It's been a while

  It has been a while since I blogged last, that doesn't mean I've not been busy. I am one coat of varnish away from having the table finished. My plan is to have it up stairs and out of my way tomorrow.

  On the weekend my Grandson and I found a video on You tube and made a wooden whistle. Now that we have a method, next time,  production: we'll make whistles for all his friends. His school teacher will love us.

  Having the table is the way has limited my ambitions so what have I done.  I sanded to 600 grit and then carved a trivet.

   It is a small space, no noise basic tool thing to do while hanging out in the workshop.  Everyone needs trivets and hot pads. This trivet is exactly the right size for a French Press coffee pot. 

Or a really big coffee mug.

  Another thing I did while sitting around one evening is finish sanding and shaping an olive/pickle tray from oak.  I laid this out years ago while I was developing my skills with my Dremel tool. While I was sitting around waiting for the varnish to dry i decided to finish shaping and sanding.

  I cut the basic shape on the band saw and then gouged out the inside with the Dremel.  One evening last week I sat quietly listening to music and hand sanded the tray smooth.  Since the tray is curved I split a cork in half and glued it on for feet. The tray has a nice shape and is stable in use.

  For portions of the last two days I have been working on two low skill, high back stress projects,  wood chips. And the sump pump water evacuation system has taken the other portion of my digging energy. (it should be finished tomorrow). Chips, not finished tomorrow.

  This is the remaining half of yesterday's dump of wood chips. Dump because the chips arrived a dump truck full. Eva and I moved some yesterday and I moved some more today.  I have learned my limit when doing this sort of task, but it still kicks the you-know-what out of my back.

  Tool for the job:

  Last time we did this I went and bought the specialized tool for the job.  That manure fork is the perfect tool for loading and moving wood chips around.  It is another of those specialty tools that get used seldom, but....make life way easier.  We tried moving wood chips with snow shovels before, Okay, but the fork is better.

  Today's quick project is a glue up.

  Sherlock Holmes couldn't guess what this is. By the way, the pipe clamps have been in my tool kit for thirty years.  I love good basic tools that last.

  Our drive way is interlocking stones, and the folks that did the work did a good job and the drive way still looks good.  However it has sunk a bit along the front of the garage. If you look in the 'chip' picture you can see a maxi-scooter. I've put the ramp in place to make it easier for me to push the scooter backwards into the garage. Just a little thing, but little things can make a big difference. 

  

  

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Woven Oak

  I make many projects from oak and so often have bits pieces and off cuts laying around.  Also I get an oak board with a serious twist or knot in it and instead of putting it in the fire, I save it for a future project.
  Recently I culled through my rejects pile and decided to make another trivet.  I made one like this last summer but it was a prototype so I didn't sand or finish it properly.  Eva decided that this was a good design and so early in the week I set the table saw up to rip some thin slices off my boards and arrived at this:

9 x 16 in woven oak trivet.

    The whole thing was glued and clamped in stages and then finished with amber shellac.  It certainly in not a difficult job, just on that requires patience since it takes about four sessions of glue and clamping to get it done.

  To do a job like this, I used my table saw with a Freud thin rip blade.  I have been very happy with these blades, I have two because I have to send them away for a week to get them sharpened.  I get the blades sharpened once a year and so far each blade has been sharpened twice, they had stood the test of time and cut miles of oak and elm.

With Lemons, Lemonade. With wood scraps, Trivets.

  As I make cutting boards and various other projects I create: off-cuts, or scraps, or kindling, depending on your point of view.  In a bin beside the table saw and another beside the sliding mitre saw short, useless pieces of wood accumulate over the course of time.  Since I am a wood junkie I hate to throw "shorts" away or even to burn them.  I want all my wood to be used, and useful and beautiful.

   On Wednesday I gathered together a bunch of poplar and oak off cuts, machined them to fit and glued them all together.  Shazam!! a trivet.  
  
   Every one needs trivets (hot pads).  Even if all you ever eat is take out pizza the hot pad helps keeps the grease from the box off the table top. 
  
   Since everyone needs trivets and if like me you have dozens of board feet of off cut shorts.  Make some trivets and donate them to the local, church, school, hospital, animal shelter, what ever's annual rummage/bake sale and let someone use the wood and be a good woodworking citizen at the the same time.  
  
   I'll get off my soap box now, I'll cutting it into little pieces to make hot pads.