Live Edge Table

  At the beginning of June I started a couple of live edge projects. The bowl went pretty well and has found a home.  The other project was a much bigger slab, that I turned into a coffee table.

  The table is thirty inches round (more of less) and the emerald ash borer was under the bark the whole way round. The legs are elm, for contrast.  I also used elm because it has a history here similar to ash.  Dutch elm disease killed off thousands of elm trees in Ontario when I was a kid just like the ash borer situation now. 

  I sanded the end grain to 220 grit, sealed it and gave it five coats of water based poly.  Water based finishes are different.  You can see from this photo that it goes on milky, but once dry it is perfectly clear. The table gets delivered to its new home tomorrow.  I hope my cousin will be pleased.

  This time I did not turn the legs on my lathe.  I made them mostly with hand tools.  Next blog will be the process.  I like the results and it wasn't a big a task as you might think.  Once I made a jig for the drilling the legs holes the process was quite straight forward.

  cheers ianw

 

Live Edge Projects- finished

 Traditionally 'live edge' projects leave the bark on to add texture and interest to the table/bowl/ charcuterie board etc.  Recently I have made a couple of things following this thinking. My most recent projects made use of Ash wood.  In our area, (ontario) the emerald ash borer beetle has attacked and killed millions of board feet of mature ash trees.  There are worm holes in some of my latest projects, however, when the bark is stripped off  completely the result is interesting and a bit different.

  

  This is a 12 inch round of ash.  I removed most of the bark, actually most of it dried and fell off, I just helped it along.  The edge is a different colour and texture and this will be turned into a three legged stool/side table. It will sit beside a chair and hold a snack and drink or can be used for a causal seat when there is a crowd. 

  The next barkless project turned out to be amazing.  I had an oval shaped cut off and began carving the inside out to make a bowl.  ( see previous blog) Carving end grain ash is definately a power tool task.  I used my arbortech turbo plane to rough the bowl.  Next was time using grinding bits in a drill and smaller bits in a dremel too. I then used just about every kind and size of sander I own. The finish was mostly one inch sanding disks and hand work.  The inside is good, but the star of this project is when I pried all the bark off.

  The bowl is a 14 inch oval and the entire outside is this mass of worm channels.  I gave the bowl two coats of Minwax water based sealer and two coats of water based polycrylic. I am happy with rhe result, application is real easy and clean up is effortless.  I know I get a good finish more regularly than I did with oil based varnish and never have issues with runs.  

  The bowl is finished inside so will be for dry things, chips etc. only.

cheers ianw

Three Small Projects - hook, box and turtle

 First project is a rustic hat hook.  

  There remain a few pieces of scrap wind fall wood in the back of the shop. The other day while I was kicking some pieces out my way I small light bulb went off.  I'd seem things like this in lodges and fancy decor places before and thought, I can do that.  Often rustic decor is little more than having materials at hand. I cut the branch off, sanded it clean and smooth and put two coat of shellac on it.  I don't have a spot in mind for this but you can always use a place to hang stuff.

  I have made a variety of boxes over time. Boxes are something I make with off cuts and where I practice hand tool techniques. Since I had my hot glue gun and glue sticks laying around in my storage cupboard loose, I decided to organize a bit.

 I had an existing box, with no lid.  The box  actually has finger joint corners so is fairly well made. What it lacked was a top. And topless it had sat on a shelf for ???, months, years???

Time to actually use it.

  The top also was a practice project.  I began with a board from a pallet. The board is spruce I think, and had a few nails to be removed, hence the many holes.  I used hand planes to square and straighten the edges and then glued three pieces together to get the top. (approx. 8 x 10). Once glued together I planed the top.  To wood burn successfully the smoother the wood, the better the result. For 'grins' I drew the glue gun on and then wood burned it and used water colour paint to paint it in.  After the paint dried I sprayed it with vanish to protect the paint job.

  Hinges were the next order of the day.  Next blog I will show you how I made the strap hinges.

  The third project is another finishing off something that has been around for a couple of years.  

 My Grand daughter and I made four legs, a head and tail to turn this ash round in a 'turtle' upon which a large house plant sits.  Since she was about six at the time she didn't fuss too much about detail, and so the round was still rough sawn,  chain saw smooth, which was OK.  It did look to my eye as though it was a good idea but not complete. I brought it down to my shop and began to smooth it.  Cutting across the grain on hardwood like this is tough.  I've done it several times for several project and have found that an electric planer does the rough work the best.  I have watched wooden boat builder videos and they seem to use a power planer frequently.  I am just beginning to appreciate mine.

