Merry Christmas 2017

My local grand children dragged me out of bed this morning and we filled the living room with empty boxes and paper.  And incidentally lots of gifts.  The kids got Lego, Meccano, arts and crafts kits galore.

With luck the next generation will grow up makers.

Merry Christmas everyone,

talk with you more tomorrow.

ianw and family.

String Class, & Quick Gifts

 My Swedish grand daughters arrived late last and this morning the 5 year old decided we should do some projects in the workshop.  My experience with my Grandson is everything is a boat. With Tova it is all about musical instruments.  She plays ukulele and violin and wanted me to make violins for her to give to her  cousins.

10 inch cello and 2- 5 inch violins. 

  I cut the pieces out on the band saw and Tova did the painting.  These will probably end up as tree ornaments.

  As always Opa does most of the finish sanding and I put on the strings but I don't touch up her paint. 

  Two quick projects that can be used for last minute gifts:

      http://blogthetoolstore.blogspot.ca/search?q=book+end

    http://blogthetoolstore.blogspot.ca/search?q=bbq+paddle

  I am working on a couple more little things for Christmas.

cheers, ianw
  

The Bunk is Done,

  Later today the Swedish family arrive and the little girls get to sleep in their own beds. I completed their bunks on Saturday but was too tired, and busy to write the blog then. Yesterday was filled with church music and house cleaning so now the blog.

  I have not taken a bunch of photos of me measuring and cutting boards, that makes for better video than written blog.

   I do have a few photos to show the unique features of these bunk beds and why I needed to build them rather than buy them.

  

  You can see the bunk bed is in our guest room that already has a queen sized bed in it, so floor space is in short supply.  These beds are narrow, the mattresses are only 30 inches wide and 72 inches long.  The mattresses are plenty big enough for two little girls and will be big enough for a few years of use.  By the time they are too big for this bed they won't want to sleep with their parents anyway.  The narrow mattresses meant that the bunk bed had to be a custom size.  Also the bottom bunk is a bit higher off the floor than usual, so the youngest can see Mom and Dad in bed easily.  You can also see that the bottom bunk  is high enough that suitcases will fit there out of the way. 

  

  I built the two end sections and the mattress platforms in my shop in the basement and then moved the four sections into the room ( two floors up) and begin screwing the pieces together. There were many trips up and down the stairs measuring and cutting etc. Since the bed is a narrow and a bit tall I wanted it to be very sturdy and stable. My heart would break if something I built lead to a grand kids getting hurt so this is over engineered.( my heart breaks when any thing bad happens to any kids, relations or strangers.) The long side braces made the beds  perfectly solid but I added four steel angle brackets under the upper platform to eliminate all possible wiggle. 

  The basic plan is for this bed to be used for a couple of years and then taken apart,  so it is held together with screws alone.  The ladder is held on with three screws that can be taken out and the ladder put up out of the way when the beds aren't in use. 

  Another feature, borrowed freely from IKEA. The top back rail is affixed with a nylon loop to the wall. I made these beds so that two fun little girls could both climb on the same side and the bed can not fall over.  

  When you look at this project you see a labour of love.  I want the little girls to have their own beds at Oma and Opa's house in the same way that their cousins have their beds down stairs.  I feel very strongly that all people need to know there are places that theirs and where will always belong. 

cheers, and Merry Christmas

Ianw

Back from the South and Working on Christmas and snow

 We had a wonderful time in Mexico with our two oldest Grandchildren last week.  I took the week off, though there was some interesting wood related things to see at the Marina El Cid in Porto Morales.  I will share some photos another time.

  It is time to talk about work shop tools and an obvious trick that took me years to learn.

  First, snow, snow is falling and I've had to run my snow blower for four days in a row.  

My Second Favourite Honda

 Needless to say my Honda Silver Wing is my favourite Honda but in this season the blower trumps the Maxi-Scooter.

  The other two important pieces of snow removal equipment are of interest to the 'mature' house holder.  For those of you from warmer climates the biggest aggravation of snow removal is when the snow plough comes by and fills in the end of your driveway with wet heavy snow/slush/sandy crud.  For years I struggled to break my way through the deposit until I had a small brain storm. (before having a small heart attack).

  In my previous house I had a garden with sandy soil that was very easy to work by hand. At that time I bought a large heavy hoe.

  The hoe had no use in our new house with its small flower gardens until I was battling the frozen snow left by the plough.  I use this hoe to hack the heavy snow into bite size pieces and have the blower toss the debris out of the way.  

or

  If the snow is too nasty and clumped for the blower I use a garden shovel and treat the mess just like sand or gravel.

  It seems obvious now but when I think of the times I struggled with a snow shovel, (too wide and awkward ) before I just went back to the proper tooll for shovelling  heavy dense materials. 

  When I post this blog I will be heading out to run the blower through the newly fallen snow while it is light and easy to move.

  cheers, ianw 

  

Bunk Bed

  I worked steadily for the last couple of days on the custom sized bunk beds.  These beds are designed  to have head boards at opposite ends.  I used 2 x 4 for the legs and 1/2 inch plywood for the head board and cross pieces.

  The platforms for the mattresses are 6 ft. by 30 inches. 

  These left over pieces will be the lateral bed rails. 

  I have these pieces sanded and sealed and ready to be assembled up stairs in the guest room.  It was an awkward job that is almost too big for my small shop space. 

   To make this bunk bed I used a jig saw, a circular saw with cross cut jig, routers and router tables and just about every sander I own.  

   There will be a friendly place for the girls to sleep when they get here for Christmas.

cheers, ianw