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 

I'm Still Here!

 I am still standing, honest. What I haven't been doing is anything interesting enough to share.  Most days I spend some time in the shop, now nearly always on a maintenance/repair task.  

  For example, extension cords.  I have half a dozen cords of various length from 5 to 50 feet.  Over the course of their lives the cords have been nicked, or cut or the ends have begun to work loose.  I have been splicing out the biggest cuts and strengthening the end's connection. A tip, use hot glue to fill the gap between the cord covering and the ends, it flows and fills the gaps.

 What else? I have one dust collector , this model from 15 years ago, connected to a cyclone garbage can top.

  And four wet/dry shop vacs of various sizes, two connected to smaller cyclone systems. About once a year I vacuum all the cracks and crevices I can reach and them take all the dust collection systems completely apart and clean them out including washing the various filters, both foam and cloth. A blog about drying paint would be more interesting for readers that stories about dust in my eyes and up my nose.

  At least one morning was spent culling wood from my off cut and found wood piles.  It is easy to collect that stuff and stash it in a corner.  Well,  at some point a critical eye needs to assess whether this is working material or fire starter.  Found wood after close inspection is often fire starter, and allowing it to gather because the space is available is a bad habit, that I need to fight against. 

   I spent some time making lids for boxes that have been laying around.  To make the work worthwhile I have been using these small projects to practice veneering.  I have got pretty good at small pieces, and nice veneer can sure change a plywood box.

 

  Gardening, and yard stuff.  I have made some more peony stakes.  A quick, low skill,  band saw project. 

with a support these flowers fall to the ground. 

 I have made shelving for BBQ tools for my brother's outdoor space as well. A bit of two x four and few screws and hooks, not blog worthy.

  Yesterday I carved another spoon.  One of the things I found while doing my wood inventory/clear out was several bits of wood that will make nice spoons. Yesterday I sat in the shade out side and whittled a spoon. I find making spoons satisfying. 

  This recent spoon was rough  shaped with my hatchet, then refined with knives and the bowl was made using a hook knife.  I have a bit more sanding with 220 and 400 paper then I will finish the spoon in food safe oil.  My spoons are working tools not ornaments.  My previous spoon was a request for a long strong spoon for mixing sour dough bread dough in its jar. I also made a long handled spreading knife for reaching into the bottom corners of the peanut butter jar a while ago. Choosing to make spoons enables me to make custom kitchen cooking and baking tools.

    This is some of the spoons I've carved for our kitchen. The long spreader knife is in the middle beside the the super spoon. I made the super spoon for Eva to be able to stir fruit for jam in our biggest pot.  The dark wooden spreader is a copy of the ever present Smor Kniv, from Sweden. (butter knife)  At least as many spoons, and spreaders have be given away to friends and family, here and abroad. All these projects are made from off cuts or fire wood, a great value and use of time, IMHO.

cheers ianw