LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner
93K views 123 replies 30 participants last post by  crossgrainww 
#1 ·
Week 1=What I am planning and how I am doing so far

Well I have decided to challenge myself this year in order to work at my woodworking more and get my shop in order.. yeah, yeah I know I was suppose to be doing that as part of ShopQuest 2010. But, really I am going to do this this year, and to keep me on track I have decided to post a blog each week in order keep motivated. Some of the blogs may be posted as projects but more then likely not all of them. I have a few shop ideas I am planning to work on including a parts storage cabinet and a drill bit holder (which I am still trying to decide the best solution for that one) the big goal is to get my lathe up and running. Smaller projects will include toys, games and boxes, all of which I have recently grown quite fond of. I also need to finish a few more pieces of my office furniture so I can get that room under control.
This is my plan, but you know what they say about those. But as a start here is what I have done this week. These are by no means fine woodworking, but I would call 2 of them awesome woodworking as I got to spend time in the shop with my daughter. :)
After making a simple school bus for my nephew my daughter decided she wanted one as well. She painted it and helped me with the putting on the wheels.
IMG_0843
IMG_0844
She likes it a lot. As we were working on it she saw a scrap material truck concept I built and told me she wanted one as well. We decided on making it a pick up truck style. I cut the scraps out and she helped with every step of the way. Even helped to saw the bed rails to length.
phiatruck1

The last project was a quick and dirty chisel rack I put together and happen to have some paint still sitting around from the wheels of the bus so I added a bit. I am just happy to finally get my chisels out of the cubby hole they have been in for the past 2 years. Still have not decided as to how to mount it or if it is just going to sit.
IMG_0867

So there you have it my plans for the next 51 weeks and my start to the year. Let me know if any of you are planning to do something similiar I would love to follow along. Hope everyone has a prosperous and good new year.

CtL
 
See less See more
4
#61 ·
My First Pen..

on my lathe, with no assistance. Well I finally got back to my lathe this week and decided to try my hand at a pen on my own. This one turned out pretty good.

IMG_1545

The pen is a standard 7mm slimline done in American Holly. I was able to turn another nice looking one out of Honeysuckle but when I went to put it together i shoved the mechanism in too far. Was not really happy with myself but, look forward to working with it again and doing plenty more.

My two former projects for lathe work worked pretty well.
Pen Vise
Sharpening Stand
I do have to make some modifications to the pen vise.

That is about all I have for tonight on this blog I am going to post one additional regarding cheap tricks. HAve fun in the shop this week everyone.

CtL
 
#62 ·
So punch the nib off then reset the tranny or take the tranny out if you must, set the nib and more carefully insert the tranny.
Learning how to disassemble a pen is just as important as assembling.
Just my $.03.

Nice pen. I love holly.

Lee
 
#65 ·
Half way there and annoying the family

Its hard to believe that this is my 26th weekly post and that it is therefore half way through the entire year of 2011. I am enjoying these posts and they do help to encourage me to get into the shop each week in order to do a little bit of something. I look forward trying more new things with each project.

As to what I did this week, we went to spend a few days with my wife's family and they all seem to like a good puzzle. So after I got done packing on Friday I took a little time in the shop to make a very simple puzzle. No where close to fine woodworking mind you. But I did employ a technique I recently saw and have only played with.

IMG_1559

As you can see I embossed the lettering on the blocks. I did this by using a laser printed image of the directions and ironed them on. The trick of course is printing the image in mirror. Which I finally did in PowerPoint using WordArt. But I know I have done before just by selecting it as print option. For the life of me I can not remember how I did that. I'll play with it some more but if anyone knows let me know.

I took two of the four of these with me this weekend and let my brother-in-laws and the nieces and nephews play with them. I was nice enough to solve one before anyone got up this morning and left it on the table. Was quite fun watching them try to figure it out. For those of you not familiar with this it is very easy to find on the the web, just look for 9 nail balance. I made the stand by drilling a slightly larger hole for the 8 nails.

To all of those celebrating have a safe and happy 4th of July and hope everyone gets to have some fun in the shop.

CtL
 
#68 ·
What I like to make

What is your favorite thing to make in the shop and give to someone?

