Wood Chips and Firewood

Some metal work

2012-01-27T14:26:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-23T20:28:00.001-08:00

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

2012-01-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-15T16:29:00.000-08:00

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.

New Cabinet for the Shop

2012-01-15T16:06:00.000-08:00

I have finished a new cabinet for the shop. I used particle board scrap for the main box, trimmed with Myrtle wood and sized to fit in the opening of my lathe stand. Pictures show a lot, so I'll try to hit jut the highlights. The drawer sides are popular, the bottoms are 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood. The front of the drawers is Myrtle wood that I cut from a single board into 3 layers, each piece finishing into a 5/8" thick piece. That's how I got the bookmatch effect across the face. I used wood guides and an over-sized bottom to separate the shelves, picture included. The drawer face is rabbited to hide the plywood bottom and I used pocket-hole screws to hold the sides and face together. The finish is BLO (boiled linseed oil). Inside one of the drawers I placed all the different adapters for my Nova chuck, to help get an idea of size, about 13.75" across on the inside. The back of each drawer is a thin piece (about 3/8") of Myrtle wood that I cut to fit and is not attached but sitting in a dado I made to hold the back in place. One picture shows the oversized drawer face, where I kept the sides short anyway, and some of my push blocks I use on my table saw.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Corian Handle - Not.

2012-01-08T22:38:00.000-08:00

I've included a couple of pictures of the corian handle I was turning, but the contrast of the white makes almost impossible to see. What it all boiled down to, While I was able to turn the corian, I did not have the pieces stacked correctly and when I tried to screw in the insert that the pizza handle screws into, the whole upper portion I had drilled out broke off, even with an over-sized hole drilled. I did not have enough time to try again, but it does point out the necessity to have a jig of some kind to keep the pieces in line and vertical. Also it showed the impossibility of tapping the corian since it is such a hard and brittle assembly, the way I made it. Bummer. I skipped the corian and went to Myrtle wood which looks great and is much easier to insert the fittings.

I also am showing two of my Christmas gifts, one that will help in holding my tools while I work on the lathe, the other so I can keep track of how late it is while I'm working. Clever idea on the first, though I may remount it directly on my table so I can easily pull the lathe tail-stock off. The other as you can see is hanging on my wall already.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Corian Spiral

2011-12-23T21:19:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of a stack of corian ready to be turned on the lathe for a pair of handles. These were meant to be done by Christmas, but time is getting away. I'll post again after I attempt to turn this mess.

Santas and More

2011-12-03T21:49:00.001-08:00

It has been a while. Our work auction that raises money for our annual holiday dinner just took place. My wife an d I included these items in the auction. I will start off with my carvings, four of them. Each of the Santas have a unique characteristic and all were fun to carve. I pushed it again this year and did not paint them until the last minute. I antiqued them and sprayed a final coat of sealer the night before the auction. I've got to learn to get this done a little earlier. I had to use a magnifying light to be able to see as well as I would like, and have decided that I'd better do them same when doing the finishing carving. I got a little sloppy on some of the fuzz.

The next pair of pictures are projects that my wife worked on for the auction. One is a tree skirt for the Christmas tree and the other is a wall hanging. Both came out fine and received good bids on them from the auction.

Enoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Not yet forgotten

2011-11-22T22:00:00.001-08:00

While I haven't posted any pictures on this site, I have been busy. I'm taking a metal smithing class to learn more about making hinges for my boxes. Naturally the first real project in the class is a ring. It is not ready for pictures yet, but I have been learning how to solder as well as shape metal. I've worked with brass, copper and silver. Each one has their own unique qualities and it is all fun.

Also, I've finally started painting all of my carvings - Santa's, houses, ghosts and Indians. These are also not ready for pictures. There are other projects in the works, but none of the very far along. I have prepared some maple for a scroll sawing set of collasapable bowls. I'm part way done with a set of hinges. I turned a large button to be used as wall decor. That and trying not to keep too busy.

Well enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Myrtle Wood Bowl

2011-10-05T21:13:00.000-07:00

I couldn't find the camera so I'm posting this from my tablet.byes I know the pictures aren't as nice. ere are 2 pictures of a 5 inch bowl I finally finished. It sat on the lathe for a week waiting for me to go back out and sand it some more.

Since it is tough to edit, I'm not making any changes.In addition, I added a couple of pictures of a bottle stopper that I am carving.

Decorative Horses

2011-09-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

Here are a pair of Horses I've been working on to paint, one for the work auction and one as a gift. The tails are not attached yet and a brace that fits across the bottom rockers has not been added. As you see, without the tail they lean forward way to much. I'm not sure of the weight of the tail but the roll of tape does indeed bring it level. For this project I'll add the tails then use the cross piece to level out the horses, moving it forward or back until they sit level. The tails will be made from a jute or rope, depending upon my attitude and availability at the time. The body of the horse is made from a 2-by, and the rockers are from 3/4" poplar, although pine would work here also. Since these will be painted the material doesn't make a lot of difference. More on this project later.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.

Some Carving

2011-09-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

Spent the last holiday weekend in the woods near Mt Rainer, playing golf and carving. Here are 2 pieces that I completed this weekend with a ruler in the picture so you can gauge the size of the work. The larger Santa face is meant to be an ornament, although it can stand on its own. I will add a loop to the top so it can either be hung, or can set on a shelf. The other is a standing figure, as if you couldn't tell. Painting of both of these will occur soon, but not yet. After I finish a couple of more carvings I will start painting all of the pieces. The first picture is larger than the others, so watch the download time.The weather was hot and dry, for Washington, so I sat outside in the camp chairs letting wood chips fall as they may. The face of the taller Santa is a style new to me, and I had a little trouble with wood tearing around the eyes. I even resharpened the carving tools more often than I normally would to try and smooth things out. Note that I did get the wood from a different source, so I'll be watching the wood other projects that came from the same batch for problems. If I keep having trouble I'll let you know the wood provider.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

The Shell Game

2011-08-16T21:19:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer, I was at the beach near Gray's Harbor, Washington. One of the small shops there had sea shells for sale at what I thought was a reasonable price. I picked up a couple as an experiment and you'll see one of them here. The glue is still drying on the other. The spindles are turned from walnut and have a stub tenon that matches the holes (kinda) found in the top and bottom of the shell. I attached them with E6000 craft glue as that is a thick glue, dries clear, and has some flexibility. These two shells cost $1.69 each, making this a fun little inexpensive project. They are fragile so I didn't know if I could get them home in one piece, but they made it. The finish on the wood is super glue, as I was trying to keep the pieces as strong as I could.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

A Little Magic

2011-08-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

A good friend of my sons has 2 daughters that went to Hogwarts Day Camp last week. Each was given a branch to polish and make into a wand. One was lost on the last day of camp, to the disappointment of the girl. Well, since they had asked already if I could help get the wands polished (sanded), I went ahead and made a couple of wands which you see above. Each wand is about 16 inches long, with the business end made from Myrtle wood. The Handle of one is Cherry and the other is Juniper. Since I made these from 2 pieces, I drilled the tenon hole extra long and added a partial feather voluntarily donated by a Blue Bird. Okay, its a feather I found on the ground, and maybe the cats didn't get him.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Sewing Room by IKEA

2011-07-31T21:17:00.000-07:00

Some assembly required.

This was my weekend. After spending weeks of unable to decide or describe what was wanted/desired in the sewing room (except not wanting tacky, whatever that means) we went to IKEA and purchased a complete desk set for the sewing room. The white is a melamine covered particle board with precise hole and fittings locations to match perfectly with a metal tube support structure to complete this desk. Everything is included, even the required allen wrenches in multiple separate packages neatly waiting in the warehouse for pick-up. The engineering is very good, the price is low, though I would prefer a better quality material, the price would go up then to match.

I built the table the first night. I had to built it right-side up, not according to the plan, as I had no way to turn the table right side up after assembly. But it went together well and all of the parts fitted to a tea. In fact it looked so nice the next day we went out and bought 3 tall bookcases and 2 short bookcases. One each of those stayed in a different room. These were heavier, which did create a problem for me, but I was able to move them around. The side and end panels of the bookcases are not solid, they just look that way. More like a large torsion box with solid members in just the right places for strength and to assemble the parts.

Note that the bookcases are all off the ground and are hanging with molly bolts near the top. The larger shelves are actually sitting on a frame where the cement juts into the room around the inside perimeter of the house. One day of assembly for the bookcases, one for the table. I've made nothing this week/weekend.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Another for the Birds

2011-07-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

I already posted a series about this bird-house, but it was missing the roof. I got back today from a trip and was able to turn the top. The top is made of 6 pieces of Cedar and 6 thin pieces of juniper. These were glued as sets, then the sets were glued to make halves, then the two halves were glued together to make what you see in the first picture with the top hot glued to a base block. The second shot shows the bird house leaning against the lathe for comparison.

This was a rough bit of turning to reduce the wind vanes to the main body of the roof. Once knocking off the extra wood, it became much easier turning, and a lot fewer flying chunks of wood.

To turn the bottom, I first turned a cavity into my mounting block where I could insert the top, added hot glue, and turn the hollow in the bird house top.

A this point I was able to complete the turning, carefully making sure that the bottom part of the bird house fit snug in the opening in the top. After a creating a place for the top to fit, I hollowed out the top, put finish on the two parts and glued them together.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.

