Finished Projects and the Lessons Learned.

  The first of the finished projects is a prototype  soap dish. I wanted a thing for the bar soap in our bathroom to sit to dry on.  We are trying to reduce plastic and so bar soap is replacing soft soap in plastic bottles. This was a fussy little project with the pieces joined with half lap joints.  As you can see this is a first effort that has room for improvement. What did I learn for next time:

a: elm is a terrible wood for a project like this, it is stringy and splits easily.  I will use something with a fine, straight grain, maybe maple or bass wood next time.

b: material preparation has to be 100% accurate, close is not good enough for the small, tight tolerances of the joints.

c: draw the piece out full size and use it as a template for marking the cuts.

d: only work in very good light.

e: make it smaller

  This a project like carving a spoon, something basic and quiet to do in the evening.

You can see one of last year's wood turning projects in the back ground. One day I will get around to turning a lid for the shaving soap holder.

  The other project is a turning project.

  I turned a clarinet stand for a friend that plays in the Hamilton Concert Band with me. The base unscrews so as not to take up too much space in your music bag.  It is amazing how much wood dust fills the air when using a lathe. When I have sanded the piece to shape I wax it on the lathe.  The base is cut from a three part piece I glued together and mostly used on a jewelry box. The left over finally found a use, years later. 

  Now when my friend sets her clarinet down while looking for music or taking a drink there is far less chance that it will fall over

.

   I like to make things that have a use.

listen here.  

clarinet is COOL!

  

Two Videos and What I've been Up To, too.

 As I wonder about the world wide web I occasionally find a longer video or two that I feel are worth watching all the way through.

  This first video is in Swedish with English sub-titles. If you know anything about Sweden you know they are serious about wood working with knives and axes.  In this video a team of four woodworkers split out eight 13 metre ( 14.2 yards)  beams from a spruce tree. 

My arms were tired just watching. 

    It seems like a great deal of work, but remember those beams will last for hundreds of years. Split wood has the extra strength gained by working with the grain verses wood that has been sawn to size.

  The next video is a long bow maker.  He works with patience and care and all hand tools.  It is sort of a gentle massage for the wood worker's soul watching him work.

 It is a weapon but its creation is high craft.

    The production values of the video were high and without commentary it is less informative but more entertaining.

  What have I been doing?  Well, the weather has improved so I have been trying to ride off some of my winter fat on my new bicycle. The shop projects are small and mostly personal.

  I repaired a wobbly chair for 10,000 Villages.  It was suggested a couple of metal brackets would do, but.... I decided some carefully placed screws with plugs to hide the holes would do better.  Once the plugs are cut flush and a bit of stain is applied the repair will be much nicer than metal brackets.

  My Wife's cousin provided me with some antler and I have been thinking about and working on a handle for a knife for Steve.  This morning I got down to the nitty gritty of actually drilling the horn and fitting the blade.  I spent a great deal of time designing in my head before I drill for the blade, since there is no going back once the hole is drilled.  

  The request was for a 'cool' knife not a working tool.  I have a design for a finger guard made from copper or brass in my head, now to source the materials.  I don't make enough knife handles to keep a variety of specialised and interesting materials on hand. As it is my shop is stiffed with stuff for woodworking.

  To fit a handle like this I use needle rasps, files and my bench grinder to shape both the tang of the blade and the hole in the antler. 

  The bench grinder is one of those tools that every shop should have but get used twice a year at best.  My grinder was in the back of a bottom shelf so covered with dust that I couldn't see it.  I don't use the grinder for anything delicate but I'd sure miss having it.

  The small project that created all the wood shavings is yet another box.  

  Occasionally I just need to plane a board by hand.  I made the planing jig a while ago and it makes planing small pieces safe and easy.

   

  This small box is going to go into a book cover creating a secret compartment for things like pass ports and emergency cash.   I used skid wood for the frame and once it was planed it looks good.  Ultimately I will paint the frame creamy white, sort of book page colour. 

  I have a couple of other small things I want to make, maybe if it rains for most of the weekend I will get around to them. If it doesn't rain,well them there are bike things to do.

cheers, ianw

  

Pallet Wood, How much to you actually get.

  I have made several things from skid lumber. (several = more that six and less than 12) and a couple of the projects turned out looking pretty good. Other projects were definitely on the rugged side of things.  Aside from the morality of re-using/ up cycling the wood is it worth the trouble?

  I decided this time to actually get a sense of the time and effort it took and what the real result was for my efforts.  I always knew that a percentage of the wood ended up in the fireplace, but how much.

