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Wednesday, March 5, 2014

More on the wooden snowflakes

I wanted to answer a few questions about the snowflakes. The most common question was is how to slice them up if you dont have a band saw. In this mere Minutes video I suggest using a handsaw which I think would work pretty well. If you have a scroll way, I think that is another option, assuming its wide enough. If you have any other idea, post them in the comments section.

*****

Sunday, March 2, 2014

The Top 20 Ways to Repair Restore Wood

Problems with wood.

I know you all have had them.

For all of us that love to find an old discarded dresser and turn it into something beautiful, or for all of us that just want to revive a favorite piece of furniture,

there will always be, problems with wood.

Maybe its peeling veneer or maybe a table leg that your pet decided looked like a bone. Whatever it is, just as you begin your restyling project, suddenly you wonder....

CAN I fix this?

HOW do I fix this?

WHERE can I get some answers?!

Well, I know where you can find answers to ALL your wood problems and even better...

ALL of your home repair and design questions.

Hometalk.

(click above to see all the tips on Hometalk)

If you have a home or just love DIY and design,
you must stop by Hometalk and sign up for a free account.
Believe me, it is as much fun as Pinterest. Well...actually more! Like Pinterest, you get to post your favorite DIY projects, repair ideas and inspirational photos to boards you customize,
but... it is more of a community.

At Hometalk, you can comment and ask questions about other peoples projects you like, you can post your own favorite projects or just ask the community for help with a problem.
How great is it to have an expert carpenter or a really creative blogger
to ask directly for advice?
Really great.

So, back to those wood problems.

Well, I was lucky enough to be asked to curate a board (above!) for Hometalk about
"How to Repair and Restore Wood" and I was so thrilled!
I had so much fun delving into Hometalk and clipping to all my boards. For the Repair and Restore Wood board, I focused on compiling all the best advice on Hometalk to solve all those seriously annoying wood problems you may encounter.

Like how to fix those legs your dog chewed:

From Porta Verde Studio.

Or, revive that favorite old wood with just a stain from vinegar, tea and steel wool.... yum!

From Country Design Style.

Learn all these great ideas and more

at

Hometalk.

Have fun clipping!

Debbie

Live the Life You Have Imagined

I love keeping a chalk board in my home. Most of the time, the chalk board acts as a shrine to sports, with the Penn State Football schedule or my sons varsity laccrosse schedule etched upon the board. However, in between sport seasons, much to my boys dismay, I try to put up inspirational quotes.

Quite predictably, my teenage boys roll their eyes and tell me its dorky. Well, maybe, but I keep it up there anyway, threatening them if they dare erase it or run a finger through my scrolls. I love that they cant help but see it everyday. Certainly the message must seep in! I actually know it does for me. Just a small positive thought that can catch my attention during the course of the day and sort of set me straight.

For this new year, I wrote up part of the quote from Henry David Thoreau. The whole quote is, Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” I couldnt fit the entire message on the board in a large script writing that I thought looked pretty, so choosing style over substance, I just took the meat of the quote.

This year, I wanted to be reminded of all that is possible, and all that is so good already.

Find beauty in your day!

Debbie

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Rough couple of days in the workshop

Hi Everyone,
Well, it has been really cold here in Minnesota and Im afraid my tools have rebelled--my table saw and the band saw have both frozen up and cant be used right now. And its been so cold that Im almost freezing up myself so Im going to clean up the shop and shut down for a week or two until the weather improves a bit.

Bad news on the bowl front: the hickory bowl I made several weeks ago has cracked and is beyond repair. Im not sure if it was the cold or if the stress in the wood fibers was more than the bowl could handle but its cracked on both sides of the bowl and it cant be salvaged. Oh dear...

So Im going to take advantage of this shutdown and sharpen everything again and get ready for our next projects. Stay warm!

VW

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

A House In The Trees Part IX

The roof framing is done!

Next, it was time to begin the sheathing. I sheathed & sheathed, until I ran out of sheathing . . .

You can catch up on previous Tree House posts here.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

My first sketchup of the rocking chair cradle

I mentioned in one of my VLOGs a couple of weeks ago that I am going to make a rocking chair cradle for my brother and his wife who are expecting their first child in January. I am hoping to have it completed by Christmas. I have finished my first draft of the project in Sketchup. I expect to be making some design changes as I mock it up but this is what I am starting out with. I have no idea what kind of joinery I am going to use yet or if those rocker bottoms will even work. It should be interesting...

Monday, February 10, 2014

An Update on the Shop

Well, my friends, Ive been a little light on the blogging lately. Besides the normal rush of activity associated with my Twins birthdays and Christmas, Ive spent every free minute in the shop, trying to make progress on phase 1 of my shop renovations. Phase 1 consists of re-wiring, insulating and sheathing the North, East & South walls.

