And we're Back

 Travel restrictions have been eased somewhat and Eva and I were able to get away for much of February. What with packing and planning, returning and recovering, no blogs for a month. I always find it takes me a couple of days to re-adjust to home routines. 

  So yesterday I officially finished unpacking. Always when I am away I come home with a small repair project or two.  This time I had to fix the broken arm on my sun glasses. I had carelessly thrown the sun glasses into my shoulder bag and the arm snapped.

  The repair was easy, because I had a couple of special items in my shop.  First I "super" glued the arm together with two small pieces of plastic to support the repair while the glue set. Then, and this is the clever part, I covered the repair with heat shrink tubing and used my heat gun to shrink in down tight. I opted for the contrasting colour because I am a style maven,.......and my black tubing wasn't big enough.

  Another job that I came home was my travel shoulder bag developed a hole in it. Not a big hole, but enough for coins to fall through.  I like this bag, it is light, bright and has a solid zipper pocket for pass ports etc.  Anyway, as a shop job I turned it inside out and lined it with Duct Tape. I guess I will have to replace this bag eventually, but not today.

  I didn't post any blogs while away but....I did think a big about wood. This tree is in a botanical garden in Ponta Delgada, Sao Maguel Island Azores . It is an Australian Banyan Tree  

  The garden has several species trees including Kauri trees and Norfolk Island Pines  as well as bamboo and other flowering shrubs. The Borges Garden is right in town, a short walk from the Mall. It is comforting to observe that there are almost NO initials carved into the tree. 

   I came home to a little job that I hadn't been able to finish before we left.  My wife's friend had some plaster casts that were made some years ago by her father.  She decided to they should be mounted and seen, rather than live in a box in her closet.  

  This is one of those jobs that is easy, but has many steps and stages. To begin one of the plaques has a very rough, uneven back.  To glue it to the oak board meant that I had first to fill and smooth the back. That is why it took so long, the plaster had to set, hard.  Waiting for glue, plaster, varnish etc to dry it not labour but it does take time.  I glued the animal heads to the board, weighted them down and let the glue dry, for a couple of days.

  I really like doing small 'one off' things in the shop.  Get task, solve a problem and move on.  I worked in a factory with a small production line as a teenager and it inspired me to go back to school. I still like variety in my work.

 Before I took off in February I tried to revive another old toy.

Unfortunately, this toy had been neglected for too long. This little dozer was a childhood toy of mine, so fifty-eight or so years old. It had drifted into dead space at my parent's house and lived there for years.. When it resurfaced only one of the motors ran, amazingly. 

  

 Each track had it own motor and I was hopeful that with a little patience and solder it could be fixed. Once I got it apart the rust had pretty much eaten the gears and a portion of one motor.  The repair was beyond me.  The happy ending was that with the motors removed it became a usable push toy, and the blade still goes up and down as it moves. 

  There is a YouTube channel called Rescue and  Restore, old metal  toy trucks are returned to their former glory. It inspired me to try and save some toys.  If you are a tinkerer give it a look.

  Well, spring is coming they claim, didn't feel much like it today.

cheers ianw

 

Found Wood

 Yesterday a neighbour threw out wood left from repairing their deck.  I can't pass up free wood.  This heavily weathered wood will be used for flower boxes and other rustic projects.

  

  A collection of cedar boards  with some rotten sections. Happily all the nails had been removed, my guess is the deck was screwed together.

three bundles,

 cleaned out and ready to be stored until....

 Three bundles of wood secured with string made from soda bottles.  I tie the string and then heat it with my heat gun which shrinks the plastic  and tightens the knots.

  I brought the wood to my shop and with my sliding mitre saw cut off the rotten ends.  In truth I didn't have to cut off much. To use the wood the edges of the boards will need to be planed or trimmed on the table saw, but I will leave that part of the process until an actual project. 

  By the time I was done I had 18, 1x6 boards, between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 feet long. That will make several projects for the back yard, and all for free.

  Today was the first cool ish day in a while and so I was over come with ambition.  I cleaned and organised the garage this morning, before the heat rose to roasting.  That was one of the jobs on my "To Do" list, one down ??? more to go.

cheers, ianw

Pallet Wood, How much to you actually get.

