Progress Report

I finally got back to my drawers for my shelving unit. I made the drawers 1 inch smaller than the opening width, but a full 12 inches deep to get the max space. I was unable to buy the full length slides at the store cause neither store had a set the length I needed, though I could have ordered them in. They also cost $16-18 a pair. So I kept looking around and found some medium duty slides at Lowes for less than $5 that were for 16" drawers, but since they were stamped channels and only two bearing each side I took a pair home to try them out. I started off by cutting 4" off the slides and drilling a new hole for the screw near the cut end. They did work, but not perfect. The catch to keep the drawer from coming all the way out limited travel to 6", which meant I only get to open the drawers half way. On the second set I used pliers to flatten the catch and the drawer can open all the way, but at that point it falls out. Neither scenario is good. Full length slides would be better. Another choice is to make my own guides. Later, if I'm feeling rich.

Anyway, here are two pictures, one showing the face, made from the same wood as the sides of the cabinet. The drawer sides are popular and the back is pine, cause that is what I had on hand.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

A Carved Cat

Finally, a real original design. I carved this cat, which is not painted yet, from my own sketches to give me a tall skinny cat. It is meant to be a folk art type piece and the eyes will be painted in. It is a simple design, but one that I like. I'll post it when I finish painting it so ypou can see the differences.

In addition, last Saturday I created this small box from cedar. I had issues that I expected using a router with cedar, mainly the tearing of wood chunks at the edges of the wood. Other than that, it looks good and I want to try this same box in a hardwood, which I know will hold up much better with the router. I used the video set from youtube for basic instructions and tried to follow his tips and suggestions. With a different wood, I'd like to try adding the border inlay that was shown, but was afraid the ceder would keep tearing due to its soft nature.

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By the way, the box is 3"x3"x3". The rabbits and lid separation was done on the router, the mitered corners were done on the table saw. Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Folk Art Chicken

This is a folk Art Chicken as described in the Carving Magazine in their anniversary issue. The design came from Dave Disselbrett's article, but I made some minor changes to his design. I didn't like the way that the tail was attached as a separate piece, nor it's shape, so I incorporated the tail in the base design here. That is a fun part of carving, nothing is set in stone, unless you are carving stone of course. This chicken is a tad smaller, to fit with the size of the basswood I had. As I recall it is 1 ½ x 2 x 7, I think. I could be wrong there. I did like the separate wings although I could not see the details used in the original carving, which left me open to interpret the design any way I wanted. All in all, this was a fun and quick project, about 2 hours for the carving and 2 hours for the painting. I've yet to spray a finish varnish on the bird cause the final coat of black on the shoes was still wet. Any way, here it is.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

Some metal work

I've been taking a metalsmith class at MHC and I attached a project we are working on. It is a 'memory' box, made from a piece of copper that was embossed in a roller mill then shaped in a hydraulic press to form an impression into a piece of plastic that we cut the negative design into. Does that make sense? anyway, we the cut a rim around the depression to form a flange, kinda like a bowl. I then cut a piece of brass to match the shape, laid out the design and cut the internal openings. Once that was done, I cut a 1/8" thick piece of acrylic into the same shape to sandwich between the copper and brass. After tapping the three layers, I drilled holes for the screws and put it all together. The layers did not quite line up, so I cleaned up the overhang with a disk sander so all three pieces match. It actually is a lot more work than what I just said. I put 2 fish-hooks in it to remind me of an earlier time when I would fly fish in the local rivers.

Since I had a thin piece of copper that was very soft, I thought that I would try spinning it to see what would happen, not having any of the proper equipment and no training other than to watch y-tube videos. I turned a form for the finished birdhouse, and a support for the tailstock. Well it didn't work, which was not surprising, but I did get an interesting shape and results. I tried to use an oak dowel to move the metal around the form, but a steel ratchet extension worked much better. You can see where the oak dowel caused it to fold, and I grabbed the steel extension afterwards and got better movement, but the damage was already done. Haven't decided if I should still try and make something from it or not. The curved portion of the metal is hard, while the flatter portions are still soft. An interesting project. Penn State has a kit for setting up a mini-lathe like mine for metal spinning, which I may have to get.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.

For the Birds, very small birds

I've added pictures of a birdhouse that I just finished, almost. Actually, there is no finish, which is what I need to do next. The main part of the birdhouse is turned, and hollowed to just below the peg. Since you can't get in it, I wasn't going to get too carried away. The top started as a 3-sided turning, but it was simply too small to see the difference between the sides. That and the spalted wood was soft and hard to get a good finish. So I grabbed the Foredom and carved the top. I tried to give it some character so it has 4-ridges along the roof-line, as you can almost see in the pictures. I also carved underneath the roof, so I added a picture showing that. I attached the roof to the body of the birdhouse with Kwik Wood putty (epoxy) that I picked up from Home Depot. I like this product so far as it was able to fill the gaps where I carved an opening for the roof and hold it in place. I understand that this is often used for setting eyes in carved animals, too.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Foredom Flex Shaft Mount

I got my last Christmas present mounted last night. I was looking at using 1/2" water pipes to make a holder for the Foredom, but by the time I added up the material costs it was cheaper just to buy a stand from Foredom. I took a shot that Harbor Freight might have one, since they often sell tools that are similar to other manufacturers. Didn't find one, but I did find a garden stake for plants that looked like a perfect holder for the flex shaft ($2.30 USD). In the pictures you can see it mounted, with 2 clamps holding the 2x3 to the carving table. Once I decide on the height and position I may just screw the 2x3 into the legs. Until then, it's adjustable.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Dust Collector

Last Saturday I went and visited all of the local wood working stores in the local area to see what they had for dust collectors. On Sunday, I bought a new Steel City dust collector model 62500 from the local Woodcrafters store. The price was good and they had it in stock. I opted to go with a bag filter instead of a canister as a cost saving and for the small size of my shop I thought that it would be sufficient. They spec the bag as 1 micron and 1200 CFM, which is what I need for my current tool set. The ShopSmith DC3000 just didn't cut it after 30 years of use. I have pictures showing the DC connected to my thickness sander and a second shot showing the fittings between the DC and table saw. I picked up a quick disconnect kit at Rockler and added the fittings to all of my 4" ports. I just drag the hose to whatever machine I'm using. The hose will reach up to 21 feet, in theory. At this point it works great as I get no blow-back on any of the tools I've used it with.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.