After quickly making up the puzzles(see last week's blog) for last weekend and playing with making a few more puzzles this week I have come to the conclusion that is what I really enjoy making. They are generally simple to make and with some more practice with the scrollsaw I can make a number of them at once by gang cutting. It was great fun watching my in-laws, nieces and nephews all playing with the game I brought up and trying to solve the puzzle. Simple toys are another one that I really like. My daughter took her truck she and I made to show-n-share last week at school along with some pics of her making it. It was a huge hit. I have been thinking about packaging the pieces to simple little toys and selling them so kids can decorate and assemble them by themselves.

Now of course this does not mean I am not going to continue to work on other projects. I really enjoy pens, and bandsaw boxes and of course the occasional piece of office furniture. But I have the odd feeling that there will be a number of toys, games, and puzzles being made in the next few months as gifts :).

That is about it for this week sorry no pics or anything just some thoughts. Hope you all have a good week and get some shop time.

CtL
 
#69 ·
A day late.. But two new Pens

Ok, So since I am trying to conserve some Flickr space I am just going to refer you to my project for pics. So that being said, the two pens I worked on last night and today were made out of a ficus tree that used to stand in a building at work. The trees were replaced last year some time and I made sure to keep a few logs. As I mentioned in my blog , I liked that the one piece had a knot it and was quite happy to see that it turned out pretty good and left a cool little mark in the pen.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had made a pen out of Honeysuckle but broke it during assembly. Try as I did I could not salvage it. How does one easily disassemble a pen? I do have some additional Honey Suckle and hope to make a few more pens out of it soon. Also planning to try to microwave dry some blanks to try some of the more recent stuff that has been cut down. Any tips anyone has would be great.

Well that is it, even though it is a day late. Everyone have a good week.

CtL
 
#70 ·
In the shop and working on it..

Well another week with no pictures. However the reason for that is that I am currently in the middle of working on an actual project. We saw a wall organizer at Target that a friend would like to have. I did not though like the construction of it and the particle board that it was made out of. So, you guessed it… I have set out to make my own. I spent time this weekend cutting out all the pieces and running them through the router.

The one we saw had a very simple set of drawers on it. My plan is to use a laminated block of some of the leftover wood to make a bandsaw box that will be part of the piece. I am posting a bit early as I hope to be in the shop after my daughter goes down to work on that box.

This project is a great learning experience and I am hoping it turns out well. So far so good. I am actually making two of them so that we might use one here at home. Look for the project and possibly a mid-week blog to go up by the end of the week.

Enjoy the shop this week and for those of you in my neck of the woods Stay Cool, not looking forward to another high heat week.

CtL
 
#72 ·
Blanks and time with my daughter

Greetings all, Well I did not yet complete the project I was talking about last week because I got myself a little sidetracked. I was able to spend time in the shop most of Friday and the weekend. On Friday I began preparing to make some more pens. Ordered a good number of pen kits online and can't wait for them to arrive. I am planning to provide most of my own blanks from wood I have collected. So with a little help from my Jointer and bandsaw I got a small batch of pieces to start with…

week30b

Some of this will be different to turn, I have also added a few items since I took the print since I had some left over of some scraps, I currently have:
Red Tip Photinia
Honeysuckle
Maple
Cherry
Red Cedar
Paduak

If any one has turned any of these and has some tips I would love to hear them. I am in the process of making a small bandsaw sled in order to cut them to the length needed and will more then likely batch process them at the bandsaw and drill press.

The other fun project I got to do was for my daughter's bedroom bookshelf. She helped me pick some wood from my stock and from the local store to create new bookends. As you can see she did a lot of the gluing by herself. Once the long boards were glued, they were cut into smaller blocks and glued again ( I love those lead weight clamps). A little work with the bandsaw and sander, a few coats of Shellac and she was very happy. Not sure how much they are going to help the bookcase, but it will be a start :)

week30a

The woods are Paduak, Purple Heart, and Cherry. Something I will certainly plan to do more of in the future. I also started one other project in the form of a small book rack. I will more then likely complete that this week and then resume my wall organizer.

Have a great week in the shop.

