The Home Workshop Bonus - working with Grand Kids

  When I ramble about I usually take a walking stick with me.  This past week our oldest Grand daughter was with us and she and I went for a walk in the forest. She found this stick and I work shopped it so we each have walking sticks. This was not a serious job but having a really sharp shop knife meant cleaning it up was easy. 

  After I cleaned the bark off the top and sanded the wood smooth and then gave it a good coat of paste wax. Then I dug into my cabinet of wonders and found a rubber foot for the walking stick. The cabinet of wonders is filled with, STUFF: leather, rubber feet, wheels and guitar stings, buttons and all sorts of craft/shop things.  Every house needs a cabinet of wonders. 

  

  The thing we made together this week was a Gecko House for Churro the Golden Crested Gecko.

  Clara designed the house.  I cut the pieces out on the mitre saw but she drilled all the holes using the drill press and sanded all the edges until they were Gecko friendly. Also, Clare nailed all the pieces together with almost no help from me.  She even learned about a nail set.

  We were not sure how or if the gecko would react to paint or finish so the project remains unfinished.  

  It was great fun working with my Grand daughter on a shop project. It was a good learning experience too, she had to design and measure out the project as well as learn to wait as the glue dried.  Most importantly she learned about sanding.  If a wood worker can accept sanding as a necessity, then all their project will look and feel nicer.

cheers ian w 

Woodworking and Making

   I was not aware that "making" was a thing as I grew up, because I lived in a family of "makers".  We often made things that we wanted and until computer chips invaded all aspects of life home made things were pretty good.

  I am still a "maker" as well as a wood worker.  Something I have done for years is make books.  I took a book binding course at college 35 years ago and have bound my own note books since then.  Recently I have been making sketch books for my Grand Children.  My most recent book:

6 x 9 inch pages.

    I mixed a variety of techniques to make a sketch book from mixed-media paper and I recycled the card stock from a frozen pizza box for the cover.  I may need to re-enforce the corners before the book is used up.  I  have 24 pages stitched with waxed thread which makes for a study and useful sketch book.  This is an easy thing to do in a 'wood shop' all you need is glue, half a dozen spring clamps and a sharp knife.  I've been doing things with re-used paper for years. 

   While I've been puttering about in my shop my wife has been very busy finishing her latest stained glass project.

  To enable Eva to work as high as she needed we created a platform upon which the ladder stood.  The platform is oak church pew (3/4 inch) Since I have a well equipped shop the wood is firmly clamped together and then clamped to my two saw benches, with the wings supported by stools.  Eva wasn't interested in taking any risks while working on the ladder.

  Eva  carefully hung 60 pieces of cut stained glass to finish the entrance way light fixture.  

    In the wood shop I have been working on a crochet hook case from Eva.

  I opted to drill out the interior of the case.  In the past I have tried to use a router to clear out material but I have not had success.  The router is an excellent tool in practised hands, but mine aren't,  so drilling out the waste material works most comfortably for me.  This particular forstner bit has had its centre bit ground off to make clean up easier.

  These weights hold the inserts down while the glue dries.  My original plan was to use small hinges on this box, but the cheap salvaged hinges would not provide good enough alignment.  I decided to use leather for the hinge.

  The inside of the hook case remains only to be varnished and this project is done.  I will search out a small hook/latch once I am out and shopping again.

  While doing these various small things and waiting for the glue to dry I have been sorting out and throwing away things in the shop.  I knew I saved stuff.  But the saved stuff is beginning to impinge on the reason that it was saved.  So far I've filled a garbage bag with solid wood finishes and useless cleaning rags.  I had many small jars with a 1/2 cup of stain, or vanish, or oil or ..... All of which is passed being useful and it is time it was tossed out.   I have also been sharpening things, my 'day to day'  chisels are over due for attention as are some shop knives.  

  The biggest issue is going to be the back of the shop.  I have a shelving unit that is the catch all, dumping zone for all manner of scraps and found  bits.  Before I get into it in a big way I need to hang another work light in that dark corner.  Have you even noticed that one job leads to another?

  I'm baking bread, varnishing projects and vacuuming the house today, as well as blogging. Really, luckily, I haven't been forced to change my life much.

  cheers, ianw

Organizing, still, it may take a long time.

  One of the many advantages of having a serious shop space easily at hand is the making of custom solutions to everyday problems.  

  The problem was the tangle of wire by my Wife's computer.  The are three modem related bits of equipment, all requiring their own transformer/adaptor. As well there is the charging station for our phones, and Eva's computer.

  For a while all this related spaghetti has been corralled into a shoe box, more or less. This sort of mess makes it difficult to vacuum with out un-plugging something and messing up the internet or phones.  The other issue is the wasted floor space in our small entry area.  Since we have been making a serious effort on our annul spring cleaning (once a decade) this tangle has become a priority.

  I will show you the solution to this mess.  

isn't that just so much better!!

    I added a narrow shelf to the small bookcase and cut some holes through the back, creating a special shelf for the three modem related gadgets.  The famous lizard now has its own place of honour up off the floor and out of the way.  Best of all, that box on the lower shelf contains the surge protected power bar into which all the other gear is plugged.

all five things plugged in, yet hidden.

  I wanted to use the surge protected power bar, 'cause I am old school.  The other reason I didn't just plug everything into the wall behind the book case is that occasionally we need to re-boot our router by turning off the power.  This way all that needs to happen is to open the lid and turn the power bar off for a few seconds.  Everything re-sets at once, easy-peasy. 

  Since I have a basement work shop with lots of tools and too many bits of wood I was able to make the box to fit exactly on the bottom shelf, exactly, not just close because that was what was available at the store. Also we have a nice little wooden box on our wooden bookcase, not a plastic thing, all the way from China. The shelf is  cut to size and stained from materials at hand.

