Make a Leg

 Last blog I said I would share the method I used to make the legs for the recent table.  I made the legs with mostly hand tools.

  First I glued elm boards together to give me approximately 1 5/8 squares. Making sure the boards were flat and the glue joint was perfect probably  took more time than making each leg.

  I like elm, it is tough, a bit stringy and  has interesting grain patterns.  The leg is 13 inches long and 1 5/8 square.  I am planning to put a 1 3/8 tenon on one end.

  I drilled out a board to give me a jig for both marking and size testing.

  I've made tenons this size before so I kept the jig from making small tables and stools.

I used the hole to mark the end of the leg blank.

  I marked the tenon to be 1 1/2 inches, then cut into the blank's corners with a fine toothed saw .

  Using a chisel, draw knife and rasp I rounded the tenon until it fit tightly into the hole in the jig.  After the tenon was right I clamped the leg into the vise and planed off the four corners to give a rustic hexagon shape. 

  To do this job the tools I used were a saw, a plane, draw knife (just 'cause I've got one), a rasp and vise to hold the work in place. I used my favourite home made wood rasp.

  If you are ever someplace that is selling hacksaw blades by the bundle cheap, go for it. I can't remember what I paid for this bunch of blades but it was pocket change cheap, and I use it all the time.

  A decent drill with a bit of power will drill the holes in the top/seat and the legs can be made to be sturdy and attractive.  A lathe is nice to have, but not all shops have the space or budget, You can make acceptable legs without a lathe.

cheers ianw

Big Flowerpot

Hooray for found wood.  A couple of weeks ago this construction grade spruce was in a pile by a dumpster. I couldn't let it go to land fill.

 

  What to do with the find?

  What indeed.  A large flowerpot, actually a large wooden pot to cover a smaller plastic pot or, in this case a large pot to be filled with weights to hold  our Norfolk Island Pine from being blown over.   

  This is another project that will cost almost nothing but time. The base is a case off piece of MDF and the sides will be found wood.  I began with a circle and I then cut it into an octagon. My first error was not to mark out the octagon very,very carefully and so all the eight sides are slightly different widths. 

  I made four sides rectangles and 12 inches tall. What then remained was to fit the other four sides.

  I realized as I began fitting the tapered pieces in place that had I made all the square sides the same then all the tapered sides would have been the same and all the angles could have be cut with jigs set on the table saw, or jointer.

  Anyway, I didn't plan that far ahead.  Originally the pot was going to have vertical sides but as I thought about the project I decided it was time to push the project a bit. I cut a 5 degree angle on the bottom of each side which gave me a about a two inch flare for each piece.

  

  I cut and installed each wedge shaped section one at a time.  As with so many of this type of job.  By the time I was finishing the last couple of pieces they were quick and easy. I hand ripped the boards and hand planed each board. By the 7th and 8th it was easy.  The first couple took a tonne of fussing and fooling.  You can see the copper staples I made to hold the top of the boards together. 

  

12 inch base, 12 inches tall and 16 1/2 inches  

across the top.

    I cut two dadoes on each side in which I glued a stretched nylon strap to help hold the container together in use.

  I  may do this again. I have the materials and having learned from this experience the next one will take half the time and be twice as good.

  Anyway, mother nature will batter the pot and not care if it is adequate or a work of art.  I like making stuff with found wood.

cheers ianw

 

 

  

Carved Forks and Finished Spoon

 I finished a couple  for salad forks and my fancy spoon while waiting for glue to dry and dust to settle.  Also I seem to have been busy with other stuff and out of the shop for a few days.

  

  Again I used poplar for the forks. This particular piece of wood has the green and white two tone grain colour that makes poplar unpopular with furniture makers but poplar with me.  The wood has good strength and straight grain but.....the  colour is not neutral,( it even stains strangely)

  I included these forks to encourage beginners. Below are the tools that I used after the basic shape was cut out on the band saw, a coping saw would work as well, only slower.  The fancy spoon is now finish sanded and ready to be sealed. I may stain it first since it isn't really meant to  be a cooking tool just an ornament.      

 

  

The straight bladed draw knife, or push knife is another tool for quickly removing wood.  A good basic carving knife like the one in the middle would do the job too. I used two palm chisels, a straight chisel and a shallow gouge. As you can see I saved money on the knife and the gouge by buying them without handles. There is a point where the beauty of the handle is more ascetic than helpful.  The tiny palm plane is also nice to have but....not necessary, an ordinary block plane would do the work fine.   

These are my two most used hand sanding finishing tools.  Once I am done carving I do plenty of sanding.  I use 80 grit to refine shapes and work my way through to 600 grit for a touch that is silky smooth.  I used dozens of bits of sand paper about the size of a business card. The wine cork makes a good backer for sanding curves.  The other thing is a home made flap wheel using nut and bolt.  I load the bolt with pieces of sand paper and drive it with my cordless drill. 

