Lots of Things Drying

  At this moment in my shop there are things drying and small project stacked up. I am making some small projects for a coming event at our church and the impending Rockton World's Fair .  Our church is having a 'food fair' as a fund raising event in a couple of weeks and I am not going to contribute food, but kitchen accessories. I have made a serving board and three cheese boards.

   The cheese boards are ash wood rounds that I planed and finished with food grade oil. This set of rounds I flatten differently that previously.  The rounds are only about ten inches across and so I used my 12' Planer to flatten them.  I very slowly lowered the blades and took extra small bites as I planed the end grain of the ash.  The result is good but....I think I will have to replace the planer blades sooner than I'd planned.  

   Going to the food fair as well is a turned bowl I made a while ago from maple stair treads. Maple is hard but slightly boring looking wood. 

  I also made and wood burned a tea box.  I felt like working on a small hand tool project and after planing the wood down and edge gluing it I set about making a nice little box.  There is a special satisfaction in beginning a project with a piece of very average stud grade lumber and ending with a small finely fitted project.

  The little oak caddie for the three glass bottle with the turned wooden tops is also for the church. Projects like this are made in factories over seas by the ten thousand.  Mine however is one of a kind, with three up cycled bottles and their three different turned lids.  If some one realizes the unique nature of the tops they'll find a use for the bottles, it no one realizes that the three lids are different wood and hand turned, they don't really deserve them.

  It is nice to be at a point in my life where I no longer have to explain or promote.  I just make stuff I like and let it go at that.

  I have a piece of furniture to make and I have a door knob that I plan to turn in the next while.  My big projects right now are paintings for competition at the fair. Painting is nice, it is a quiet pass time, which serves as a relief from the noises in the shop.

 

 

 
  

Its Hammer Time

  Yesterday I dropped over to David's house to do a very small job, with the right tool.  We all own a drill, many of us own several.  Now days most drills are cordless, but you should not discount corded drills and especially corded hammer drills. 

   The small job  was to drill two holes into their concrete block foundation.   A few years ago I bought a good hammer drill.  The hammer feature on that drill is a thing that I  only use a couple of times per year, but is a feature for which there is no really good substitute. We could have gotten along without the hammer drill, but..... having the proper tool available makes the job so much easier.

    I remember drilling a hole in cement before carbide tipped drill bits.  In fact I worked with my Grand Father to drill a hole in a house foundation with a star drill. 

star drill bit

 It took us a very long time to drive that star drill into the concrete, probably something nearing an hour and hundreds of hammer blows.  A modern hammer drill delivers hundreds of blows per minute so does the job much quicker.

  If you a planning on a job that requires a few holes in cement buy a cheaper hammer drill and then you'll be set for years.  If you have a big job in mind, rent a big, powerful rotary-hammer drill someplace, you can drill holes all day.  You can also rent large bits that will drill holes big enough for dryer vents and drainage pipe and things like that. 

  Hammer drill vs. rotary hammer 

Small Drill vs. a Big Drill 

  Aside from a bit of home improvement stuff this weekend I am working on three new cutting boards.  Cutting boards are low skill and another case where the correct tool makes the job easier.

cheers, ianw