Large Flower Pot Cover

  Few things are more enjoyable than making something that someone needs.  My daughter has a container plant on her deck that gets blown over regularly so the request was made for a large wooden box to contain the plant pot and ballast against the wind.

  The only thing more enjoyable than making useful things is making it with the help of a Grand Kid. This weekend my grand son and I used reclaimed lumber to make a big box.

The base of the box is 15 inches square with 15 inch sides. 

 The skids I picked up last week are now turned into something useful. My grandson did the majority of the work on this project. He cut a skid apart and did most of the measuring, drilled all the holes and drove all the screws. 

 

  My role was to be the extra set of hands that held things while he drove screws, or measured. This was a great project in which he added the use of two new tools to his experience.

  I introduced the bandsaw and drill press a few years ago but this time I thought he was ready for the sliding mitre saw and belt sander.

  

 My grand son is a big boy just finishing grade seven, also he is thoughtful and cautious, so I am pretty comfortable showing him power tools, knowing his nature.  First we talk about safety, what to do and what can go wrong.  Then I give him a slow motion demonstration of how to use the tools.  On the sliding mitre saw for the first few cuts I held the wood for him so he could concentrate totally on the blade. By projects end he was making cuts by himself.  Things aren't to the point that he can use those tools alone in  my shop but I'm confident that he can manage without me having to hover over his shoulder.

  The belt sander smoothed the worst spots on the box and we then used gel stain to sort of even out the colour.

  Not only was this a great way to spend a while in the work shop it continued Kieran's  workshop evolution.  In the past he was impatient to finished and never bothered to sand or stain/varnish his work.  The sanding wasn't great but it is a step toward greater pride of purpose. 

  Next time more attention to detail will make for a more attractive result, I am sure.

cheers ianw

  

Finished Rocking Chair and New Plant Stand

 I got the little rocking chair repair complete, save painting.  I decided to leave the chair unfinished since I think it needs to be painted, and of course I have no idea what colour the next owner will want.  The replacement part is made from oak and cut with the band saw and shaped with rasps and files. I had to bore out and replace 8 or 9 dowels to put it all back together. Ya got to love Gorilla Glue.

Last Tuesday afternoon my friend came with another excellent plan.

  I have made a few things for D & E and always I am supplied with a very, very detailed plan. D and I worked away for about 90 minutes, including coffee drinking time. This planter used two 2x2x8 and two 1x2x8 and when we were done there was less than 12 inches of left over wood. A really good little project for a shop the size of mine and.....easier with a good plan to follow.

  I am  working on finishing up things that have hung around. Next some box tops.

cheers, ianw

A New Year

  Happy New Year everyone.  I hope that 2020 will be a good year for you, your family and your workshop.

  I was into my shop on Saturday for the first time in 2020.  Naturally, the thing that needed to be done first was to clear away and clean up the tools and wood chips from our recent wood carving experience.  This last time I  let my grandson down tools and walk away, usually we are more professional and  clean up when we are done. He has very good workshop safety habits, not quite as good clean up habits.  Well...safety first.

  Once I got going on the clean up I used the new year momentum to carry me into the back of the shop,(the part never shown in photos) where I spent some time with the shop vac and the garbage bin.  I have all my large tools on wheels and there is room for everything, just not enough room for everything to be out at once and so it can get chaotic and dusty in no time.

  My latest project was a simple task.  

  When a project is taken on I make a budget decision,  what am I willing to spend on that project? How much Money, Time and Energy.  

  Money, Time and Energy are in finite supply.  Not in limited supply but definitely in finite supply.  While at university I wrote an essay exploring the reality of M,T,&E.  As a younger person I often chose to spent time and energy to save money. Now that I am retired I can spend time to save money, and as a retired person my time is pretty flexible.  Alas, as a retired person with ongoing back pain issues energy is the limiting factor in all my  shop now.

  The project, I needed to make a frame to fit inside a large light fixture. The wooden frame will be fastened to the ceiling, the metal light fixture will be screwed to the wooden frame.

16 by 62 inches, and weighs a tonne.

   This light will have LED lights hanging down and the lights will be covered by stained glass shades made by my wife.  An electrician, with a helper are coming next Monday to put it up. 

  Had I chosen to spend a few dollars and buy two 2 x 4 x 8 this would have been a twenty minute job, even with the half lap joints in the corners.

  What did I do?  I went to the garage,  dragged out a reclaimed rough 4 x 4 that I picked up off the side of the road last spring.  

  The beam was twelve feet long so I still have a fair bit left because I decided to rip it into 2 x 4 size anyway.

  This was a case of spending time and energy to save money.  In reality I wasn't worried about saving money, I just wanted to make some saw dust and play with my toys and use a piece of wood that was hanging around the garage.

  I ripped the beam on my band saw after using the jointer to get a square corner by jointing adjacent sides.  The piece was a bit long for the size of my band saw table so I needed to dig out my roll stand. (seem in above photo).  The stand was not tall enough so I had to find a box large enough for the stand to stand on, all for one cut.

  After I ripped the 4 x 4 I cut it to length on my sliding mitre saw and opted to use half lap joints, mostly for the heck of it, partly for the inherent  strength.

  Have you ever looked for half lap videos on You Tube. "How to Make a Half-lap Joint".."Half Lap joints three way". etc.  If you have a quiet evening there are videos that are a half hour long or more.  I picked a couple of short ones to share.  

  I cut my joints on the band saw and by hand.  The short pieces were cut on the band saw the 62 inch ends where cut by hand.  I used a combination of hand saws, planes and chisels to get the joints aligned and fit together.  

  All together I spent the entire morning fiddling around in my shop.  What a great start to the new year.  

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

So I built another box

  If we are being honest nearly everything we build in our woodworking shop is a box, unless you are Izzy Swan, then you build a t-rex. I set out to make this particular box to fill a small organizational need in our kitchen/dining room.

 As I was making this project I encountered a few things that I wanted to share with my reading public.

  I decided to use the sides from this wine bottle box and my Bessey Duo Clamp did a very good job of pushing the sides apart without cracking the wood.

  When I got to the assembly stage there are Bessey clamps again. This box has no metal fasteners, just Weldbond glue and sufficient clamping time.

  The ends of my box are aromatic cedar, I love the colour and the grain of this wood. An FYI it can be very brittle. Initially I was going to cut the dados by hand but the wood was breaking out uncontrollably when I used my chisel to make a 1/4 inch dado. The better option was to use my sliding mitre saw for this cut.  

  I cut my left index finger working on my table saw a couple of seasons ago and resolved (and promised my wife) that I would leave the guard on the table saw and use other tools when the guard got in the way.  I have only taken the guard off my saw twice to use my stacked dado set, I get along fine with my router table, mitre saw and other tools 99% of the time.

  Part of the reason I wanted to make the box was to try my Red Neck Polissior. Cedar looks great with a wax finish.

There it is, ugly,wrapped in Duct tape 

and ready to use.

  Well, it didn't get used because I found a source of quality broom corn and my wife had an inspiration to replace the hose clamps holding the broom corn.

 The clamps are replaced my zip ties. The ties are spread out to fit between my fingers and all the lumps are on one side. 

 The end result is a box to go on the island between our kitchen and dining room to hold all the stray papers and magazines that collect there.

  The cedar polished up great with the polissoir and bee's wax. I will continue to experiment with this finishing method but so far I like the result and zero drying time.

 cheers, ianw