Ah yes, the 10-22. Probably the most famous 22 out there. Mine cost $10.00 at a garage sale. It had a trigger problem. Looking into it, it was a fix for less than a buck, BUT I opted for an improved trigger. Nothing stupid, but nice (about 4 pounds). That, of course, brought the price up a bit.
ALL that aside, NICE JOB on the bench.
A hint or two for those not deep into woodworking:
(1) Surface coats of any kind don't play well with exterior weather, OVER TIME.
Even if the entire project has a finish applied to it, the wood will expand and contract at a different rate than the finish will, whether poly, lacquer or something else. That is because the wood will still find a way to gain and lose moisture, and because the wood will expand and contract with heat and cold.
(2) The more surface of a project covered with finish, the slower will be the overall gain and loss of moisture. Thus, expansion and contraction due to moisture gain and loss will be lessened. For example, chest of drawers never get finished on the inside, so moving them between a dry desert environment and a wet one causes problems with them.
(3) Paint is said to be the ultimate finish ("top coat"), but there is no silver bullet, so it needs to be maintained to protect the project.
If using a poly finish, a long oil finish will hold up better in the outdoors. A short oil finish will hold up better to foot traffic and other uses that result in wear.
Calling a finish a long oil finish is just a way of saying there is more oil in the finish. A short or is, therefore, a finish with less oil. More oil means the finish is more flexible and can shift with some changes in the moisture content of the wood. The short oil flexes less, but holds up to abrasion better. High end poly finishes used for nautical applications are, for the reasons noted, long oil finishes.
There are two types of oil - hardening oil and non-hardening oil. Motor oil, mineral oil and other petroleum products are non-hardening. Tung oil, flax seed, from which boiled linseed oil is made, walnut oil and a few others are hardening oils. They harden by way of reaction with air.
You can use non-hardening oils to penetrate wood, also limiting how much water can get into the wood. It, also, has the advantage of making wood treated with it more flexible (think of dry cedar shakes that would crack and split, if you walked on them).
Oil has an advantage over other finishes in that it never has to be [and cannot be] stripped before applying fresh applications.
Non-hardening oil will soak in anywhere the wood lost moisture. It may look like the oil is evaporating, but it is just wicking to dry spots. When it does, more oil can be added. In time, the wood can become somewhat or fully saturated with the oil, making it pretty bullet proof, with regard to weather and even though it is the least durable, insofar as abrasion resistance goes.
Thinning will help speed the penetration process with both hardening and non-hardening oils. Though hardening oils start hardening with contact with the oxygen in the air, constantly flowing the finish around can slow the reaction time and allow more time for the applications to penetrate.
Non-hardening oil applications generously applied and left to sit can swell wood back toward its original state, causing small cracks and splits to seem to disappear. I've done this with old butcher blocks and the result was a night and day difference in appearance.
Once you are satisfied with the results of treating wood with oil, and if you must, you can clean the surface oil off with thinner and apply an oil based paint or poly. If the wood is cleaned of all surface oil, you could even use a latex or acrylic finish.
I went this direction for now... being a home builder you think I should/could build a beauty!
