My neighbor and needed to setup a 10' mini-mill guide rail board for the mini-mill I built him awhile back. I found that running the board edge through my joiner really helps making a nice straight guide rail board.
When we finished building the rail guide we just had to try it out, right? So we decided to square up a large Douglas Fir slab he had and turn it into a workbench. Here are a few pictures of what we did.
jerry-
Using new 10' mini-mill guide rail board to straighten/square 9' Douglas Fir slab. This slab was milled over 40 years ago.
The mini-mill sure makes it easy to use on large slabs. We are going to be milling some CA Blue Oak trees this coming Monday and plan to use this 10' rail guide on one of the 9' pieces.
We then routed the edges with a 3/8" over-round bit and started the sanding process with some 36 grit paper down to 100 grit.
Then we gave the plank a liberal coating of linseed oil to let soak in.
We sanded the plank enough to get all the slivers off, but left enough of the milling marks so that when people see the plank they will know it was hand milled. We really liked how the oil really brought out the red in the wood.
When we finished building the rail guide we just had to try it out, right? So we decided to square up a large Douglas Fir slab he had and turn it into a workbench. Here are a few pictures of what we did.
jerry-
Using new 10' mini-mill guide rail board to straighten/square 9' Douglas Fir slab. This slab was milled over 40 years ago.
The mini-mill sure makes it easy to use on large slabs. We are going to be milling some CA Blue Oak trees this coming Monday and plan to use this 10' rail guide on one of the 9' pieces.
We then routed the edges with a 3/8" over-round bit and started the sanding process with some 36 grit paper down to 100 grit.
Then we gave the plank a liberal coating of linseed oil to let soak in.
We sanded the plank enough to get all the slivers off, but left enough of the milling marks so that when people see the plank they will know it was hand milled. We really liked how the oil really brought out the red in the wood.