2019 is in the bag

  So the year has wound down.  The decade has rolled past.  Time has flown etc. etc.
In May I will have been writing this blog for a decade and the best part of that decade for me has been having my grand children spend time with me in my shop.  Second best is making things for them. The boy and three girls have progressed from watching, to sweeping and finally to making.  

  During this past Christmas holiday my grandson (the eldest) and I did some wood carving together.  A while ago  we did soap carving. (Dec 14,2015), the soap  flakes got in his eyes and up his nose and so did not make a good first impression.  This time he and I did real wood carving with real tools. 

  After fitting him with safety gloves and warning him about one thousand times to be very careful he carved a practice piece.

  The piece was 1 1/4 square and five inches long.   One of these days we'll make the same practice piece on the lathe.  Working on this piece he learned  he liked palm chisels better than knives and practised cutting away from himself.  In several hours of carving we had no accidents, I'm both pleased and proud of that. Oma and Mother as relieved too.

  The next piece K carved was a narwhal.

  There was plenty of material to remove to get the square block to a mostly round shape. As well as chisels K got to learn about rasps and the disc sander.  He worked carefully and wore his dust mask when using the power sander.  

  The other thing that he made was a boat.  He loves to make boats.

  I think for a first effort his day's work was excellent.  He learned technique, safety and invested several hours on these and other projects. It was an excellent day for both of us.

  As the new year begins, Happy New Year, best wishes for good health, good times and good luck.

Sincerely,

Ian W @ walwoodwork@gmail.com

  

Wrapping Up Some Jobs

 During the past couple of weeks I have been dealing with several small jobs all at once. This weekend I got them done.

 First Kieran and his sister came to stay with us for three days and he and I got busy and finished his tool box.

  On his last visit we worked on other projects but on Saturday morning we drilled all the holes and screwed the ends on and nailed the sides on too. This is the collection of tools that fill his box now.  He has a hammer, three pliers, six screw drivers, two different squares, a block plane, black saw (still too big for him), a sanding block and his own cordless drill driver. He just turned five and is pretty good at drilling holes and driving screws.  This was the first time that he had many brads to drive and he also did a pretty good job.  Oddly enough, he doesn't like sanding either, he gets bored. (a typical woodworker).  Usually I hold the drill and he pushes the trigger to drill the holes. This time he was confident enough that he wanted to hold the drill by himself. I don't know who was more proud when he had finished drilling all those holes, by himself, him or me.

  I also spent some time painting, the puppet theatre needs to be ready for next weekend, so it got another  coat of paint and then Eva makes the curtain.

  There is a 3/4 dowel as a handle for moving the theatre about and a 1/4 dowel for the curtain.  The paint is good now, one more coat will make it excellent.

  Spread out on my saw horses are the two rub rails off the Pinzgauer.

You can see the rails in this photo. The rails I sanded and finished with tung oil are clear and will stand out nicely against the typical olive drab paint.

Once the paint was sanded off these birch rails sucked in plenty of tung oil.

  The last job but certainly the one that was most important for world security was the refit of the aircraft carrier. I found a nice piece of Baltic birch plywood and replaced the splintery deck that we'd put on the boat last time.  Rushing the job to keep a five year old happy just meant that it had to be done again.  Have you even noticed how some customers behave like five year old kids, and then are grumpy when the result isn't want they wanted.  I had a painted friend who used to say, you can have it quick, you can have it cheap, or you can have it well done. But you can only have it one way.

  Incidentally Kieran learned it was refit because the hull and the control tower were the same, only the deck was changed.

  My plan is to take a couple of days to work in the yard and to slip away for a couple days bike riding in the warm summer breezes.  It has been an excellent August so far, good for gardens, good for biking and cool enough that we've only turned the air conditioner on one for two days this summer.

  

  When I get back to the shop I am going to look at Jack Houweling's tool caddy plan. I think that he is on to something good.

cheers, ianw

Saturday Afternoon in The Shop

My last blog showed the preparations for Kieran and I to make his tool box.

My Helper bringing the box he stands on to work at the bench.

 The original plan, ( my plan ) was to assemble the tool box and then assemble the bird house that was to hang on the back fence. The original plan was for a two room bird house with a flat roof.

  I had pre-cut all the pieces and we were going to screw them together.  I used some more from my cache of barn boards, since the boards are 1 inch thick and bird houses ideally are made from thicker wood to make for more stable internal temperature. Also the boards are seriously weathered and look the part.

  Well...., my plan and the young architect's plans turned out to be different. I wouldn't have traded away the afternoon for a whole shop on new tools but...it was an education for Opa. ( I did have to do some fast talking and faster cutting)

  First thing, he wasn't interested in making his tool box.  He was focused on the bird house, and he had his own design in mind, he decided that bird houses have peaked roofs. The other bird houses we've made had peaks and so this one needed one too. He wanted a second floor added with another bird apartment and a peaked roof. We arrived at a compromise, no less of a bird housing monstrosity. 

  

  I had not prepared enough wood for his plan and so we added a chalet roof line with a dividing wall inside so there are now two apartments upstairs and two down. One of the challenges to projects with little helpers is to have something for them to do. We did some hand sawing on the late design addition but mostly what he does best is drill and drive screws. I bought a 12 volt drill driver  like the Milwaukee so that it would fit his smaller hands better than my larger drill. He found it very satisfying to be able to drive the screws by himself. (stick with red Roberston)  

  I will have to do some serious rebuilding on the bird house before I can put it out.  We don't even have a tree big enough to hold a four apartment bird house like this yet. And don't think we want to feature quite as distinctive birdhouse as that on our fence. It will however have to go up some place, because it will be looked for next visit.

    

  In the second project of the day, his idea, Kieran was able to use another of the tools from his yet to be completed tool box.  I bought him an apartment owners hammer.  He thought it was heavy but the short handle meant that he could hit the nail and drive it in were the really light tack hammer required much better aim and greater swing speed. 

  The boat crazy boy decided that we should make an aircraft carrier.  We have already made river boats, and tugs and sail boats. Thank goodness for the internet and Images.  We looked up aircraft carrier photos, together we drew out a design, yes he helped with the actually drawing, it was a chance for me to introduce the 24 inch ruler and the square.

  Once we made the flight deck I cut out a hull from 2 by 12 and we made the command tower from scraps. K used his short handled hammer to nail the deck to the hull using brass nails.  I held the brads with needle nose pliers while he hammered them in. I am not really happy with the flight deck material, the edge is a bit chippy, but he and I sanded the edge and the ship went home with him today. We are going to have to revisit the flight deck soon. I didn't have a large enough piece of Baltic birch on hand, the deck is 21 by 12 inches. 

  My next commission is planes to go on the flight deck. 

  My grand daughters are too young to be working in the shop yet although the 3 year old does help sweeping,a bit. However when the girls get big enough, they will be invited to build things with Opa.

  There is nothing better than working in the shop with my little helper. (even when the result is truly butt ugly)