First project completed using DF500 (and Leigh jig).

[Ed Bray]

A couple of months ago (Nov 14) I started a project using some old Iroko planks I had blagged which had been used as baffles in a Water Treatment Tank for over 20 years before being taken out when the tanks were refurbished. The project stalled as I was trying to become proficient at hand cutting half-lap dovetails. I finally gave up trying to get my hand cut half-lap dovetails to look like something I would be proud of and with gentle ribbing from my wife succumbed to using my Leigh D4R jig to make the drawer, I also cheated on the back of the drawer and used 2 pairs of 4mm Dominos.

All the other joints were made using my DF500 with 2x 6mm Dominos in each leg to rail joint. I also used the DF500 with the 10mm Cutter to cut 8x slots in the top of the rails to accept turn-buttons to attach the top to the base-frame and I used 4mm Dominos to make the rail/frame giving the drawer opening..

I did have a bit of luck though during my period of inactivity, I found a bit of 4mm ply in the garage (from an earlier project) which had a mahogany side and an oak side. This was fortuitous as I was planning to make the drawer front from the Iroko (mahogany'ish) with the back and sides of Oak.

So the drawer is made, yes I copped out with the hand cut dovetails but will keep practising.

So from this (November 14):





To this (Jan 15):







Just to get it ready for a finish now, I am pretty sure I will use Danish Oil as I have had a lot of success with that in the past and it seems to have held up well over the years.

 

[tiralie]

Looks good. Hard to imagine you could have gotten anything good from that old Iroko.
Not sure about that drawer pull but when it's finished it might look better.
Tim

 

[Stone Message]

A lovely piece of work and a brilliant story behind it. Well done.

Peter

 

[Ed Bray]

Thanks for the comments gents.

Peter, I have not yet got around to making the box for my D4R, another 'to do' thing.

 

[rst]

Very nice, I too have the Leigh D4R and also the FMT mortise and tenoning jig and love them both.  I just bought the Domino 500, maybe I'll end up selling the FMT.  That I can make money on, I paid $750 for the jig and ACMT accessory kit a few years ago...going price now on that combo is over $1600.00.  [eek]  ;D

 

[wow]

Great job on reusing old wood. I'm impressed!

 

[Lbob131]

Wonderful transformation.

 

[Gary in Texas]

Great use of reclaimed wood and an outstanding result!  Well done Ed.....

 

[NHSP759]

Absolutely beautiful Ed. No cheating involved either....you made it

 

[Ed Bray]

Thanks all for your comments.

I am fortunate to have another 12 planks as shown so will have to find other projects to build.

 

[wow]

How large are those planks? I don't see anything in the photo to help establish scale, so I was originally thinking that maybe they were just a little longer than your project's legs?

 

[Ed Bray]

How large are those planks? I don't see anything in the photo to help establish scale, so I was originally thinking that maybe they were just a little longer than your project's legs?

The boards as they were taken out of the tanks were 12' x 8" x 1.5" but I had to cut them down to six feet to get them in my trailer. There were originally about 30x 12' boards but due to their weight I could only take half in one go, so I ended up with about 30x 6' long boards. I used just over two planks (including cock-ups) for this little project and have used others for various other things.

When I went back to work 16 days after collecting the first batch, all the others had mysteriously disappeared. Still, there are dozens more available when the tanks are refurbished on the remaining 20 or so sites.

 

[Billedis]

Beautiful job of utilizing old lumber.  Have you considered Osmo poly-x for the finish.  Peter Parfitt turned me on to this wonderful finishing material.  Bill

 

[mike_aa]

Great Work!  I'm always a fan of builds using found and re-purposed lumber, especially when the final product looks as good as yours.

Mike A.

 

[Ed Bray]

Thanks for all the comments. Need to find a project to use my new DF700XL on now.