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Sorry the pictures are not that great, but here's the deal. Whenever my 7 year old daughter wants to build something with me, whatever I am doing I drop it and see what she wants to build. She saw all my clamps laying on top of the table saw and asked me where they go, I told her, anywhere I can find a space, then it hit me we could make a small clamping station. I had seen plenty of designs but wanted to wait until I had some larger scrap wood, but I have to strike while the iron is hot, so I gathered up whatever was laying around and we decided on a design. Aside from the angle of the legs and old clamp storage scraps I had, nothing else was cut or milled for this. She is not a big fan of the saws cause they are in her words," Its too loud daddy". Her and I attached everything with glue and screws and hand sanded the whole thing. After I got home from work and she got home from school the next day we started to finish it. Just a light oil stain and 3 coats of water based poly, anything else is ,"too stinky daddy" so water based poly was our only option. in the first & second pics you can see her putting on the Poly.

Whenever her friends come over she wants to go to the garage and show them what she built, she is not at that, too critical of her work stage yet, so I enjoy hearing when she explains to her friends what she did.

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Comments

· Registered
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It's great getting the little ones involved, isn't it
 

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It really is Don
 

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Great story. Sounds like you cherish your time with her. Enjoy, in a few years she will discover boys-with no time for the "rents".
 

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Nice piece - but a GREAT story. Getting the kids involved (especially without the sharp power tools) is great, building the Crafts future.
 

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Thanks Nikki, I ask my wife every day, "Does she hate us yet?" I know its a stage, but I want to skip that and the "You don't know anything" stage and get to the "You were right how did you know?" stage. I need these workshop memories to be ready to handle the next stage, ha ha.
 

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Wonderful to have time in the shop with your daughter ,Looks like a great clamp station .
 

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That's awesome time spent. My kids are a bit small still, but I try and incorporate small lessons with them. Being 2 and 4 its pretty limited to banging nails in scraps and cutting scraps with a hand saw. Kids love time together! They could care less what is being done, that is the true treasure of childhood. :)
 

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I have a 2 year old daughter… and earlier today we were building a new house with her plastic tools. Can't wait to take on some "real" projects with her when she is older!

Great story. Thanks for sharing!
 

· In Loving Memory
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That clamping station looks very handy, especially with the storage box in the center. Nice work and good bonding with your cute daughter.
 

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What a precious moment you can remember forever. Gotta love it when they get interested in something that you are. Memories of a lifetime, Enjoy it now, they grow up too fast.
Mark
 

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How WONDERFUL to have your daughter interested in your wood interests! By all means encourage her to be inquisitive and adventurous and to design and create her own work.
 
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