What's this wood: stain removal pro tips

Well capital_prototype and sawsheezle have never been able to successfully monetize their groundbreaking app "What's this wood?",  aimed at educating the youth of America about our native woods and revitalizing the lumber industry in this country, but sawsheezle has managed to at least learn a bit about wood related issues by working on WTW?. Here is a pro tip he would like to share.

After moving here to central Pennsyltucky, I bought some used furniture for my unfurnished apartment. I really like this coffee table and didn't mind that it had a giant white ring stain on it when I purchased it. Then one day I bought a pizza and set it on the table and was saddened to see the following new stain:

The proprietor of the used furniture store told me the white ring could be removed with corroborator cleaner, but I never got around to trying it. When this new stain appeared, I figured it had to be due to either the moisture or heat from the pizza box. Then I did some trusty interweb searching and came across the ultimate stain fighting solution: steam. Luckily sawsheezle already had an amazing steam cleaner he had purchased earlier in the fiscal year. Enter the mean steaming machine:

After using the microfiber applicator and applying steam for a few seconds here are the results:

It worked guys! What happened is that the stain isn't a stain so much as it is a collection of the water vapor stuck in the polyurethane finish on the table. Steam can remove this "stain", but it can also make it worse. Just like in life, you have to find the balance between time and energy.

Anyway go buy one you turkeys.


http://www.amazon.com/Steamfast-SF-275-Canister-Steam-Cleaner/dp/B0000DBJ2J/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1406491959&sr=8-4&keywords=steam+fast

Garage Work In Progress

So, when I moved in I found water damage in the garage. The problem appeared to be a damaged gutter that when overflowed ran water over the garage door window.  This window was framed with wood, that was waterlogged.  I removed the wood frame and stapled up plastic wrap until I could fix it. Here are some pictures I have of the window after removing the wood framing:

I fixed the gutters, no pictures, and at some point reframed the window with PVC board, which is a plastic product made to look like wood, but is clearly waterproof.

The water damage also leaked into the wall, causing the insulation to get wet and moldy and the old wood siding to get ruined.  I don't have pictures of the process fixing it, because I really wasn't planning on showing anyone or blogging it.

And here are two pictures of the almost finished process.  I still have some work to do, such as reframing the window on the inside of the garage.

 Refinished the whole garage, which used to be a cheap wood paneling that I was never fond of.

Weird Al

In case you didn't know, Weird Al released a new album on Tuesday. He's also releasing 8 music videos over 8 days. Check out www.weirdal.com each day through the 21st for each newly released video. Here's the one from today. It's a parody of Lorde's "Royals."

Watch Some Grass Grow

I was talking to Sawyer who said he made something and that we should fur more, so here's some fur.

So my front yard has been a dirt/mud pit for the past few years.  I've since cut the trees in my front yard, which allows more light to reach the ground.  On 6/28/14 I went out with a shovel and loosened the soil in the front yard.  I picked up a 3 pound sack of quick growing grass seed and spread it around the front yard.  Since then I watered it everyday, but since its been raining so much, I've really only watered it the first two days.  The rate of growth since has been pretty staggering.  Here is a slideshow where you can watch my grass grow:

7/2/14 AM

7/3/14 AM

7/3/14 PM