^ fantastic puzzle designs. I don't like how he placed his fingers directly over the router bit with those small pieces of wood.

I've got a Ryobi random orbital that takes 1/4 sheets of sand paper as well as one of the Ryobi multi-tools that's got a little triangular sanding attachment. Our floor isn't completely flat anyway. The upstairs floor is like a calm day at the beach, plenty of waves. I've got to think that would take a ton of battery to get it all done, but worth a shot.

We don't try to drum sand it in one pass. Our first passes with heavy paper are at alternating 45° angles to the room. Followed by passes straight with the grain using finer grits. We sand floors perfectly flat (and faster) that way. You'll be wasting paper and time trying to sand your waves out with an orbital or belt sander.

Right. When I say my floor is not flat, what I mean is that there's no amount of sanding that would get it flat. Downstairs is flat, but upstairs was never meant to be rooms. It was originally attic space. About 35 years ago, someone built rooms. The floors up there are way, WAY out of flat. In one spot, I can put a 4' level down, hold one end on the floor, and the other end is hovering over the floor by more than an inch. In another spot that's probably closer to 5/8". I got the floors fairly flat-ish.

THe first time that we sanded the floor, I rented a drum sander from HD and progressed from 36 --> 120 grit. Then I rented a 7" edge sander and went from 60 or 80 --> 120.

Then because my wife was in a hurry, she stained the floor one day while I was working. The next day, she was super, super unhappy with it (it was pretty bad). So I've now sanded the floors a second time using a drum sander, but this time I skipped the edge sander and used my 4x24 belt sander. Where you see what looks like marks from the drum sander, it's actually from the front edge of the thin pad (1/8") in the center of the belt sander (not from the front roller).

I'm sure that you could/would have done a much better job. I think this is going to turn out OK (certainly rustic, but this place is pretty rustic) once we are done. I'm not going to let the wife do the staining again. I might let her help. I'm sure she could do this, but I don't want to have to sand a third time.

Holy CARP!

When I was a kid living in Japan, I got a couple of puzzle boxes, but wow, nothing like what he makes.

THey are pricey, but wow, dare I say, worth it if you have the spare dough to spend on something that marvelous.
https://www.kagensound.com/page5.html

These aren't mine, but are VERY similar

https://puzzleboxworld.com/cdn/shop/...g?v=1564355147

Actually, this one appears to be EXACTLY like one of mine.
https://puzzleboxworld.com/cdn/shop/...g?v=1629922609

https://puzzleboxworld.com/cdn/shop/...g?v=1629922614

https://puzzleboxworld.com/cdn/shop/...g?v=1629922618

https://puzzleboxworld.com/cdn/shop/...g?v=1629922622

Ahh, you're talking about your floors being out of level as oppose to not being flat. A floor can be re-leveled but usually involves replacement plus cutting and shimming joists using a laser. Can be pretty costly. Flat is doable, out of level is usually tolerated after the customer gets an estimate

I think to level our upstairs, you'd practically have to take the top of the house off, build a new second story floor, and then put the top back on. The floors are pretty flat except in some places towards the edge or in the corners.

While we're on the subject, if we're putting down 2 or 3 layers of water based satin poly, what would you recommend doing in between coats. I'm concerned that trying to do any screening or sanding could cut through previous coats and stain which would be a disaster.

Do you have a round sander of some type? If not, load up some 60 grit on the 1/4 sheet sander and get in that corner. A round or random orbital sander will sand out that paint much quicker. Finish it with 100-150 grit paper. Use that triangle sanding attachment to get into that corner. It should take you more more 10 -15 min to get that cleaned up, ready to stain. Use 3M tri-mite paper. They work pretty well.

Ha ha I'd leave the elevation alone. I'd consider it part of the character of your cool old house. IMO the further you distress the floor, the better. Don't worry, no matter what you do it's going to be awesome in the end.

How bad are the dips on the edges? It may not be as hard as you think but let find out why is it dipping. Tired or not enough foundation? If the first floor is dead flat, they never are, and I don't expect it to be on an old house, what is the cause of the our of lever second floor? maybe poor workmanship? Maybe the joists need to be shimmed where the dips are. I am not there and can't really see the house. It should not be a big deal, but the sub floor has to come out or access it from the bottom that's if the first floor is good. How many inches is it sagging? Leave it.

Unnecessary and undesirable to abrade between final coats. Dust free please! Make sure the windows and doors are shut tight. Put no entry blue tape at eye level across the doors. I do two coats only of final coating. 2 is plenty, any more can result in a finish that's too soft and dents easily.

Yep.
It's not "dips on the edges". I think the home was built by the original inhabitant in 1920 or 1924. The downstairs is fairly level/flat all things considered (you don't notice or feel any big changes, and we had the home leveled when we moved in. Of course, if we get a lot of rain, or have a long dry period, the house moves a lot. I think you'd need a bunch of foundation equipment to really figure out any issues downstairs. But upstairs is crazy. You can feel dips and rises as you walk across the floor. I think this is an approximation of what's going on upstairs.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1717612423.jpg

Great news all around. Glad to hear about not having to abraid! And the 2 coat vs 3 coat thing is also great. The poly can says "3 coats". We had 2 rooms done downstairs by pros while our kitchen was being remodeled. They'd originally said that they were going to do 3 coats, but ended up only doing 2.

After a bit of a hiatus, I'm back doing the live edge, and river tables.. Recently I started an Etsy account to see if I can monetize this.. everything I've made to date has been gifted to the girlfriend and relatives.. My brother just asked me to do a bar top in his den.. that will be done for just material costs..

I dragged a big ass piece of elm outside to trim reshape, and dress the edges

$800 worth of elm..

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1717624135.jpg



General idea for the table

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1717623800.jpg

Dressed up the edges

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1717623877.jpg

This one is going to take a lot of resin and pigment probably north of $1500, depending which resin I use the cost is $130/200 per gallon

Wow!

That diagram makes perfect sense to me having worked primarily on old and historic homes. Especially the porch. I've leveled several including my own. Old framing schedules used lighter lumber.

Table will be roughly 44X72... I think It will make an interesting dining room table

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1717626591.jpg

Yeah, nothing surprising about it. The porch is angled away from the house as it should be. I don't remember the details about the supports RE: house --> porch (whether they are all one or added on or what. But it wouldn't surprise me if at some point the house was leveled and the porch intentionally allowed to droop (water run-off) or just got that way over time with less attention paid to the porch.

The left room is ~9.5' wide, then ~7' hall, then ~11' room and ~6' porch.

Most of the house studs that I've seen (walls and ceilings) are on roughly 24" centers.

That's going to be cool table. $800. for the slab? Yikes.
I made a similar resin table years ago and poured over a 12v LED light string. It turned out pretty cool but a little '70s cheesy.

So it's going to be a small table. :D

Big tables often have aprons and occasionally stretchers. How are you going to design the support structure and how do you attach the top and base?

That will look very cool. Are you going to put some more wood “islands” in the voids or will it be all epoxy?