Back Home Again.

  It seems that the last two months have flown by in a whirlwind of world travelling.  My wife and I just returned from twelve days in Sweden with our children and two grand daughters.  The kids are nice, but the 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 year old girls  are the real reason for making the trip. After a long but uneventful trip home yesterday, I've completed my unpacking and am returning to routine.  One of my favourite routines is shop time.

  This morning after breakfasting and dealing with laundry I went down to my shop, made a coffee and a plan.  You can see my drip coffee maker in the back ground and my wooden coffee spoon in the fore ground. The coffee is great in Sweden but coffee at home just tastes that little bit better. 
   

  I thought I should get working on something, just to see if I remember how.

  In the garage by the back door is a small shelving unit upon which we store fruit and vegetables. The unit is  from a flat pack store and you can see we use left over refrigerator trays for storage.  This morning I decided I needed to make a couple of drawers to use up the rest of the space more efficiently, 'cause we need it? no. 'Cause I like making boxes, and stuff that has a use. 

  If you are going to make boxes one of the best tools to have is a router table and rabbeting bits. 

  Second only to a round over bit I use my set of rabbeting bits most frequently. It is nice to travel, but it is nice to be back too.

   These drawers are being made from plywood and lumber from the 'left over' bin.  I like box joints but they turn out better when you begin with solid wood rather than plywood.  Maybe the next project will have nicer wood.

   cheers, Ian

Sweden looks like Muskoka Ontario to me.

Picking the Right Wood.

  Sometimes I make my projects from the wood I have on my shelves. Other times I choose the wood for my project to match or stand out in relation to the decor that will surround it. Still other times I choose the wood for its mechanical                 characteristics, like weight, strength or resistance to rot and weathering. 

  If you are a follower of the Harry Potter's stories their wands were made from a variety of woods with magical inclusions. My grand daughter's birthday is this coming weekend and I was asked to provide wands for her and her fairy princess guests.

12 inch wands with bells attached,
there will be ribbon attached later.

  The initial thought for the wands was to simply buying  dowel and spray it gold. I decided against dowel for two reasons, these wands are bass wood which is lighter than dowel of sufficient diameter, basswood is also less likely to break if stepped on. If it does break and it will certainly not splinter leaving a dagger like end the way a dowel can.

 I was easy enough to rip off 3/4 pieces of bass wood and then use a round over bit on my router table to shape the sticks. 

 It took more time to work with the wood than dowel, after all it had to be shaped, sanded and then painted. I considered putting unicorn tail hair or phoenix feather into the heart of these wands, but, I suspect that nine four year old fairy princesses filled with cake and ice cream will cause enough chaos without extra magic.  

D.I.Y Reuse Project

  I know that I am supposed to make projects in my shop from walnut or hand planed cherry. Trouble is I am cheap and I like all wood, without discrimination.  We eat lots of clementine oranges and they come in small crates made from wood.

  Recently I needed a small box in which to put bathroom vanity stuff so I grabbed a orange crate from the garage.

  With a bit of sanding and a handle this turned in a usable box. There is nothing better for making things like this handle than pine or bass wood. I shaped the handle on the band saw and then rounded the edges on my router table. The whole thing took less than 20 minutes including a quick and easy spray paint job.

box with green foam lining 

  The result of my 20 minutes work turned out okay and it is wood, not plastic. 

the box filled with bathroom jink

  cheers, ianw

Oopps I did it again. cut my finger again that is

   I had a little production line going making 3/8 inch quarter round.  I needed about 30 feet of that stuff to hold the 12 stained glass window panes in the door for our down stairs bathroom.  This door project has been on going for a few months but now the glass is ready and the door and frame painted, all that remained was for me to make a bunch of 1/4 round to hold the panes in place.

   A job like making wee pieces of trim is why I keep off cuts.  I had a pile of 18-36 inch pieces of poplar, 2 inches wide (more or less) and 1/2 inch think.  The process was assembly line perfect.  
First, the planer.

   I make an effort to be careful with the planer so I only plan pieces at least 12 inches long and usually 18 inches and up.  Aside from the safety aspect short pieces suffer from snipe big time.  I planed half a dozen boards and then went to work on the router table and table saw.

  First I cut a round over profile on the boards at the router table, at all times showing that whirring blade the total respect that it deserves.   I never let my fingers get close to the blade, never, the router table sort of scares me.

   After cutting the profile I went to the table saw and ripped off a thin piece.

    Then I would go back to the router and cut another profile, and then rip off another thin strip.  

    I was  very careful with the planer, and super careful with the router table and well, I've used a table saw for years.

    Years of experience can just lead to carelessness.  I cut the tip of my left index finger really well trying to get one more thin strip of trim, one too many it seems.  I lost about half of the finger nail and have a serious slice in the ol' digit.  Lots of blood and lots of feeling stupid.  

    This afternoon I  made  a splint to protect the tip from being bumped, which was happening every few minutes.  The splint is a good idea, bumping, not so much.   Another good idea is I put the guard back on the table saw, and it is staying there.  If I can't make the cut with the guard on, I am not making the cut.  I have a router table, a band saw, a jig saw, a circular saw, a reciprocal saw, several hand saws etc. etc.  there will be a way for me to do a job with out getting bitten, again.  This is the worst injury from a table saw and the second in four years, that is a message to smarten up. I guess I was just too obtuse to get the message four years ago.

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.

Making Trim

     A couple of years ago I bought 1500 running feet of 2 7/8in x 1/2in x 14 ft. poplar from a local lumber yard.  The story was that the mill had run the stock and it was supposed to be 3 inch and they didn't want to store the wood until something smaller was ordered.  What ever the story I bought the wood at a very good price and survived the stare of disbelief when it arrived and occupied a big section of the family garage.

  It seemed at the time as though it would be a life time supply of poplar.   When I finish this latest project, trimming the recently completed family room, I expect it will be nearly all gone.

  Making trim is dead easy and fairly dull work, if you have the tools.  Lets look at the process in this situation.

  1. I have to cut the 14 foot lengths down to 5 to 8 foot lengths so that I can work safely and comfortably in my small shop area.  Anyway, I will have to put it up myself and 8 feet is a manageable length.

2. After I cut the poplar to length I run it across the router table to create my profile.

3. Then I run it through the table saw to cut the secondary piece that I glue/nail to the wide section to get a profile with a little bit of a shoulder.  I need a little more width to cover some of the irregularities in the recycled wood paneling that is going on the family room walls.

4. glue, nail, wait to dry and stain or paint depending on where in the room it goes.

   None of those steps is really challenging as long as you have the right tools.  I talked about the hold fasts being made by the blacksmith, Anthony Moore, in a previous blog entry.  Same thing, It is was dead easy for him to make the hold fast, all it took was a forge, mighty hammer,  a bending bench and 10 years experience and practice.

the profile features beveled edges instead of rounded edges.

    I stained the trim dark walnut and put it up against light pecan paneling and it looks pretty good.  A  couple more days of dedication and cutting of mitre corners and on to the next project.

   I'll show a photo or two next week.