CtL
 
#75 ·
One Project done, 2 still working...

and a lathe that is waiting for it's new belts. I just posted my completed Photo Album Book Rack a few minutes ago. As I mentioned there in the post I had a lot of fun with this project and did some things I have been wanting to do. This is really my first official glue up of a panel I suppose.

week31

As you can see I also put my Stanley #80 scraper handle to good use. I prepared the entire board before cutting it down in to the sections. This made it very easy for me to use my sander with 4 different grits of paper, now I know that sounds normal but this is one of the first projects I really took the time to sand up properly. I also put my woodburning stamp set to use, which worked pretty well.

Besides this project I also got another of the frames assembled for the wall organizers I have been working on, I am planning to try to finish them relatively soon. Have a few more parts to get together.

As I mentioned earlier in the week my lathe had an incident with a belt. New V-Link Belts are on the way and I should have that back together hopefully by the end of the week. Then it is on to pen making. I made myself a jig to cut blanks to the correct size, you know that quote "measure twice…" well I did and I still goofed. I will be making another one tomorrow. DUH!! :)

Well that will do it for today and this week.

Hope everyone got some shop time and gets more during the week.

CtL
 
#76 ·
Some work around the office and what a bargain.

One of the things that I like about my job is that I get to do a little bit of everything; it lets me be the "jack of all trades" that I so like to be. Recently the bathroom sink in our employee area fell off of the wall after being stuck to it for almost 30 years. It was decided to do a little bit of a redesign, since most people were not overly thrilled with the small sink we had anyway. I had some help in assembly from one of my new employees who is getting more interested in the wood working stuff.

week32a

The building of the sink base of course was the easy part. Getting it installed with all of the plumbing connected took a bit of work. I have now installed all new plumbing on the sink. For those of you that have done plumbing or plan to do it. Please do not sweat connections to pipes inside of a cinder block wall with very little play. Just saying.. The sink base is made entirely of pressure treated wood as the way this bathroom is normally cleaned is with a hose. Several people asked me why we could not just buy a vanity; I kind of did not want to rebuild this again. Joinery was with pocket-hole screws. The bottom picture shows a quick jig I came up with to round over the legs; it was made out of an old plastic sign and a piece of 2×4. It worked quite well and I put it in out tool cabinet for future use.

The other wood based project that we finally got a chance to get to this past week before my college help left is the first portion of a new fence that is to hide our work area from the public.

week32b

My new guy took the lead on this one in getting the posts in the ground and we all worked on getting the framing up. To make things a little cleaner and faster we again used pocket-hole screws to attach the boards to the posts. The fence itself is bamboo. We will keep an eye on it over this winter to see how it does and have plans to add more in the future. The picture in the top corner shows another good use for my sawbuck.

Besides this work last week I spent the weekend around the Pittsburgh area and attended the annual church festival and white elephant sale at my father-in-law's church. I grabbed a bunch of miscellaneous wood pieces and a few small parts. The best find though was a microwave for $3, watch for more information about drying my own pen blanks in the microwave.

Talk to you all soon. Have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#78 ·
Earth, Wind, ..

Fortunately there has been no fire as of late. But what a week started it off with an earthquake and ended it with a hurricane. No damage to report at home and very minimal damage at work. Might wind up with a few extra chunks of wood to work at least.
I have not really gotten a lot done in the shop this week. but did manage to work with a piece of that walnut I was experimenting with in the microwave.

week34

As you can see from one of the pictures the glue dried faster then I could work on it. So half of the blank was not going to work very well. I decided to still turn it using a left over blank of ficus that I had for the top. I like the way it came out. Not much more to say, it is going to be a busy week with cleanup at work and my daughter starting school tomorrow morning. I have no idea where all the time has gone. For those of you out there in the same boat, hope all goes well and hope everyone is safe after the storms.

CtL
 
#79 ·
Woodworking and Disney??

Not a lot of shop time for me this weekend as we took a trip to celebrate my daughter's and grandfather's birthdays. My daughter turned 5 last Thursday and she shares this birthday with my grandfather, she was quite surprised to find out that when we picked her up from school we were boarding an airplane. She was treated royally be the staff in Disney World. We surprised my grandfather as well on Friday in his home town and spent the day with him before leaving Saturday morning to spend a few days at Disney World.