Another Birdhouse

2011-06-27T21:23:00.001-07:00

This is a collection of pictures I took while turning the second birdhouse. The pictures show it all. Note that I took these with my Acer tablet and wrote this while I was waiting for the drill to cool off.

With any luck the pictures stayed in the order I took them. The software I used is called Blogger and was written for the Android tablet. No preview to see how it would look, also no editing of the pictures and all of the writing is with my thumbs.

I had to move into the house to get close enough to the wifi to post this article.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Note that the pictures did not come in the requested order, I went in and re-arranged them.

Turned Bird House

2011-06-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick project that was fun. Again, as with the pens below, this is a project to raise money for our Holiday Party in December. The body of the bird house is Myrtle Wood and the roof is spalted maple (I think). The perch is walnut and the red bird I carved from basswood and colored with water colors. Yes, the house is hollow out and the walls are about 1/8" thick. No reason to get too crazy here. The bird is attached with super-glue. The finish is a walnut oil & shellac mix.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Getting Ready for Our Summer Auction

2011-06-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

Every year at work we raise money for our Holiday Party with an auction of donated items. Here are two corian pens and a Cedar Bottle Stopper I turned. The first pen was from a piece of corian that I thought was to bland to be very viable. As a pen, it looks pretty good. As a counter, just not enough color for me. The second pen is from a small piece of blue corian that I thought was pretty good looking, and it is. I think I would like to try the blue again using a black tip and center band. That means I would have to turn those too, which doubles the time and work. The fit and finish on these pens are good, so with a replacement ink cartridge I would sell either for $45.

The last item on today's posting is a simple bottle stopper I made from ceder and put a walnut oil/shellac finish on it. Cedar turns quick and sanding is more of a concern due to the softness of the wood. The two colors are because the piece is off the edge of the log, giving it a lot more character.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Pen Box

2011-06-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I did decide to try and make a small box for the pen. The first picture shows the box, cut with 10 degree angles. I cut the channel of both the top and bottom as one piece using the table saw, many passes across the saw, then hand sanded to remove the resulting grooves. It's about 7 inches long. The main body is Myrtle Wood and the ends I think are from Yew. Whenever I cut or sand it it smells bad, more like 'ewww'. Still, it looks nice though yet unfinished. I hand-made a single hinge for the box also from Yew thinking that it would be strong enough for these pieces. The hinge pin did not drill exactly centered. When I opened the box you can see how the lid cants to one side. Not good.

I removed the hinge from the box, (no it wasn't easy) and put supports to lock the lid in place on both ends. These I cut on the scroll saw and sanded them to fit. I made a handle from Yew for the top and it has become a lift-box. I sanded a little from the ends of the lid to allow the lid to slide on a little better. On shot shows the pen set into foam that I had available. The finish is BLO and a layer of Watco wax. It looks nice.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

A Duck Pen

2011-06-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted. But visiting Maui does get you side-tracked. Here is a pen I made for a student graduating from the University of Oregon. The nib, center-band and top were turned from a black piece of acrylic to match the ribbon in the block I picked up from Woodcraft. Of course I had a few issues but the pen looks good and the fit is great. All three pieces I added fit perfect. I replaced the ink cartridge with a Cross brand so it will write better.

Still need to decide if I should make a box for it, or pick one up at either Woodcraft or the Rockler store.

I found a mouse to use as a prop for the pen, no significance, just handy.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

New paint

2011-05-02T13:04:00.001-07:00

My spouse was out of town, so I cleaned out the second sewing room, painted it twice, then installed a Dupont floor (like Per go, only different).
Note that I was a box of flooring short, and I've been laying this floor for about 6 years, it was no longer in stock. I bought the closest color match I could, and decided not to worry about it.

Note I posted this from my android tablet.

From Corian

2011-04-19T22:18:00.001-07:00

I just got my new pen mandrel from Pen State Industries and it came with a free 7mm drill. Too bad I bought on last week. The bushing for the 7mm pens are larger than the fittings for the kits I got from Rockler, so I have to remember to grab the right set, or just use the micrometer more consistently. The guide bushings may actually fit the pens from Pen State, but I haven't bought any kits from them, yet. They do have a nice variety as well as some high quality sets. Anyway, the shot with the corian I picked up the other day shows the mandrel. The shaft length is adjustable on this mandrel, which is really nice.

I tried to show how I press the pen pieces together, but the picture is fuzzy. The point was that I turned two blocks for the lathe that allow me to use the lathe itself as the press. Makes it easier than buying another tool. These wear our so I get to keep turning these blocks and tossing the old ones. I considered using corian for the blocks, but I thought it might be too hard.

And of course, the final shot. This pen is laying on the back side of the piece of corian I turned.

A final shot is a green and yellow pen. The center band is black acrylic that is part of the pen. I also turned a black tip for the pen, which you will see when the pen is finished. I haven't decided about whether to put a clip on the pen, or just top it with a black turning. Come back later and see.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.

A Pink Pen

2011-04-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

Here is another pen from and unknown wood, but the pink coloration should make it easy to find out. The first image shows the pen blank in 3 stages:

Drilled and Mounted.
Rough turned with no sanding
Sanded to 600 grit

The rest of the pictures show the final pen, after coating it with CA and then polishing it to 12000 grit.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Another Pen

2011-04-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

You might be getting tired of the pens, but I'm not. Here is a twist pen that was made from a wood block that was given to me as a present. I do not know what type of wood it is, but it is pretty and it took the finish I gave it well. I tried three different things with this pen:

Get a closer cut at the tip of the pen, you know, the joint between the gold tip and the wood barrel. This one came out perfect.
I sanded the barrel to 600 grit, then applied 20 coats of CA for the finish to give it a hard and more durable surface.
I wet sanded the CA finish with micro-mesh sanding pads to 12000.

I did get the joint to fit real well this time. The finish came out remarkable smooth and shiny. I was really impressed, and I know how it was done. For the finishing steps I found a site called Timberbits from Australia that had some YouTube videos. I like this pen and it is one of the best jobs I've done for fit and finish.

I have two more pens ready to turn, so I'll be posting those soon too.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Dumpster Diving

2011-04-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

I swung by a counter-top manufacturing/installation place and went dumpster diving and pulled out about 4 pieces of counter top to see if I could make turnings from them. I includes a shot that shows the color. I really wanted one that was very dark, so I may have to go back later and look again. These may be corian, but the one piece I drilled and turned was a type of plastic material, judging by the material I removed. The second pictures shows what happens if you don't clean the flutes of the drill out often enough.

The third is a finished pen, which came out real nice. It started as part of the long piece at the bottom in the first picture. I sanded this like the acrylic pens I did last week, to 1200 grit and then used a plastic polish. This pen would look good with a white center band and a tip of the same material. I may try that next week. While it is not wood, I like it, and so does my significant other, and she wants it.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

A Couple of Pens

2011-03-31T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I needed to turn something, so I tried my hand at a couple of pens. I tried something different by using my own centerband for one. For the other I turned the tip, centerband and top from acrylic sheet goods. I had a few problems, but that comes from trying something new. Let's say I was glad the finger-nail remover was close at hand. The white/black and red one I turned large, so I could see if it felt more comfortable in my hand. The green one I kept slim and tried to get the best fit possible at the tip. The centerband I glued on and turned to get a smooth fit. While it was fun, the working parts for both pens are the same, even though the red one it twice the diameter of the green.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Panels and Lathe jigs

2011-03-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

I have two projects that I worked on the weekend. The first was the end panels for my drawers that I am making for the shop. The pieces are juniper, I think. They look great and after a lot of patience went together as shown in the picture. I still need to make the boards to join these together. I'll cut a dado near the bottom of the panels and use poplar, and I will use a dovetailed joiner near the top that is juniper, as that may be seen. At this time I'll add a rabbit along the back edge for a plywood panel there. This is for the shop after all.

Project two is a pair of axillary jaws that will hold small square pieces on the lathe for drilling out. If grabs only the opposite corners and the max size of what it will hold is only ½" on my jaws. Instructions for making and using the Axillary Pen Blank Jaws are found at David Reed's site. The first picture shows the jaws after I epoxied one side of the jaws together, the second on the final step. I may need to look for another jaw set to mount these in order to get the .75" spread I wanted. If I can't get more spread, I'll make another jig for my pens on the drill press. I want to drill out some blanks for my pens accurately , but I can't find my old jig. I guess I will make another one, and maybe I won't lose it.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Handles and Panels

2011-03-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, as I have been working on the sewing room walls. They are sheetrocked and primed. After the rest of the stuff is moved out, I will paint the room then lay down the floor. Until then, I am back in the shop.

The first thing is I turned a new handle for the vice on the carving bench. As you see it is Myrtle Wood and one end was turned as part of the handle. The other end was turned from a piece of scrap Myrtle and I positioned it so you can see the screw I used to mount it to the handle. I also drilled a bunch of holes in the top for bench dogs to be mounted. I also placed 3 holes in the vice to be able to lock down the items using the vice. I tried to get a tap-down bench clamp, but they were out of stock at Rockler.

My next project was preparing some boards for a drawer set I want to place under the windows next to the carving bench. This is to hold my tools when not in use. The first step was to make panels for the ends of the cabinet. I wanted to stay away from Myrtle on the project, so I grabbed some unidentified wood and began planning and cutting it to size. As it turns out, it is Juniper. Very pretty, lots of color and knots in the wood as you see in the pictures. My bandsaw wouldn't cut the panels as they were too tall, So I used the table saw and cut the length on each side then hand cut the center with a standard rip saw. It took a while. I then sanded the surfaces down to even them out and remove all of the saw marks.

