not making any commitments.
Its just a chat, but it keeps me thinking about it...

More time passes... and my thinking on the subject continues in its sporadic fashion...
But after a while I come to a a kind of closure on my thinking...
And know what?   In the ballance of my emotions, it goes like this...

Yes, its a stupid thing to spend money on... Money that I dont really have and cant really afford.
Its just a lump of wood, that doesnt really matter or make a difefrence to anyone.
Sure its a project that I dont have the space, skills, or equipent to execute well.
And it'll just be a table that will likely only ever be seen or enjoyed by a handfull of people on a handfull of occasions.
Its just another project in a long line of projects that are really all just ways of me spending my time while I wonder what I should really be doing with my life...

But theres a bunch of little "sayings" that come into my head:
   "Life is what happens while you are making other plans"
   "We are not put into this world just to work... We are put into this world to live our dreams..."
   "If you dont go when you want to go then by the time you do go you may find you've gone!"
   " Id rather regret the things I have done than the things I havnt done"

... and in the end, I kinda feel that Im "done with" regretting that prior decission! Ive got another chance this time and Ive decided Im going to act on it...  Damn the torepedoes!!as they say...

So, I may yet regret doing it, but I will no longer regret not doing it!
... and with that, I went down to that shop and paid them a very large sum of money for a very large chunk of wood !   :)))



Now for some more details about the "block of wood"

Well, like I said its about four meters long, one meter wide and 5cm thick... Its really dense wood and Im pretty sure it would sink (or barely float) in water so based on that, Id say it weighs about 200Kg!
Its from a Bubinga tree (also called African Rosewood) which I looked up on the internet, and they come from "Tropical West Africa". The "figure" I refered to is a carpentry term and does not refer to the shape of the block of wood, but rather the patterns and striations in the grain of the wood... I took a picture of it but the lighting was very bad and the picture is very washed out... The board is coverd with swirling grain patterns that look really nice, and should look amazing once it is planed and finished. The wood colour will be a rich orange brown once sealed :)


And Ive been thinking about what sort of table to make from it too... Ive done a few sketches and it at this stage there are two options.
The first is to cut the slab into a 2/3 and 1/3 length sections and then slice the 1/3 section longitudinaly. The two small pieces then get glued along the sides of the big piece so that an eliptical table top of about 1.2m x 2m size can be cut... but this wastes a fair bit of the wood.
The second option is to leave it much more "as it is" and make a long thin rectangular "banquet style" table... say 3m x 0.8m.  Its a bit unusual as a dining table but it can work :)

The elipse seats six and the thin rectangle seats eight.... not that I have that many friends... or even really know how to cook for that matter, but there is always hope that I may eventually find someone else to share my life with who has some other friends and knows how to cook too!  ;)

Anyway, at this stage Im leaning toward the "banquet table"... maybe just because I like the emotional and mental immagery evoked by the word banquet :)))

Ive also done some sketches and I think I like the simple "trestle" type legs I could make for the rectangular table... just a few curves in the profile of the legs to "spice it up" a little :)
 

... But, I wont know what Im really going to do with it till Ive got the wood home and had a good long look and measure of it all... You see, the slab of wood has a significant challenge ... other than its sheer size... Its got quite a bit of "crowning" at the narrow end of the slab. That means that the plank is "bowed" and the mid-line of the plank is higher than the edges (as if the edges have "sagged" down).
This "crowning" is too pronounced to simply machine off because at the worst point (at the narrow end) it looks like its about half the thicknes of the slab!
... Hence the idea for the eliptical table of cutting off the narrow end third and using it as sides... that way I cut it in half and the crowning effect is reduced by half...


... But perhaps a bit of an explanation of why its "crowned" wouldnt hurt...

The best wood  for furniture making is taken from right across the centre line of the tree log. Its called "quarter cut" and it means that the grain of the wood is "ballanced" and runs through the wood at right angles to the width of the slab. Slabs cut from any other place in the tree trunk are inherently "unballanced" and you can see it if you look at the end section of the slab... you will see the curve of the tree rings in the wood grain.

