Friday's Business

 I am making a pair of door handles for a shed and when it came time to glue the handles to panels I opted for a gravity clamp.

  This piece of train track has been in our family workshops for generations, it is a poor man's anvil.  I keep threatening to grind the horn smooth, but haven't gotten around to it.  I could have used other types of clamps to hold this together but gravity was quickest and easiest.  To attache these handles to the door I attached the handle to a plate and the plate to the door rather that driving long screws through the door into the handle.  Since modern glues are so good I decided first to glue the two pieces together.  Once the glue set I turned the unit over and drove a long screw into the handle through the plate.  With the glue set nothing wiggled while drilling and and  screwing. 

  Here is a progress photo of the funny little man.

   This little man is going to Sweden for my youngest grand daughter.  He is sort of a viking, but she is too small to have a toy with horns on its helmet.  The big ears and nose stick out enough.

  -- Panels from 10,000 Villages--

  Over a year ago I was at a yard sale hosted by our church and six of these panels were for sale.  At the end of the day the panels hadn't sold and the owner shrugged their shoulders and supposed they would burn the panels in their fire place come winter. I voiced my opinion that that was a real shame, as a wood worker I hated to seen decent wood burned for lack of imagination. My point was taken and I got all the panels for a very good price, on the understanding that they didn't end up in my fire place.  I have been thinking about the panels for a while and recently found a project that will feature four of them.

Stay tuned.

cheers, ianw  

  

My shop is a mess, again.

On Sunday, after church my grandson and I crashed down to the shop to make another boat.  Last September 6th we made a submarine.

A proud maker.

  Last weekend we made a boat that provides support services to this submarine. 

    This type of ship was our basic inspiration, but we did not have enough time to really do the project justice. There is nothing better that working with an enthusiastic seven year old with a plan, also almost nothing as challenging.  We also added a time crunch to this project which is partially why my shop is a total mess.  

  I have tried to set an example of calm and focus in the shop with a routine of returning tools to their proper place as we work.  On Sunday it was chaos, there were tools on benches, and machine tops and even the floor, when we were done.  After seeing the kids off home, Eva and I jumped in our car and headed away for an over night holiday, leaving the mess behind. Today I was off running errands and so Tuesday after supper and still the shop is chaos. The house Elves do not put away tools, or sweep the shop.(sadly) I'll get to it tomorrow morning. 

  We were so rushed that I didn't even get a photograph of our effort.  The plus side of this building project was  it introduced Kieran to two new tools.  We used a jig saw and a wood rasp for the first time together.  I think I will try and create a project that uses the jig saw for his next visit.  With the correct blade in place a variable speed jig saw can do lots of things, and he maybe ready to use it. (with coaching and supervision) Kieran is comfortable with the band saw and the drill press now and uses his small cordless drill driver for putting in screws, so it is time for some new tools. 

  I think the wood rasp was also popular, it clears material faster than sand paper, and speed is important when you are 7 1/2 years old.

Big beard, long hair but no horns, to easy to break off,
just like on real Viking helmets.

  I need only a handle for the paint box and so am making a small carved Viking for my youngest grand child. On our last trip to Sweden she got the Puffin

the last minute puffin.

  The small carvings are a good size for small hands and are pretty much unbreakable. Once the Viking is painted it will be another bright thing for be dragged from place to place and finally lost in the long grass.  (which is exactly why I make them).

  This evening I am relaxing and stretching out my sore back, tomorrow back to work.

cheer, ianw