Quiet Projects - a solution to a problem.

  Elm is an interesting wood with nice colour and grain. I was listening to an audio book and played around in the shop.  I decided to make my wife a pendant. I had cleaning to do and a bunch of little bits of nice wood accumulated, so I carved out a pendant ( 1 1/2 inch across).  It was a pleasant diversion, with knives, rasps and sand paper.  

  I think I will make some more to attach to Christmas gifts. I will have to write on the To:, the From will be obvious.

 

NEXT

  A silly project:

   My soap kept falling off this shower rack and finally I got around to fixing the problem.  I actually had to wait until I bought copper wire before I could  make this.

  The top shelf needed something to keep the bars of soap and little things from falling off. A world famous blogger would not post this, their projects are so much more epic.  Probably.         I am retired; at this point I avoid epic, but also.....most of life is not epic.

  I ripped the wood on the band saw, drilled, sanded and assembled with copper wire a solution to a problem.  To me, that is one  reason for having tools and a shop. It is nice to solve a problem in house. The typical solution is to go to a store and buy something made and shipped from the other side of the world.  I only call on international industrial might when I have to.  Maybe that is an attitude to cultivate?

cheers,ianw   

just an idea, 

if you've got the materials at hand.

 

Now to Finish up.

  I think I have the cleaning part of the wood shop done.  This cupboard that was in the back corner has come down .

  The small shelf unit is gone and the brown low boy went months ago. Now the back corner looks like this.

only rotated 90 degrees. I don't know why the computer software won't work today.

 It appears  there are  several small projects that were begun and then shelved, for various reasons. As well as things to finish there are several outstanding tasks.  I have a set of doors to fix, door knobs to turn and install  and a handle for a chisel.

  I bought this un-handled mortise chisel a while ago.  It looked like the perfect tool for cleaning up and squaring hand cut mortises, several of which I had just made.  Of course once I bought the chisel I didn't need it, and it slid to the back of the cupboard and was mostly forgotten.  This morning I quickly turned a handle for the chisel on my lathe. With the correct tools it is a quick process to knock out tool handles.

  Or in this case In the rummaging around I found a mallet handle awaiting a head.  Next project, laminate another head to fit this handle, I've got some maple that should be great for this.   The round handle lends itself to a carver's maul with a round head. 

  There is a lovely elm box, with a poor lid.  I cut a slot in the lid from the wrong side when I was working on this project. I've got a real nice elm board that I will glue up and make a proper quality lid for my box.  

  I have two drawers that were part of a modular desk. The desk is long gone, the drawers will be made into a free standing unit, on wheels that will be useful in our home office. Again the pieces had drifted into a back corner and become hidden from view by dust and lumber. 

  There are a bunch of partly finished tea boxes, pencil boxes etc that were in a banker's box back in the back of the basement.  It appears that these were things I started  when I didn't really have anything pressing, and then put them aside when something came up. 

There are an equal number of wood carvings that fall into the same category as these boxes.  Also I have a plan for an artist's travelling paint pallet or two amongst the various projects on those two shelves.  

  Time to carry on and finish a whole bunch of this stuff off and find it homes.

cheers, ianw