  While planing I did knock some small pieces of bark off.

  The edge clamps are the perfect tool for repairing this problem. I bought these clamps 30 years ago when I was putting trim on a table top.  Edge clamps are one of those speciality tools that are not strictly necessary for every shop but.....it sure is nice to have them at hand for their once a year use.

  I has some finish sanding to do and I think I will paint on a few shapes and high lights before finishing and put the turtle back in the living room. It will look good instead of OK.

cheers, ianw

Lots of Things Drying

  At this moment in my shop there are things drying and small project stacked up. I am making some small projects for a coming event at our church and the impending Rockton World's Fair .  Our church is having a 'food fair' as a fund raising event in a couple of weeks and I am not going to contribute food, but kitchen accessories. I have made a serving board and three cheese boards.

   The cheese boards are ash wood rounds that I planed and finished with food grade oil. This set of rounds I flatten differently that previously.  The rounds are only about ten inches across and so I used my 12' Planer to flatten them.  I very slowly lowered the blades and took extra small bites as I planed the end grain of the ash.  The result is good but....I think I will have to replace the planer blades sooner than I'd planned.  

   Going to the food fair as well is a turned bowl I made a while ago from maple stair treads. Maple is hard but slightly boring looking wood. 

  I also made and wood burned a tea box.  I felt like working on a small hand tool project and after planing the wood down and edge gluing it I set about making a nice little box.  There is a special satisfaction in beginning a project with a piece of very average stud grade lumber and ending with a small finely fitted project.

  The little oak caddie for the three glass bottle with the turned wooden tops is also for the church. Projects like this are made in factories over seas by the ten thousand.  Mine however is one of a kind, with three up cycled bottles and their three different turned lids.  If some one realizes the unique nature of the tops they'll find a use for the bottles, it no one realizes that the three lids are different wood and hand turned, they don't really deserve them.

  It is nice to be at a point in my life where I no longer have to explain or promote.  I just make stuff I like and let it go at that.

  I have a piece of furniture to make and I have a door knob that I plan to turn in the next while.  My big projects right now are paintings for competition at the fair. Painting is nice, it is a quiet pass time, which serves as a relief from the noises in the shop.

 

 

 
  

Ash Round Side Table Finished

After four coats of shellac and two coats of spray varnish the little table is sitting in our living room.

  The table turned out not bad.  One of the legs was drilled a bit out of line and it is visible if you look closely.  When I drilled the holes through the top I was focused on not breaking through and blowing out the sides of the hole. Another time I would focus just as much on alignment.  I though I would wiggle the legs into alignment if needed, didn't work. The wedge filling the split worked very well, so this time two out of three, next time perfect.

Before I put the table on our hardwood floor I glued felt footies on the bottom of each leg. Next time you are in  a $ store buy a bunch of felt feet, they will save your floor in the long run.

  While the table was being finished I avoided saw dust creation in the shop.  A while back I made a blade cover for my Mora push knife.  While the shop was a 'no dust' zone I did a bit of wood burning.

  I made the blade guard from stud lumber and the slot fit closely enough that the rubber band isn't absolutely necessary, right now.  

  This is a pattern with no meaning, it is just a pattern. I burned the shape with a blade style tip and then filled the space with dots.  Spruce is not a good wood for burning, the grain doesn't burn uniformly, so it is difficult to get a smooth straight line.  

 

  WAL is WAL Speciality Woodworking, that's me.  I burned the letters then filled the space with dots and red ink.  The effect is textured and  colourful .  This tool is high quality and deserved a proper blade guard from the start.  I actually bought the tool in Sweden on a trip there four or five years ago. 

  The last week or two have been pretty active and I seem to have over done it...again.  My back is a bit sore and so I  won't be taking on a big job like the table again for a while. Making the table involved a couple of hours of serious hunched over grinding to get the top side flat, and one full afternoon at the lathe. Hunched over work is the worst kind for my back it seems.  I have to ration that sort of work very very sparingly.

Ash Round

   I turned 4 legs on my mini lathe for the end table.  I split the ends of the legs, hammered them  into the top and drove in wedges. Everything is firmly connected without glue.