Now you may ask what does this have to do with woodworking… well for starters it is my grandfather (that I have mentioned here before) that is an inspiration to me and my woodworking. He lives in a two bedroom rancher, and the spare room for him is his own private workshop. He celebrated his 90th birthday on Thursday and is still going strong building yet another dollhouse from scratch.

Secondly, I am a big fan of the technology and creation of Disney parks. There are some good examples of woodworking in various places around the parks, the strongest of which is in Epcot's World Showcase. Have you ever stopped to look at the Norwegian Stave Church? I just found out there is an exhibit inside of it on Vikings (never noticed before so not sure if it is new or not) Also in Mexico there is a large collection of carvings.

But for me the item I have been looking for was in Japan.



This is an image of the puzzle box I bought. I have wanted to purchase one for quite awhile. I also found the website for the makers. The Karakuri Creation Group. There are some really cool puzzles here. I did see a few of them in the store in Japan. Some of them quite pricey. However I plan in the future to pick up a few more of the type I bought to make a set.If you look under the Karakuri Small Box tab on this site you can see the whole set.

So that is how this past week went, the next one is open and should be interesting as there is a lot to do at work and my daughter just started kindergarten.

Hope you all had a good holiday weekend if you are over here and hope everyone has a great week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#82 ·
Getting Ready for Various Holidays

Due to work and several other things I did not a get a lot of shop time last week. I would have posted last night but I got sidetracked by the TV (9/11 broadcast)
I have managed to start preparing for several holiday events. The first is the 2nd annual haunted garden tour at my work. One of the staff has traced out several things that need to be cut out and I got the first of three witches cut out and half of a second one. Here is the first.

Witch1

They will all be painted black to be used as silhouettes. I have to admit I had a lot of fun with this one and look forward to the other two, not sure yet about the smaller cats. I will post all of them once they are finished. Since I like doing this last one I am pushing around making a Christmas type one for my house.. we'll see.

I also started to work on some games which I look forward to trying my hand at selling in November at the first craft fair I am going to try. It's ran by our HOA and free to enter so I do not have a lot to lose. I'll be posting some of the finished projects as we get closer. My wife and I are basically going for a game type theme, so I am making some Tic-tac-toes, some of those Ox-Yoke Puzzles, solitaire games and some other small challenges. Let me know if any of you have tried to sell any games and what may have been a good seller.

Talk to you all next week, have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#84 ·
Well the good news is I did not finish a lot of projects…

This is good because what I did accomplish in the last few days was getting a number of items prepped to be finished for the craft fair and other things. I went to work on my tic-tac-toe games and got them one step away from final assembly, all are already coated in lacquer and just need to put the pin in for the lid. You can get an idea of the process form the pics below.

week_36b

The best part of doing them in batch is the single set up. I only had blocks for 6 so that is what I am going with. The last pic you see there is a pile of the ox yoke puzzles that I am debating putting a finish on. The wood is meant to be handled and I think not really need a finish. If anything maybe some mineral oil/Beeswax which I have been wanting to try.

My daughter worked with me one night in the shop and practiced her sawing and nailing. We picked up the toolbox kit at a rummage sale a few weeks ago, have to get her back in the shop to help finish it.

week_36a

Since I was in the process of batch cutting items I decided to continue with prepping to make a large batch of pens. Once I got it properly aligned; my new slimline cutting jig worked great (Ikea has somethings that are useful, like those cheap cutting boards).

week_36c

The woods I worked on tonight are a bit different then normal; Ficus, Red Tip Photinia, Honeysuckle, Thunder Plum, and Maple. Looking very forward to working with all of these. All this pen prep made me hungry to actually make something, So I made a new pen.

week_36d

I actually have no idea what the wood is as I had made the blanks a few weeks ago and they were just sitting by my lathe. The good news is my new live center I bought works great. Much better then the old worn out dead one.

Well that is enough rambling on for the evening. Hope you all have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#88 ·
Another slow but productive week...

in the shop. I am of course continuing onward with my preparations for the craft fair. I got all of my tic-tac-toe boards hinge pins installed and just need to sand them down. I bought some Soy based stain to possibly use on the ox-yoke puzzles, have a sample drying right now. Has anyone ever used this stuff? Any thoughts?