  Last week I went to my Mother's house and with my brother help cut up three skids that had spent the winter on her back deck.  Finally the weather had improved to were things were drying out and working outside wasn't a burden.

  My brother and I cut the skids apart with his cordless recip saw.  It sure is nice not to trip over a cord while you are working.  After dealing with skids on several occasions I've decided it is best to cut the cross pieces free of the middle support, it means fewer nails to worry about.

  So... what did I end up with.

the fire wood pile

   Five of the 2 x 4 pieces didn't come home with me, so they are on my brother's fire place pile.  Some of the wood was quite punk and a couple of pieces were too broken to be useful.

  What is left....

  For the time and effort:

  Five bundles of planks around 16 inches buy 4 to 6 inches and 3/8 think and one bundle of 2 x 4  by 36 inches.  In the end some of the 3/8 boards will be too warped to be useful and others of the boards will be to nasty to be seen, but some of the wood is oak.  The tray of nails will end up in the correct recycling bin now too. 

  The 2 x 4's weighted a tonne so I cut a piece off one board, cleared out the nails and milled it on the jointer.  It is close grained oak, it will be strong and attractive when re-sawn. 

  If you figure this in dollars and cents, it is cheaper to make one trip to a lumber yard but I find satisfaction in re-claiming the wood.  I am also figuring out what to do with the oak it is thick and heavy when I am done with it should look good.

  You will notice the bundles of boards are tied together with green chord.  The green chord is soda bottle cut into long thin strips, tied and then warmed with my paint stripper heat gun so that it shrinks. It means I get at least a second use from a large PEP soda bottle.  

  Happy Easter everyone, I hope you have a quiet and pleasant time with your friends and family.

cheers, ianw

Easter in Norway,

 now I know where the eggs come from.

  

A Morning of Repairs

  Eva and I sneaked away for a couple of days to our cottage on Georgian Bay. It is nice to 

summer scenes are nicer that what we have now.
 but... it will look this good again shortly.

get away from home to relax for a while.  

    
  We watched Pay-Per-View movies ate great baked goods, did jig saw puzzles and a small maintenance job.  When you own a property there is always a small maintenance job.  The diverters on the bath tube facets needed to be changed.  An easy job you say, well it is when you have a decent product with which to work.  Initially we went to the local hardware store with the helpful people and bought a new diverter, after careful installation as demonstrated by You Tube it leaked.  I am not an experienced plumber  so I assumed I had done something wrong and re-installed the diverter and it still leaked.  Eva took it back to the hardware store with the helpful people and brought two new diverters made by a well known and respected plumbing supply company instead of a generic company and... after following the same instructions the diverters worked perfectly. I guess the lesson is buy things from well known and respected suppliers, their  quality control standards are higher. 

  This morning I went down stairs to my work shop and had to begin by clearing up the mess.  There were a couple of things that needed paint, or varnish and several things that needed repair. 

  I had a tray to re-glue, a fish to varnish, a table top to varnish, a facial tissue box to re-glue etc. etc. etc.

  

  With a piece of glass to cover this piece it would make a very distinctive serving tray.  I will continue to put on coats of varnish.  There is no question, water based varnish is easy to apply and it is easy to clean your brushes too.  Easy enough that extra coats aren't a problem.

  Last spring I made some nice boxes to cover our facial tissue and one of the boxes came unglued.  Rather the inner tube used to hold the cardboard box in place came unglued. 

 No fooling around this time, two part epoxy and proper clamp time. 

  One of the odder projects from this morning, a morning that included cutting and bleaching deer antler, (the band saw cuts the antler easily, and javex bleaches it fine) another job was using that two part epoxy to glue a foot onto a folding tablet stand: was reshaping a little tin box that I use as a pencil case.

  The tin recently got rather badly bent.  I don't know how, I guess I sat something heavy on the bag it was in.  This box is nothing special expect for its history.  Thirty five years ago my late friend Steve and I smoked those small cigars and he gave me the tin. Steve is gone, though I think about him often and wouldn't part with the pencil case for worlds.  It was a small scale twist and hammer job and the result is adequate. 

  I also did some painting:

Our yard will have 'one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish' this summer.  A finishing note: Varathane  water based varnish softens and lifts milk paint. 

  Captain will be as good as new so he can float in our garden's water feature again this year.  The frogs like sunning themselves on his deck.  Kieran and I made Captain years ago, I renew the wee boat each spring 'cause I have sentimental attachments to somethings.

