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 

Aladdin's Woodworking Cave of Wonders

                                    

  Eventually my Grandchildren will come to fully appreciate my woodworking shop.  They will learn that when you want to do a little something, or make a small modification the tools and pieces are down in the shop.  My shop has bits of wire and many kinds of glue and all sorts of tape, wood of all sizes and shapes and a heap of Arts and Crafts stuff.

  The shop jobs in  this blog are all of the 'oh, I'll just nip down stairs and take care of it" type.

 Yesterday I went into the shop and make a flower/bud display vase. In my shop there was : a piece of wood, bark on,  that I collected in the spring, also four one inch diameter test tubes, and a piece of 2 x 6. 

  I made the vase(?) hold four buds because that was how many we were getting from the hibiscus plants under the grow lights in our basement, currently.  Now that the vase is done, the flowers seems to be running out.

 Aside from have the test tubes, and wood available just down the stairs I also had a one inch Forstner bit, and drill. I used my jointer to flatten the bottom of the fire wood so that it would sit on the 2 x 6 and cut things to length with my mitre saw. I could have used a hand plane, but I am still trying to take it easy on my back.

 As for finishing I had Minwax stain and shellac both on the shelf. Making this little project and the other two where  non-events since everything was on hand.

  The other two little jobs needed, waxed thread, lather lacing, and drilling.  I have a couple of walking sticks and pretty much one of them accompanies me when I am out and about, especially when it might be slippery.

 

   This stick has a cord that wraps around my wrist, to reduce the number of times I drop it while shopping. ( I have no hope that I will not drop it again.). The elastic that holds the loop on was getting tired. The solution was to go down stairs an cut a couple of feet of heavy waxed thread and wrap it around the elastic and the wrist strap.  The waxed thread is used to make my Polissoirs but is perfect for this little job.

  The other stick just needed a hole drilled and a length of leather lacing attached. 

  None of these jobs was  big deal as long as you have some tools and a couple of shoe boxes of stuff laying around.  It is a never ending battle in my shop between "too much jink" and " I'm glad I kept that thing, it's handy". Today I am happy about having stuff handy, tomorrow, who knows.

Walking Stick-Oak

  I have to walk.  It is about the only exercise that doesn't bother my back, and I do need to exercise because I continue to eat and drink. As a minor foot note, a bit of exercise also helps me sleep better and makes me less cranky generally, so I walk.

  I have found that if I walk with a long stick, not just a cane,  I stand up straighter and have less back pain.  I encourage anyone with lower back pain to give it a try, there are tonnes of places selling hiking staves, trekking poles etc.  because I am cheap, and have a work shop I decided to make my own.

  Years ago I bought a aluminium walking stick and have been using it but I decided as a wood worker I should get busy and make myself a stick.  The one I made a few weeks ago was just a bit too short to serve my purpose. 

   This project began with a six foot long piece of oak that had been used as trim in an old house.  My guess is that this piece of wood was used to fill a gap beside a book case or cupboard, it was slightly tapered over its length so it had been used to fill an uneven space.  This piece of wood also had a few nail holes in it, as a Wood Junkie  I had saved it because I knew it would be useful one day.  

  The first thing I did, you may be able to see if you look at the far end.  I tapered the end that was going to get the rubber foot.  Once I got that end sized properly then it was easy to taper the length of the stick using a long straight edge to mark it and my band saw to cut it.

   Once I had the  shape trimmed on the band saw  I used my planes and sanders to round over and shape the edges of the walking staff.  This stick doesn't have any carvings or curly Q's just smooth rounded edges.

  There is no question that this is not a high tech, or high skill project.  So the question is, "Why do walking sticks like this cost $50.00+ in stores?" I think that I will make a few more of these and have them available in the back of each of our cars so that I won' t get caught out.

   

  Initially I thought I would leave the stick with out a handle but then decided that the wood was a bit slippery.  What I ended up doing was putting bicycle inner tube onto the shaft and then wrapping the tubing with hemp twine and hurricane tape. The tape gives good coverage and helps keep the twine in place. The handle is slightly soft and comfortable to hold the black tape is mostly a design feature, it just looked like it needed something!

 As a follow up many months later. ( we don't even have the car that the stick is  leaving on any longer)

   I have walked with this stick long enough that I just replaced the original rubber foot. Also the handle has been replaced, the tape handle while soft, began to slip and roll.

  

  My final solution was to glue cheeks of bass wood onto the oak shaft and shape them to be more or less round. Now the handle is large and smooth enough for a comfortable grip.

  Making stuff in the shop makes me happy, making something that has an immediate use makes me even happier and when it turns out to still be useful a couple of years later, well that is just a bonus.

cheers, ianw

  

 

Two Small Projects Done

  It has been a tough week.  I had a good day on Thursday, well an improved day I got a bit active and now I am having a few really difficult days as punishment.

  Over the course of the week I did a little bit of gardening and a little bit of work in my shop. Yesterday I gathered together energy and did some painting on this week's small projects.

  The Thumb Stick was sanded smooth and then finished with opaque walnut glazing stain. The stain will project the stick from drying out and help resist smudges and dirt from dirty hands.

  Two blogs ago I showed pieces, this is what the pieces look like finished and assembled.

  I saw this little puzzle on Pinterest and made my own version. This is a four piece puzzle for a two year old girl that likes Owls, (Uggla in Swedish). I often go to Pinterest for ideas and inspiration, there are photos of anything you can imagine.  For example if you search 'bookcase' there are 100's of photos to inspire you. Most photos link to web sites or blogs with plans, or instructions to help you copy or create your own project too.

 The old saying, 'cut your coat to suit your cloth,' when you are having trouble getting around, do smaller crafty things, but keep doing things.

cheers, ianw

Elm has Character

    Elm is also strong, heavy, prone to splitters and looks good with a clear finish.

   I have been trying to get some exercise to help with my waist (waste) line and to ease my back pain issues.  My doctor says walking is the best option and so I have been walking, not enough, but some.  Walking with a straight back and erect posture tends not to bother my back much at all so I have been walking with a hiking pole rather than a cane lately.

   My hiking pole is green and aluminium and when I looked around I found that wooden hiking poles are crazy over priced and pretty basic wood working. 

  

    As they used to say in "the six million dollar man" we have the technology, my technology is in my basement.

   This morning I started out with a 48 inch piece of elm that I jointed and planed before marking out the potential hiking pole, walking stick. 

  The first stop after the flattening was the band saw.  I have used a Viking Blade in my saw for more than 2 years and it is still cutting acceptably.  The next time I take on a big re-saw project I will replace the blade, but for now it is fine.  Once I finished on the saw, I just put my head down and sanded, and sanded and sanded.

  If I make another stick I will use my hand planes to get the basic, rounding shape and then sand things smooth if necessary. I skipped the hand planes this time because I was too lazy to figure out a good clamping arrangement, but as is so often the case the short cut turned out to be the long way 'round.

   Once the stick got a coat of Minwax Tung oil it looked pretty good.

    I even took the stick for a "test walk" today, it preformed up to expectations.