I managed after changing out the paper on my disc sander to get all of my blanks ready. I have a pen mill but really don't like how hard it is to judge the end of the tube with it. So at this point I think i am going to stick with the disc sander. Also made this guy for help organizing the blanks throughout the process.

week_37

I saw something like this in "The Pen Turner's Workbook" by Barry Gross I decided on the stepped approach since I had made them for something else and I like that it holds a good number that are easily seen.

So hopefully get to some turning this week, as well as finishing up a number of the games and puzzles.

Short and sweet tonight, actually I think I will head into the shop for a bit and work on some puzzle prep. You all have a good night and some good shop time this week.

CtL
 
#89 ·
Two Games finished.

So this week I was able to put some finishing touches on two of the items I will be offering up at the craft fair. My tic-tac-toe games, and some sets of Bewitching Cubes.

week38

For those not familiar with the Bewitching Cubes; I found the them in E.M. Wyatt's "Puzzles In Wood", the object is to orient each of the cubes so that each face shows the numbers 1-6.These three sets are made out of various woods which I forget right now and burned using Walnut Hollow Number Stamps. I made my father set a few months ago and he is still working on them, so I thought they may be a fun thing to try to sell. Made up a direction/solution sheet to go with them. If anyone is interested in making then let me know as I came up with a few tricks that seemed to work well for numbering multiple sets.

The tic-tac-toe boards am going to let folks choose then types of stones they want to go with them. I have about 6 different colors.

Did a little scrap test with that soy based stain I bought and I am going to apply it this week to my Ox-Yoke Puzzles and get those finished. I have about 4 more weeks and have to come up with I think 1 or 2 more puzzles and also some pens in that time. Then after that I need to make like 2 dozen pens. Busy times are coming just have to get motivated in the evenings after work.

Have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#91 ·
A three day weekend…

and unfortunately not a lot to show for it as I was away for a good portion of it. Spent most of the weekend at my parents, so I did not get much shop time this week. I did however manage to come up with a new display technique for my pens. I happen to stumble over gbrown4's version of a pen tilt and decided I needed to try one as well.

IMG_1816

This is the one I came up with for starters. It is some ¾" red oak cut at 4" long. I need to do a little more experimenting but a pretty happy with this and will plan to make some additional ones to go with some pens. It has also given me a good idea for an actual pen display that I will need to make soon. Curious has anyone had luck in making tilts with wood less then ¾" ?

My games are still coming together and I think I just might post them as one large project in a few weeks when I have them all together.

That's about it for tonight. Hope you all have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#92 ·
Birthday Weekend

So this past Friday was my birthday and my wife and daughter presented me with some nice small gifts.

IMG_1817

My DW looked at my Lee Valley wish list and got me a couple of things. Looking forward to using them all, including the Gimlets. Even though I love my drill press I do like the quiet of the simple hand tools once in awhile. The wood came from the local wood store and I am pretty sure it is a piece of Padauk. Perhaps I will work on something to give her for Christmas from it :)

In other news, I am happy to say that I completed 6 of the Ox Yoke Puzzles for the upcoming craft fair. Man it is coming fast now, only 2 weekends left and I am working on of them. My goal is to have everything completed no later then the 1st though the fair is that following weekend. I spent the day making up soem earring parts for DW to make for the fair as well then cleaned up the shop a little bit in order to set up my scroll saw to make cut up puzzles. I have about 4 different ones to make and am going to attempt to double stack cut them in order to make 2 puzzles at a time. Then a few more simple peg puzzles I think.

Oh and next week I will post some of other large cut outs I have done at work for the Halloween Program.

Hope you all have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#97 ·
Craft Fair coming quickly!!

Evening All, Just a brief bit tonight since I am working on more pieces for the craft fair. I did post a project earlier today.
Was able to complete several cut up letter puzzles in the shop this afternoon and take a trip to my local wood store for some help in finishing. I picked up some scroll saw sanding belts. They worked perfect for getting into the tight angles on some of my puzzle pieces. I am still looking for a few additional puzzles to make and may hae come up with an idea for one on my own based on an old puzzle I just found in a recently purchased book. If you like puzzles take a look at "Slocum and Botermans New Book of Puzzles" I just got it yesterday and skimmed it this evening found several cool older puzzles and some neat ideas.

