Thursday, March 6, 2014

More from around the globe

I always love to hear from folks who have made versions of my projects. A year ago I made a little swing to hold a couple of small potted plants. I gave it to someone as a Christmas gift and havent thought about it in a long time.

Gaetan Montenot is the first person Ive met from Mauritius! (I had to Wikipedia it...its an island east of Madagascar. Interesting fact: it was the only known habitat of the dodo bird!)

Gaetan made a bigger version of the swing and managed to slip in the little ladybug. Nicely done.

*****

Lets head east of Mauritius and jump over to Australia. Long-time viewer Steve Johnson cranked out this cool barbecue trolley. Naturally: I isnt BBQ the national pastime in Oz? Mmm....grilled shrimp. (I still havent used my refurbish grill. Must test out this weekend.) Nice work Steve. I really like the slide-out tray.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The 10 cent labyrinth challenge

About a month ago I wrote about a book I picked up called Zany Wooden Toys That Whiz, Spin, Pop, and Fly, by Bob Gilsdorf. It took a while, but managed to get hold of Bob and ask permission to make one of his projects for a video.

Guys, this is one of the best woodworking books I have ever run across. All 28 projects are ones I would like to build. In most woodworking books, Im happy to settle for a couple that look doable. These are so creative and clever! I wish I had half the creativity as Bob.

All the projects are designed for the total beginning woodworker: you can do them all with a few basic hand tools. But whats cool is that they arent your typical boring birdhouses and the like. These all do stuff!

No, Im not getting compensated in any way for all this praise. I just really like the book.

In exchange for using one of Bobs plans, Fox Chapel Publishing asked me to link to the book here. If you would like to buy one, they have also given me a discount code that will save you 20%. When you check out, enter coupon code zany20. Its good until the end of the year.

One of the projects in the book is a soccer player that you control. Using an ingenious rubber band system, his legs kick a ball, but I am making two modified versions that feature the heads of Chuck Norris and Mr.T. so they can have a fight to the finish. I have no doubt Chuck Norris will win. By the way, did you know that Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect 4 in three moves? Yeah man. But this aint the only amazing Chuck Norris fact.

I digress. The project I chose to do for the video is the "10 Cent Labyrinth Challenge". Its really simple to make, but will drive people nuts trying to solve! Enjoy the video.

Electric cigar box ukulele

Ive been watching Jack Reads progress on this for while on my Facebook page. He and his son Gabriel just completed this totally cool cigar box uke. Plus its electric! I asked Jack to compile the history of this build, so here it is in his own words. Thanks Jack.

*********

1) The build begins. Gabriel (my son the musician) coping the head piece from a piece of 3/4" oak.

2) We glued two pieces of the same oak for the neck and cut them to a taper 1 1/2" at the top to 1 3/4" at the bottom.

3) I built a jig from Charles Neils website to make the cut

4) The neck was too thick so we lopped off 1/2"

5) Then came some sanding.....lots of sanding. He asked bout how much more sanding dad? I replied just a little more. I said that about ten times one day.

6) I got in on the sanding act.

7) The neck and head are nearly complete. They each got a 5 degree bevel on the end grain to produce the set back. They were bored for dowels, glued and clamped. This worked very well on the previous build.

8) The neck is finished. The cigar box body is in the background.

9) The first fret board glue up. I ended up botching this fret board cutting the frets. I botched up one more, before cutting the frets first then gluing to the neck.

10) I ended up buying a new saw to cut the frets. This produced perfect frets (.023 kerf in 3/16 ply)

11) Gabriel is setting the frets into the fret board.

12) The tuning machines were installed.

13) Nearly complete front of the Uke

14) Nearly complete back.

15) This is the under saddle pickup. It is soldered to the endpin jack. The amp cord is plugged into the endpin and to the amp. Gabriel got a little belt amp that allows him mobility.

16) The Ukulele is finished. It needs to get strung, but the bridge and saddle are freshly glued. He can string it on the cruise ship. He leaves for Alaska tomorrow. Done in the nick of time.

Review Show 2 – Bookcase with Bracket Feet

Title: Bookcase with Bracket Feet with Phillip C. Lowe
Run Time: 40 minutes
Production Date: 2010
Produced By: Taunton Press
Price: $29.99 (Buy Now)
Marc’s Score: 2.4 Grape Sodas out of 5
Matt”s Score: 2.7 Grape Sodas out of 5

Download MP3

“Join award-winning woodworker and teacher Philip C. Lowe in this video workshop. Watch as he guides you through the critical steps and demonstrates the techniques needed to build this elegant bookcase with bracket feed – or with ogee feet, if you prefer. Follow along as he constructs a sturdy case and face frames, cuts curves with a bandsaw, edges plywood, shapes moldings, glues up, and adds masterful finishing touches. Includes digital SketchUp plan. Great for intermediate and advanced woodworkers.”

Matt: When it comes down to it. Phil Lowe is an experienced, master craftsman who understands design and construction and in this DVD he demonstrates it well. Overall, based on the description of the DVD case, I felt the vast majority of the topics were discussed and it lives up to what I expected to see. This is a title in which the person who’s purchasing it will definitely be learning something from it, because if they don’t, they’re obviously not watching.

