A Spatula, A Sander and A Fish

  A while ago I collected three pieces of fire wood in the garage planning to make some more spoons.  Today I split the wood into eight pieces, a couple are destined to be big deep spoons and I plan to make a couple of long handed spreaders to reach to the bottom of deep jam jars. The rest of the pieces will get turned into something, sometime.

 You can see I have a spatula roughed out from that batch of fire wood.  Between the push knife and the small hatchet I was able to rough out the general shape quickly. 

  Once I got the shape established I turned to modern noisy tools this time. Hand work is nice, but mine is a hybrid shop.   My 36 inch belt sander really brings things into shape in a hurry.  This sander was very good value for the money, I've run it for hundreds of hours over its life time with me.  Several years ago I had to replace the drive belt but otherwise it has been a solid performer.

  After using the big belt sander with 60 grit paper I moved to my random orbital sanders. Those sanders will generally help in the final shaping of a spoon.  I have four sanders, with different grits mounted.  That way I am not tearing the sanding pads off all the time and the hook and loop system lasts longer.

  The finished spatula, is sanded to 320 grit and finished with hemp oil  .  I do my final sanded by hand using a contour sander or my own devising.

old fashioned black board eraser 

  The firm felt supports the sand paper without there being a hard edge that might scratch the work at the final sanding stages.

  I am also working on a colourful shop projects.

   We are going to see our Grand daughters next week and I am taking the four year old a board game. It is an easy counting game and the 'men' will be small wooden fish.  Games for kids are tricky. If they like the game they want to play it all the time, which drives you crazy.  If they don't like it, they never play it and you feel rejected. 

  cheers, ianw

Another Storage Solution

Every now and then the chaos overwhelms me. 

  Over the years I have acquired many pairs of suspenders, too many to keep straight on a hanger. My solution was a purpose built hanger.

  I originally  planned to make a horizontal hanger, but decided on a vertical one instead.

  I searched in my workshop junk drawer and found a big hook that I used to hang a bicycle and screwed it into the top of the hanger. Yes, it is over kill but for things like this I use what is at hand.

  The actual wooden part is cut from a 2 x 3. I do like to make these quick easy projects from softwood lumber. It is quick and easy to sand and/or plane things smooth.

  If I were a video maker I could have turned this little exercise into a production with close ups and slow motion. After all to make this simple thing I used a band saw, random orbital sander, many clamps, block plane, square, and drill.

  When I look around our home it is filled with wood stuff.  Where many people go to the local "Dollar" store and buy a plastic something to serve their need I make the something.  I grew up making stuff, and encourage everyone to make "stuff".  This little hanger is a perfect example. 

  

  A person in a small home, or apartment needs very few tools to actually make basic things. I believe that a cordless drill and decent set of drill bit is a necessity.  An okay drill costs about $125.00, less if you look for a sale, a sander is $50.00, less on sale.  A mid-range  combination square can be had reasonably and you can buy your wood mostly pre-cut at the big box store.  If you look around there are community centres that have public wood shops with big machines and expertise for cheap.

  It seems that we are trying to regain our  economic sovereignty. If you are going to appreciate domestic products we need to make some things for our selves too.

  cheers, ianw  

More Small Projects

  We just had our Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada, and as it should be it was filled with family and a fall fair.  This year the weather was spectacularly un-seasonable, we can enjoy climate change for a while, then it going to get us good.

Rockton Fair from the air.   Rockton Ontario, Canada

    One of the latest 'small' jobs I've done was a repair for 10,000 Villages.  One of the cast metal  statues that they sell fell on the floor in the store and its arm broke off.  Needless to say I did not re-cast the statue, I used epoxy to attach the arm and then got creative in how I hid the repair.

  The left arm was broken off at the elbow,

  You can see that I gave the repair a decorative wrap with coloured wire to hide the joint. To make the decoration believable I put a wrap on each elbow.  Today I returned it to the store and the manager was pleased with my work.  I don't know if the sale price will be discounted but even so it is better than written off totally.

  The other little project was inspired by the visit of my grand kids on the weekend.  My Grandson is getting pretty good at drawing trains and machines so I made him a drawing book, and one made one for his sister too.  She is younger but artistic too.

 I made two sketch books one for C and one for K.  

  This is a simple project as long as you have the tools and the skills.  The first step was to fold and bind the pages. I started out with three large sketch pad pages, folded the paper in four and then bound three sections together to give each book twelve pages.  Binding books is easiest if you have a fine sharp awl, wax thread, large needle and a bone folder.  Once I had the booklets bound I trimmed the edges, (very sharp utility Knife)  and then  cut some 1/8 plywood for the front and back. I clamped the pages between the covers drilled and counter sunk four holes through the covers and pages.

  You can see that I used zip ties to connect the sections.  Once the books were assembled I took them up stairs and painted initials on the outside cover.  To control paint successfully you need decent paint and decent brushes, and a bit of practise. (more tools and skills). After painting the letters onto the book covers I took the books apart and sealed the front and back with shellac.  

  When I went to the shop my first thought was water based sealer instead of shellac.   Water based sealers are all the rage and are better for your brushes and the environment.

  However, I have some experience with finishing wood projects and so....did not fall into the trap.  The initials were painted on with water based poster paints.  Water based sealer would have softened and probably smeared the paint.  Shellac on the other hand doesn't react with water based finishes, the result is good sealing and no smearing.  The covers are hanging in my shop drying currently.  I will add a couple more coats of shellac and then some wax to make an easy but tough finish.

  There is no way to know if they will draw in their books or ever use them at all, but I still like to make things for  kids, just in case.

cheers Ian W

 

Fold Down Work Bench

 Something  I noticed at the wood show recently was the number of workshop tools that had big tools features in smaller spaces.  I saw several mini lathes, an attractive 10 inch band saw as well as smaller work benches.  I really think that a person in a one bay garage or a small basement room could set up a productive and useful wood shop with careful planning and limited funds.

  This video shows a step by step method for building a very useful fold down work bench.  This is a bench that could be mounted on a garage wall or in a basement laundry room that supplies storage and work space but doesn't permanently take up floor space.

FolBuild a fold down work bench

  While I am sharing and encouraging work bench builds, here is another build that makes a good portable work bench, or with short legs a good patio bench that can come inside for the winter;

Folding Mini-Bench 

  All you have to do is adjust the length of the legs.

cheers, ianw

Fish and Flowers

This past weekend was the Woodstock Wood  Show.  For several years I worked as a presenter at the show but for the last few I've been a customer.  Interestingly, I never got to see the wood shows very well when I was working at them. 

  Last Saturday I wandered around, visited old friends, spent some money and drank some coffee. There are always new innovations, tools and companies,  but what I enjoy most is the wood carving.

  The following are photos for my fishing Grand daughter in Sweden.  She won't believe these are wooden fish.

Those award winning carvings blow my mind.  The fishes look more like real fish than, real fish do.  I am filled with respect and admiration for the artists that made them.

  This fish is a bit more rough and ready.  This is a fish carved by chainsaw. I watched this chap work for a while, it was great.  His carvings are large and more impressionistic. 

 On another track entirely I have a photo of my oldest grand daughter's recent crafting effort.

  If the child is too small, or too cautions to work with you in your wood shop, encourage them to make things none the less.  Clara used foam and pipe cleaners this time.  I think that one day she will be ready for a scroll saw, her brother is comfortable using the band saw already.   

  Sometimes we forget that people grow by baby steps and miss our chance to promote making things by waiting until it is too late.  The fellows that carved and painted those amazing fishes started out as beginners creating crafts, the art comes later.

  cheers Ianw