As these are going to be raised panels, I needed to cut the boards edges at 10° so I made a jig that would help keep the boards vertical on the table saw. It is made from MDF and within .1° of 90, not perfect, but should be close enough.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters

Santa Circle

2011-03-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a carving design that I picked up at the carving show in Lincoln City. I bought a pre-cut blank and just needed to carve it to the final shape. There really were no instructions, just the set of pictures that you see on the table beneath the carving. I finished the woodburning of the beard tonight. After I started taking pictures, I went back and made one more change to the face, so the picture straight on is a little different than those from the side.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

The Bench Vice - Part II

2011-03-11T22:52:00.001-08:00

Last week I posted pictures of the vice as I was attempting to blunder my way through the process of getting it mounted. I made a bunch of mistakes, but kept at it anyway. The 2 pieces I made for the jaw faces turned out being too thin, so I surfaced and planed a 2" face for the end of the table. This piece was narrow enough that I just cut places to keep the tops of the bars from hitting. I then took the thicker of the earlier two pieces and used the band saw to change the holes to slots and sanded those down.

Neither piece requires the removal of the vice to install or replace, thank goodness. The piece mounted on the vice face has the top of the slots above the vice top and is a candidate for replacement soon. I still have room to drill 3 dog holes in it, but the is only about ¼" to spare. Not enough backing to place much pressure with the vice. The table side piece is just short of the full table width, which was fine by me. The next step is to create a handle to work the vice. A large screwdriver works, but is a little to tacky even for me.

At this time I laid out a series of three dog holes directly in front of the ones on the vice, at 6", 9" & 9" apart. Two more dog holes will be drilled half way between the front table edge and the first row of dogs and centered between last two holes. I should be able to get those drilled out this weekend and pictures will show more.

I also wanted to add a my magnifying light with a magnetic base to the table. The clamp for the mount only opened up 1.5" so on the right side I chiseled out two boards to the correct depth let me mount the clamp. It was slow going, but satisfying to do this by hand. The lamp is now installed.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

The Bench Vice

2011-03-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy day, full of mistakes. But all of them were recoverable from. To get started a have a picture of the vice I was attaching to the Carving Bench. The jaws need to be made from wood, so I took a Myrtle Wood block as shown, split it so I would have just over an inch on the outside jaws, flattened them and used double sided tape to put them back together. Then I marked the hole locations down from the top of the bench and drilled it out using my drill press. The pictures show the result, unfortunately I was 7/16" too high so I lowered them making the holes oval after I re-drilled and sanded the pieces.

I used clamps to hold the vice base plate under the table, then drilled and screwed the plate on. It looked great, then I went to cut a matching set of slots in the horizontal board between the legs and I ran into the hinges. So I took the plate off, moved it to the left 1.5" and tried again. You can see where the jaw boards are set on the shafts (still loose), some of the cut for the bars. So with some quick playing with the vice, my boards were still ¼" low, and the vice would not close and clamp because you need at least 3" of jaw between the outside plate and the inside to account for the cut of the main screw.

This was not going well.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.

New Project

2011-03-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

Can't seem to get anything done before there is another project. This was the wall in a sewing room that was covered with a homasote-covered burlap. While it is soundproofed and a great place to stick pins, it was not appreciated. So the wall came down and Sheetrock will go up as soon as it stops raining. (I hate working with wet Sheetrock.) About 3 sheets should do it. If it's not enough I have some pieces in the garage that are about 21" wide. While I had a counter and metal shelves in front of the old wall, this time I have been requested to not include any built-ins. The idea I think is to make it easier to re-arrange, but it is hard to store stuff if you can't run the full height of the wall.

A New Link

2011-02-23T21:50:00.000-08:00

I found a website that was full of videos that shows different wood techniques used by professional woodworkers and artists called WoodTreks. Very good. I highly recommend a visit if you are into any aspect of wood working.

Enjoy.

Cribbage Board

2011-02-22T22:07:00.000-08:00

While waiting for the glue to dry on my table top, I made a new cribbage board. I wanted to use an inlay in the top, but I'm still learning how to make the inlay. So I made the board from a piece of walnut from the pile. The walnut was sanded and routed along the edge before drilling. After drilling there was too much tearout around the holes so I ran it through the thickness sander a few more times to clean it up. Its not perfect, but better.

I needed new pegs, and since some that I've made in the past have broke, I wanted to use a brass tip to make them less fragile. I started with 5/32" brass rod that I picked up at True Value for less than $2. I pulled my old Enco metal lathe out and turned the first ½" to slightly smaller than the holes in the cribbage board and narrowed the tips for easy insertion. I left a 1/8" center band full width, then turned the top ½" to just under 1/8", matching the drill I was planning to use.

I pulled out some holly and a piece of Myrtle Wood from the wood stash to make the pegs. These were trimed to 1 inch long, drilled out on the Enco lathe and super-glued onto the brass pieces. Because of how close the space was I was unable to use my collet for the wood lathe so I turned them on the metal lathe, a much, much slower operation. I used wire to burn a design in the Holly but left the Myrtle Wood plain since it is already dark. The finish is super glue and BLO.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

More on the Bench

2011-02-22T21:44:00.000-08:00

I did get more work done on the carver's bench this weekend. I was able to slice up the boards to 3" height. I then ran them through the thickness sander to clean up the faces and to let the glue have a better grip on the wood. I then laminated the first half and the next day sent that section through the thickness sander. This gave me a real nice and flat top on at least half the boards. To fit the top on the table I routed insets for the hinges that are ½" deep. I drew the pattern on cardboard, cut the hinge locations out, the laid the pattern on the bottom on the table and traced the pattern onto the wood.

When I routed the opening I made sure to remove the pencil lines with the router as I would rather remove to much, then too little. I used a punch to mark all of the screw hole locations then pre-drilled for the screws. For half a table it looks great. The wood grain will not be the same on the second half, which would have been nice. I may glue the two pieces together here on the table. I haven't decided yet. The second half is ready now, but I was working on a different project while waiting.

The carving bench

2011-02-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

Here is the carving bench, the legs made from Myrtle wood, and the top will be of pine. The 2x10s will be cut to the 32" length you see standing on the floor, then I will slice them to 3" widths. After that I will joint and surface them, and glue them together in batches. I'm going for a 24" wide top, by 32" (or thereabouts) and 3" thick. This I'll mount to the hinges and add a vice on one end.

I haven't worked out a plan to hold it upright at an angle yet. I've seen a couple of methods, but I didn't want to get to far ahead of myself.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

A Turned Birdhouse

2011-02-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

This is an ornament size birdhouse, about 4 inches tall. I turned the outside shape, then picked a forstner bit to fit, leaving about ¹⁄₈ for the sidewalls. I then used a scrapper to round out the bottom and make it a little lighter. I used the instructions from the latest Wood Turning magazine that is currently in the stores. This birdhouse is from Myrtle Wood, a piece that was starting to spalt for the body, and a piece full of worm holes for the top. The post was a ³⁄₈ dowel I turned down for this project. I think I got the opening and post hole too high, but that becomes more of a aesthetic as opposed to function. It did work, and not too many problems. BLO is on the outside, although it is real hard to get it into the many worm holes.

It wasn't really that hard of a project to do, and I enjoyed the process. I think on the next roof I'll use a piece without the worm holes, or maybe a contrasting wood for color. I also need to sharpen my tools.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

An Ornament Stand

2011-02-05T17:41:00.000-08:00

While the topic isn't exciting, I got to try a couple of new things on the lathe. I started with the instructions from David Reed Smith. First off was turning an offset disk for the stand base, then I deviated from the plan and turn part of the post and carved the curved portion by hand. I think it came out pretty good for a first time. The web-site has a lot of other ideas I may try, so it is a good place to bookmark. Anyway, I used Myrtle wood through-out. I made this one 14 inches tall, which now looks a bit high for most of my projects, but I have had a couple that would need a stand this tall. Also, if you want to sell these, don't hand carve the post, follow David's article for a quicker finish.

The last two images have a BLO finish on them, while the first one is still unfinished wood.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

A Small House

2011-02-04T22:51:00.000-08:00

I did this little caving last Saturday between activities. It started as a 2x2x3" block, and I used instructions from the last woodcarving magazine. It was different than what I usually carve, so I wanted to give it a shot. Not that only doing Santa and Caricatures get boring, but I needed a change of pace. It's not painted yet, (that's 3 with no paint) but worth the show.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Carved Santa & Table Legs

2011-01-29T14:19:00.000-08:00

I'm waiting for the glue to dry, so here are two different projects that I have been working on. The first is a Santa I took directly from a magazine. While I'm not real keen on the overall design, there are parts of it that I like. It's not painted yet, and the lower section you'll see a area that is woodburned. In that section each square is an alternating color. Take a look, and you may see it painted someday, too.

An additional project I am working on is a carving bench. The height when I am done should be about 40", and I am going for a top that I can tilt. The first shot shows the boards that I am using for the legs and stretchers. It is all Myrtle wood, although one of the back legs will be a little punky along one edge. Next shot shows the legs laying on the floor prior to assembly, then again on the table shot dry fitted. The mortise and tenon joints don't fit all that well, but it is still early in my training.