  I have made several things from skid lumber. (several = more that six and less than 12) and a couple of the projects turned out looking pretty good. Other projects were definitely on the rugged side of things.  Aside from the morality of re-using/ up cycling the wood is it worth the trouble?

  I decided this time to actually get a sense of the time and effort it took and what the real result was for my efforts.  I always knew that a percentage of the wood ended up in the fireplace, but how much.

  Last week I went to my Mother's house and with my brother help cut up three skids that had spent the winter on her back deck.  Finally the weather had improved to were things were drying out and working outside wasn't a burden.

  My brother and I cut the skids apart with his cordless recip saw.  It sure is nice not to trip over a cord while you are working.  After dealing with skids on several occasions I've decided it is best to cut the cross pieces free of the middle support, it means fewer nails to worry about.

  So... what did I end up with.

the fire wood pile

   Five of the 2 x 4 pieces didn't come home with me, so they are on my brother's fire place pile.  Some of the wood was quite punk and a couple of pieces were too broken to be useful.

  What is left....

  For the time and effort:

  Five bundles of planks around 16 inches buy 4 to 6 inches and 3/8 think and one bundle of 2 x 4  by 36 inches.  In the end some of the 3/8 boards will be too warped to be useful and others of the boards will be to nasty to be seen, but some of the wood is oak.  The tray of nails will end up in the correct recycling bin now too. 

  The 2 x 4's weighted a tonne so I cut a piece off one board, cleared out the nails and milled it on the jointer.  It is close grained oak, it will be strong and attractive when re-sawn. 

  If you figure this in dollars and cents, it is cheaper to make one trip to a lumber yard but I find satisfaction in re-claiming the wood.  I am also figuring out what to do with the oak it is thick and heavy when I am done with it should look good.

  You will notice the bundles of boards are tied together with green chord.  The green chord is soda bottle cut into long thin strips, tied and then warmed with my paint stripper heat gun so that it shrinks. It means I get at least a second use from a large PEP soda bottle.  

  Happy Easter everyone, I hope you have a quiet and pleasant time with your friends and family.

cheers, ianw

Easter in Norway,

 now I know where the eggs come from.

  

A Summary of Small Things in the Shop

  I got a wonderful photograph this week, it shows my grandson with some of the ships we've built.  There isn't an admiral of the fleet anywhere that is more proud of his ships. 

  The submarine support ship needs further work, helicopter pads and radio towers I think.

  A while ago my kids gave me a plastic bottle cutter.

  At the time I knew that it was a cool thing, but I really didn't have a clear notion of what I would do with the plastic string that it creates.  I also found that the string was tightly wound and fairly difficult to handle.

  There are a few things that I have learned about bottle string:

  a. the string has sharp hard edges.  If you want to soften the edges put the string into boiling water for a while.

  b. if you hang the string for a few months with a light weight on it the string will straighten out quite a bit.

  I  hung the strips in the back of my shop under the stairs after the Christmas holiday intending to use them in the garden this spring. I found that a 2 litre pop bottle made about 25 feet of string.

c.  Another thing that I learned from the internet is that the pop bottle string acts like "heat shrink wrap.

  I put a couple of wraps of the string around each end of these bundles of re-claimed wood and tucked the end in.  All it took was the briefest blast from my heat gun to fuse the knot together and shrink the string tight.  Bundles of wood are neater and easier to keep organised in my shop than loose boards.

  Yesterday was rainy and cold.  I'd been fairly busy during the week and my back had been punishing me.  Usually when I am working on a project I work until it hurts and then abandon the shop for my easy chair or laying on the floor.  Using this method there is no energy left to clean up the shop or to do all those little maintenance things that should be done at the end of a work sessions. Since it was not a good day for gardening or riding my motorcycle I used the time doing maintenance.

  After I wrapped up the wood and put it away I spent an hour taking planes apart and stropping their blades.  I've found that frequent use of a leather strop has reduced the amount of actual sharpening I'm doing by at least half.  After touching up the blades and waxing the soles of my regularly used planes I turned my attention to my chisels and shop knives. I believe that stropping away the tiny burrs that develop during use helps the edge last much longer.  

