Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with wood

Can you identify this object?

shannonm — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:57:30 -0800

I found this object in a thrift shop. It is solid wood, 12 inches tall, and weighs 1.5 pounds. front | back A google search for "carved wood fist" produced similar items, many reminiscent of the "raised fist" imagery used for a multitude of causes. However, nothing that I found had the thumb protruding through the pointer and middle fingers. Does anyone recognize this object?

Removing old dried stickers from wood, what works best?

1001 questions — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:35:23 -0800

Removing old dried stickers from wood, what works best? I have some drawers with many old stickers on the front of them. Each sticker is 1"x1.5". For many of them I can start picking from the edge/corner and carefully peel off at least 60% of the sticker. But that still leaves me with a lot of sticker material left on the wood (not residue, actual sticker).

These stickers could be decades old. They're dry and somewhat brittle. I've used things like Goo Gone, lighter fluid, etc. to remove stickers/residue from books and CDs before, but those don't seem applicable in this case. I'm not trying to clean residue. And soaking the leftover sticker parts makes it no easier to peel/rub off.

What should I be using?

Can I fix a warped plywood door?

Izzy — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:45:32 -0800

How to straigten a warped plywood door? Our contractor fabricated a wooden bypassing sliding door to replace a rotting garage door. It's marine-grade plywood with cedar lap-joint siding glued and screwed to the street-facing side. Looks great, but one side of one of the doors is warping badly, I'd say about two inches. This affects the functionality of the door, making it difficult to slide the door open and shut.

Is it possible to remove the warp in the door permanently? When I see how other barn-type doors are constructed I always see a combination of wood and bolted-through metal braces -- yeah, that's how it should have been engineered to start with, but of course I didn't know that when we started.

If I added braces now, could I slowly remove the warp by gradually tightening the bolt (or would the wood split)? Or, would I be better off removing the door, applying damp cloths to both sides of the bend, lay it on a flat surface, and place sandbags on the bowed side?

Help me find a wooden engagement ring in the UK

Nufkin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:41:24 -0800

Recommend me a preferably UK-based wooden engagement ring seller. From this question a while back, I have fallen in love with the wooden rings from this seller however, I am worried about ordering them from a seller in another country – different ring size systems – and without knowing anyone who has had any experience of them.

So, firstly I was wondering if anyone knows of anyone UK based that is selling similar work – my Google-fu is only strong enough to bring up very bad sites.

Or, secondly, if someone could recommend someone on personal experience.

Additional information if needed:

I would need two, not necessarily matching, rings for a same-sex (male) engagement. We are both UK size R. The ultimate idea is to have these as engagement rings then ‘upgrade’ to a metal ring for the civil partnership as a metaphor for our relationship becoming stronger.

Stain over varnish?

hulahulagirl — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:59:12 -0800

How can I easily darken already varnished wood? My family is taking over an existing restaurant and re-opening it as a different restaurant. We have a limited budget for up-front renovations and the restaurant has wood paneling on the inside. Not the cheesy kind, but real wood boards laid on the diagonal on the wall (tongue and groove, pine maybe).

We can only close the restaurant for 3 days to complete renovations, so tearing the paneling completely off is not an option since we have other projects to tackle during the 3 days.

I want to darken the wood, but as it's tongue and groove, it would take too much time to sand in the grooves to remove the varnish that is already on it. I want to check into options for darkening the color, but I don't know what products and/or methods would work the best.

(In the long run, putting up new walls would/will be ideal, but at this point, early on, we don't have the time or money.)

How to get a wooden salad bowl made

vogel — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:24:02 -0800

Which woods are good for making a salad bowl, and what preparation would the newly-made bowl need before being used? We need a new salad bowl and a friend is learning wood-turning. I am tempted to try to commission him to make us one, but I don't know what sort of wood to start with and how to treat it once the bowl is made. Maybe his wood-turning teacher would help with all this anyway, but I'd like to be better informed myself.

I suppose an alternative answer might be that it is too ambitious and I should just go and buy one! What do you think? Thanks!