Well I am off to figure out a new puzzle, have a good time in and out of the shop this week. I will be setting up at work for Halloween so those cut outs will be posted next week.

CtL
 
#100 ·
Merry Halloween! Huh?

To those of you on the east coast. I can not believe it snowed 2 days before Halloween. But anywho, hope everyone is doing ok, sounds like Connecticut got hit pretty bad.

This weekend was the big Halloween Program at my work so I finally got to display the cut outs I have been doing. I did a lot of the cutting out, the tracing was done by another person and my staff helped with a few of the smaller ones. It came out looking pretty neat, even though I had to put the witches back up a few times due to wind.

week42a

I really did have a lot of fun cutting these out. We have plans for a few more next year and I may also tackle something for home. Just one more thing on my to do list. They are all cut from 3/4" plywood and held up using rebar, pipes, and some pipe hanger tape.

At home I am down to the wire on the craft fair. It is next Saturday, I have some stuff finished but am needing to make a few more duplicates of stuff so I have multiples. Here are a few more of the things I have decided to make.

week42b

I have the Cut Up "T", Cut Up "H" (and no that is not the proper solution :) ), Ox Yoke Puzzle, and three different peg games (Solitaire, 8 Men on a Raft, and Pull the Peg) Pull the peg is an idea based on Shut the Box. I decided to do it in a head to head version and it will come with 2 sets of dice. So with the multiples of these to make it gives me about eight different games or puzzles. This is a free craft fair put on by our HOA and the first time my wife and I are trying this. So we will see how it all goes, my wife has made Tailgating checker boards that roll up as well as some crayon rolls.

I hope everyone has a productive and safe week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#101 ·
Some of my favorite stuff of yours so far. The halloween cut outs are really cool and I like the puzzles and games…we'll have to check in after the weekend and see how things went. I have a bunch of projects to do also for this weekend.

brandon
 
#103 ·
First Craft Fair Down

As my wife put it, "It is an odd feeling knowing that people we don't know are now using stuff that we made."

Yesterday we sold at our first craft fair. It was a rather nice day and the venue was small, the local HOA puts it on each year at the community center. Our focus was primarily Puzzles and Games. We have shopped a number of the local shows the past few years and noticed it was a bit lacking in this area so we figured it would be a good area to focus on. DW did a number of sewn games and also toy holders, the matchbox holders were a huge hit. While I focused in on the wooden games and puzzles, most of which you have seen in my past blogs over the past few weeks. It was a slow start but business picked up and we walked away pretty happy and are putting serious consideration into doing this show and maybe a few other local ones next fall. We want to make sure that we take our time to build inventory over the upcoming months so we are not rushing around like we did on this one. We only made about 6 or so of each item, which turned out to be a good number for this show, but would like to have a number in reserve just in case.

Our table space was shared with my mother who also brought sewn and crocheted items. Some of which sold ok. We will be working on ideas for table set up in the future and trying some ideas out.

craftfair2

This is the table we had, one of our key things is that everything is portable as far as the items are concerned. The idea to let folks choose their own markers for the Tic-Tac-Toes was a pretty good one. We certainly did not have a lot of competition as there were only two other woodworkers there both offering lathe turned items; some very nice stuff. No one was offering the games and toys. I know a few of you also had craft fairs and shows this weekend hope they all went well.

I am looking forward to cleaning up my shop this week and getting some things in order before I tackle a larger project. My office suite is still lacking credenza, so I am looking forward to working on that and finally finishing up my office. I mean it has only been like 2 1/2 years.