I actually have both assemblies all glued together now. Once it dries I'll add the stretchers. The front and back legs are different sizes, but the total width are the same for each set. Everything is adjusted depending upon the size of the boards available. Makes building this more entertaining as you need to cut and adjust as you go. I cut the stretchers from the 4 ¾" board. They are 7/8" thick, but they would have made a nice book-matched pair.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

A small bowl

2011-01-28T17:31:00.000-08:00

The bowl I have here was made during a break from family shortly after my Step-Mother had her first stroke. That would have made it the second week of January. I needed a break. I grabbed a piece of scrap and with nothing in mind made the bowl. I used BLO for the finish. I have no idea what I'll use the bowl for, other that say it was practice. It's about 4 inches across and just over 2 inches tall. While it did turn out light as I was able to keep the sidewalls thin, the shape is not all that graceful. Oh well, I get to try again later.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Bangles and Ornaments

2011-01-26T20:23:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas I tried turning a bangle. It was my first try and it came out looking pretty good. The wood is Myrtle and the wrist is my daughters. The inside size was actually close to a good size, while it was a ¼ large for her, it fit 80% of the ladies that tried it. Way to small for me. Unfortunately, there was a crack in the block I turned that I did not notice, which became a split across the bangle. I couldn't get the super glue to hold, so while trying to get the glue in the bangle became two half pieces. I'll try again as it was fun and fairly simple.

Next up is an inside-out ornament I turned using Myrtle again. This is larger than I really like, but I was able to hang a small decoration on the inside which I think is what made it so popular. Each of the 4 pieces was 1 inch square instead of the typical ;frac34; inch.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

So much to do, so little time.

2010-12-18T13:58:00.000-08:00

I took these pictures over a week ago. All of these items went to the action block at work to help raise money for the Holiday Party. It was fun carving them and it was also a fun to see joy on the buyers faces.

These are all larger than I usually post. Also, I don't think the shots are as good. I was in too much of a hurry getting the pictures to bring out the picture box. We left right after the last picture was taken.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Ready for paint

2010-12-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

Here are 4 Santas I carved, using the blocks as described on Oct. 12. One of these you've seen before, but here are 3 more, getting ready for paint, hopefully today. So much to do, so little time. I need to go up on the roof and replace fuses in one of the strings, then move the main power to a new location to lighten the load a little.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Hey its 2 in a row

2010-11-24T21:41:00.000-08:00

Here is an in-progress shot of a Santa Clause I am carving. Its not supposed to realistic, more of a rustic or Americana style, though neither word may be right. Any way it is 12" tall. More shots to come.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

A Gift for a Retired Co-Worker

2010-11-23T22:07:00.000-08:00

It's not like I haven't been doing any work. I've just haven't posted samples of it as I needed to. The box I'm showing here is one I've worked on since early October. I didn't get it done in time for the retirement, but I'll see the co-worker at the Annual Holiday party. These pictures are taken without the flash, as the color seems to change due to the intense white light.

The wood is Myrtle Wood and Black Cherry. The sides are 1/2" thick. I built the box, top and bottom as one, then cut through the sides after the glue was dry. Makes for a perfect fit. The handle was attached with a small biscuit (if you don't know, don't ask). There were no major problems this time, other than time and making a jig to cut slots in the corners for the wedges. It all worked fine. I used Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO) for the finish, then waxed the box with a liquid wax from Watco.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

Frankie

2010-10-29T18:16:00.000-07:00

I finished painting this one last week, but it took a while to get it posted. I must apologize to my readers for holding it back, knowing how you all desire to see a constantly changing world and needing immediate gratification by viewing the activities of others. Ok, so I'm a little sarcastic, but get a life. This is the guy I carved while down in Silverton during a Carver's Retreat. The bolts are real. I used acrylic paints on this carving. The vest was not part of the original design, but I added it when I was cleaning up the carving to prepare it for painting. The pants are charcoal, the shoes are black, the vest was purple. All basic colors. I added black for shading of the vest bottom, but lilac for the vest top. The face was painted leaf green. This was a great little carving and by changing only the head you can carve a bunch of different characters.

Enjoy, and be careful where the paint drips.

Not Quite Wood

2010-10-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

It is almost Halloween and I needed to carve a pumpkin. My wife said I shouldn't have used myself as a model for the face. It didn't take long, but pumpkins are notorious for rotting quickly after carving. This one I needed for tonight. Note that I did not hollow this pumpkin out, just carved the face.

Enjoy, but be careful of spooky spirits.

Jigs for more Santa's

2010-10-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

I carved another Santa last night, but instead of just showing you the Santa, I've included pictures of the jig I used for cutting the base shape. The initial design came from Wood Carving Illustrated magazine. I built a jig to cut a 12" 2x2 in half, corner to corner, on the bandsaw. As you can see from the picture I took a 2x4 and made 2-45 degree cuts to create a trough to set hold the board stable. I then attached the 2x4 onto a scrap piece of plywood. I feed this slowly into the bandsaw less than ½ of the way into the jig keeping to the center as best I could. With the jig still in place, I powered off the bandsaw and clamped the plywood to the table. After that I slid a 2x2 into the blade and the result is 2 pieces cut corner to corner.

I the cut one of the 12" diagonal pieces into 3 chunks and you can see one of the resulting Santas. Pretty cool.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Santas Already

2010-10-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

Here are two Santa's I carved during a woodcarving retreat. These were done from Basswood eggs. The larger one took about 2 hours to finish, giving me an hour to carve the next one. After I got home I textured the smaller of the Santas beard, mustache and hat brim using a small v-tool. The eyes were each painted, after which I coated them with BLO and painted them with acrylic washes until I got the tone I wanted. One of these will go to my auction at work and the other will stay home.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Another Carving

2010-10-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

I'll be giving this one away today or tomorrow to a friend, so here is a final look. I used a pattern in a book for the design. I'm also going to carve one for me as I like the design and the way it turned out.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Mama's quilts

2010-10-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

While these aren't wood stuff, Mama made these Halloween quilts and I wanted to show them off, so here they are.

Finally, here is a Fall lap quilt to crawl under when it gets cold. The temps are already into the low 40s at night and this quilt is comfortable. We've both already tested it out with a snooze.

Bottle Stoppers - renewed

2010-10-06T20:26:00.000-07:00

I found a couple of bottle stoppers that I carved about 5 years ago and decided that I didn't like the way they looked. Too square and blocky, with no character. I re-carved them leaving the ears, nose and hair lines, at least most of it. The front ended up with a whole new look. While I prefer to use a linseed oil coating for most of my work now, I left enough of the original paint on these that I needed to repaint these also. The looks are about a 100% improvement, so I'm happier with them. Oh, yes, I would still do things differently if I started over, but I don't always have time for that and fixing them presented a nice challenge. Neither of these had been seen by anyone, as I kinda hid them away until now.

Finally, another post

2010-09-21T22:41:00.000-07:00

Yes I know, it has been a while. My excuse is I was gone most of August. But I did get a little done. I planted grass in front of the shop, and it is just starting to come up, at least a couple of blades. I finally put wallboard around the electrical panel to fill in the gaps from when I had the panel replaced, just shy of a year to do it. My big brother helped. See the picture.

I finished carving a sun that I had been working on for about 2 years. Painted, but not yet sealed or hung. I need to add a hook to hang it. It is bright, but it is the sun. For those that don't recognize it, the sun is a Shawn Cipa design.

I went to the Carving Rendezvous put on by the Salem, Oregon Capital Carvers. I spent the day there learning from people that like to teach, with a lot of people that like to carve. I included samples by Dave Disslbrett from a class I took there. I had a great time and it was nice to talk and listen to people that enjoyed carving.

For now, enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

In the Yard

2010-07-28T17:47:00.000-07:00

Well, not many finished projects, but here is some of what I have been doing. I built the wall across my back yard to separate the 2 levels. I haven't glued down the top row of bricks yet. I'm also moving dirt still, lots of it. I don't plan on planting grass until fall so I'm not pushing the work too much. I still haven't finished the final little pieces on the brick patio. I really need to get that done.

The rototiller handle broke while a neighbor was using it. No big deal, but they did get it welded back together for me. It's over 30 years old and still working.

Here you see our garden, all in pots under the deck to stay out of the heat. They look great and this picture is full size so it will take longer to open.

Enjoy, and be careful of the blisters.

Current Projects

2010-07-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

Ice Cream Scoop

I haven't been entirely away from wood working lately and here is an Ice Cream scoop that I turned from a piece of Myrtle wood and a kit that had the two brass parts. The scoop part that inserts into the Myrtle wood handle was not round, close maybe, so I made a little extra epoxy to make sure that I had enough to fill the hole I drilled. Also, there was a knot at the back end of the handle that I turned away, at least I thought I did until I parted the handle of the lathe. The end had a crack in it, so I sanded the end by hand, filling the crack with sawdust. Then I added some this super-glue, let it dry, then repeat until the crack was filled.

Sugar Scoop

This unfinished piece was from a branch of an ornamental fruit tree I cut down to build the shop. As I was turning I thought the color was great, but as I got to the center of the wood, I found that the core was almost rotten: very brittle, soft, and easily damaged. I turned the scoop center and did have a knot bust out, taking the whole side with it. I used the opening to an advantage so I could see how this the bowl part was. But when I got to the handle, the core either ripped out or was already gone, so the second picture shows why I didn't finish the scoop. I figured no handle, no scoop.