Help me warm the house up!

dance — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:38:26 -0800

I have a two part question about fires and making firewood. The two parts are related so I assume this is fine...
1) I have just acquired my first personal chainsaw, for use in the copse behind my house cutting down smaller trees to make firewood. Previously when I've felled trees, I've had use of a tractor to winch out the log OR an abundance of clear space around the fallen tree to roll it with either my boot or a lever. In my own backyard I have neither tractor nor space - the fallen tree cannot be rolled by the persuasive power of my boot. I can't cut the log into firewood in situ either because my saw would be dulled by sawing into the ground. Any tips from those in a similar predicament?

2) The stove in the house is unlike any stove I've dealt with before! It is really difficult to get wood to 'catch', and doesn't seem to warm nicely. I'm using the trick of leaving the door ajar whilst the wood is just beginning to burn, but still, when it seems to have caught flame if I close the door with the vent on full open, it's fairly often that the fire will die out. In addition the stove seems to have a tendency to let smoke into the room if one opens the door. I realise that this sounds like a blocked chimney but the previous occupant who used the stove often to good effect mentioned nothing. I have cleaned the ash out of the bottom of the stove and used wood from different areas of the woodpile. I still wonder if the wood might be a bit damp but can't really believe that because it's the same woodpile the previous occupant took from. Any thoughts? Should I just try wood from a petrol station to see if it's the wood at fault? How do I know if the chimney is blocked? Smoke plumes merrily out on the few occasions a good fire is going in the stove...

Thanks for any and all help.

Polish my wood

boosh — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:41:25 -0800

Woodworking - What's the best way to strip and polish a piece of wood cut from a grape vine? I cut down the 15 year old grape vine in my greenhouse today (which did feel like vandalism, but it was sucking up a lot of light and space while producing very little).

I'm left with some beautiful pieces of gnarled wood - a couple of pics here and here, and a view of the inside. I've always liked pieces of polished driftwood, and thought I might be able to do something along those lines with some of this wood, but I haven't been able to Google up much info on the process.

Has anyone got any hints on the best way to go about this?

Woodworking without modern fasteners?

odinsdream — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:20:55 -0800

Where can I find woodworking plans or guides for creating outdoor furniture with a minimum of fasteners? I've always admired wood furniture that's constructed with a minimum of modern fasteners (screws, nails, etc.) but is instead cleverly cut or shaped so that pieces interlock, dovetail, or pin together like a puzzle. I've seen an entire cupboard that practically falls apart if you lift off the top piece, otherwise it's perfectly strong.

I'd like to create some outdoor benches, chairs and small tables from a bunch of wood from an old fence using these kinds of techniques. Where can I learn more about this kind of construction? Does it have a name?

Thanks!

A Not Quite Fix for My Poor Hardwood Floors

aabbbiee — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:30:55 -0800

How can I limit damage to my virtually-unfinished hardwood floors without the trouble/expense of refinishing? I have an 1800 sq foot ranch-style home built in 1994 (in Missouri, USA). All of the flooring is hardwood, with the exception of a small utility room and the two bathrooms. This is a slab home, and the wood is directly on top of the concrete. I cannot be very specific about the type of wood it is- possibly oak? It's very standard early-90s suburban house wood flooring.

When I bought this house in 2006 (at the top of the market, of course), the floors were not in great shape. I didn't care because I own a dog and do not want to live a lifestyle where I have to place a lot of emphasis on keeping my floors scratch-free. My house is not worth what I paid for it, and I've had to put some very expensive work into it (roof, foundation repairs, new a/c, just to start). This is not a house I wanted to own forever. I will likely sell or rent the place out in 5 years.
In addition, refinishing of any part of the house would require refinishing of all the floors of the house, because the wood flows through all the rooms. I have had a casual estimate of $4000 to refinish the floors of the house. This is not chump change for me, and that new a/c unit was installed just two weeks ago, so I am not exactly rolling in it right now.

Until this past weekend, I didn't worry too much about the floors, but they were not in great shape. I cleaned them regularly by sweeping or vacuuming. Maybe once a year I tried to clean them with Murphy's Oil, whereupon it became obvious that they had almost no finish left. The water soaked in and there was a smell of wet wood.

