Three Shop Projects

I have a photograph that shows life in my shop almost perfectly. Last Friday I was working on bicycles, because I can, and this Friday I have worked on a canoe paddle, two boxes for repair and another polissoir. 

    10,000 Villages in Hamilton provides me with a steady stream of wooden boxes that need adjustment or outright repair. It is amazing how many tools I use to repair these boxes. I use needle files, rasps, planes and chisels on nearly every box. On the larger of the two boxes I used my Rockwell Bench Jaw, this bench fixture has become a 'go to' bench vise for many tasks of this sort. 

  The other thing on that canoe paddle is a polissoir, 6 1/4 inches long by 1 1/4 inch in diameter.

 This polissoir is made from new broom straw and bound with waxed thread which has its knots glued solid. After shaping the ends I soaked them with pure bee's wax. If anyone is interested in buying a polissoir I am selling them for $20.00 PLUS shipping costs. I can be contacted at walwoodwork@gmail.com to make arrangements, put polissoir in the re:line so your inquiry doesn't get lost.

 cheers, ianw

So I built another box

  If we are being honest nearly everything we build in our woodworking shop is a box, unless you are Izzy Swan, then you build a t-rex. I set out to make this particular box to fill a small organizational need in our kitchen/dining room.

 As I was making this project I encountered a few things that I wanted to share with my reading public.

  I decided to use the sides from this wine bottle box and my Bessey Duo Clamp did a very good job of pushing the sides apart without cracking the wood.

  When I got to the assembly stage there are Bessey clamps again. This box has no metal fasteners, just Weldbond glue and sufficient clamping time.

  The ends of my box are aromatic cedar, I love the colour and the grain of this wood. An FYI it can be very brittle. Initially I was going to cut the dados by hand but the wood was breaking out uncontrollably when I used my chisel to make a 1/4 inch dado. The better option was to use my sliding mitre saw for this cut.  

  I cut my left index finger working on my table saw a couple of seasons ago and resolved (and promised my wife) that I would leave the guard on the table saw and use other tools when the guard got in the way.  I have only taken the guard off my saw twice to use my stacked dado set, I get along fine with my router table, mitre saw and other tools 99% of the time.

  Part of the reason I wanted to make the box was to try my Red Neck Polissior. Cedar looks great with a wax finish.

There it is, ugly,wrapped in Duct tape 

and ready to use.

  Well, it didn't get used because I found a source of quality broom corn and my wife had an inspiration to replace the hose clamps holding the broom corn.

 The clamps are replaced my zip ties. The ties are spread out to fit between my fingers and all the lumps are on one side. 

 The end result is a box to go on the island between our kitchen and dining room to hold all the stray papers and magazines that collect there.

  The cedar polished up great with the polissoir and bee's wax. I will continue to experiment with this finishing method but so far I like the result and zero drying time.

 cheers, ianw