Spoon

I took another branch of the ornamental tree and split it down the center so I wouldn't have to worry about the rotten core. Here you see the first half of the branch that I turned to get ready to make a spoon. At this point the wood looks pretty good, so I'm hopping I can finish this project.

Count the Blisters

2010-06-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought driving a little tractor around would cause blisters. But after 10 hours of riding the little Tonka Toy, I had 3 blisters on each hand. And I was wearing gloves. A neighbor of ours needed fill dirt, and I had a lot to get rid of. I went to Home Depot and rented the 360, which has a 34.5" width, and used it all day moving dirt from my backyard, out the front, then down the street one house and dumping it. I'd guess I moved over 10 yards. I was going to add a link to the tractor, but they don't have it listed on the web-sites. I ran up my brick walkway and through a 36" gate more times than I could count. First the four-plus yards from my pile I had been moving around, and then I started lowering the area right behind the patio. I did not get it done, just ran out of time. I had to turn the tractor in before they closed that night, and I made it with 15 minutes to spare.

Several times it rained/misted on me while I was working, but I couldn't afford the time to stop. It made it a little slick, but it was still kinda fun. A big kid with a Tonka toy.

While it doesn't show well in the pictures, there is about a foot between the upper and lower sections of the yard. I probably still have 4-6 yards to remove from the back side, and to level the ground. I took a break today and just weeded one of the gardens in the front. I probably will build a wood retaining wall for now, and change it to brick or stone later. I'll need to add a step as 1 foot is too high for the Misses to step. Sorry about the picture quality of me on the tractor, I wasn't taking them.

I also added a current picture of the patio. I have a few wedges to cut/grind, then sand, but it needs to dry out before I can put the sand down.

Almost donewith the patio

2010-06-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

Well here you see I've run bricks all of the way to the driveway ramp. Only a few more to fit in, but I needed to get some flowers planted so I leveled out the ground next to the patio and got the initial plants in. Grass seed may get in tonight yet so I can beat the weeds. I still need to move the pile of dirt, so I'm checking with a neighbor who another neighbor thought need some to level out the yard. Hope he can use 4-5 yards. Only problem is there is some pea gravel mixed in.

Enjoy, and be careful of the blisters.

The Cats Hat

2010-06-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

I had a request for a bottle stopper shaped as a turned hat from the Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat series. Since I've never seen one that actually was straight up the sides, I turned one from Myrtal wood and finished it by carving the shape I thought was most appropriate. The wood is really hard to hand carve, so I used a rotary tool to get the shape I wanted. Take a look.

Now for a patio update. It is raining again/still so I haven't got as much work on it as I would like. It may stop raining next week. The month of June usually gets 1.5" of rain, they expect 1.65" to fall in the next 2 days. Great way to start summer. The pictures here show where I'm at. Still a lot more cutting to do. I now have holes in 3 pairs of gloves from handling the bricks.

Enjoy, but be careful of the blisters.

Walnut Box

2010-05-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have been working on something besides the brick patio the last few weeks. This is a gift to a co-worker who is retiring next week. The primary wood is black walnut, Baltic birch for both the bottom and top, with a slice of a splatted wood attached to the top piece and finally a carved myrtle wood handle.

The sides are joined with miters, with a groove on both of the ends to hold the Baltic Birch plywood. After assembling the box, I cut the top off to separate the lid from the bottom. I went with brass hinges this time, so I routed matching locations on the lid and bottom to fit the hinges. Only they didn't match. So I cut another 3/64" off the box bottom and carved a place for the hinges by hand. This time they matched perfectly. I drilled holes and inserted the screws, and the lid didn't close evenly. I drilled out the screw holes under one hinge, inserted oak dowels and re-drilled the holes, perfect fit. I made a handle for the top with a dovetail type fitting to help it hold and attached the top.

The finish is a combination of mineral spirits, varnish and a touch of BLO. After that dried a layer of walnut wax on the outside.

Putting Down The Bricks

2010-05-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I put down 3 ½ yards of ¾ minus rock into the patio area, leveled the stone, compacted with a hand compactor (heavy metal plate on a stick). One yard weighs 2600 pounds for a total of 8500 pounds or just over 4 tons. The compaction had to be done in layers, so I really did the whole thing twice. Then it was pick up a bunch of bricks and another ½ yard of sand so I could get started on the layout. The pole in the center is where (I think) the center of the circle will be. As it turns out, the circle bricks are not the same size as the patio bricks, so I can't merge the paths like I wanted too. So a change of design plans.

You can see some of the sand and a few of the bricks are down. I'll pick up the circle on Tuesday night, if I can get there fast enough (I have to be in the gate before 6 PM). I drew a circle in the sand to get a better idea how big the circle will be. This will involve a lot of cutting.

I have muscles I didn't have before, but lost no weight. If you wonder if the work is hard on your hands, I've been wearing gloves, The pictures show the gloves which are 3 weeks old. It really does rip your hands up. And for some reason I feel a lot of sore.

I covered all of the work tonight with a big tarp. The cats think it is a nice litter box, and I've had to yell at both of them.

Enjoy, and be careful of the blisters.

Diggiing a Patio

2010-05-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

Since the deck is done and the lower patio is finished, other than a final coat of sealer, I built a short wall to separate the two patio levels. Yes I know there are a couple of bricks missing. Then I started digging up the space for a brick patio to join the two doors and the stairs together. Pictures of what I dug out the last 2 days are here, two of the patio space and one of the pile of dirt. I did more digging after the pictures were taken and leveling of the ground. I needed to expand the space to make the 10' diameter circle fit that I am planning to put in. At this point I need to get some ¾ minus to be the base of the patio, then I'll add a 1 inch layer of sand. The bricks sit on top of that.

I included a copy of the design, but I already know there will be changes. While I measured everything out and used Google sketch-up to lay it out, when I marked the space and found the center of the circle, it did not all fit. Now I need to make an estimate of how many bricks I need. They don't take returns, so you can't over-buy and return the extra. If you have too many bricks you have to find a new project for them. And the circle you buy as a package, so you do end up with some extra bricks there, but I can make use of them.

Just for grins, this is the link of the company that built my deck, NW Deckscapes. Note that they did come back and added fascia boards to the stairs, making it look a lot better. Also, the lower wood platform is temporary so other people with shorter legs can use the stairs. The bricks are from Western Interlock so you can see pictures of a circle design on their website.

Enjoy, and be careful of the blisters.

Final Pictures of the deck

2010-05-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

Here are shots I took last night, and forgot to post when I got back home. As you can see, the deck is finished. We will meet with the contractors later this week to go over any issues. The view through the steps is an issue of my SO, but she also realizes that she may not get them to fix it. I like the way the deck looks, and the size seems huge. Of course now I have a ton more yard work to do, moving dirt, laying bricks, cleaning up the gardens....no rest for the wicked.

This last picture from the bottom of the stairs is to show how they braced the boards cut for the steps with a sandwich of 2x4s to get it more strength and stability. This deck and stairs feels rock solid, unlike my older deck which no-one wanted to walk on the stairs. Next up is a brick patio at the bottom of the steps. The top of the last step and the shop floor are level, so it will be easier to set the bricks at the correct height.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

It's Friday Night

2010-04-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

And they aren't done yet. The rails are up, but the stairs are still a little thin and the trim hasn't been added. It does look better, and I can safely wander out on the deck now. Still can't let the cats out there at night as they may not figure out how to get down the stairs. Anyway, here are 4 shots for today. When you look at the top view of the stairs you can see the rest of the material for the deck. Looks like Monday will be the day they finish.

I'll try to get the builder's website address and give them a plug. But today I'm heading out for a few and the paper work is in a different part of the house.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

The deck is on

2010-04-29T18:18:00.000-07:00

Not a truly exciting title, but there is a deck today and they started working on the posts. The step at the bottom will seem high until I lay the patio down, but we will get by. Here are the pictures, in focus this time.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

They're Back

2010-04-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

They came in and added the posts headers and stringers on the deck. Unfortunately I screwed up the camera shots and all of the pictures are out of focus. I included one anyway, just so you have a view. All of the wood is treated, the posts are 6x6 and the headers are 6x8. The jog is where the stairs go down. The diagonal pieces are just braces to help keep everything upright until there is more structure.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Stamped and Poured

2010-04-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, when I got home tonight the lower deck was poured and stamped and I've included pictures of it. I also included a picture from my second floor looking down so you can see the final pattern. The colors are not valid yet as there is a layer of coloring over the top of the cement. Tomorrow they will clean that up and seal the patio. This also means that they will complete the upper portion of the deck by next Friday. It looks huge, about 1/3 larger than the previous deck.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Ready to Pour

2010-04-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

Cement that is. The size of the deck got changed again, now it is 26 feet. We've picked a pattern for the stamp and colors too. Here are the shots I took. Re-bar is down and the holes are deep where the posts go. We hope it won't rain for a couple of days so they can pour the cement and seal. Next week they build the deck and by Friday we should be on the deck to party.

Beginning the New Deck

2010-04-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, this isn't really woodworking, well maybe. I pulled the old deck down and removed the wisteria. The first shot is the back of the house before any updates. The next shot is after they contractor removed the cement pads and marked the area of the deck. All of the work needs to be done by hand as they can't get a tractor back there, any more. My wife saw the marking and said the deck wasn't wide enough, so now we are getting a bid to add another 3 feet to both the cement pad beneath the deck and the deck itself.