And this "unballanced" issue is not at all just an asthetic issue, it is a very important quality that is critical for making furniture... You see, wood is not an inert stable material. It is pourous and organic and it responds to its environment and changes continually. What this means is that it is always expanding and contracting slightly as temperature and humidity change around it. Now these dimensional changes are usually very small and unnoticable. And solid wood furniture is usually constructed in a way that these changes do not effect things much... This is done by using smaller pieces of wood in combinations that counteract the dimension changes... A good example is ply wood which is a sandwich of several layers of wood with the grain running in different directions... Plywood stays pretty much flat and square regardless of its environment because the different pieces of wood all want to warp and streach and twist in different directions and it all kind of ballances out as internal stresses in teh pannel...

But, when you want to use a single very large piece of solid wood, its gonna warp and twist and stretch and bow and split as the season change... and this is a problem...

Everyone hates a table that wobbles because floor is uneaven, but a table that wobbles even though the floor is dead flat, just because its that time of the year is a real pain.

Back to this particular slab of wood...

Its VERY big which means the dimensional and allignment changes will be quite large. It also means that it will be impossible to physically stop the warping with other elements of the table design (since this piece is so large it will simply over-power any smaller braces etc).

And becase its not "quarter cut", it will develop a bow... and in fact it already has (it is after all, quite a few years old) and it has a substantial "crowning" at one end .

The good news however is that while its not "quarter cut", it is the full width of the log and the bowing is reasonably symetrical from one side to the other. But its significantly more pronounced at the narrow end than at the broad end (because the narrow end was less central in the tree trunk).

...work in progress...

Projects a Plenty

Well, its been quite a while between posts again , and as usual Ive been keeping myself quite busy :)

Apart from filling my working days as an electrical engineer (to earn some money to pay for all my distracting projects!), I seem to have about half a dozen projects on the go...

The major project is renovating my house. This started with fixing up the basement after I had a "bad" tenant, but I completed that work well over a month ago now. But I had planned to do some other work on the house while I was away traveling (you know, lots of time while riding the bike spent thinking about all sorts of stuff... including some house renos!). So, Ive also had all the old single pane windows replaced with nice new double glazing, and Ive installed two out of three new double glass doors to replace the worn out old single pane glass sliding doors. And Ive removed most of one wall between the kitchen and the dining room to get more of an "open plan" layout... And the big job, which is still underway, has been to replace the old tile and carpet floor coverings with hardwood.

Having spent the better part of a month on this last big job, it is now about three quarters done. Its slow work because I only get to work on it about three hours a day. After I finish the days work as an engineer, I ride over to my place and spend the next three hours renovating, and then after that, I ride home (at a friends house about 40 minutes ride away), grab a bite to eat, have a shower and then the day is done... I get more work done on the weekends of course but its still nothing like working on it full time.
Its not too hard to stapple down the hardwood, but there is a huge amount of work involved in preparation... taking out baseboards, ripping up carpet, pulling out thousands of staples, jack hammering out the old tile floors and ripping out the old ply sub-floor...  and then leveling/preparing the main sub-floor before the stappling starts... but its nearly done now, so here are a couple of pics of "work in progress"...

And of course, Ive also been "tinkering" away at the motorbike project about one evening a week. The latest task was to remove, sand-blast, and repaint the engine side covers... They were all scuffed up and looked quite bad, so Ive now repainted them. Yesterday I reinstalled them on the bike, and Im quite pleased with the results :) 
I also changed the front sprocket over to be a 14 tooth instead of 15 tooth unit (It will reduce the top speed but will make stop-and-go city riding more pleasant and easier on the clutch). I also removed one of the front fork legs and replaced the oil seals (it was weeping suspension oil) as well as changing the engine oil filter and replacing all the oil and coolant... and bolting all the plastic pannels back on again... Busy day!
I think the weather around here is pleasant enough now, so Im going to re-register the bike this week and start riding it for the summer :)))

But, Ive also had another little side project running for a few months that is nearing completion too...
Ive been building RC model boats and planes for decades now, and I never seem to get tired of doing it. I get a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction from working on them and it doesnt take up too much space (I spent years living in one room basement suites!), though at times it does make lots of dust... Anyway, the latest project was started soon after I got back from my long motorbike trip, but it was while the tenant was in my house and so I couldnt work on renos...
And the project is a 75cm x 30cm scale model race boat... A 1960 prop driven "three point" hydroplane. The model is fully built and Ive been doing the painting and detailing... Just need to install the driveshaft, prop and rudder and then make a stand for it now.

