Showing posts with label box. Show all posts
Showing posts with label box. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
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.
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Read More..
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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.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Lifes Passages Small gift boxes Pt 1 box discussion and plans
Hi Everyone,
Its been a different kind of week from usual. Our family got some bad news and so here is the story behind that:
Discussion
I have a family member who got a terminal diagnosis last week. She has been fighting a particularly aggressive type of skin cancer and is losing the battle and probably doesnt have very long to live. So I have been helping her with listening and helping with errands, decision making, and hospice interviews. In the course of our discussions she hauled out her considerable jewelry collection.
She lives in a senior residence here in Minnesota and the staff there are fabulous. They do an absolutely excellent job of running the residence, planning events, helping with services (one is a social worker-God bless social workers), and generally helping a fragile group of people live independently and happily and with purpose. Those guys have been great.
So in looking at all this stuff spread out I suggested that she pick out a small piece of jewelry for each person and I would make 3 small turned wooden boxes to present them in. So thats our project for this weekend.
Plans
I purchased 3 3"x4" diameter blocks of wood from my good friends at Turning Blanks 4U in Florida as I wanted these to be special and Steve and Diane sell terrific turning stock. I purchased a cedar of Lebanon block, a camphor block, and a hackberry block and here is the photo of those blocks:
I have never turned hackberry before so I decided to work on that block first. I had seen hackberry before at a lumber yard in Minneapolis and the wood I saw was a greyish-cream with a lot of lavender undertones to it. It is found world wide, and its woodworking uses are for boxes, crates, and firewood. Its unusual looking and so I decided to make one of the boxes out of that. This particular block was probably cut a while ago as its very light weight:
So I drilled a hole in one end:
... attached it to the Nova chuck:
And began to turn it. Its very soft wood, and it reminded me of the pine wood that we turned last week. It has some spalted areas in it and its overall a beige color. It took a while to get it shaped as its very friable:
Here is the block after about 10 minutes of turning:
And here is the block after a few minutes of sanding and hollowing out:
Well have to stop there. Its admittedly not the most exciting piece of wood Ive turned this year, but who knows, it might fool us later.
Next, I decided to turn the cedar of lebanon. Cedar of Lebanon is native to mountainous areas of the Middle East and Mediterranean. Its been used by people for many centuries and has been cultivated for its resin and wood. This is also a wood that Ive never turned before and it reminds me a lot of douglas fir in appearance and in scent. As its dinner time, I decided just to even up the sides of the block and turn away the wax coating. And it does look like douglas fir.
As evening is here and its almost dinner and mosquito time, Im going to stop for the day. Tomorrow Ill turn the camphor block, Ill sand everything, and then well cogitate on lids for all these fellows.
See you tomorrow,
VW
Read More..
Its been a different kind of week from usual. Our family got some bad news and so here is the story behind that:
Discussion
I have a family member who got a terminal diagnosis last week. She has been fighting a particularly aggressive type of skin cancer and is losing the battle and probably doesnt have very long to live. So I have been helping her with listening and helping with errands, decision making, and hospice interviews. In the course of our discussions she hauled out her considerable jewelry collection.
She lives in a senior residence here in Minnesota and the staff there are fabulous. They do an absolutely excellent job of running the residence, planning events, helping with services (one is a social worker-God bless social workers), and generally helping a fragile group of people live independently and happily and with purpose. Those guys have been great.
So in looking at all this stuff spread out I suggested that she pick out a small piece of jewelry for each person and I would make 3 small turned wooden boxes to present them in. So thats our project for this weekend.
Plans
I purchased 3 3"x4" diameter blocks of wood from my good friends at Turning Blanks 4U in Florida as I wanted these to be special and Steve and Diane sell terrific turning stock. I purchased a cedar of Lebanon block, a camphor block, and a hackberry block and here is the photo of those blocks:
I have never turned hackberry before so I decided to work on that block first. I had seen hackberry before at a lumber yard in Minneapolis and the wood I saw was a greyish-cream with a lot of lavender undertones to it. It is found world wide, and its woodworking uses are for boxes, crates, and firewood. Its unusual looking and so I decided to make one of the boxes out of that. This particular block was probably cut a while ago as its very light weight:
So I drilled a hole in one end:
... attached it to the Nova chuck:
And began to turn it. Its very soft wood, and it reminded me of the pine wood that we turned last week. It has some spalted areas in it and its overall a beige color. It took a while to get it shaped as its very friable:
Here is the block after about 10 minutes of turning:
And here is the block after a few minutes of sanding and hollowing out:
Next, I decided to turn the cedar of lebanon. Cedar of Lebanon is native to mountainous areas of the Middle East and Mediterranean. Its been used by people for many centuries and has been cultivated for its resin and wood. This is also a wood that Ive never turned before and it reminds me a lot of douglas fir in appearance and in scent. As its dinner time, I decided just to even up the sides of the block and turn away the wax coating. And it does look like douglas fir.