  

  It was a relaxing and productive afternoon as I did some of the those little jobs that make life in the shop go more smoothly.  I washed my various glue bottles and scraped some of the glue bumps off of my bench, two things that get over looked until I am in the midst of a project. I collected shop rags and put some to soak and some to the trash. I like to have clean rags handy.  Another  job was using steel wool and wire brushes to clean up putty and glue application knives.  A clean blade spread glue smooth and evenly and a clean handle is nicer to hold.

 Today is as cold and rainy.  This might be the day for a Zen like sweep and vacuum. 

cheers, ianw

Completed Drawer, Project #7ish - A painting trick too

I completed the drawer last evening.  It fits in beside the white refrigerator drawer snugly.  

  When a box is made using dadoes it can be glued together without needing any fasteners,

  although you do need a bunch of clamps.  Once the glue dried over night I added some nails and screws to increase the rigidity of the drawer.   

  Having decided that I wanted to paint the project white I used a trick I learned from Izzy Swan.  Recently I saw, but now can't relocate a video of Izzy drying latex paint with his propane torch, fast.  I modified his method by drying the white paint with my heat gun.(almost as fast)  

  I used the highest heat level  to dry the paint, and by moving it around steadily I didn't have any troubles.  Using the fast dry method last evening I put on two coats of paint in 30 minutes, including clean up.   I like the idea of very short drying times.  

cheers ianw

High Stool

A very  long time ago I sat on this stool at the dinner table in my Grandparents house once I got too big for a High Chair but not big enough for a "grown ups" chair.  When I was finished with it my brother sat on it.  When my Grand father sold the house and contents and went into a nursing home the stool ended up at my parents house, where my Mother painted it.                                            

       

         



    Once it ended up in my house the stool began to live a hard life in my workshop, but there was never any question of getting rid of it.

    Now Kieran is to big for a high chair and not big enough for a "grown up" chair.  It is time to strip the chair and give it the custom paint job that he has requested.  He would like blue with a boat on it, the mouse went nicely with my Mother's cat themed art.

    I always thought that the stool had been purchased for ME.  I discovered that even though my Grama and Grampa thought ( wisely, for old people are all wise aren't we) the sun rose and set on my their golden haired grandson that the stool is actually even old than me.  My Mom says that the stool came from either my Grama's Mom's house or from my Great Father's house, so the stool is easily 60+ years old.

  When I decided to strip the many layers of paint off the stool I turned to my heat gun and scrapping tools of various types.

  The result:

      All the pieces are stripped and ready to be sanded smooth before painting.  I will assemble the stool and then lay on royal blue stray paint.  There were several layers of paint and each of the colours had been laid on thick.  There are many years of wear and tear and a gallon or so of paint trying to cover it up.

    I used my heat gun in the garage with the door open so that the fumes that were coming off the paint was blown away while I worked.   Now a little bit of sanding a and a dab of wood filler and the stool will be as good as new and ready for my children's, children's children to sit on.  I cause you can't guess, that's Why Wood.

Tom talks Finishing

Tom Talks Finishing

     This might be the best and most informative 25 minutes on You tube, for wood workers.  Mr. Iovino talked about all the issues that I have finishing my shop projects and has a solution that really appears to work.

   I have a commission I am beginning next week whose success will hinge on the quality of finish.  I know the wood I will be working with and so tomorrow I plan to get some boiled linseed oil and make a test board.

   I will report results early in the week.

      

   New Thought: only sort of connected with finishing

   If you do  not have a heat gun add it to your Father's Day wish list.  I bought one ten years ago and it is a tool that I use twice, times a year and would be in deep stew without it. ( a hand held hair dryer is just not as hot, surprise)  A heat gun helps you peal sanding disks, loosen some dowel joints ( on older furniture especially) and of course strip paint (keep the windows open and the air flowing).  I don't do any of the above things very often but when the task arises it is so nice to have the tool for the job.  I have always felt that it was a tool for which I got good value for my money.

ROK 80560