We also had a fun time picking out a stamp pattern and a color. We agreed with a stamp pattern fairly quickly, but a color ... we are still trying to work that one out. At http://www.prolinestamps.com/ we selected Castle Stone for the design. We had limitations as the cement contractor doesn't carry the entire line. But it looks good to us. For the colors we looked at Davis Colors and had some real issues trying and wondering what the real colors would look like. They base color the cement with a color, then use a colored release agent which provides another layer of color on top. But this becomes as much art as luck with the colors.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Drawers On

2010-03-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, the initial lathe stand is finished, including the drawers. One shot shows the faces, which as you see is a book-matched piece of Myrtle, complete with worm holes. The faces are attached to a drawer made from ½ " plywood. For now there are no handles, as I can easily reach under the drawers and pull them open. I used full extension slides, but since they sit back under the lip of the table top, the drawer does not extend to be completely open. The second shot shows enough of the drawer so that you can see how it was assembled. The drawer bottom is ¼ " ply.

I need to put a finish on the table yet. I saw a recipe using 1 cup of polyurethane and 1 cup of mineral spirits and 2 tablespoons of BLO (boiled Linseed Oil). I just need a jar I can put it in. This is supposed to be a wipe on finish for protecting shop tables and such, dries in about an hour.

For now I'm taking a break, yes I like the way it looks. Still have to decide if the table needs to be shortened and inch or two,

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Mixed projects

2010-03-25T22:06:00.000-07:00

Nothing to show today. I turned a new knob for the shed door, as the old pine one broke Wednesday. I grabbed a piece of wormy Myrtle wood, turn the new knob and decided I didn't like all of the holes in it. Grabbed a different piece of Myrtle wood and turned a knob, drilled a hole on the backside the attached it to the shed door. I put a layer of BLO on it to help protect the wood.

I also got the drawer slides for the lathe table and mounted them. I started making the drawers out of ½ " plywood, and will add a Myrtle wood front when the drawers are done.

I pulled the metal cover off my deck as the deck needs to be replaced this year. I'm getting ready to paint the exterior walls of the house before the new deck is built. I also pulled up the lower deck and stacked all of the wood to the side of the yard. We are working on getting bids, one is at $13K just for an 8 foot high, 13x22 deck with a PVC decking material. The deck gets full sun (south facing) so composites do not hold up as well. I don't take care of the surface so real wood keeps dying out and pulling up.

Listened to a talk at the Cascade Woodturners mtg tonight by Andi Wolfe. Andi does a lot of carving and Pyrography starting with turned bowls. Her work can get pretty intensive, so have a look at her blogspot.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

Lathe Table

2010-03-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have been working, slowly. Here is a table for my Lathe that I have been building. MDF legs and top, trimmed in Myrtle wood. The drawers haven't been made yet but I moved the lathe on it anyway as it already was more stable than the other table. I'll get glides this week so I know how large to make the drawers.

In addition, I'm getting a bid on replacing my back deck, as they can do in a week what takes me 8 months. Here are 2 shots of the deck railing (or lack of) since the wisteria has pulled it off.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Current projects

2010-03-01T20:01:00.000-08:00

It has been almost a month since I posted anything here. I have actually been doing some work, and this weekend I got a lot done thanks to help from my brother who dropped in for a visit. I only have two pictures, one includes a cypress knee that I am carving an wood spirit into. This is a progress report as it is not done yet. I have just started the eyes so there is much to do on it. The cypress knee is 8 inches tall.

The cypress knee is sitting on project number two, which is a new stand for the lathe, as the old one vibrates way to much when there is any off-balance block mounted. The 2 shorter pieces are the legs, and there are sitting on the top. Both legs are made from 2 MDF slabs glued together and with hardboard mounted on each face, then trimmed in a hardwood. Stay tuned for more pictures of the stand. For those who can't wait, there is a picture of the table at the ShopNotes Magazine Plans' site. They used Maple for the hardwood, and I'll probably use Myrtle wood.

Project three is a new table top for the cabinets I made last month. This is also 2 layers of MDF glued together. I am currently out of glue and need to wait until tomorrow to go to the store and buy another bottle. I've never glued up a project this size and didn't realize how much I would use.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Myrtal Wood Bowl

2010-02-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

In my last post I had one shot of a bowl that I was turning. Here's a bunch more...

The first two show the chuck I used to mount the bowl onto the lathe, as well as the the bowl itself, before it was finished. I stopped sanding as I was actually getting the punky side thinner than the solid side of the bowl. At least enough that I could feel it with my fingers.

The next shot shows the base and the wood that the chuck was holding onto, while I turned the bowl. That is followed by a plate chuck designed to grab the edges of the bowl, or a platter, so I can turn the base of the bowl away. Finally a shot showing the base turned away. This time I added no decorative cuts to the bottom, I think 'cause I was already frustrated with the bowl and wanted to finish it and get on to another project.

Speaking of finish, these last two shots are the bowl after I put BLO over the bowl to get it a seal on it. I put a thick layer on, waited a few minutes (no patience here) then wiped of the remaining oil. Note the black spec near the edge, this was a worm hole I found after I got a ways into the turning. I also found a couple of dark inclusions in the bowl bottom as I was turning, but I took one completely out and other was reduced to about half it's original size.

All in all I would call this a great learning experience, but not rank it up too high in the quality level.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

The Latest Project

2010-02-01T18:22:00.000-08:00

I had 2 4x8 sheets of plywood in the shop that I had used for garage doors during the construction of my shop. I tried to come up with a use for them that did not need to have a flat piece of ply, as they had curved over the 6 months that they stood as sentinels guarding the front. I finally decided the best use was for storage units, which you see in the attached picture. This did take about 80% of the wood and cleared out a huge space, both visually and physically. Leaning up against the metal rack the plywood separated the shop into 2 parts, one of which was tough to get to.

Once the shelf units were done, I removed the door I was using for temporary storage and collapsed the saw-horses and put them away. For now I have a piece of 1 ½" thick chunk of plywood for the top, but as you see it really is too short. I need to make a 6-8' long counter for the top to place move of my heavy tools. I currently am working out two ideas, laminate some 2x4' to make the top, or split a 4x8 sheet of MDF and laminating the two halves together for the top. I'm leaning towards the latter.

While I was taking pictures I took another one of the table I made to catch offcuts from the table saw, and a Myrtal wood bowl I am turning on the mini-lathe. When I started turning the bowl the support for the tool bar did not fit under the blank, so I had to move it over as I rough turned the wood. The wood also has a punky side, so it is not balanced and the table has a tendency to vibrate (when I started the table bounced.)

Table frame and vice handle

2010-01-20T22:11:00.001-08:00

Okay, I have been out to the shop and working on something besides ornaments. Here are two projects I am working on.

The first project you see is an Indian head carving in a class 2 years ago, but have not worked on it as I could get a good way to hold it up at a working height. I made the 2 support posts out of Myrtal wood, with a hinge joint between them. The 5/16" bolt goes through the center of the joint and I use the new vice handle to tighten the clamp. I wanted a metal handle cause if the joint slips, I can use a mallet to tighten it back up. I finally found and ordered the handle from Lee Valley Tools and it was perfect for what I wanted. I'd been looking at catalogs for 2 years trying to find it.

The second project is a table to put behind the table saw to help catch the over sized boards (plywood). While the finished size turned out a little large for my shop, I'll keep it around a while to see how it works. On top of the frame that you see I placed a 48x38" piece of Melamine coated particle board, not my preferred choice but it should work fine here. Note that I even got to use the 2 new 4' clamps that I got for Christmas. Since the top was Melamine I banded the edges to protect them and also got to use the new little Iron I also got for Christmas. (I understand the guys at the woodshop were getting jealous.)

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Artistry in Wood Show

2010-01-17T18:46:00.000-08:00

I went to Lincoln City for the Artistry in Wood show on Saturday. There was a combination of turning and carving booths, mostly carving. There were some great pieces to look at. I think there was a little more carving on cottonwood this year, and I even bought a couple of pieces to give it a try. I also picked up some more basswood and a chunk of butternut. I did not take any pictures this year so you get none to see. A nice part of a regular show like this is that the carvers keep getting better over time. I was impressed by some of the work, even though I have seen several of the better carvers before, their new pieces were well executed. There were a few new carvers at the show with interesting projects.

One that caught my eye was a carver in redwood with a Alaskan Tinglet Indian style of work. While I like the ideas and design I felt that the quality was lacking. These pieces were also large, as the smallest was 2x3 feet.

Another table the carver had been carving folding deer, cut from a single 2"x4" piece of wood. He even showed me a experiment he made carving a three fold joint from a single 4"x4" block. It looks technically tough. He also had some spoons/scoops that he carved from a single block that were quite well done, chains that were about 2 feet long and several other items.

They had classes scheduled throughout the day, but I passed on those as I figured my time was limited.

I did pick up info on 2 other shows coming up:

Lower Columbia Wood Carvers 2010 26ht Anniversary

Sept. 25 & 26, 2010 at the Cowlitz Expo Center
Southcoast Woodcarvers 19th Show & Sale

April 17 and 18, 2010 at the North Bend Community Center

There were 4 large vendors at the show, and a couple of small one selling from within a regular table. The big guys had some of everything that you could use for carving including wood, knifes, books, gloves, rotary grinders and more. I think 2 of the smaller guys were selling custom knives and a third was selling cotton wood for carving.

