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

Making A Box Or Two

   I don't really have any projects ahead of me so I think I will make some boxes.  You can always use another box.  To begin I made some lumber. In my lumber rack are many 18 - 30 inch long bits of left over wood.  Much of it is rough, reclaimed from skids or construction lumber. I decided to make some 3/8 and some 1/2 slabs ahead of need.  The joiner and the planner have to be rolled into the centre of the shop and they are both noisy. I  wanted to get the unpleasant part of the work out of the way first. 

various bits of wood.  some of it is domestic but some 

is recovered  exotic hardwood from skids.  A couple of the 

pieces have amazing grain patterns. 

 

Edge gluing clamps. I don't need them 

often but when I do ...they are great.

 For a change I thought I would use my Incra IBox jig fo make a bunch of finger joint boxes.  The previous time I used this jig I had it set up for use on the router table.  This time I thought I would use it on my table saw.  I had to return to the instructional videos as I couldn't remember the set up.  Frankly it doesn't seem intuitive to me.  As you see below, following the instructions enables you to cut finger joints, and quickly once it is set up.  I will make all the boxes with this width of fingers. 

This box is made from a spruce 2 x 4 cut down to 3/8 inch.  Once it is sanded and stained it will look fine.  I think it will be used as a flower box on a window ledge.

  Box making is a nice diversion and generally the result is useful.  The weather is improving, the motorcycle is on the road as is my electric computer bicycle, shortly the car will be only used for cargo trips.

 

I like  Blue Bikes.

cheers Ianw

Three Video TIps

  I have been wandering the Internet recently and found three things that I wanted to share with my readers.

  First a cool little video on the best way to fold up your tarp or drop cloth.

Folding a Tarp, 

there's a better way

  This is another one of those "duh" moments in my woodworking career. 

  There's a Better Way also has a very cool, low cost clamp for edge clamping.

Making Edge Clamps

  It is great to have good quality clamps on hand, but there are times that you just need a couple more clamps to finish the job in good time.  These clamps would serve as supplements to your current stock of Bessey Clamps.

  A the last thing I'm sharing today is an article by one of my all time heroes of the wood shop, Chris Schwarz. You know my feelings on his level headed vision of wood working, I own lots of his books but this recent article for Popular Woodworking Magazine  really spoke to me.

  Chris Schwarz is talking about chisels, what to buy and how much to spend. I really like his advice to start with one good tool and add more only when it becomes necessary.  I love wood working tools and I have lots of them, but I had a bunch that I didn't need, some that were poor quality and others that didn't suit my hands or working method.  If I had heard and listen to advise like Mr. Schwarz's thirty years ago I would have avoided much wasted time and money.

  Christmas is counting down, I hope you are well and working.

cheers, ianw

Clamps-Edge Clamps

   Sometimes we have a tool in our shop that doesn't get used very often.  There are various reasons for intermittent use,the tool may be junk, or buying the tools was an error in judgement because you thought you would be doing that sort of wood work in the future, or maybe it was a deal that was just too good to pass up.


   My edge clamps fall into a fourth category, the so wildly specialised tool it is seldom needed category.  Four or five years ago I bought 8 edge clamps, at a good price.  I had improvised many different ways of holding a thin strip of wood onto the edge of sheet stock while the glue dries over the course of years past and knew that all the attempts worked, kind of, and were all awkward as an ostrich hanging wall paper to use.  I knew I would have to glue something to the edge of a board again, sometime so I bought the clamps.
  
   These clamps never get used more than a couple of times a year, but every time I use them I am glad, glad,glad that I bought them when I did.      In the future I may take on more projects that need that specialised clamp, or I may not but in either case the money was  spend well.