This past weekend, I had the excitement of coming home to find that a washing machine hose had burst (the washing machine was not even in use at the time) and flooded about a third of the house with an inch of water in just forty-five minutes. (Fantastic entertainment for a Saturday night!)

After the immediate cleanup, I am happy to see that there was very little long-term damage to my house. The floorboards have dried out without buckling. We've had very low humidity this week (totally unusual for Missouri in summer) but the new a/c has been very helpful, and I think I removed the water fast enough that there may not be mold damage. Furniture and other possessions were largely untouched. Rugs are all cotton and can be washed. I was remarkably fortunate.

The only thing that was ruined was [whatever was left of] the finish of the hardwood in that part of the house. In the living room, I can see where the water was and where it stopped. It's not a bad stain and it would likely come out with sanding, but the floors are clearly in even worse shape than they were. Refinishing them would fix them perfectly, I'm sure.

I don't want to refinish. See paragraph #2.
What can I do with these floors? My priority is to decrease the amount of damage that my dog and I could incur if we live on pretty-much-unfinished wood floors. Making them pretty is not really my priority. I just want to limit the damage. (I can't put rugs everywhere.)
Google lists different products on the market that swear they will help me, but I don't know enough to tell the useless & destructive from the magic miracle tonic.
Things that involve sanding seem to be a little beyond my comfort zone as far as things I can do myself (and I don't want to hire someone else).
What options beyond refinishing do I have? How should I be cleaning this floor?

How much prep does painted paneling need?

Lesser Shrew — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:31:49 -0800

Repainting already painted wood paneling - can I just slap on a new coat? My spare room has not-at-all fabulous seventies wood paneling which may have been in a trailer at one point. The previous owners painted it baby-puke yellow, which is gross. Can I just clean, lightly sand, and tack this old paint before repainting?

The paneling is only halfway up the wall, presumably to give the look of wainscoting, so it's massively lazy of me not to want to properly prepare the surface. And yet, here we are. Will new paint stick to old paint on wood if the old paint is clean and dry before I paint? Has anyone done this and regretted their method? Had success?

No idea what prep they may (or may not) have done and the paint appears to be rubbery cheap latex.

Re-purposing found butcher block wood.

wfrgms — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:58:22 -0800

Carpentry-Filter: Can you help me identify this butcher block style wood, and figure out how to best cut, sand, and finish it for my project? Pics inside. I pulled this wood out of the dumpster at school. Apparently it was used as a large table top. At least some of it goes together, but broke/split during removal. Pics 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. It looks a little rough in the pics, but it's mostly smooth and solid.

I've been looking for some butcher block style wood for a while now as I really want to build floating shelves just like these in my bathroom. With the left over wood I may build a work bench or even use it for an actual cutting board.

As you can see in the pics the wood is lightly colored. It's very heavy and 1 & 3/4" thick.

So my first question is this: what type of wood is this? Would you consider it "real" butcher block, or is there a better name for it?

Second, how best to cut this? I'm thinking circular saw, but do I need any type of special blade or adjustment?

Third, what about sanding? I don't want to do it by hand, but I'm perplexed by what type of sander I should buy. Do I need a belt sander? An orbit? Palm? Detail?

Lastly, how can I finish it in a way that will bring out the natural wood, perhaps darken it some, and protect it in the high humidity environment of my bathroom? I won't be using food on this stuff, so the oil / beeswax treatment isn't necessary here.

Thanks for any and all advice and tips. I'm very excited to start working on this.

wood from mexico/central america

ebesan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:07:36 -0800

we are looking for any information on wood from the Mexico/Belize/Guatemala area. Local, sustainable, tough wood suitable for furniture making. Is anyone familiar with types; sources; properties; suppliers; or anyone who has worked with wood from the area? Organizations working on these issues? Woodworkers with knowledge? Want to be informed and responsible here; not contribute to the problem. What about reused/recycled reclaimed wood?

