Wood shop = Repair Shop

 There is great satisfaction in making new things, trying new techniques and expressing one's creative spirit. Wood and related products are excellent mediums for all those things.  However, a wood shop also is a great place to reuse and repair.

  Currently my shop space is filled with several repair/renew projects.  I started the garden benches a while ago and I am waiting an opportunity to sand blast the ends.

  I am renewing and finishing a doll house.

  This doll house is from a kit and a friend gave it to me to finish and then give away.  It seems the original building lost interest about 7/8 of the way through.  It needed little things, like, all the edges were razor sharp, there was lots of fiddly sanding to do. (a good time for needle files.) I had to paint and attach the external fire place covering and there is lots of detail painting yet to do.

 As my wife was putting the yard to bed a couple of repairs came into the shop. The most interesting is a big red fish.

  This fish is made from a piece of construction 2 x 10, that had seem better days. The dowel that stuck out the bottom rotted away and the top fin and the tail fin are broken off. There is little that is special about this bit of garden statuary, other than I worked on it with Grand Kids. Is it worth fixing, or.....just make something new for the garden. I guess I will have to decide. My first impulse is to repair, but...maybe replace makes as much sense.

  Once I started this blog I began to doubt the fish's future, before I wrote the blog I was sure I would repair it.  Interesting how writing things down effects your thinking. 

  Christmas is right around the corner, if you are planning to make gifts, you better get on it.

cheers ianw

    

   

Anniversary Gift

   It is our 20th wedding anniversary, who would have guessed it.  

   I've been away from the blog and the shop for a while.  We had family visiting at the beginning of the months and I've been struggling with back pain issues lately too.

  So last week I finally  got into the shop to make a couple of projects on the lathe. 

  Recently my wife bought some rovings ( fat unspun yarn) and needed some really big knitting needles and a crochet hook. These items are 25 mm or 1 inch in diameter. The crochet hook was easy,  I rough shaped it on the bandsaw and used sand paper to smooth and shape the final product.

  The needles were a little bigger project. I mounted the dowel in my lathe and used chisels to shape the pointed end.  I wanted  the point to be exactly centered, using the lathe made that possible. Also it was quick and easy to sand the needles to 400 grit before using paste wax for the finish.

  On the end of the needles are disks that came from a clearance bin in a craft supply store. Wood glue and one self taping screw secured the disk solidly.  I expect some very warm scarves this winter.

  This seems to be the season for yard work and motorcycle rides. I will get into the shop if it ever rains again.

cheers ianw