So it is Wednesday, and What am I?

  This morning my wood shop was in good shape.  Yes the floor was a bit dusty but the benches were clear and my tools put away. This afternoon, the shop is a mess and the bench is piled high with various tools and accessories.  

  How did this happen.  I began the day doing repairs.  Kierans's Bluenose needed to have its mast remounted, I guess there had been a particularly tempestuous bath time last week. To make a repair like that uses: chisels, rasps, glue and clamps. At least that is what a repair like that uses in my shop. There was some old glue to remove and a bit of adjustment needed to the remaining wood.

  The other repair was Kieran's Dad's dresser valet.  A very nice oak box, that had been crashed, somehow.  There seems to be no one who knows what happen to knock the end out of the box. Sand paper, glue and various clamps were all called into play, and also ended up on my bench.

  I do not have the guts to show a photo of my bench now.  Oh yes, I also spent sometime using spray foam to fill a gap around our dishwasher. (man that stuff is sticky and miserable, but...it does a job)

  Now the What am I? part.

full view

detail, of the top of "the thing"

  This is something that most everyone's house could use.  I happened to make it from one inch softwood, but that is only because I had a suitable piece laying around.
  
   To be fair to those guessing, I will be putting 10 or 12 small wooden pins/cup hooks on the upper sides of the project and some felt or rubber on the bottom of the "thing" so that it will not mark our hardwood flooring or slip about.

  You can see the base, and it is free standing, but not very stable.  I put a coat of Minwax Tung Oil on the thing after I sanded it smooth and rounded over the corners.

  This piece of wood was an old, nasty piece of barn board that was too narrow to be much use, but too long to be thrown away. Surprise, it turned out to be useful after all.

   Since this was a fairly nasty piece of wood I didn't want to run it through my planer and risk the blades, but at the same time I really didn't want to go crazy sanding or risk a good hand plane blade.  My solution, a tool that I bought at the recent wood show, an electric hand plane.(to replace a old tired version)  A tool like this is the ultimate roughing out tool in my mind.  I don't imagine that the finish that an electric hand plane leaves is done , and it might not even be very even.  What the finish is, is flat (ish) and clear so that I can see with what I have to work and if the blade gets nicked, oh well!.  

  My son-in-law has a cordless electric hand plane that I've used to trim doors and things at this place.  Needless to say his father in law gave him that tool when they bought their house.