Hope everyone has a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#108 ·
Prebuilt furniture and Miscellaneous fun in the shop

Well after the past few hectic weeks of trying to get stuff finished up for the craft fair I took the time to I had this week to just have some fun and play with a few things in my shop. My weekend started with a bit of furniture assembly and disassembly, though not pieces made by me. The wife and I went furniture shopping last weekend to look for a new recliner for her and just to see what else we could find. Well we wound up buying 3 items. A recliner, a desk chair for me that was on clearance and a wardrobe cabinet that was very nicely priced since one of our favorite furniture stores is moving. I have been wantinga chair to match my office suite but was not planning to build one. You can see the chair in this picture. I got some great help putting it together. Nothing special to speak of but it is comfortable and good quality.

week44a

The wardrobe arrived on Friday with 2 delivery guys, the good news is they got it upstairs. The bad news is they could not get it into the guest room no matter which way they tried. They were at it for a good 20 minutes turning it every direction possible. The other good news is this is a much better piece of furniture, made by Simply Amish Furniture out of Illinois. I told the guys to leave it where it was in the hallway and I would figure something out. Upon inspection I found the top was held on by 6 square drive screws. After removing them and the top I was able to use the sliders I had purchased to simply push it into the room. Top went on no problem, Go fig… We now haver a very nice wardrobe for my parents and father in law whenever they visit or if they want to leave stuff.

The other time this weekend was spent playing with all kinds of things in my shop.

week44b

I made another cut up card this time for my uncle from a card that he drew himself, that is already in an envelope and will go in the mail tomorrow. My daughter told me a few days ago she wanted to make a train. So she is now working on the paint job before final assembly. The lacer is for her to work on her shoe tying abilities, went nice and quick with culled piece of 2×4 and some screw eye hooks even made it the size of one of her own shoes. The whistles are compliments of Steve Good's website. They all make noise, one is much better then the others and I am planning to take that one to work to use. Lastly I made the prototype penguin ring box. Found the design online as a puzzle and shrunk it down to fit a 2×4, used a forstner bit and chisels for the inside, 3/16" dowel for the pivot and Sharpie markers to do the details. Will certainly be making other ones and perfecting them.

And to top it all off, I started about 2 or 3 other projects for the shop itself and waiting on the glue to dry before I proceed. So, all in all a very productive and fun weekend in the shop.

I wish you all a safe and productive week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#110 ·
A Pen Type of Weekend

Yep put together and made a number of pens this weekend starting on Friday after work. But before I get into that I mentioned last week that I had some glue ups drying in the shop for some shop items.

week45a

I know nothing spectacular, just some 2×4s with holes drilled with a forstner bit. But oh so handy; the small one is attached via pocket holes to my mobile workstation by the drill press. My hope is not to lose the toothbrush and pencils as often. The larger one is a bit more advanced and uses rare earth magnets to stick to the side of my bandsaw and also to hold the miter gauge. I am willing to bet I will be making more of these from scraps and I promise not to bore you all with the others. Keep them in mind though they are quite useful.

Anywho, about those pens; I had a few that had already been turned just not assembled so I worked on getting those together and then wound up turning 3 more. Here is what they came out looking like.

week45b

The Ficus one is colored using Sharpie markers and the sealed with Mylands and wax. The Maple I have to say was quite a surprise but love the way it turned out. The 4 in the right box are all made from Honeysuckle, a nice wood but a little plain so I may play with dressing it up some in the future.

I also tried something new this weekend… Acrylics!

week45c

and I've got to say I like wood. However; my wife would like to make some pens for gifts this year and she likes the look of the acrylic, so I figured I should work on at least one to see how it worked. I made the mini-pen and you can see the first pen my wife turned by herself, there will be more coming. Now don't get me wrong I like the way some of these acrylic blanks look and how nice they turn out in the end but I think I really like to work with the wood better besides wood only smells if you are burnin' it (and that generally is not a bad smell) these things smell no matter what you are doing to them. Anyone have a good way to get that acrylic smell out of the shop. I did find that they tend to turn a little better if you round over the corners of the blank first with the router.

Well that's about it for this night, I need to drill and prep some more blanks for the wife this week and my daughter has informed me she wants to make a pen. So I guess I will have a few things to post next week.

Hope everyone has a good week in and out of the shop, and to all of those here in the U.S. Happy Thanksgiving!! (can't believe it is here already)

CtL
 
#112 ·
Just a bit late

Ok, I know I am late again on this one. Due to the really nice weather around here this weekend the major focus was decorating. Had some new lights this year and actually got on the roof. Usually they only make it as far as the front porch posts. But it looks nice, still plan to add a woodworking project for next year though.