  The next part of the project is the part I like least.  Sanding, sanding, sanding. To sand the legs I will use my finishing sander instead of my random orbital, I find the non-orbital movement of the finishing sander easier to control on rounded surfaces.  The legs are elm. Elm is tough, has an interesting grain and is a bit stringy.  Finishing the legs will involve several coat of shellac to raise the grain, with lots of sanding between each coat.  I really like the final result but it does take time to get the grain under control and smooth. 

  

  You can see from my lathe set up that I really need to develop some type of dust collection system and a much better way to deal with my tools as I work.  My lathe is on a rolling cabinet that is great for moving it around the shop but not a very good work station.   I am thinking/planning what to build to make wood turning more efficient. 

don't do this at home.

  The legs were almost too long to fit my lathe.  Honestly,  the legs were too long, and I should never have run the tail stock out so far.  I was more by good luck than superior technique that the spindle didn't come loose while I was turning the legs.

  These legs are rounded off squares, not totally round spindles.  That means that there are four narrow flats as well as four rounded corners on each leg.  When it came time to sand the legs I was only able to sand the top shoulder and the round feet with the lathe running. The middle of the leg had to be sanded after it came off the lathe.  It would have been quicker to make the legs round and finish them on the lathe, it is easier to get a glossy finish that way. However, the rounded squares make for a more interesting and less expected leg.

  This small table a first try. I know a couple of things that I will do differently when I make my next small table.  I also think I am still going to make a little three legged stool.

cheers, ianw

  

Prep Day in the Work Shop

  Even before I could begin today's work I had to clean up last week's left overs.  Building in the shop with my Grand Children tends to be messy.  I used these two tools to roughly shape the hull of our latest boat.  For years the blades have been projected by card board and duct tape. This morning I decided that they deserved more respect than that.  Especially the draw knife, it is many many years old and was made for my late Grandfather by a local smith in Bracebridge, Ontario.  As tools go it is excellent, razor sharp and remarkably easy to control for its size. 

  Today I took the few minutes necessary to make proper guards for these tools .  I ripped some 2 x 3 spruce and used my table saw to cut a slot in the guard. Unlike a stop gap job of cardboard and duct tap, I made the guards fit properly, not just adequately.  Once made I went the extra step to sand the work and break all the edges.  I have a supply of bicycle inner tubes on hand, they make excellent heavy duty elastic bands. 

  A couple of silly little jobs like this can be done with very limited available tools.  When you have a shop it is amazing how many tools come into use, cause they are available.  I used my table saw, my band saw, my 6 x 24 inch belt sander, glue and clamps as well as hand sand paper. Don't forget the drill press and drill bits and block plane.  All those tools aren't necessary but it makes replacing card board and duct tape easy and rewarding.  Each time I reach for my draw knife and push knife I will know the blades were safe and will be sharp. These guards will also serve as a lesson to my Grand children to take proper care of their stuff.

  Yesterday's project was filling in the crack in my ash wood round.  I used a variety of power tools to flatten the round first. I began with my power hand planer to knock the roughest stuff off. I find the power planer pretty aggressive, or at least that's how I use it and it survives the treatment. 

 I next moved to a 5 inch grinder with a 36 grit disk and then my 4 1/2 inch grinder with a 100 grit disk.

  The next challenge was fitting a wedge into the big crack. I decided there was no way the repair would be invisible so I didn't even try. First I traced the crack onto a bit of paper then transferred the shape  to a piece of spruce and cut it out, (more or less) on the band saw. Then it was a trial and error, fit and fuss process until I got the wedge shaped more or less to match the crack.

  I used Gorilla Glue and some filler putty to firmly install the wedge. Then I did some extra sanding and it looked better than I had planned.  Originally the round was destined to be a three legged stool, now it is going to be a side table in our living room.

  The change in plan for the round of Ash means that today I was gluing up some wood to become  four legs. 

 After facing the boards on my jointer I glued them together in pairs. I will cut them into squares and turn them on my lathe.  One pair of boards couldn't be glued to day, they were wet, my out side lumber stack cover leaked. No trouble I will not have time to turn all four legs in one day.  My back is getting better, or I am getting better at coping.  I can work in my shop for 3 or 4 hours in a day now,  which is not perfect, but it is much better than no hours a day which it has been in the recent past.

  

  While I was gluing wood today I also re-sawed some spruce to 1/4 inch for a tea box that I plan to make.  I squared the board on my jointer, then re-sawed the boards on my 14 inch band saw and then planed them to thickness with my 12 inch planner.  If I were doing lots of thin board, small projects I would like to have a thickness sander.  At this point I'm set for tools, but...you never know the future.