... but Ive also found the time to look for some plans for future model projects too :)...

Though I think these will wait a while... like till after Ive done with the house renovations perhaps!   :)



... But there's also another, bigger project "on my radar" so to speak...

Bike Project Done

 

The bike as it currently is.

OK, I got the bike all back together and then I got the engine fired up (after having had to buy a battery charger and crank the engine over a few hundred times). And then I got the chain on and bled the rear brakes...

... and then I went for a short ride around the block :)))  (and discoverd that id put the gear linkage on slightly wrong and that the gears were consequently "upside down"!)

But, there it is, the bike is "built and ready to be registered in a couple of weeks.

There are still lots and lots of "clean up" jobs to do to make it all "pretty", but they can be done slowly over the summer.  For now, I need to get back to house renovations cos Ive got a hardwood floor to install and another bathroom to do a bit of a renovation on. :)

Bike Progress

The bike is nearly back together again after lots of not getting much of my attention for a couple of months ... I was working on renovating my basement after it was left in rather bad condition by the previous tenant.

Housework aside, here are a few update pictures...

The new mufflers in the back of the bike but with the "undertail" plastic fender removed...

But with the exhaust pipe so close to the plastic body panels and with no air flow in there to keep it cool, Im worriedt that it will melt the pannels... So, I decided to wrap the pipe in some insulating webbing...

So, I then had to make a new substitute "undertail" out of a couple of pieces of aluminium... and it seems to work pretty well after a couple hours of cutting and bending and drilling and filing :)

And now I can put the rear set of body work panels back on and then work on the front end... Side note, Im really having a hard time figuring out which screws and bolts and nuts and bushings etc. go where in this reassembly process because its been a couple of months since I did any work at all on the bike.

Exhausting Work

I know, its been really quiet on my blog for a while now...

But truth be told, Ive not been doing much of interest... Just going to work and doing the hum-drum 9-5 thing that most of us get by with for the better part of our lives :)

And its been too dark, cold and rainy when I get home after work to be able to do any work on the bike project... I cant even work on the painting of body pannels (too cold outside and too many toxic fumes to work inside).

But, I did manage to hunt around and find an exhaust system solution that I liked...

First off, I found a couple of cylindrical carbon-fibre mufflers at a motorbike wreckers that I really liked the look of.

They were too long but I figured with some cutting, I could get them to fit up under the tail section of the bike... So, I bought them and then got them "cut down" to a size I liked (who knows what they will sound like now?).

The next (and more challenging) problem is the exhaust pipe routing to connect them to the engine!

This was going to take two different sizes of stainles steel pipe and all sorts of precission cuts/bends/welds...

So, first off I decided that I should "model" the pipe I needed in plastic before trying to get it made in steel.

So I bought some cheap plastic plumbing pipe and some bends. I then spent an afternoon on a weekend cutting up the plastic and fitting it in under the bike and taping the mufflers and pipes into position. I got it pretty close... To the point where I was sure it would all work :)

Next problem was to get the steel pipe to use for the real version.

It turns out that thin-wall stainles steel pipe is very hard to find... In fact there is basically none of it available in Vancouver (a city of more than three million people)... I did find some pipe at a couple of auto-exhaust places but it was very thick-walled and heavy... Not what I wanted to use.

After lots more seeking and not finding, I had to resort to mail ordering some sections and then waiting for it to arrive.

It eventually did arive, and so I then called my mechanic/machinist friend Mark and the bike and the bits were collected and taken out to his workshop where hes gonna cut and fit and weld it all together for me.

It is however holiday season here, and it'll take a while before its all done... which is just fine with me since I cant do anything without a workshop in this weather anyway ... Its an over-winter project and Im happy for it to progress at its own rate :)

And thats where things stand at present.

Here are a couple of pictures of how the new exhaust is going and I think its gonna look really good when its done...

Cant wait till Spring  :))

Rear view of the proposed exhaust location

Side view of the proposed exhaust location...