  There is more house cleaning to do later this afternoon, but right now I am going to put on a bunch of warm clothes and go for a bike ride.

cheers, ianw

Ongoing Small Shop Projects

  Many of the serious bloggers have large scale impressive projects featured in their blogs and shop videos.  I like bloggers like Wood Working for Mere Mortals which often feature smaller one weekend projects.  My workshop produces lots of planter boxes, storage boxes and book cases.  Also my workshop is used to repair or rebuild wooden items.

  I received a bee house as a gift from my Grand kids last season and it has sat in my shop until today.  Why, it needed to be finished.  The box was raw wood and as such would have lasted two or three seasons at best before disintegrating in our climate. Today I put the first of what will be several thick coats of varnish on my bee house.  Shortly it will go into the garden and provide solitary bees a familiar place which I hope they will inhabit for the coming winter.

  I think a bee house would be a good pallet wood project.

  I also added another coat of varnish onto the table top.

  I am using Varathane Water Based Varnish.  It seems to be okay, it sure is easy to clean up your brushes.  Maybe easy clean up translates into extra coats of finish?!

  Yesterday we worked in our garden hacking away at the crazy rose bushes and taking the chicken wire protection of our azaleas.  I also brought in a fish.

  This garden fish is to get a new dorsal fin and new paint.  I will spray the back ground colour on and the grand kids can add the details again. 

  The other issue this morning is a knife handle.  I have been given some wonderful deer antler. 

  First I need to select a section to make into a knife handle for Cousin Steve. He has requested something "cool" not necessarily useful.  I'm thinking I need a wee piece of brass for a finger guard.  There is a design floating about in my head, but at this point it is still floating.

  I will take one of these yellow knives apart and put a cool handle on it for Steve.  I bought these knives in Sweden a couple of years ago at a warehouse clearance store. The blades are excellent, the handles, ugly.

  Our weather is improving and bike riding is being added to the agenda, yah!

cheers ianw

  

Table Top Ready for Varnish

  Before I get to the table top I will share some of the distractions that are ongoing.

  I re glued and  screwed the music stand I made a while ago (September 19th 2016)  It was a dark and windy evening on Wednesday and my music stand blew out of my hand and across the parking lot, breaking which is why it needed to be repaired 

  I had to repair a push stick featuring a really nice handle from a jack plane, that fell on the floor and got stepped on. Needed to be fixed.

  And worth the trouble since it is very nice for working on my jointer.

  Also, today.....I took my first bicycle ride of the season.  I collected my new bike at Brant Cycle and road it home.  That was a bit of an exercise for early in the season, it was only 2 degrees about freezing when I set off for home.  An hour and twenty minutes of great riding and a chilly face. (that's where I was this morning David)

Giant LAFree E-Bike

  The e-bike lets a fat sixty-one year old man ride like he is a teenager.  I road 35ish KM today in the cold and didn't even care. I love the bike it, it is comfortable, quick as I want and it was reasonably priced. WOW.

  The other wood working project began with a need, of sorts. 

  Working on pallet wood often has me begin the sanding process with my 4 1/2 inch grinder and sanding disks.  So I have a grinder, various disks, an arbour tech cutting disk, several wrenches and other stuff.  I finally decided that these various things were drifting and needed a proper home.

  This is to be a storage box, all it needs to do is keep the grinder and its friends together when on the shelf, so I gathered up materials from the bins.

  So the bottom of the box is:

a pocket hole project.  I love my KREG jig.  It made two pieces of plywood destined for the fire place into something useful. 

  When I put the ends on the box I used pocket holes too. And for right angle assembly there is no substitute for the KREG Right Angle Clamp. 

  

  For the sides I got even more thrifty.  I have a couple of old pieces of Masonite, that were sink cut outs.  The pieces are warped, but almost indestructible.  Since the pieces are too small to be used to make an impregnable criminal hide out they've just sat on a shelf in my shop for years. 

  

  My Freud thin kerf rip saw blade cuts a slot almost exactly the width of fifty year old Masonite.   So I cut some slots and used various bits of left over plywood and made the box slightly more of a production that it would have been I my wood scraps were larger.  The Masonite almost makes it appear as though I was doing something special, instead of something cheap.

  A piece of old belt and a couple of screws and the box if done, sanded and filled with the extra bits and pieces that accompany the grinder around. 

 So the table top:

  Pretty interesting I think.  It will get a couple of clear coats on top, once I decided whether it needs indoor or outdoor varnish.

  A shop tip to complete the blog.

  You should keep a yellow or orange coloured pencil in your shop to mark on dark wood and Masonite etc.  

  cheers ianw