Picture Frames and a "tankard".

   Since the grand kids were here I have been working on a couple of custom picture frames.  For these small projects I opted to work only with hand tools, for a couple of reasons.  One, small bits of wood are easy enough to work without all the power of mitre saws and routers, also small pieces and power tools together sort of scare me a bit. The other reason is hand tools make almost no noise and so puttering around in the shop in the evening, listening to music is good for my soul.

  Making the frames with hand tools is slow, but satisfying.  Over the years I have collected a shop full of fine tools, good saws, knives, planes and jigs. I cut the frame material in a mitre box, trimmed the ends on a 45 degree angle shooting board.  Then I hand cut the rabbet for the glass and cleaned it up with my rabbet plane. Once everything was cut and sanded I glued the ends together using my lead weight gravity clamps and my KREG Klamp table.

  It is interesting re-learning a method of work. For the first frame I fumbled around looking for measuring tools and angle gauges and deciding which saw etc. etc. etc.  On the second frame I knew what I wanted to do and in which order.  Now I need to make a better mitre box before I do the next set of frames.

  I spent many hours in my head designing the other project.  I got the idea that I wanted to make a rustic tankard from which to drink my favourite cool beverages.  A wooden tankard sounds good, but I opted to ask my Sister-in-Law to throw a pottery body upon which I would attach some sort of carved, rustic wooden handle.   

The pottery body is very fine.  

How to attach the handle? 

I didn't want to glue the handle to the pottery, too permanent, ugly and too difficult to modify should I have a better idea down the road.

The current result:  

The deer antler handle is comfortable and feels nice in my hand.  Antler is very easy to work on with sand paper by the way.  It is glued to a thin strip of wood, which is glued to a layer of leather and the lashing is waxed hemp cord.  The handle is secure. but not as aesthetically pleasing as I want.  Also, I want to see how well the waxed hemp holds up in  real life.  I have another body so I can try another version without having to take this one apart.  

It is getting cold and wet, the season for painting and wood working is upon us. 

cheers ianw

Found Wood Project

 The other day I picked up wood on the side of the road.  Usually the wood lays around until a project comes along.  This time I was inspired to use some of the wood right away.

  I decided to make a corner flower box to sit on our deck.    Preparing the the wood did require some edge trimming but not much else.  

Several of the boards had 45 degree ends and so I decided to use the already cut wood.  I used a combination of Kreg Pocket Holes and screws to put it together.  The were a few rotten spots  I had to work around but I like the result.

  I cut the mitre using my sliding mitre saw and measured the lengths I needed  once I fit the corners.  This found lumber is cedar and nice to work with.  In the fore front of the photo is my try square.  This try square is from my late Grandfather's wood shop. I'm not sentimental but....I could never replace Grampa's square.

   I think I will paint or stain the project, after it gets a little bit of sanding.  It will look nice on the corner of the deck with flowers next summer.

 cheers, ianw

    

summer flowers

Picture Frame

 Working backward, the needle point finished and framed.

  The frame is about 20 inches by 14 inches and 2 inches wide, cedar with two coats of shellac and one of varnish. I cut the mitered corners and used my KREG Klamp Table to glue the frame together.  Once the glue set (over night) I drilled each corner and drove a 1/8 dowel two inches in to reinforce the joint.  The dowel is not invisible.  Once the wood is sanded and finished the tiny spot of contrasting wood is unobtrusive. 

  

  Making picture frames and small boxes sometimes requires the joining edges to be more refined then they come off the saw so a Shooting Board is the hand tool solution.  Traditionally a shooting board is used with a plane, mine also works as a sanding jig.  The block in the channel is dead square and has sand paper glued to its face.

  Making this frame of soft wood I needed to refine the 45 Degree faces. I didn't have a  fixture for this shooting/sanding board so I improvised, yesterday.

An example using an off cut.

  The head of my combination square gave me the support and angle that I needed to finish sand the angled faces. Today I made a fixture to have on hand next time.

I see I have to make a new board pretty soon,
 this one is getting well used.

there is a dado cut into the
 underside for stability.

  Now I can sand or plane both 90 Degree and 45 Degree ends on this shooting board.

  

  The jigs in my shop are red (or orange). I see I have to make a new board pretty soon, this one is get well used.

  cheers, ianw

Dremel/Carving Project - Maui's Hook

  I have a grand daughter that has nearly memorised Moana and so I thought I would make her her own magic hook.  I started with a piece of maple and cut the basic shape on the band saw. Once the basic shape was established it became a carving/shaping project.  This type of project is always a challenge to clamp, this is where my foot powered vice earns its keep. I made the foot vice/hold down several years ago .

  The wooded frame clamps to the work table, in this case my KREG Klamp table. I hold the rope down with my foot and that provides enough clamping pressure to enable me to use my Dremel tools to shape the project. 

  If you look closely you can see a work station that features all the tools that you need for shaping a magic fish hook.  I have two Dremel tools, needle files, sanding blocks and card scrapers all of which I can roll into the best light in the shop. If I am working on two projects at once I can roll this entire work station out of the way and carry on with out having to put all of these tools away.

  I have to do some wood burning on the hook and lay on couple of coats of vanish and then we wait to see what sort of magic is in the hook.

cheers,ianw

Friday's Jobs

  Many people are filled with grand plans and noble ideals.  I'm not.  Today my great hope was to not to have to put on socks.  I wanted to spend the day wandering about our house and maybe do some work in the wood shop too. 

   One of today's jobs was finish off Kieran's submarine bank.  Kieran drew a plan for me two weeks ago.

  The submarine has two compartments and one side is glued on while the other side is held on with screws. Kieran wanted to be able to get the money out, I didn't want it to be too easy.

 

  The real job of the day was making a picture frame for a painting by our friend  Rhonda.  I made the frame from elm.  Elm is a wood that has wonderful character, but is stringy and working with it can be a challenge. 

  When I was cutting the rabbets on the back of the frame sections the wood came away in strings and choked the dust collection system on my Jess Em router table. 

  After I got the elm cut to length I used my KREG Klamp table for assembly.

   The picture frame is finished with tung oil and once it is dry, the glass  cut and the painting installed I will post a picture for you to see the result.

  Here is a link to an instructable making a wooden picture frame using biscuits.