The Design Process or How To Make A Mountain Out Of A Mole Hill. Project #10

  Yesterday afternoon I set about fixing a small problem in my shop.  I like to listen to music or pod casts while I work and have been using my tablet computer for that purpose.  A couple of years ago I made a passive speaker system for a previous tablet, my new tablet doesn't fit, of course. I have been leaning the tablet on things and hoping it doesn't get knocked over for a while now, yesterday I decided it was time to take a stand, and make a stand.  Another passive speaker system wasn't necessary but I wanted a stand.

finished version

  My initial plan was basic, cut a slot into a chunk of wood and have it hold the tablet.  Once I got the slot cut I decided it would be a good idea to drill some holes into the wood so the sound wouldn't be blocked.  Okay.  I measured the holes and made an effort to make it look designed rather than random.  

  Then the trouble began: the hunk of wood now needed to be shaped a bit on the band saw, then sanded on the belt sander to make it looked designed rather than random.  That took almost no time and improved the visual effect. What happened next was just silly.  I decided that the general shape needed so be sculpted and shaped, after all I had jumped off the artistic cliff and there was no going back.

  First I decided that the top of the hunk of wood was too plain and so I used my drill press and various chisels to carve out an indentation, in which to put.....I don't know but small somethings now have a place to be put. It wasn't that tough to rough out.  I drilled a bunch of holes with a Forstner bit upon which I have ground off the centre spur.  This modified bit leaves a much smoother bottom .  Not so smooth that it doesn't need to be sanded but not bad.

  Since that worked no bad I completely lost my mind and decided to shape the front side of the tablet stand/wood hunk.  The layout was easy, but I should have recognised the can of worms I was opening when the marking gauge had trouble with the end grain.  

  When I began this project I selected a bit of 2 x 6 spruce lumber from the scrap bit.  Spruce is fairly soft, pretty cheap and totally crap for carving. Not a problem since at the beginning of this process I had no plan to carve, shape or even sand this thing. 

  Now I am trying to cut a dado on a curved surface, across end grain that is course and chippy.  I cut the limits of the dado with a hand saw, then I cut more slots in the waste material hoping that it would make clearing the material away easier.  It didn't. I tried various chisels, fine with the grain, no luck across the grain, on the curve.  Finally I finished the job with wood rasps, they removed the wood but left a surface covered with voids when bits of wood pulled out while being rasped.  The wood that was left was filed smooth and sanded but there were many voids and much tear out.

  The holder was too ugly to be left bare wood and so I had to fill the rough spots with putty  before I resorted to spray paint.  If I'd left it as was I would have to invent a story about it being the loser in a pitch fork catching contest.  

  REALLY, all I wanted was a piece of wood to hold up my tablet computer.  It was organic design? Are organic designed products meant to be ground up and composted when you are done?

  For all that, it does the job, it is holding my tablet right now, and blasting away bassoon concertos. 


cheers ianw

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I have been working away on a repair/restoration job for 10,000 Villages and here are couple of photos of how the job is going.

  That is one of the panels that needed repair. Not only was it cracked but also out of alignment, you can see how much material I had to sand away to get the two edges level. Sanding naturally removed the original finish, now I had to re-stain the panel as best as I could to get a reasonable match with the surrounding wood.

  You can see the colour match is pretty good although the repair to the crack is still visible. Once I put a couple of coats of shellac and wax the finished repair is going to be OK. I don't know if I had, had endless times and resources  whether  I could have hidden the cracks  completely or not.  To have really made the cabinet look good would have involved  making new panels and the way that the builder had glued and pegged everything together I doubt if I could have got the cabinet apart. Sometimes a job just turns out the way it does.

  This vase has a glass vase inside thereby making it a water proof wooden vase.  I made this vase from the recycled spruce from the senior's centre roof.  Spruce is a distinctive and broad grain but not unattractive, and much to good to be used as fire wood.

  As I was working out today's topics an interesting article showed up in my in box.

" Your First Tool Kit" , I agree with everything that he has included.  That would be a good tool kit to take to a shop that supplied all the standard power tools.  I would add to his list a shop knife,  Robertson screw drivers and a coping saw.


  The last thing to talk about today.

  I made a palette for when I am mixing paints.  The paints that I use on toys and other small projects come in tubes or small bottles. A palette gives me some place to mix and manage the paint I need for the project.  I even got fancy and  put a thumb hole in the palette to make it easy to hang on to.  I made this because I was tired of mixing and fiddling with paint on little scraps of wood or card board.  

Lumber for Free

  Lately I have read several blog where the writers have been on the look out for free wood. Last spring I gathered some 2 x 8 lumber from the framing of a house in our neighbourhood.  I didn't sneak in after the workmen left and help myself to lumber in stacks waiting to be used, I wondered over in the evening and collected a bunch of the off cuts that where in the dumpster.  I picked up a couple of dozen 12 to 14 inch pieces of stud grade spruce.  

  Recently the Ancaster Senior Achievement Centre has been under going a major expansion and the contractors left a big pile of these 2 1/2 inch by 6 1/2 by mixed lengths up to 24 inches, pieces of quality spruce in our wood working shop.

I cut the profile off with my band saw and then cleaned it up with my jointer.

   The quality of the lumber is pretty good. It is being used for the roof of the extension and so it is sort of "tongues in grooves", and it appears to be bolted together since some of the pieces have pre-drilled holes.  I brought a half dozen of the pieces home to work on in my shop and found them pretty good.

 

  Some of the pieces were really just fire wood by the time I got the checking cut off the end and worked around the bolt holes, but I got some nice pieces none the less. On the left you can see 5 half inch pieces and all but one is clear.  I will make those pieces into a small box and the piece of the left is a glue up that I am going to make into a shallow bowl or tray, I haven't decided yet.

  Initially the pieces I brought home looked as though there would be more usable wood than it turned out.  However, the price was right and with care during prep and finish this wood will make some nice little projects.  Saving money is good and not wasting money is better.  If we didn't use the wood that was left from the roof it would have ended up in land fill somewhere. 

   Even the stuff too rough to use in the carpentry shop will end up in my chums fire place. Waste not: Want not.