All in all, it was a good show.
Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

New ornaments

2010-01-12T22:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, I haven't posted anything for a while. Blame it on the holidays. Here are two pictures of ornaments that I have turned since New Years. All are slated to be given away, along with two or three more that I haven't made yet. The bodies are Myrtal Wood with Cherry finials. Note that the last one I turned, sitting up on top, has the grain, and consequently the 'rays' in a different direction then the rest. One of these pictures was left very large, so it may take some time to load. All of these are hollow and I am getting better at that part.

Also note that one has two loose rings on it. Just having fun trying to see if I can turn them.

A third picture I included is an ornament I turned tonight, and I don't believe the body is Myrtle wood. It's a little different shape since the piece was narrower and longer. As you can see I had not yet glued it together so you can see the parts. Once it is together I will post that picture.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Ornaments

2009-12-17T18:50:00.000-08:00

I've taken pictures of 2 more of the ornaments that I turned. One was finished with a varnish, the other LSO and a wax. The bodies of both are Myrtal wood. I'm still fighting the finials, but the one with Olive turned easy. The other one I don't know what the wood is.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Been a while...

2009-12-10T18:56:00.000-08:00

Lots to cover today. I did get my new table saw as you can see in the pictures. Got lots of cardboard too. Had a friend help get it out of the truck into the shop. I put it together, then coaxed it onto a mobile base I got with the saw. It was heavy and I could only lift a portion of the saw at a time. But I finally got it there. I had it for over a week before I got to turn it on.

Next up I finally took pictures of 2 cypress knee Santas that I carved over the summer. These are 8" tall. I took them both to work for our annual Holiday auction. The silent bidding was today and the one with the bag went for $75. The other is to be auctioned off tomorrow night at the party. Barb wanted to keep the one with the bag, but we had created so little this year that we sent it in anyway. I promised I'd carve another one.

Next up are 2 Christmas ornaments that I turned. I took 2 different ones to the auction today, also, which had the bodies that I posted earlier. One went for $35 and the other will be in the auction tomorrow night. Of the two pictured here, the one with the body of Myrtal wood was the first one I turned. The other uses a piece of a trunk from an ornamental tree I cut down to make way for the shop. It cracked in several places on one side, but I added a top and bottom anyway and I think it looks pretty good. Nice grain pattern. The finials probably hold it together.

Last but not least, they had a Jet sale (15% off) the week I picked up my saw so I also bought this Jet thickness sander to put in the shop. It is very nice, saved me a lot of time already on one of the projects that I did.

You can see 2 pieces of plywood in the background of the Jet thickness sander, which I need to use or get rid of. They were used a garage doors for most of the building of the shop and they aren't flat any more. I need to be careful where I use them as they will probably warp what ever they are attached to. Sigh.

The holidays are upon us, but be careful of the splinters.

Ornaments

2009-11-25T21:47:00.000-08:00

Hi y'all. I have been moving wood from one storage place to the old shop. That and I turned an ornament last week for fun. Took me a while. Barb liked it though and asked if I could turn about 20 more. Here are 2 pictures of the first 10 globes. As you can see they are about 3" by 1" tall. I hollowed them out to make them lighter, and as typical, the last one is much lighter then the first one. In fact it was only taking about ½ hour each when I finished the last of these. Imagine how I'll be doing after another 40.

On the side view shot, the 2 nearest the camera show the side I hollowed them out and the back side which I only guessed at. I'd eyeball using a square and 'that looks like an inch,' so I drilled that deep and use that as my guide. One globe I put a reverse on the bottom and just caught the edge of the hollow. I'll need to fix it. Also note, these were all cut from the same piece of wood.

Tomorrow I'll turn some black walnut finials for the top and bottom. With any luck I'll get another picture so you can see the progression.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

The Palm Pen

2009-11-12T20:09:00.000-08:00

Sounds like another phone knock-off. Well this palm is often used for texting and sometimes as a pointer. It's one of the first batch of pens I turned in the shop.

It's been almost a year since I've been able to turn, or make anything. This one is made from a palm tree and its actually the second one. The first palm blank blew the sides out 'cause I put to much pressure on the drill when drilling the hole. You can see where the sides ruptured on the block holding up the pen. The fibers tore easily as I turned it, so I started coating the blank with super-glue, turn off a layer, add another layer of glue down and so on until I got the pen in shape. Needless to say, the finish is super-glue followed by BLO in rapid succession, then another layer of super-glue and BLO. After letting that dry I did a final sanding of 8000 - 12000 grit paper and put on a layer of walnut paste wax.

I turned 5 pens, the palm, which I may keep a while, and 4 others, 2 of which I have already given away. It nice to get back into the shop.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Been a week

2009-11-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

I'm skipping the personal stuff. I've moved a lot more stuff/tools into the shop this week and I've been cleaning out the old shop. Went ahead and got a rolling cabinet from Sears. It's the cheap one, but it will get some of the tools and supplies into drawers for now. Also went to the Woodworking show this weekend. One of the local tool retailers, Barbo Machinery, was there selling tools, including the General International line out of Canada. They had a cabinet saw there at the show that I liked real well. Smooth running gears, nice size (not to big), plenty of power (2HP), rifing knife as well as a splitter with the blade guard. The model is the 50-220R, and a big point is that Barbo Machinery does support the products here locally and carry parts. While they do sell the same saw with a granite top for about $200 less, the rep wasn't sold on them yet. They add weight, but they also stain and chip.

The bad news is that I need to wait 2-3 weeks for one to get here. General International is putting a distribution center in the USA this next year, so in the future that will speed things up.

I also get wheels under the table and a sliding miter gauge as free accessories. I'll try and write a review when I get it set up.

I also decided it was time to pick up a pair of the 'Gr ripper' hold-down tools and keep my fingers away from the fast moving parts.

Tons to look at. Lots of stuff being pushed, but as a hobbyist it is hard to justify owning it all, or finding a place to put it. Next I'm looking for a thickness sander.

All together I spent about 6 hours at the show, did go to a few seminars, but after buying the saw and picking up the Grripper tools, decided I'd better stop spending money this year.

Yes I had a good time, lots of stuff I wanted but left alone.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.

Movin' In

2009-11-01T21:30:00.000-08:00

I've been moving tools and supplies into the new shop all weekend. So I've included a few pictures to show how it is coming. First is one of me hanging a French Cleat along the south wall of the shop. As you see later this is where I'll put all of the shelves that I've made over the years. The second shot actually is me after another hand-full of screws.

The final 3 shots is how it looked when I quit Sunday night. I've moved most of the tools in already, still need to move my Radial Arm Saw and a wheeled air filtration unit that I made (3 filters and a furnace fan). There are still some loose tools (like specialty drills) I need to move, but I need some drawers to put them into. The wire rack on wheels is new, from Costco, and it can be one tall rack or 2 short racks, but only one gets the wheels.

I still haven't moved the Sheetrock and plywood laying in the middle of the floor. I had to put a longer power cord (was 3' now a little over 6') on the heater today, but at it's lowest setting it was keeping the room at a balmy 62 degrees. The mount for the heater is the only new thing I made today, hanging with a French Cleat, of course.

I have more to clean and re-arrange in the old shop, including tearing down the wall between the garages.

Start the Party

2009-10-29T14:06:00.000-07:00

I have now passed the final electrical inspection. Whoo-hoo. I'm moving in. All of the paper work is done. I did call and check to see if I needed a Certificate of Occupancy, but for an outbuilding I was told it was not necessary. I'll be moving stuff in in minutes, oh where to start... I know, pray that it will stop raining long enough for me to move my tools.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

The Building Inspection Passed

2009-10-26T18:08:00.000-07:00

But apparently it is not the final inspection. The building final passed dependent on the electrical final. I called and scheduled that for tomorrow....did you hear me scream? So I have one more inspection to go.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

Bricked Up

2009-10-24T15:33:00.000-07:00

Or is it bricks down. In the driveway ramp I put just over ½ ton of bricks, and so far about ¼ yard of masonry sand. I put down 1-2 inches of sand down, tamping it tight to get a better base, the screed it level. The I started placing all of the bricks and I got lucky, not one cut brick here. After laying down the bricks I tossed sand across the surface to sweep it in. The sand was wet when I first started sweeping it in, so not a lot fell into the spaces. I spread some sand across the top and let it dry some (it's only in the low 60s today) then I swept it in, and gaps kept showing up as the wet sand dried out and fell in, and the dry sand feel through. It is supposed to work that way, but I don't know if I'll get a full week of dry weather for the next 4 months, which is what I'll need to pack it in. I went around a few times with the tamper too, to try and get the sand to settle. Here's two views, one from the inside, the other from out.

While the sand was drying, I stacked bricks along the backside of the shop to help keep the dirt away from the sides. I looks good, hopefully good enough for the inspector.

I'm all worn out, so I'm quitting for a while.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Bummer

2009-10-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

I called Thursday night to schedule the inspection, since the system is automated. The county no longer does inspections on Fridays due to budget cuts. I'll need to schedule the inspection for Monday, but I won't be here for the inspection to see if there are any problems.

Ouch, I got a splinter.