Putting casters on the narrow bottom of old bookshelves. Help?

barnone — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:47:35 -0800

How do I put casters on the bottom of this bookshelf? The bottom looks like this. The bookshelf itself is of some kind of MDF or high density particleboard, i.e. not pure wood. I want to put casters on the bottom of the bookshelf, but the strip of wood that touches the floor is too narrow for a plate caster like this. Can I somehow put a screw into the end of the particle board to fit a caster like this? How? Details inside. It was made my partner's late father (before she was born) and was headed for the rubbish heap but I've saved it to give it another life. The wood is sturdy but slightly warped - so if I was to put a strip of wood making the 1/2" section flush with the 3/4" section, I'm not sure if I could get it flush enough. Also -- the simpler the better here. I don't have a saw, clamps, heavy duty glue, etc.

I'm a little worried about the wood splitting if I was to put in a threaded caster like the second linked option. How do you even screw those into the wood? The bookshelves have lived a long life and I'm a bit worried that a screw through the middle of old particleboard will just eventually split up the sides.

Are there really narrow plate casters? I'm worried that the dimensions of the piece will overwhelm little tiny casters (visually if not structurally). I had another idea to put huge plate casters on the bottom of the bookshelf (they'd be taller than the small supports, making the casters sit on the floor) but that would just look stupid.

I have a decent power drill. No saw. They're too big for me to lug somewhere else to use a power circular saw.

I'm going for a combination of good looks and ease of install. I'm willing to buy whatever casters will work for this project. Any suggestions at all? Help me make a fantastic gift here!

How do I seal this table surface?

peachfuzz — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:36:00 -0800

Dining room table + open grain wood + real life = :( Please help me to not destroy my one nice piece of furniture. I scored a really beautiful vintage dining table off Craigslist - it's a Danish modern piece in great condition, with fantastic lines and the cleverest hidden leaves and some seriously elegant construction. I love it.

The table surfaces are all of some beautiful open-grained hardwood. Lovely! But it's apparently very porous/sensitive in places (even a warm coffee cup leaves a ring). I don't mind using coasters if I'm just setting something down for a second, but I want to feed people on this with some regularity and without fuss. Plus, we live in a teeny open house, so it meets laptops and books and and bits of little projects throughout the day. What can I do to protect the table top?

1) It would assume it's got SOME type of finish on it already, but the top isn't really smooth or satiny-feeling - it's got texture along the different areas of wood, which I don't mind and would actually like to preserve.

2) I don't really want to abuse it - I can continue putting down a long runner for serving platters and of course continue to use hot pads and trivets for hot things, but I'd like for someone to be able to put a wineglass down by his plate without feeling bad.

2) I would REALLY hate to use a tablecloth (or placemats).

3) I am a furniture idiot.

So, can I wax it? Seal it with something? I don't mind if I have to redo it every once in a while, and I'm not necessarily worried about preserving value. I want to use and enjoy and share this lovely thing in daily real life, is all.

Or if this is a terrible idea or a futile hope, please tell me so - and how you manage to keep the dining table surface good-looking.

Looking for good books on wood

orange swan — Mon, 18 May 2009 08:38:18 -0800

Woodworkers of MeFi, what reference books about wood do you recommend? Please note that I'm not looking for books on the craft of woodworking so much as for reference books on the varieties of wood and their properties. My dad is an accomplished and avid woodworker. He's also more or less obsessed with wood and trees and and will talk about wood for hours on end if he can find a family member to listen to him (usually he can't, and can you blame us). Whenever he and my mother travel he brings back samples of wood, such as pieces of whiskey barrels from Scotland. If anyone in my family cuts down a tree he's there to get some of it. He made an hourglass out of my cousin's lilac bush, and it was gorgeous — pale wood with delicate purple veins.

I just ordered The Wood Book: the Complete Plates, by Romeyn Hough for my father's birthday because he's been wanting it for years, but browsing through other books on the topic on Amazon leads me to ask, what other books might he like? I understand The Wood Book just covers American trees, and certainly he'd be interested in something more international. I can be pretty sure he'd like a number of the books I saw on Amazon, but I'm hoping to get personal recommendations from woodworkers based on familiarity with reference books they use and love.