Working on the shop so much lately (and probably the new year too) has made me reflect on how far the shop has come in the 3-1/2 years since we bought the house. Heres a video I just found. I shot it that first summer in the house, 2008. Its not the best quality, but it does capture the clutter and disarray of the that first setup.

Now, here is a shop tour from November of 2011. Watch it carefully and I promise that though it may at first look just as cluttered as 2008, it is much more organized. Once phase 1 of the renovations are complete, I expect the the shop to be very organized.

Thanks for checking out the shop and stopping by the Blog. This is actually my 100th post, and the experience has been so much nicer than I could have imagined. Thanks.

Now, please, go occupy your shop.

And . . . yes. I know I cant spell. Even a degree in English couldnt cure me of that.

The Eyes of the Tiger Scroll Saw Portrait

Aqui está o meu ultimo trabalho em scroll saw, intitulado Olhar de Tigre. Inteiramente feita à mão, esta peça tem cerca de 18 horas de trabalho, desde a criação do pattern até aos cortes na madeira, da instalação do fundo negro até à manufatura da moldura, foi tudo feito por mim. A moldura é feita de pinho escurecido com betume da Judeia e com acabamento em cera de polir.
Este magnífico retrato de tigre mede 57 cm de largura por 70 cm de altura, um tamanho perfeito para um olhar ameaçador e mesmerizante!

Heres my last scroll saw piece, entitled The Eyes of the Tiger. Every piece of it was handmade by me taking me up to 18 hours in all to complete, from the creation of the pattern to cutting the design on the wood, from installing the black backing to hand making the frame, it’s all me. The frame is made of pine wood darkened with Judea bitumen and finished with polish wax.
This magnificent tiger portrait measures 57cm wide by 70cm tall, a size fit for such a menacing, mesmerizing look!

Detail of the tiger’s face where you can see how deep the cut on the wood are.

Detalhe do focinho do tigre onde se pode ver a profundidade dos cortes na madeira.

The first test, in my workshop. Now I can fully envision how it will look in the end.

O primeiro teste, na minha oficina. Assim já consigo visualizar como vai ficar no fim.

Finished cutting. This is what it looks like when I take it off the saw. Looks fragile? That’s because it is!

Terminado o corte. Este é o aspecto quando acaba de sair da serra. Parece frágil? Isso é porque é frágil!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

The 26 Table is Gone

Well, OK, we finished up the 26 x 9 table on Friday. It took a lot of people and a lot of steps and processes and, when it was done, I was disappointed to find that it almost looked easy ... except when you stop to think about it ... The pieces were made in my shop and then assembled in my garage on temporary bases while the real bases were being fabricated in Steve Holmans shop down the road. I had no place to easily set up either table in my shop while it was pretty easy to clean out my garage ... We did set the 20 foot table up (below) in Steves shop (after moving two tools and disassembling part of his dust collection system) on its real base to check it and then reassembled it one more time here to check the final fit when we received all the cut granite pieces and fitted the center pieces. Whew .. just writing about his one is a lot of work .... Step by step we go .... click the pictures to enlarge them ..

This is the 20 table ... This previous post is all about that one ... Theres a video of Trevor doing a stroll around the table here ...

The base pieces for the 20 foot table in the finishing process ...

Ok ... back at the garage where we disassembled the top of the 26 table from its temporary base,

Swept the floor ...

Brought in the real base parts

Assembled those and leveled them up ..

Added the steel ...

Next, we reinstalled the mdf top pieces and faired the curves and tops of the curved cherry moldings. This assured us that the notches for the steel in the otriggers, and the 56 holes tapped in the 14 piece of steel ( 7 different lengths) lined up with the 56 countersunk holes in the mdf top pieces and that everything would fit and tighten up, and once it gets to its final home, things will go together smoothly. We decided early on that neither table would be assembled after the parts were finished until it reaches its final destination ... As you can see above, there are a LOT of pieces and its always risky to move things like that around ....

Ready for the granite and panels.. You can see the bolts in this photo. Those bolts were integral to the engineering and support of the cantilevered granite pieces ...

14 of the 18, 2 x 44.6" pieces of granite in place here

All in .. all fitted ... There are 32 places where at least four points come together and line up with other points on the table ... 1 of the 32 places below .. two cherry, two granite and a center panel

By the end of the day Friday ... all the parts that needed veneering and finishing were at Steves and I was left with a half empty garage and 5 carts with 28 pieces of granite .... party time !!!

There are several other earlier posts so that you can get the whole feel for the process HERE and HERE.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

The Eyes of the Tiger Scroll Saw Portrait

Detail of the tiger’s face where you can see how deep the cut on the wood are.

Detalhe do focinho do tigre onde se pode ver a profundidade dos cortes na madeira.

The first test, in my workshop. Now I can fully envision how it will look in the end.

