Anyways, the picture.

I had fifteen minutes to myself a few nights ago, and this is what I came up with. Hope you take the idea and make it your own, for your furniture. It’s about 15”w x 13”L.

He only got the fence of the complex. And I got about 200 bdft of salvaged, seasoned, rough cut gorgeous looking cedar. And I have need for a new bedframe, dining table and coffee table. Life works in mysterious ways.

And for all of us down here. Keep safe and enjoy the rustic lifestyle!

If only my router ran off solar energy.

So far, this is my plan:

I’ve got base built, and next will be creating the removable instrument inserts – I have two maracas, a tambourine and one snare.

Lenny’s Workshop

This was his workshop,dug into earth, the same level he is now. Jars of nails crusted shut lie down amongst dusty sunbeams. I didn’t know him well, but I fished with him once and I didn’t catch anything.

The tools he owned, three worn down beat up power drills, three workbenches, one table saw, its blade gone like the man, are now laid down.

These tools, they look like mine, placed where I would place my own. The lumber, stacked, where I somehow know to stack my own: oak, some teak, there hidden a cutoff of birds eye maple, making impossible designs within it self.

The older man taught my old man how to build, sometime before I came along. Now, if my father teaches me, did he teach me too, is his hammer the hammer I swing? I will lend him a hammer, if he lends me talent.

I’m thinking a french cleat behind it to attach to the wall? Did I get that right?

The original design came from Brookstone, in case someone likes the piece. I just d/l the manual’s PDF and creatively modified the design. CAD design in Sketch-Up, which is a wicked cool program. Opensource & free is the way to go.

- thanks,
Whiskey

Joints look strong, the kids did a great job getting ‘em just so.

I’m going to add some braces for strength (it racks? is that it when it shimmies if you push it around?), but before they get attached I’m routing the names in the braces, so they always know who worked on it.

I’m a storyteller, so I’ll give you a set-up and a punch line one of the kids played on me.

Me: How you think we should paint this, buddy?

Kid: It don’t matter. You're gonna put flames on it anyways.

Boy’s been hanging out with me too long.

All the supports are finished, and the dadoes and lap joints are cut out. For the lap joints, (and dadoes) I set the depth on the circ saw and made a number of cuts through the waste wood. Then I took a chisel with some of the children and malleted (with mallets they made! check the pics) away the waste. It worked to a fashion, but mostly it let the kids get comfertable with wood chisels and give me impetus to actually learn how to put a better edge on them. Good times all around.

Then, we brought out the block plane and smoothed out the joints, screwed and glued the top frame together, and called it a day. Seriously, some notes: 1) the kids got a real kick outta the plane, and so did I. Really, the first time I used one for a project and it did a great and quick job of it. It surprised me, I thought they like the power (insert Tim Allen sound here) but alas, hand tools took the day. 2) I NEED MORE PLANES.

So onto the rest. A trip to Home Depot (oh, man! Not again!), a day of dry fitting, maybe some pics midway through next week.

For those of you wondering, this project will be going very very slow. Its a tad quicker when a person don’t have to explain to/manage twenty children at the same time.

First time techniques – I taught the kids how to create a “story stick” – ain’t that what it’s called? Anyways, we transferred all measurements to a length of 2×4 and they are measuring off that. So, whatever that trick’s called.

This is my design so far, subject to change. I’m trying for something pretty sturdy, storage for games and such, but an open top to convert into a workspace if needed. The middle of the bench will be spanned by a 2’x4’ piece of 1/4” hardboard….the top will probably have to become thicker, won’t it? Any thoughts?

Whiskey.

Thought I’d show my personal leather project: Wrapping the handles to my personal (and my work’s) tools. Something about the feel of good ol’ worked in leather around a tool. Feels good in the hand. Also, the kids get more control with the smaller tools, and it teaches them to swing the full hammer, not just choking up and swinging the head. Photo/hammer arrangement brought to you by Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”

What are some other customizing jobs (or simonizing in “Death of a Salesman” terms), y’all got in your collection?