Hello all!
In addition to wood working, I am very involved with the Boy Scouts of America. Both of my sons are Boy Scouts and I am currently an Assistant Scout Master. One of our Eagle Scout Candidates recently completed his Eagle project that involved removing an “old” Cedar Rail Fence. Rather than see all of this beautifully aged cedar turn into firewood; I offered to take it and repurpose it into projects.
I love to make outdoor furniture and will post entries here as I start and complete individual projects. I started making outdoor furniture (and other projects) mainly for myself and family. When we put our kids in private school I was asked to make something for their annual auction. The response was incredible! I was really blown away by the “sale” price of my work. Granted the price is inflated as it was a live charity auction; but I was approached by a number of people asking if I would consider making items for profit. I always said no thank you.
For this last year’s auction I designed and made a potters table that really attracted alot of attention. People were offering to pay me the auction price to build them. Again I humbly and politely refused, feeling it might take some of the joy out of my hobby.
Well…I am now considering it. I am thinking that each of these projects will be used to build a catalog.
I am also thinking about a dining room table; but I am not sure how well cedar will work for that.
Anyway…
All of the wood is rough sawn 2X6, 4X6, and 6X6. The 2X6’s were 16 feet long. I had to cut them down to transport them home. After cutting out the unusable parts I ended up with over 85 eight foot 2X6s and a small assortment of 4X6 and 6X6. (Iwill post pictures shortly).
My first task will be resawing the wood into usable pieces. To accomplish this I am justifying the purchase of a bandsaw. I have decided; although I haven’t bought it yet, on the Grizzly Polar Bear 14 inch with the 6 inch riser block. My plan is to buy this on my next day off while the sale is still on, Sep 23. I live a couple of hours away from the Bellingham warehouse.
More to come…
-- Chris, Bremerton, WA
3 comments so far
Dallas
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1867 posts in 653 days
#1 posted 611 days ago
Chris, If I were you, and I’m not, I would have all the scouts make personal projects out of some of the wood. While they are working on that, they could be discussing a major project to make as a troop.
I remember about 45 years ago, I moved to a small town in Idaho and went to a one room school for a year. During the summer, the new school was built with 8 rooms for 8 grades, and the old one room building was pulled off to the side on some Ponderosa pine logs as sleds.
During the next school year, the whole town got together and dismantled the school house and stored it in a nearby barn.
The local Scouts got part of it and (I had joined the local troop by then), we took little pieces to make whatever we wanted out of it. I made a small school house, some made boats, one guy made a car and another made a covered wagon.
Our over all project was to make 30 snow sleds for some of the smaller kids, also we made some pump houses for the older widow ladies in the town to cover up the well pumps and keep them from freezing in the winter. Not exciting projects, but all of us took away a sense of accomplishment that we have never forgotten.
Here’s a thought… have all the Scouts make little ‘Worry Boxes’ out of some stuff you cut up. Worry boxes are little boxes you give someone you care about. They take the box and every day when they come home they open the box, cast their worries into it for the night and let go until it’s time to go to work the next day.
Good Luck!
DF
-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!
Chris Love
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34 posts in 612 days
#2 posted 611 days ago
Great Idea! Last year they brought back the Carpentry Merit Badge for a limited time. We only had one boy complete it. My son was it.
I will put out the offer though…
-- Chris, Bremerton, WA
greg48
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213 posts in 923 days
#3 posted 610 days ago
Chris, I applaud your justification for the new tool. You are obviously a veteran woodworker. Hope you don’t mind but I am going to tag your site to keep updated on your new projects
Hope you success with the merit badge(s).
-- Greg, No. Cal.
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