O primeiro teste, na minha oficina. Assim já consigo visualizar como vai ficar no fim.

Finished cutting. This is what it looks like when I take it off the saw. Looks fragile? That’s because it is!

Terminado o corte. Este é o aspecto quando acaba de sair da serra. Parece frágil? Isso é porque é frágil!

Sunday, January 26, 2014

My Crozy Shop Floor Part II The Floor Part

Before getting to the OSB, I fastened the XPS panels to prevent them from shifting. I secured each of the 2 x 8 XPS panels with two (2) Tapcons into the underlying concrete floor. Thats not enough for permanent attachment, but since Id be attaching the OSB through the XPS, it only needed to be attached enough to hold still while I installed it. I started every other row of XPS with a half sheet so that though there were many joints where three (3) panels met, there were no four (4) panel joints.

The corded PC impact driver burnt out after
driving about 2 dozen Tapcons.

After the XPS, I installed the 3/4" tongue and groove OSB. I used a half sheet of OSB on every other row also to achieve the same 3 panel joints. Each sheet of OSB was fastened through the XPS into the concrete with 18 tapcons in a 4-3-4-3-4 patten, installed along the factory markings which are painted on the OSB to help identify where the framing is for typical installations. This left me with a floor fastened every 1.7’ on center. It shouldn’t be going anywhere.

Its beginning to look like a floor.

With the XPS installed to 7-1/2” from the garage door and the OSB installed to 12” from the edge of the XPS I called it a day on installing the floor. I has hoped to also make the threshold which will fit in the 7-1/2” space, but I realized too late that my planer was stuck in my living room, surrounded by the other workshop paraphernalia.

The next morning, after I picked up my new jointer, I began the long task of loading all of the tools into the shop by myself. By the time my wife got home in the early afternoon, the only thing left in the living room was my work bench.

Reloaded with the contents of my shop.

Though I still need to build the threshold and tie it into the OSB I’ve spent the few weeks since the floor was installed painting the walls and setting the shop back up. In that time, I’ve already come to appreciate how nice working on the new floor is. When I step from the concrete at the door to the OSB I can immediately feel how firm and soft the new floor is.

Though I’m far from finished, it’s absolutely delightful to be able to reach a

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

the vermont banjo

#007 out the door today, and what a beauty! a local client commissioned this vermont themed banjo from will at seeders instruments a while back ... all vermont woods and inlays; local cherry from bob crosby at battenkill tone woods in arlington, vermont, walnut from my dcf stock, cut in rupert, hop hornbeam for the fretboard from a friend who was cutting some firewood and liked the look of the log and dropped it at our shop for will to dry and use ... its all good ... click the pictures to enlarge them ...

the seeders instruments nameplate ...

the whole deal

side view

will set up a new photography thing by hanging the banjo from the ceiling on monofilament fishing line in front of some pool table felt we had on hand. were wrestling with a new camera so some of the photos seem a little dark, but the details are crispy when you blow them up ...

back view with another map on the heel ..

peg head with a little knot figure in the walnut

nice tuners from stew mac ..

and the boat heel detail on the neck ... very cool ... i had never seen that shaped detail before.

and there is a short video, both claw hammer and picking style on wills website and there are a few in process photos below ...

other banjo posts here ... and wills banjo plays nice with some of our other vermont stuff ... might be time for me to do something vermonty ... hmmm .

the boys are proud to be vermonters .. sam has sold about 150 of his vermont belt buckles now ... great wedding and birthday presents.

and trevor made this coffee table for himself a few years back

under the dome

well, were working with peter moore, of vermont brick ovens again. we made the forms for the one above and a couple of others, and now were attempting to simplify the on site set up process.

basically, we have to create a structure that supports the bricks until the mortar sets. once that happens, the forms all have to come out the oven door so they can be reused on the next oven ...

in the past, we made about 24 half domes, which then had to be connected with thin strips of wood to support the bricks .. more or less, not much fun. this time we plan to make 8 ribs and 24 pieces that lay on top of them, like parts of a turtle shell. click the photos to enlarge them.

we started with this drawing, and decided we could make the shell pieces an eighth of the dome at a time. we had to add more ribs for the two lower sections

the plywood doesnt really want to conform to the dome shape, and each layer is made from 4 pieces of 1/8th inch bending poplar and one layer of 3/8ths wacky wood. some kerfs were cut in some of the pieces to facilitate the bends and as you can see in the photo below, the dome shape is not bad.

we plan to sand the whole thing once al 24 sections are laid up, cut to size and fitted.

to get the wood to conform, we had to use many screws, which can all be removed once the glue sets. we may or may not have to fair the curves with bondo, though i think we will get better with the laminates as we do more of them ...

in the end, the finished oven will look something like this one ...40 years of wood working, and ive never made a dome before .. kind of exciting and challenging for sure ... more pics coming as we progress.