Pigs and Skids

 I finished the two little boxes for my Grand daughters. The boxes were inspired by bandsaw boxes.

 When all was said and done the wee boxes are sort of pigs

  They will serve as a small hiding place, for a treasure or a treat.

 

  The props are for illustrative purposes only. The pig on the left is Ash, and the freckles are were the Emerald Ash Borer did its business. The right hand pig is a true bandsaw box.  On the left is a version were I carved out the inner space with chisels and forstner bits.

  As I use forstner bits regularly for waste removal a while ago I modified a 3/4 inch bit by grinding the center point off.  This way I get a flat bottomed hole, which makes clean up quicker.

  I was out and about recently and came across a small stash of light weight wood skids.

  I hate to pass up free wood.  I picked up four skids like this, the planks are about 3/8".  The wood is rough but cleans up not bad and will make a couple of small boxes or pots to hide plastic inner pots. 

useful boards

BBQ starter boards

  All that is not re-used are the terrible rusty nails. 

  I use reclaimed wood regularly in my shop and I have a saw that I use to cut unknown and dirty wood.

  A few years ago I bought this, it is a rough carpentry/pruning saw. This is the saw I reach for for fast rough cross cutting of all sorts of material.  I think its design was for cutting plastic pipe, but it tears though wood.  I have a set of really nice hand saws and several power tools as well, but for quick cuts this is faster than getting my reciprocating  saw out of its box.

cheers, ianw

  

 

Another Group of 10,000 Villages Repairs

  Being away on holiday does not prevent the rest of the world from carrying on.  I came home to five things from 10,000 Villages that needed repair.  As I have been working on these things it struck me how a repair shop is different from a typical wood working shop. 

  For example I am making a repair to a glass goblet.  At some point in this glass objects life it got chipped, small but sharp edged. Repairing it is not a typical wood shop job.  I turned to my collection of glues and mixed up a tiny dab of two part epoxy and filled in the chipped spot.  The repair is not invisible but the goblet can now be discounted and some one will buy it as an object d' art rather than a regularly used wine glass.

two part glue at work 

  While talking about glue, here is a video of a band saw box being glued together using adhesive and hardener. This is  the more typical wood shop application.

   Another repair pending is trying to remove this stain, or repaint the piece to try and hide the it. 

  This piece is painted with acrylic paint and I have already tried to remove the stain but I am pretty sure it is brown paint that was left to dry by accident.  I am going to have to over paint this blotch to hide it.  Luckily! I have a pretty good selection of acrylic paint kicking around. Again a repair shop needs various types of paint that a serious wood shop could live without. (happily) 

  I also have a typical repair on my wood bench.  It is a carved box from Indonesia, and the lid doesn't close properly.  The solution is some planing and sanding. Once sanded I repair the finish using orange shellac. I am very fond of shellac, but I wonder how many wood workers still use shellac as a sealer or finish?  The new water based sealers seem to be pretty good, now.

  The repairs that I have done for both 10,000 Villages and other customers draw heavily on a small selection of tools.  Knives and scrappers, glues and clamps, drill press, hand drills  and bits and sometimes fine blades saws.  Seldom do I need a table saw, router, jointer or planer, power doesn't seem to be as important in repair work as patience.  It has been a long evolution from being a power tool, belt sander kind of guy to where I am now.  

  Just proves...you can teach a old dog new tricks.

cheers, ianw