Table Top Game

  My grand kids are board game players, encouraged by their Oma and Mother.  About half the time I play along, and almost never win.  The kids were here for a couple of days over March Break and a game idea showed up in my News Feed, so I decided to make it.

 I don't know what the game is called, it looks like a 'bar top' sort of game, of which there are many.  Mostly the bar room games involve some degree of skill and....some degree of betting to make increase interest.

  This game involves some skill and is moderately interesting without betting too.

all stained and nice to look at.

playable but not pretty.

  The object of the game is to rest the game at an angle on a table top and raise the marble up the board using the two strings to pull the hoop.  You need to steer the marble around the holes, or....it falls in and you dump it out the lower right hand corner, reset the hoop and try again.  To make it more challenging we added the necessity of pulling the marble up, moving across the top and then lowering the marble down. Up turned out to be easier up than down.

  It is a wood working project and so begins with a box.

  It is one of my favourite types of project. The wood is re-claimed. The front and back are cheap, cheap plywood that was a packing case from over seas.  The wood is such poor quality that it is filled with dirt and voids. It was just adequate to it original purpose so re-use is a bonus.  The sides are from old fence boards I picked up one day from the end of a drive way.

  As an aside the plywood was pretty warped so the glue needed nails to help.  I dug out a tool that I bought a long time ago when I had trim to install.  I bought this because I had a bunch of trim as grid work on a ceiling.  I didn't need an air nailer and compressor and hose and, and,and.  The electric nailer drives 1 inch brads, well enough. As a tool that I don't use often, I like that it doesn't need any care or attention for years at a time.  Interestingly I have used it lately a couple of times and now don't store it in the bottom drawer at the back of the shop any longer.

  I bought this long, long before cordless air nail guns were invented.

  The first effort wasn't difficult enough so, back to the shop, more holes and shazam, fun for everyone.

cheers, ianw

  

  

  

  

Apartment Tool Kit

 

Sometimes I forget that I didn't always have a workshop in the basement containing nearly every tools my heart desires.  For a few years I lived in apartments and rental properties where I bore few maintenance responsibilities. If sometihing broke, it wasn't my concern, I remember several times leaving a message with the property mananger as I left for work and returned to the problem solved later in the day.  There is something good to be said for that situation.  I was single and working longer days at the time and so ....it was nice to have broken doors and plugged plumbing dealt with by someone else.

  But,,,,

  there were still things that I wanted customised to suit my taste and personal items of furniture that sometimes need to be repaired.

 To fill that need I gathered my first tools together a piece at a time.

My first tools lived in a shoe box in a closet for years. What were the first tool necessities ?

1. a utility knife, with  replaceable blades.  The blades are good for cutting and scrapping and you can abuse them with a clear conscience.

2 a small claw hammer. buy something cleap and basic 10 or 12 ounces is big enough.

3  muiti-tip screw driver and a 6 inch adjustable wrench. Do Not buy cheap versions of either of these tools. Cheap wrenches, slip and can break dangerously.  Cheap screwdrivers have tips that are soft and fairly random in sizing.  Not all Philip's or Robertson tips are equal.

4. decent tape measure and a metre stick.  I bought a heavy duty 25 foot tape forty years ago and it is still the tape I take with me when I am limiting the number of tools I take with me.

5.  Various pliers. needle nose. linemens, water pump  and locking.  Also don't go cheap on these.  You will use them for the rest of your life and cheap pliers will slip, slide and end up having to be replaced while the skin on your knuckles slowly grows back.

6. hack saw, it will cut up junk including old bits of furniture and wood. It is not a surgical tool, but a versitile one. 

These are the tools that will hang pictures, fix bicycles, tighten loose legs, cut up junk, fix lamps, hang fixtures etc.etc etc. and enable various arts and crafts.

If you want to take the next step and move from fixing things to making things all these tools remain useful but... there is a universe of other good, bad, and special tools connected with DIY and making.