Up The Hill

2009-10-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm still getting cute with the phrases. What I have been working on this week is the ramp that goes from my gravel parking strip up to the garage door shop entrance. This requires the removal of a lot of dirt, separating a lot of gravel from the dirt, and trying to dig into stuff that wasn't meant to be dug into. I made the ramp 8 feet long, with a total rise of 8 inches. The pictures shows the ¾ minus gravel I put down and compacted with one of those hand tampers (heavy steel plate on a stick). I've got a full yard of rock in there, and below that is some ¾ gravel and cement chunks left after they poured the slab. The ¾ minus is at least 4" deep, but below that is the other stuff. The blocks on the side are from Western Interlock as will be the bricks I put in center. I still need to get the bricks, and the sand that goes between the gravel and the bricks. Unfortunately they close a t 4:30 PM PST and I can't get there until Saturday. I suppose I could put in the bad with the good, the width between bricks at the top is 78" and at the bottom 76", but I ain't going to change it.

I think I'll be putting bricks down for the next 5 years, one section at a time. It looks like I'll call for the final inspection for Friday, as I have that day off. I'd get the bricks then, but you never know when the inspectors will come by. If he is early enough, I'll get them then. I'm ready to move in and would like to be there before the month is out. Wish me luck.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

A Quick Post

2009-10-08T12:50:00.001-07:00

I was able to level the ground in front of the shop door last night, so the porch is now sitting on solid ground. Unfortunately, the rototiller decided it was tired and I was unable to finish the job. Looks like it will wait until next week. Once I get the ground level and compacted, I'll call for the Final Inspection. I'd say soon, but I know that I'll be out through Monday, so it may still take a couple of weeks. I'm trying to get where I can move in and the only task that I know of is pushing the dirt back up against the building. I still need the rototiller for a while, so I'll replace the plug, see if it has oil, and try to look for water in the gas. It has been a trouper and I need it to keep running a little longer.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Pushing the dirt

2009-10-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I've included three shots I took late tonight that shows the current progress. Inside I've trimmed the windows in a more bungalow style. But the stark white was getting to me so I painted them 'Desert Caravan' according to the can, although 'dark gold' works for me, or 'baby shit yellow', depending upon your thoughts. I made the bottom ledger a little wide so I could use it as a shelf.

The next two shots are from the outside, the front showing the fascia boards added, and the side where you can see I've started pushing dirt back up to the walls. The porch is not set yet, as I need to rototiller that area yet, so for now I've shoved a couple of boards under the porch to keep keep it from wobbling.

The rototiller throttle cable broke last week, while I was trying to loosen the soil, so on Saturday I went down to the neighborhood lawnmower shop. As I walked up to the guy at the counter he said "we don't carry that." Hell, I was still halfway across the shop. He suggested I try a choke cable at the auto parts store, and in fact, AutoZone had a generic push-pull cable that was perfect for what I needed. After fixing the machine I got to talking with the wife and we realized that the rototiller was over 35 years old.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

Gutters are up

2009-09-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

Well, the title says most of it. I finished the gutters this morning, although I may need to shorten one of the downspouts. I did get the wood for the garage door fascia, but have not cut nor painted it yet. I also got the wood for the window trim, and one is in, the other is coming but I needed to call it quits for the night. Pictures after I complete the windows.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

A little more color

2009-09-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

I have a little time now. I've finished the first coat of paint all of the way around. I need to touch up some goobers, but the paint needs to dry first. I rolled the darker green on the peaks, but need to take a brush and trim along the corners. Can't get the ladder up there until it drys. The rest is done (mostly) except for touch up work. It will at least last the winter okay. I haven't hung the trim around the garage door yet, and I need to get gutters and trim the windows inside the shop. I'm going to try and get that all done this weekend (ya, right). I also need to swing by the Woodcraft store as they are having some specials today.

So much to do, so little time.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

2009-09-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick shot of the house after I painted it. Well, most of it, I still have to work on the ends near the top. Got to go to Oktoberfest tonight, so I needed to clean up.

Gutters by Sunday, since it is supposed to rain.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Still painting

2009-09-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

Since the weather was bad, I worked inside and painted the inside walls of the shop, using a roller this time. After that dried I added the outlet covers and rehung the power panel cover. I also put molding outside of the garage door so it now seals, and looks good.

The next day it was dry and warm, so the outside has been primed (spray) and I'm ready to put on a final coat, probably this Friday. I finished priming the outside tonight, but I did not take pictures. It is now getting too dark to do too much in the evening. I did fill in most of the ditch, so it has been progressing well.

Still looking a cabinet saws, found a Grizzly G0690 ($1250) that looks good and has a riving knife. All new saws are supposed to have the riving knife per some federal mandated safety code. It is a smart thing, as it keeps boards from pinching the blade and getting thrown back into your face. Apparently the Grizzly, and Laguna saws are made the same, in the same plant, with a different logo put on them.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Let there be lights

2009-09-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

We got back from vacation a day early, so I painted the ceiling of the shop. That allowed me to install lights. I had originally planned on putting up 11 light fixtures, but I had not thought about the height of the garage door, so I ended up with 8. I also got the best T8 light bulbs I could find. The ballasts are electronic and supposed to go down to 0 degrees. As it turns out 8 lights are probably enough. They are on 2 switches so I can turn off half. Last night I painted the walls, since I can now see at night and it is getting dark so much earlier. The place glows.

I'm getting ready to go out and get seals for the garage door. I'll cut the trim for the frame of the garage door from plywood and mount the trim on it. I was looking at prices of wood last night and still can't get over how high some of it is. Of course I was at a big box store, which already makes it a little high. It's raining today, but will be nice tomorrow, so tomorrow looks like a day to prime the outside.

I've included a view from one of the windows, and as you can see I've been filling in the trench. Also, the Wisteria has almost completed the tear down of the guard rails.

The local Rockler store is having their annual gar(b)age sale where the let people sell personal stuff, also 10% off on some power tools in the store, so I may swing out there. I've been looking at table saws, and currently thinking about the Grizzly G1023S. This is a cabinet saw that does not cost much more than most hybrids, which is what I was looking at, and the reviews are great. I like the idea of a SawStop, but I just don't want to spend that much money at this time. $1K vs $3K.

Well, I've got a whole list of things to do today, so I'd better get in gear.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Primed and Ready

2009-08-30T18:55:00.000-07:00

I have new picture today. I cleaned out the shop and started painting it today. This first coat is a wallboard primer and sealer, in white of course. I doesn't cover the walls real well, but I don't think it is supposed to. I bought a sprayer/roller tool to help get the job done. I wanted to use the roller so I wouldn't make a mess. I made a lot of messes, paint dripping off the shield, not covering evenly, dripping through almost every joint. I finally gave up, and just sprayed, and that worked great. Yes I have some over-spray on the floor, but it was still less than the roller was leaving. Unfortunately, everything in the garage has a layer of paint spray on it. I hadn't moved the chair and table you see in the picture out of there, 'cause I was planning on rolling and didn't need to move them. They all came clean, well mostly clean.

Things missed is I added access to the attic as the code requires it if the space is greater than 30 inches, and I'm at 40 inches. you can see it above the garage door. I trimmed a hole to the required size, added trim to hold it up, and put the sheet rock up on top of the trim.

Next is another layer of white, and then lights. but I'll be gone next week so it will be a couple of weeks before I get to them. I hadn't planned for the garage door height, so I have to reduce the number of lights down from 11 to 8. Two lights in each row from the garage door towards the back wall, but I'm keeping 4 in the row nearest the windows. I also had to move where the power comes through the ceiling on the back set as the hole was over the garage door. After the lights I have wall plate covers and need to decide if I cover the floor or not. I've seen floor coverings that look nice but they don't add much except looks and a seal. My original choice was epoxy, which means I need to remove all of the paint I left there. :-(

Anyway, Enjoy and be careful of the splinters, and box cutters; stitches come out on Tuesday.

The Wallboard Passed

2009-08-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

I just had the wallboard inspection, and it passed. I think there is only one more and that is the final. I need to paint, hang lights, and gutters and place the outlet covers all around. I already have GFIs, and all of the fixtures will be florescent. At this point I think I can do the ground level too, keeping the dirt 6" below the bottom of the wood paneling. This will actually be the most work, but I still need to take it easy for the cut on my arm. Oh, did I mention that. I planted a box-cutter in my left arm deep enough when the doctor was looking at it, he called over the technician and said " see how the tendon and muscle move when he flexes his wrist...". I just wanted him to sew it back up. It didn't hurt but it was ugly. Took 3 stitches to pull it back together. Didn't lose any feeling or coordination in my hand, so it was a good cut. Stitches out in 7 more days.

I put together a craftsman project table to put my pop on. It goes well with the chair and is surprisingly stable. I've had the table in a box for over a year, with no room to set it up. So while healing I put it together to be able to contemplate the shop, and drink my pop.

Sorry, there are no pictures tonight, spent the evening at a, "surprise, your retiring" party for a friend of ours.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Behind the Garage Door...

2009-08-20T22:31:00.000-07:00

Well, behind the door I have been plastering. But here you can see the door. I haven't completed putting the door up yet, only the lower track is in place, so it won't fall over. There is a 1" gap between the frame and the door itself, which I'm not real happy with. I need to get another piece to seal the opening. The company that makes the doors sells a 'doorstop' with a big rubber flange that is supposed to lean against the door to seal it. I guess they leave the gap for discrepancies in the ways the opening was framed.

I still need to trim the front opening. the 2 pieces there are just temporary, as I need to install a wider piece, 6" wide that is, naturally a size that is hard to get. Technically I could use plywood since the both edges will be covered. I'll do my best to make it look nice. I've been toying with some ideas for the outside trim on the face of the shop. Maybe I'll post a couple of sketches. Not tonight, already too tired, so I'm hitting the sack.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.