But I did manage to get some time in the shop (even though my dw is still working on her pens) and finish off a few more pens during the week.

IMG_1934

All made from Ficus with the exception of the bottom of the left one which is Black Walnut.

Also made my first official non-standard slimline.

IMG_1936

Made from a European 7mm kit and Black Walnut. I like and have some work to do to get these ones looking really good. I am sure some one that turns can tell me the two problems I ran into in making this pen. One more project to get finished up and delivered this week. I'll post the finished pics here on my blog and perhaps as a project.

Hope you all have a good week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#113 ·
Compensating for last week's delay

Well it has been a busy and exciting week in the shop which is good because this weekend I am way busy with other things so that is why I am posting now instead of on Sunday.

The pens that I have been making lately will be going on sale. They are all made out of wood that was salvaged from work and are now going to be sold in the gift shop at work. I made a very simple display stand that will hold the pens and some information cards about them and how the wood they are made out of came from the property.

week47a

My dear wife has finished her first batch of pens.

week47b

She did a great job on them and I am sure the recipients will be very excited with them. Now to just get that smell of burning plastic out of my shop.

My parents will be seeing my grandfather around the holidays and I wanted to make sure to send him something I made. So I decided to keep on the lathe and make him an Ornament from some kits that I purchased a while ago. So here it is the first 7mm ornaments I have tried.

week47c

Kind of fun and I have two more kits when I get a chance. So I am sure those will be made this year. I believe this one is Jobilo.

I hope you all have a great week in and out of the shop.

CtL
 
#115 ·
Woodworking and Disney..

Yes I know I have used that title before. The reason though is simple my family and I spent all of last week there. We took the Amtrak Autotrain down last Friday and came back on it this morning. If you live in the Virginia area and want a scenic way to get to Florida it is worth the trip, just don't expect to get a good nights sleep. Lots of cool wood along those tracks, always forget how much swamp land Virginia actually has.

But I digress. This past week we saw a lot of Disney and it was a hectic but good trip, Make sure to keep your eyes peeled on the Hollywood Studios Backlot Tour and you can see one of the number of woodworking shops on the property. I was no able to pull my camera out fast enough though to get any decent shots. We also took a the Behind the Seeds Tour on Epcot, I wish there was a way to get some of the branches from some of the 9 pound lemon trees, they might make some interesting pens.

Being away from my shop and recovering from the train ride today did not leave me any time to work on a project. Instead I bought a few..

week48a

These are 2 more Japanese Puzzle boxes that I purchased in the Japanese store in Epcot. They only had one of the set that I bought the last time so I picked that one and this other one which is decorated with Yosegi Handicraft, the box itself is refered to as Himitsu-Bako ( Personal Secret Box). They are bot very cool little boxes and they will look nice sitting with my other wood stuff around the office. The store has a number of boxes priced from $20 up to $500 I have seen a few of the more expensive ones in books and such.

On our last day I happen to glance at the Christmas tree in Downtown and noticed these cool decorations…

week48b

They are all just half finished on the facing side and looked to be made very simply out of dimensional wood. The simple look of them is what caught my eye.

Well I have prattled on enough, I promise to have an actual project or at least be working on one for Next week.

Have a good week in and out of the shop all.

CtL
 
#117 ·
Tis the Season..Turn, Turn, Turn

Well as I promised last week I certainly have projects to post this week. I have been busy at milling some wood and putting it to use at the lathe. I actually posted 3 projects in a row earlier.

My daughter joined me in the shop yesterday to work on pens for her Kindergarten teachers.



I spent a few days going through my wood that I have had drying for a bit now and was able to cut pieces down for numerous ornaments for my coworkers



and some pens for others



I had great fun with all of these projects and really just played with all of them to work on my techniques. I am looking forward to putting them to good use on future projects. I also built a small sawbuck similar to the one that I built for work in order to help me process some of my larger stored wood. Of course after I built it my hand me down chainsaw decided it did not want to work anymore. So the larger logs will sit for a bit longer and give my DW a reason to pick on me about my wood habit. :)

Hope everyone has a great week in and out of the shop. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

CtL
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top