And after more than a month of other activities, I have the bike back and the exhaust system is installed as expected. Mark did a great job of mounting the exhausts, pollishing the header pipes and also making a nice number plate mount with light for beneath the mufflers :))

Bike Update Number 2

OK, the swing arm came back and it all fits and works like it should   :)

But just for fun, lets review that swing-arm plan...
My initial plan was a simple "cut and weld". The picture below was what the swing-arm looked like before the cutting and welding:

And here is what I "imagined" it might look like when done...

But, after consulting with and letting the mechanic/welder guy "do his thing", this is what it actually looks like...

 

So, it looks a bit different yes, but Its definitely stronger (due to that welded-in spacer tube) and just as functional. The only down side is that I need to remove the exhaust system if I want to take the swing-arm off again... Thats no big deal though because I shouldnt ever need to do that :)

And Im also very happy about the welding quality which is good because there is significantly more welding in the job than I had planned... We effectively extended the swing-arm by about 25mm by adding in pieces of aluminum plate, in order to make the suspension linkage work properly.

 

So, the swing-arm welding work is done now and all I have to do to it is get the plastic bits for the chain guard etc. back on and aligned with the new chain position. It isnt completely straight forward but it should be no real problem.

Ive also been patching and sanding the plastic body pannels for the bike and they are just about ready for the colour coat. I temporarily put them back on the bike today just to see how it would look when Im done :)
So, here is what the bike looks like now...

Im really liking the look of that new swing-arm!
But to keep it looking good Im going to have to solve the next big challenge which is the exhaust... The standard exhaust system works just fine of course but it hangs along the side of the bike at the back and pretty much obscures that nice new rear section of the bike!

So I will need a custom system, either with the muffler mounted centraly up under the tail section or a very small muffler mounted right down near the foot peg.
But custom exhaust systems are pretty expensive and I cant afford to buy one new, so Im gonna have to hunt around for a used one that I like the look of and think that I can "make work" for this bike...
Lets see what I can come up with ...

... stay tuned for the next update :)))

Bike Project Progress

After I took the back-end of the bike appart and measured as best I could, it was time to get the cutting and welding done.
So, I took the parts out to Mark's place and, after having a long chat about the "possibilities and problems", I left them there and went back to doing "other things" for a week or two.
And then Mark gave me a call one evening and said "Its done"... Well, I was actually not expecting that, because when Id left it with him, as I understood it, he was going to do the cutting, but then just "tack" weld the parts back together so that I could do a trial "fitting" onto the bike to see that everything was where I wanted it...
But, "done" it was!
So, I went and picked up the modified swing-arm and set about fitting it onto the bike.

And indeed it basically fits and looks like I want it to :)

The bike doesnt have its "body pannels" on but you get the idea :)

 

But then I had to try to connect up the suspension linkage which is where I was expecting to have difficulties... And indeed, there were difficulties... The rear shock absorber would not connect to the linkage - It was obstructed because it was contacting the "throat" of the swing-arm yoke!

It was not possible to do accurate measurements of this area till I got the new swing-arm into place, so Im not surprised that my "rough" measurements were off... And as it turns out, I was "off" by about 15mm! (Thats quite a lot)

But, that wasnt the only problem...

After setting things up carefully it appeared that the rear wheel was "off-centre"!

Now, Id been quite carefull to try to get this right so I was surprised to see this. It seems that the swing-arm from the Honda is mounted off-centre in the original bike frame, because thats the only way this could have happened... And, Ive not had the opportunity to measure the Honda bike frame!

 Note that the rear wheel is about 1cm to the left of centre!

So, Having looked at it all again, and measured things all again, it seems to me that the best solution is to re-cut the swing arm and put some spacer sections in to solve the shock absorber problem, and move the wheel back to the right too. Thats unfortunate because that means it will be expensive (This is why I wanted it just "tack" welded for the trial fitting!)... Bummer  :(

So, I gave the bike and the swing-arm back to Mark, and he'll call me again when its done.

In the mean time, Ill go back to doing "other stuff" while I wait.

And this weekend, that included being "Best Man" at my very good friend Rick's wedding with Jen :)