Small Projects and Lessons Learned

 

This is what Easter looked like two years ago.  My sister in law and niece 

are cake bakers supreme.

Alas, no family get together last year or this, next year ....

nice plant.

This is the plant stand finally finished.  I messed up the varnish coat and it had to be sanded stained again and varnished.  I should know better than to experiment on a commissioned project.  I have learned to let my glue dry so I will learn not to mess with finishes, someday.

  This is the first thing I am working on, using up left over and stray 2x4. We have four plastic spools that are about 3 1/2 feet in diameter that came from my brother's workplaces trash. The spools looked too get to throw away so he brought them home for me.  Eva and I decided that they would make really nice little patio tables for little people. (of whom the family is well equipped again) I am ripping old 2x4 into size and putting four in each spool to increase rigidity.  There is consideration being given to covering the tops with tile mosaics.

 

  This is one of those projects at use time to save money.  The fast and easy way would be to buy a bundle of 2x2 strapping and bang these things out.  Since I am using old, stained, weather, cracked wood there is ripping and sawing and fiddling that needs to be done.  Not the least of which is making sure there are no nails/screws in the wood already.  Anyway, this type of job is a relaxing, low stress thing, doing when I want and how I feel.

  The other job is a learning project for me. In October 2019 I made a box for my bathroom stuff.

  Having lived in a wet environment next to my sink this thing has begun to rot away.  I decided to make a new one, that used the space better.  This purple box was an orange crate that I re-purposed. The next unit is designed to fit a specific space.

  I have never made anything with curves before and wanted to try it before taking on a real project.

  It was an interesting little project for me, probably what I learned I should have known years ago but as a self taught wood worker there can't help but be gaps. To get the shape/curve I needed I traced the space on a newspaper, cut it out and refined the curve. I used Baltic birch plywood for all the straight edges and the bottom. The bottom stands on cork feet to try and keep things dry.  The bent wood is elm ripped to less than 1/8 inch.  Needless to say the grain runs the length, surprisingly  the elm bent easily without heat or being dampened. 

   A few years ago I saw a bread box in Sweden that was round for storing their typical round hard bread sort of like this one.

The round bread is about 12-14 in diameter and a couple of inches deep per package.  There are usually 5 - 6 slices in each package. 

  I thought the round container was cool, it was covered with painted and wood burned folk art that made it unique and personal.

  I have some more elm and I think with steam I should be able to bend the sides around without too much trouble. We shall see.

cheers ianw

p.s. It is April 20th and I am looking out the window at light snow.  Jeez.

  

Fern Stand

   A while ago we where in a nursery looking for garden plants when we encountered a very large Boston fern being sold off cheap.  We can not turn down a deal, and I have been rescuing orphan plants that no one else wanted for years.

 Once we got the plant home the question was, Where do we put it?  It  needs floor space in a very sunny spot.  The solution was  building the plant stand that you see in the above photo. The stand was pretty basic but it gave me  chance to try two techniques.

    One was cutting the top round after doing an edge to edge glue up. This time I tried it  on the band saw.  I think I will try using a router and jig the next time.  For this application the top will be lost under the fern soon anyway so the precision of the circle is not too important. 
   
   And the second techniques was to cut fluting in the pillar section.  I saw an article in a wood working magazine talking about using the router and router table and thought I would give it a try.

    I set up the router bit on the table and went from marks on the project by eye rather than from set stops.  I think that set stops will give a more accurate result.  Also I think I will try to make the cuts on two passes, I hope getting a much smoother finish on the second pass, making sanding unnecessary. All together I was pleased with the result since this was a prototype using left over bits of wood from the scrap bin
   
    For the final project I will make the pillar a long hollow box with mitred corners so that there will be no glue lines to distract from the fluting.  I think I will also stain it old style walnut colour to get some of the antique feel to the project. Stay tuned for the result.