  Making the box was interesting.  I set out to make a box with mitred corners like the last one but ended up with wood of two different thicknesses so opted for dados on the corners.  Cutting the dados could have been done on the table saw, or the router table. I have dado blades for my saw and lots of different router bits.  However I opted for the quickest and easiest  way to cut four small dados.  I used my sliding mitres saw.  I have done this many times when I needed just a few small dados cut.  I raise the blade and put a spacer against the fence to enable to raised blade to cut fully across the board.  Making the set up time short makes up for the multiple passes needed to clear the dado completely.

   

    This box is the last of the wood from the dresser.  I made the entire box with glue and my lead gravity clamps. This project took a couple of evenings because I wasn't in a hurry.  I cut the box out and glued it together and used the drying time to work on the long chair rail and a couple of other small things. Having several  things on the go at once doesn't bother me, much.  I have found that different projects move me around the shop, which is good for my back.  If I stay in one position too long,  carving, or painting or whatever my back complains loudly.

  Once the glue set on the sides I glued on an over sized top and bottom.  When that  glue dried completely I used hand saws to cut the top and bottom to size which I then planed and sanded before finishing.  I have been listening to audio books and podcasts lately and working with hand tools is quieter and more relaxing while I listen.

  If you are like me, part of the reason you work in wood is for the "Zen" sort of relaxation that  it can bring.  One of my meditation projects is tool handles.

  I buy all my files/rasps un-handled and most of my chisels that way as well.  While glue or vanish was drying I made a handle for this small file.  It began as a piece of 3/4 inch hardwood dowel into which I drilled a small through hole.  I then widen the hole so the shoulders of the file would seat firmly into the wood.  While things dried I listened to music or a books and shaped the handle with my wicked sharp shop knife.  ( I have the carbon steel version that cost $6.50 Cdn in Sweden).  I get as much satisfaction for hand shaping a handle for one of my tools as basic as it seems as I do making many of my projects.  I also love whittling with a really good knife, even if all I am doing is make small sticks, smaller.

  Carrying on woodworking.

cheers, ianw

Sunny Nook in the front of the house

view facing  north east from the hallway

view facing north west from our galley kitchen

  At the front of our house is an alcove that is famously called a "breakfast nook" on the blue print.  We don't breakfast there but we have made it into a nice little spot that gets a remarkable amount of sun even though it faces north. When I set out to write this blog I was going to talk about how it is more practical sometime to break down and buy from an "Ikea" sort of place and then make adjustments to suit your situation then it is to build from scratch.

   We went out last week and bought the Ikea storage units called Expedit. On Saturday we assembled the pieces and slid them into the nook space.

  I know that Expedit is just boxes and I could have made them in the shop but.... not for anything like the cost that Ikea charged, if my time was worth anything. And while I love wood, the clean and cleanable finish of the melamine is not something that I can do in my shop, so for that reason and the fact that we like the clean lines of the Scandinavian style, Expedit works just fine. We feel that it is furniture that blends in, and is sort of invisible rather than standing out to be seen.

  Having assembled the Expedit and installed the accessory boxes I set about making the unit user friendly.  The boxes are 12 inches deep, great for sweaters and socks, not so great for the random  stuff that collects by the computers at the front door of our house.

  

  I decided that I would make a two smaller boxes to fit inside the cloth accessory box.  That what workshops are for, right?

 

  Then I decided that I didn't what to make a wooden box, it would be heavy, so I recycled the card board in which the Ikea unit was shipped.

   Making the cardboard container was like a shop project.  I had to prepare the material by cutting it to size, just like a wood project.  The layout used my standard shop tools, a large layout square, ruler and pencil, instead of a saw I used my shop knives to cut the cardboard to size.  To make the container more rigid  I made it three layers thick by gluing the layers together with Weldbond glue. I've always thought of Weldbond as the ultimate "white glue".  Needless to say the joints had to be taped since there was not enough smooth bearing surface to glue the edges together like I would with wood.

     The 12 x 13 1/2 x 6 inch box that was glued and taped together sits in the bottom on the cloth box, and on top of it sits another cardboard box. ( 12 x 13 x 4 in)

this is the container in the upper left hand of the third photo. 

  The top box has a handle that I knocked off in the shop from scrap wood  using, a band saw, a wood rasp and two different sanders. Since it have the tools I am like to customize things.  You can see in the top of the photo a three peg rack that holds keys; a bit of scrap wood, three short lengths of dowel and a bit of glue, easy peasy. 

   Now there is a place for all that stuff that hovers around the door, you know keys, note books, shopping bags, wallets, phones etc.  Instead of sitting in a heap on a table by the door it is all safely out of sight in a box/drawer.

   What I discovered as I took the photo to show off the space was something very special:

  In that photo are four things of special significance, two are wood and two are art.

  The art first, deep in the corner is an abstract painting by our daughter-in-law, on the other side of the window are the other two small paintings that compliment the painting behind the palm. Hanging on the wall is an art print of a frog, that I gave Eva for an anniversary gift years ago. The frog is very cool and was created by one of our kid's friends from University so there is a personal connection as well as artistic value.

   The wood; that little brown book case was made for my Mother by her father, at least 60 years ago.  It is a sad little bookcase that was clearly hammered together in a basement workshop with no idea that it would still be around so many years later. The other special piece is the bench that is under the window, my father cut the tree down at our cottage from which the bench is made and shaped and sanded the rough lumber with basic tools to make a bench for my front hallway, about three houses ago. The cottage is gone, as is my Father but the bench will last, like the bookcase to one day be in the hallway of on of my grandchildren's houses.  I love wood.

cheers, ianw