Marc: Phil Lowe is an accomplished craftsman and its a pleasure watching him build a project in his shop, but the aggressive pacing makes it difficult to keep up. The editor tried to cram so much action into the voiceovers that its difficult to appreciate the actual woodworking that’s being performed. All this comes at the expense of details and overall comprehension. That said, an intermediate to advanced woodworker should be able to reproduce this project easily but with two caveats: they don’t mind pausing and rewinding frequently, and they actually want to build the project in the video, and not the one pictured on/in the case.

Simply head on over to the Wood Talk Online Forum and leave a post in the thread for this review and simply post a picture of a bookcase you built previously, or one you would really like to build.

And congratulations to last show’s winners, SDWoodworker and SunshineGerl, who both won a copy of 12 Great Tablesaw Jigs with Jim Heavey.

Click Here and Start WoodWorking

New Finds for The Kitchen

Hey there! Hope everyone had a great weekend. My hubby brought home some things the other day for me and this one particular thing, I just fell in love with. And its perfect for Valentines Day.

How cute is this old coffee tin?? So cute! I filled it with one of my favorites, tulips. I just love that you can find fresh tulips in my local grocery store during late January and February. So, I treat myself to some each week when I shop for groceries. They are such a cheery addition to the house during the drab winter months.

My other find is from Etsy. I just love Etsy and always try to support handmade when I can. There are some wonderful sellers there and I could spend hours looking in their shops. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to cook. It is one of my passions. I have a couple of knives that Ive had forever and they were always getting thrown into the drawer with my other kitchen gadgets, dulling the blades. So my hubby had my knives professionally sharpened for me for a surprise.

Well, now that they are perfectly sharp and slide through a tomato like butter, I didnt dare throw them back into that drawer, so I went looking for something to keep them in. Ive always loved those magnet wall knife holders and found the perfect one on Etsy. And the best part is that its made from sustainably harvested walnut, my favorite. And did I mention, its gorgeous!?

It goes perfectly with my walnut cutting board, also a gift from my hubby many years ago and such a cherished piece in my kitchen.

Im in love.....

The walnut knife block can be purchased here. There are also other selections using different woods if you prefer lighter colors.

So thats it, just a couple things I added to our kitchen that make me smile.

For those of you that dont follow us on Facebook, here is the latest photo update on our stair project.

I still have to sand the top of each stair and figure out what my next step is going to be from there. But Im loving the carpet gone. Im curious, what would you do to the stairs?? Do share!!

Have a great Monday!

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Vintage Flatware

Hey there! My hubby recently purchased the contents of another building to "pick" and has been bringing home all kinds of fun things for me to play with. One of which was a big box of vintage silver flatware. I just love vintage flatware and this particular group happens to be from the 30s. Imagine the wonderful history it has.

I was torn between leaving it as is or polishing it up as very old flatware patina really appeals to me. But after polishing one of the spoons, I decided I had to spiff it all up. It took an entire morning but Im sure glad I did. Heres what it looks like after all that work.

The picture here really doesnt do it justice. They are perfect and Im crazy about these fork and spoon collections, as well as, this collection of odd shaped spoons on the end.

And these larger forks and spoons are just lovely and sparkly.

There were also this collection of serving pieces that I was so excited about. Im crazy about the pie server because I dont have one and so this beautiful piece will come in very handy.

I didnt want to just put all of it away in a drawer to never be admired, so, I decided to do something special with it. I grouped the forks, spoons, small and large, together and tied them with jute twine, kind of like a flatware bouquet. :)

Then I took an old bushel basket and lined it with part of a coffee sack. I tied a piece of rope around the overhang and attached this cute little merci clay tag to it. Then filled it with our white cloth napkins and all the beautiful vintage flatware "bouquets."

I placed it next to the small pedestal chalk board I made, as well as, the wonderful french wine box I received.

I am loving warm wood tones with whites and light grays right now. I put my our wine collection in this wonderful wood crate that hubby found.

Love it!

Im also working on another piece for the dining room that hubby brought home that is getting a total transformation. Ill give you a sneak peak of the before.

Cant wait to show you what Ive done with it! Stay tuned! Wishing you all a happy day!

An update on SawStop and keeping us all nice and safe

Remember when that guy sued Ryobi and won $1.5 million? Well, our friends at the Consumer Product Safety Commission are once again trying to keep us all safe from our tablesaws.

I like the first line of the article: "As pressure to address table-saw injuries builds..." Pressure? By whom? Ah, I see...Stephen Gass, the inventor of SawStop. Follow the money trail on this one.

As an aside, I kinda think hammers should be padded. Ive smashed my thumb a number of times. And think of the children we might protect.

*******

CPSC wants to stop daily table saw amputations

As pressure to address debilitating table-saw injuries builds, the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission says she will call in the power-tool industry and the safety standards group to find out why more hasnt been done to address the problem. Read the complete article...

Spalted Bowls

Went out to my wood pile and got a small log to play with. The entire log was spalted which made some nice small bowls.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Tim Lawson Furniture Maker

This woodworking is remarkable.

Winged Music Stand
51” ht. x 36.5” width x 18.5” depth
Ash and cherry withg walnut inlay, hand rubbed oil/varnish mixture to 600 grit

The image you see came from this site: www.artporttownsend.org/2007/lawsont.html

I followed a link to the artists web page. Hes got quite a collection of images - and theyre all in flash (hence the other link) Heres his url: http://timlawson.net/

In addition to being a furniture maker, Tim Lawson is also Founder of the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.

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