Why did they bother pulping in the first place?

mhz — Sat, 09 May 2009 22:54:07 -0800

How can I get an awesome engraved diploma? Where can I go locally (Brooklyn, NY) for an engraved diploma?

I'm talking about the images that show up here. I get the feeling that this is the kind of thing that would be cheaper to do locally than over the internet, and I'm looking for recommendations, etc, on a place to do it.

I want to be able to walk into a place with a file with all of the text and artwork I want; I want to choose a plaque, and have it laser cut. Ideally, this won't cost me too much. Turnaround time isn't that big a deal. If it's necessary (or better) to get the parts and work separately, I'm all for it.

So if you've had this done (or you do it!), please tell me where to start – what type of wood is best? Is this practical at all? What type of computer file do I need? Anything else I've missed?

Thanks!

What kind of home can we find for a bunch of black walnut trees in Chicagoland?

bobbyno — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:35:52 -0800

We are in the process of selling off a piece of land for development. There are several nice, tall Black Walnut trees on the property (40 feet) and we would like to know if there is any place or person who might buy them in or around the Chicagoland area. Anybody have experience with similar tree sales? I searched and saw a similar post (fallen walnut tree) and the info was useful, I'd just like a little more. Specifically, what type of person or outfit would we contact to possible sell of these large trees? It seems like a waste to just trash the wood in the development of the land.

Any input would be appreciated. Thank you!

Satin latex paint on my bookshelves?

OmieWise — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:25:35 -0800

I have recently put up some wooden shelves (pine shelves on hardwood brackets) in my living room that I will use to hold records and books. I have a new can of white satin-finish latex paint. Can I use the paint on the shelves. (i.e. Will it look decent and not stick to the books and records?) What would be the reasons not to use this paint and instead get some other more appropriate paint? What might that more appropriate paint be? I'm most interested in making a cost-benefit analysis of using this paint that I have, so I don't have to get yet another can of friggin' paint. I want it to look decent, but it does not have to look perfect. If it's an absolutely disastrous idea to use this paint, please say so.

Painting wood furniture for an even, durable finish.

jroybal — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:56:58 -0800

I'm going to be making this Parsons side table of poplar and MDF soon (Popular Mechanics link). How can I get the painted finish like the one in the picture? The top is MDF and the rest is a series of 3/4" thick lengths of poplar. I like how the one pictured on the linked page looks so monolithic with a very even and slightly glossy finish. I've gathered from a few web pages that I should use several coats of an oil-based primer, especially along the edges of the MDF, and several coats of an oil-based paint. Oil-based products apparently level out better. Yes or no? A few more specific questions:

1. What sandpaper grit should I use between coats?
2. What level of gloss/type of paint should I use? I leaning towards semi-gloss.
3. What about some sort of clear coat protectant finish? Polyurethane? Would that make it more durable, which would be helpful since this will be living room furniture?

Tips, tricks, critique, advice would be much appreciated!

Help me design Kaylee's Kustom Kiddee Blox!

JonnyRotten — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:34:26 -0800

I am making my newest child (6 months) a custom set of blocks. Please suggest an AWESOME font for me to carve the letters into them as. They will be various colors, each block one solid color, with the letter different colored, or possibly just black lettering (haven't decided yet, feel free to put this along with your suggestion). Basically, it can be anything. Cool, creepy, subversive, anything. Also, suggest some awesome single words or REALLY short phrases to carve into the "filler" spots.
For example, I considered doing OBEY GIANT (something thats been relevant to me since I first saw it many years ago) on one of them.

Bonus question. How "child" safe is Apple Barrel acrylic craft paint? I'm sure these blocks will end up in her mouth at the very least, so I am concerned about this. I don't know if there is any safer alternative to coat it with once I am done carving, dremeling, and painting.

When I am all done, I'll update the thread with pictures, or something..

Wood for pickling lids?

