Live Edge Table

  At the beginning of June I started a couple of live edge projects. The bowl went pretty well and has found a home.  The other project was a much bigger slab, that I turned into a coffee table.

  The table is thirty inches round (more of less) and the emerald ash borer was under the bark the whole way round. The legs are elm, for contrast.  I also used elm because it has a history here similar to ash.  Dutch elm disease killed off thousands of elm trees in Ontario when I was a kid just like the ash borer situation now. 

  I sanded the end grain to 220 grit, sealed it and gave it five coats of water based poly.  Water based finishes are different.  You can see from this photo that it goes on milky, but once dry it is perfectly clear. The table gets delivered to its new home tomorrow.  I hope my cousin will be pleased.

  This time I did not turn the legs on my lathe.  I made them mostly with hand tools.  Next blog will be the process.  I like the results and it wasn't a big a task as you might think.  Once I made a jig for the drilling the legs holes the process was quite straight forward.

  cheers ianw

 

A Morning of Repairs

  Eva and I sneaked away for a couple of days to our cottage on Georgian Bay. It is nice to 

summer scenes are nicer that what we have now.
 but... it will look this good again shortly.

get away from home to relax for a while.  

    
  We watched Pay-Per-View movies ate great baked goods, did jig saw puzzles and a small maintenance job.  When you own a property there is always a small maintenance job.  The diverters on the bath tube facets needed to be changed.  An easy job you say, well it is when you have a decent product with which to work.  Initially we went to the local hardware store with the helpful people and bought a new diverter, after careful installation as demonstrated by You Tube it leaked.  I am not an experienced plumber  so I assumed I had done something wrong and re-installed the diverter and it still leaked.  Eva took it back to the hardware store with the helpful people and brought two new diverters made by a well known and respected plumbing supply company instead of a generic company and... after following the same instructions the diverters worked perfectly. I guess the lesson is buy things from well known and respected suppliers, their  quality control standards are higher. 

  This morning I went down stairs to my work shop and had to begin by clearing up the mess.  There were a couple of things that needed paint, or varnish and several things that needed repair. 

  I had a tray to re-glue, a fish to varnish, a table top to varnish, a facial tissue box to re-glue etc. etc. etc.

  

  With a piece of glass to cover this piece it would make a very distinctive serving tray.  I will continue to put on coats of varnish.  There is no question, water based varnish is easy to apply and it is easy to clean your brushes too.  Easy enough that extra coats aren't a problem.

  Last spring I made some nice boxes to cover our facial tissue and one of the boxes came unglued.  Rather the inner tube used to hold the cardboard box in place came unglued. 

 No fooling around this time, two part epoxy and proper clamp time. 

  One of the odder projects from this morning, a morning that included cutting and bleaching deer antler, (the band saw cuts the antler easily, and javex bleaches it fine) another job was using that two part epoxy to glue a foot onto a folding tablet stand: was reshaping a little tin box that I use as a pencil case.

  The tin recently got rather badly bent.  I don't know how, I guess I sat something heavy on the bag it was in.  This box is nothing special expect for its history.  Thirty five years ago my late friend Steve and I smoked those small cigars and he gave me the tin. Steve is gone, though I think about him often and wouldn't part with the pencil case for worlds.  It was a small scale twist and hammer job and the result is adequate. 

  I also did some painting:

Our yard will have 'one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish' this summer.  A finishing note: Varathane  water based varnish softens and lifts milk paint. 

  Captain will be as good as new so he can float in our garden's water feature again this year.  The frogs like sunning themselves on his deck.  Kieran and I made Captain years ago, I renew the wee boat each spring 'cause I have sentimental attachments to somethings.

  There is more house cleaning to do later this afternoon, but right now I am going to put on a bunch of warm clothes and go for a bike ride.

cheers, ianw

Ongoing Small Shop Projects

  Many of the serious bloggers have large scale impressive projects featured in their blogs and shop videos.  I like bloggers like Wood Working for Mere Mortals which often feature smaller one weekend projects.  My workshop produces lots of planter boxes, storage boxes and book cases.  Also my workshop is used to repair or rebuild wooden items.

  I received a bee house as a gift from my Grand kids last season and it has sat in my shop until today.  Why, it needed to be finished.  The box was raw wood and as such would have lasted two or three seasons at best before disintegrating in our climate. Today I put the first of what will be several thick coats of varnish on my bee house.  Shortly it will go into the garden and provide solitary bees a familiar place which I hope they will inhabit for the coming winter.

  I think a bee house would be a good pallet wood project.

  I also added another coat of varnish onto the table top.

  I am using Varathane Water Based Varnish.  It seems to be okay, it sure is easy to clean up your brushes.  Maybe easy clean up translates into extra coats of finish?!

  Yesterday we worked in our garden hacking away at the crazy rose bushes and taking the chicken wire protection of our azaleas.  I also brought in a fish.

  This garden fish is to get a new dorsal fin and new paint.  I will spray the back ground colour on and the grand kids can add the details again. 

  The other issue this morning is a knife handle.  I have been given some wonderful deer antler. 

  First I need to select a section to make into a knife handle for Cousin Steve. He has requested something "cool" not necessarily useful.  I'm thinking I need a wee piece of brass for a finger guard.  There is a design floating about in my head, but at this point it is still floating.

  I will take one of these yellow knives apart and put a cool handle on it for Steve.  I bought these knives in Sweden a couple of years ago at a warehouse clearance store. The blades are excellent, the handles, ugly.

  Our weather is improving and bike riding is being added to the agenda, yah!

cheers ianw