  I haven't decided what legs to put on the plant stand.  I have a dresser that needs attention and that has taken some attention in the shop.  I've been puzzling on a sander that keeps letting the sand paper slip loose,  I've been designing and painting Easter cards for my grand kids, and so I have filled up my time, outside the shop too.  It is great to have the free time and resources to putter around with many different things.

  cheers ianw

Street Find and Big Spoon

 People throw away the darnedest things.  As I was riding my bike around the neighbourhood on Sunday this garden tool box lay with the trash at the end of a driveway.  Now, admittedly is was not really much to have pride in as it lay.   I don't really know how a person could nail five pre-cut board together and get none of the edges lined up, but, so much the better for me.  I sprung the unglued pieces apart, glued them, lined them up and clamped the whole thing together.  I plan to sand it smooth; at least 400 grit: wood burn and paint garden type designs on the box.  

 

  The coloured leaf design works well as a pattern on light wood.

  The other project from yesterday was to fulfill as request. 

A 45 cm. spoon for stirring large pots filled with cooking fruit.  It has been a great year for pears and so we have pear sauce, jam and juice. Eva wanted a stout spoon so she could mix and coax a pot full of hot fruit while being far enough removed that she wouldn't also get cooked.

  I cut the spoon shape from a piece of 3/4 white oak on the band saw. I used a block plane 

and a palm plane 

very similar to this one to shape the handle.

Once the handle was shaped I used my Dremel tool with flex shaft to shape the bowel of the spoon. I have bits and burrs that I have gathered up and inherited to use with the Dremel, I wouldn't know what bits to recommend, but I do recommend having a Dremel or similar tool in every work shop. Often they can be bought with an assortment of bits included with the tool.  After all the shaping was done I used scrapers and sand paper up too 500 grit to smooth the spoon for final use.  Since the spoon will be soaked and boiled I left it unfinished.  White oak may take on some colour from the food but seems to stand up well in the long term.

  I picked white oak because it is less effected by water than many other woods. While digging the big spoon from the drawer I found it had many friends.

  That is just the spoon, spatula and spreaders that are used in our kitchen.  At least that many have been spread about various other kitchens around Canada, Sweden and Great Britain too. I like it when my work gets used.

 

Oars - A Opa and Kieran Project

  My Grandson likes to work with wood and tools.  When he comes to our house we usually end up making something in the shop.  It is best when we can make something that is useful, and this time we did.

  Soon we will be going to a rented cottage on a lake, we are taking a small inflatable boat and yesterday we made oars.

  We used cedar fence boards to make these 39 inch oars. Since we began the project with 1 1/2 inch square boards it was an opportunity for K to use a hand plane to shape the handles. The blades where cut on our band saw and screwed to the handles with a cordless drill. The new tool for K was the random orbital sander.  He liked how much faster things went when using the sander.  It was always tough to get him to spend time hand sanding.

  Over the last couple of years Kieran has learned to use the band saw, cordless drill, drill press and orbital sander.  The important hand tool he has begun using is the hand plane, and he does like clamps too.  His education in the shop is progressing, slowly, but steadily.

  When he is paddling the boat around at the lake using paddles he made I am sure his level of satisfaction will be higher that if he was using plastic paddles.  

cheers, ianw

Yesterday was Labour Day-A Related Rant-Revised

  So I didn't work.  I went to my Grand daughter's fifth birthday party and ate cake.

  That forgoing statement is only partially true.  Yes I partied and ate cake but, no I worked too.  I didn't build anything in my shop yesterday unless you count the toy I repaired and the glue test I ran, as working ( which is was).  The other two hours were cleaning, organizing, planning and generally putting stuff away where it belongs.  Also work but mostly not credited. Too many people work in offices and talk on the phone as their work, they don't have to clean up, sharpen tools or prepare materials before beginning to work, so they forget about that part of 'work'.  

  At this point I had a multi-paragraph rant about 'work' and 'labour' etc. written this morning. No one wants to read a rant about how people that make and create are undervalued.  Those of us that make and create know that and the other people probably don't read this blog. 

  So I am going to share photos of my latest project with my Grandson. This is why I love to work with wood.  When the batteries are dead,or the plastic has cracked on other toys this thing will be knocking around and inspiring an imagination.

  Kieran holding the submarine that he designed and we made from 2 x 4's recovered from his home renovations.

 The modern conning tower opened to show where this sub stores its drones. The design was K's idea, drones are very fashionable. How it works: He comes up with the ideas and it falls to me to make them happen.

  The sub hinges open totally so that the torpedo tubes can be loaded with elastic bands. There is a firing pin (2 inch nail) that pushes down on the clothes pin from the top.  Everything is a bit rough, 7 years old want results, and this 7 year isn't much interested in sanding.  I am tempted to refine this idea and make a small submarine just for grins.

  I have a video of K planing the edges of the boards, this is a screen shot because I can't figure out how to import my video into my blog. (new software, limited computer expertise, and limited interest too)  Kieran is using my block plane and he used my good saws and drove the screws to hold the hinges with my cordless drill.  At this point he is not tall enough, experienced enough or brave enough to use any power tools beyond the cordless drill.  I hope to get him working on the scroll saw on Christmas holidays. 

  I hope that he will be a builder, a maker and a creator all his life. His sister is getting into the workshop too though it will take a couple more years for her to get big/old enough to really get making.

cheers ianw