GeneticFreek — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:41:13 -0800

What woods can be use to make lids for pickling? I want to start doing some wild fermentation pickling in pickling crocks. You can buy online special wooden lids with holes in them to hold the food to be pickled down while allowing the brine to come up. See HERE. These are claimed to be made out of Poplar. Rather than ordering the lids online I figure I could make some myself, but a search at my local Home Depot and Rona don't carry poplar in the appropriate size.

My question is is there anything special about poplar that I need that wood in particular? Are other woods okay? Spruce is readily available. Oak could possibly be gotten in the right size as well. What factors are important? I figure that A) it needs to be kiln-dried chemical free, B) needs to be a wood that isn't toxic (ie not hemlock?), C) and of a thickness, say 1/2", so that it wouldn't warp.

I'll be checking out another store that I think carries a larger variety of wood on Wednesday. Any advice before then is appreciated!

So you'd like to build a garden wall...

rileyray3000 — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:00:52 -0800

Is there an 'ask metafilter' on the internet for home/yard projects? Not that I'm disputing the collective mind here, but I'm looking to build something in my backyard and it seems to me there must be some group of contractors who all get together somewhere on the internet to tell amateurs that they're doing it wrong. Of course if you KNOW how to install a yard retaining wall, then, by all means, speak up. So here's the thing: I'm renting a house with a backyard. A very sloping, bumpy, uneven back yard. And I'd like to put some gravel and picnic table down. But to keep said picnic table from sliding down the hill to the neighbor's chain link fence, I thought I'd try to even it all out.

So here's my plan.

Put in some deep posts - like five feet tall - along the bottom part of the hill slope. Sink them halfway down into the the hill. Then, put some boards from one post to the next. nail em in. Fill area with dirt.

Then, after, I figured I'd get some fruit trees from that orchard that's always giving them away and put them BELOW the posts and aim them so they grow towards the fence and eventually support it.

All in all? I'd say it's a fool proof plan. Except when it comes to this sort of thing, I'm kind of a new fool to the arena. Some have told me I need a specific kind of lumber. Others said I have to put the posts in concrete. Which I'm guessing I have to make. Others said the opposite, pointing to the non concrete much MUCH smaller version of said wall that stood for a long time previous.

So do you know the answers here? And if not, do you know where I can GET the answers?

The opposite of out of the box thinking...

rileyray3000 — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:30:22 -0800

I'm looking for a box shelf - one foot by one foot square - that's wall mounted. Black brown wood. I've been looking the length of google but clearly I'm not doing it right. Help. I wanted to go with regular nightstands but there wasn't enough room. So ten I was going to go with tall pedestal night stands but they kept falling over when I hit the snooze. So then it hit me: wall mounted cubes on either side of the bed. One foot square. Black brown wood. Perfect.

Except I can't find what I'm looking for.

My guess is they have some sort of cutesy name that I'm not in the loop on and that's why all I'm getting are complicated "cubing systems" or just industrial shelving.

So please, for the love of my clock radio, help me find it.

Can I use metal paint on wood?

torticat — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:13:47 -0800

What exactly does it mean for paint to be formulated "for metal substrates only"? Can I use it on wood? My husband and I are working (very sloooowly) on renovating a 120-year-old-house. All the original woodwork was stripped out of the house before we moved in, and since we can't afford to redo it in natural oak, we're putting in poplar and painting it. Years ago I chose an oil paint but apparently didn't read the fine print, which I just noticed says the paint is "for metal substrates only." I've already used in on a few surfaces: doors, spindles, crown molding. However, we still have the bulk of painting ahead of us--all the base moldings, window and door frames, etc. Is it a bad idea to continue using this paint?

I'm particularly interested in durability, since this is an immense painting project (three-story house). The already-painted surfaces (painted in the range of two to five years ago) have chipped in places, but I'd attributed that to poor surface prep. The doors and spindles had been previously painted/varnished, and I lightly sanded before painting but probably could have scuffed them up a bit more. But now I'm wondering if the formulation of metal paint keeps it from adhering well to wood?

The paint is Glidden Ultra-Hide oil/alkyd interior/exterior semi-gloss. Any info on how paints & substrates work together will be much appreciated.