As evening is here and its almost dinner and mosquito time, Im going to stop for the day. Tomorrow Ill turn the camphor block, Ill sand everything, and then well cogitate on lids for all these fellows.
See you tomorrow,
VW
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Tea Box The Pine Tea Box Discussion and Plans and The Blue Period Returns!
Good Evening All,
Well, it has begun to snow again here in Minnesota this afternoon and evening. Its supposed to rain and snow all night tonight and into tomorrow so we may have some snow on the ground tomorrow morning.
Snow or not, its time to talk about the next project: the pine tea box and here is a photo of it from several days ago. Its the yellow block in the left of the photograph:
Discussion
Ive been wanting to make tea boxes that have a more curved exterior than the ones I usually make and Ive also wanted to begin experimenting with some exterior adornment. This block is comprised of several oddly placed pine blocks that were laminated together with the hope of carving the block. The grain patterns dont match up well so I think this might be a good block to experiment with. I also have a 2" thick solid pine block that I can use for a lid and both are a pleasant vanilla yellow color.
Plans
Im going to turn this into a tea box that has the capacity to hold about 3 oz of loose tea leaves. So first Ill cut off the corners of the block and then mount it on the lathe. Next Ill shape it into a cylinder and from that Ill sculpt the outside of the block. Lastly Ill make the lid for the box. When this is all done it will have to be sanded perfectly smooth and the tools will have to be kept super sharp to prevent tearing of the wood as soft woods are prone to this.
Ive got a head cold at the moment and its supposed to be cold and rainy tomorrow so I probably wont do any turning till Sunday.
Blue Period Returns
Those of you who have been following the blog for a while will remember that about a year ago I tried to stain a couple of dried flower vases blue and wound up with flower vases that were kind of a puke pink color instead. Ill spare everyone the details of that. This time Im going to paint the body of the box a blue-grey color and leave the lid natural pine color. So with paint there cant possibly be a way for me to screw this up this time (of course with all of the coffee scoop projects that have all gone bad, this may be too much to hope for) as Ill find someone to mix the color for me before I begin painting. So keep your fingers crossed, the blue period is coming back.
So if youre here in the mid west, stay warm and if youre elsewhere where its warm, stay cool and Ill see you later this weekend.
VW
Read More..
Well, it has begun to snow again here in Minnesota this afternoon and evening. Its supposed to rain and snow all night tonight and into tomorrow so we may have some snow on the ground tomorrow morning.
Snow or not, its time to talk about the next project: the pine tea box and here is a photo of it from several days ago. Its the yellow block in the left of the photograph:
Discussion
Ive been wanting to make tea boxes that have a more curved exterior than the ones I usually make and Ive also wanted to begin experimenting with some exterior adornment. This block is comprised of several oddly placed pine blocks that were laminated together with the hope of carving the block. The grain patterns dont match up well so I think this might be a good block to experiment with. I also have a 2" thick solid pine block that I can use for a lid and both are a pleasant vanilla yellow color.
Plans
Im going to turn this into a tea box that has the capacity to hold about 3 oz of loose tea leaves. So first Ill cut off the corners of the block and then mount it on the lathe. Next Ill shape it into a cylinder and from that Ill sculpt the outside of the block. Lastly Ill make the lid for the box. When this is all done it will have to be sanded perfectly smooth and the tools will have to be kept super sharp to prevent tearing of the wood as soft woods are prone to this.
Ive got a head cold at the moment and its supposed to be cold and rainy tomorrow so I probably wont do any turning till Sunday.
Blue Period Returns
Those of you who have been following the blog for a while will remember that about a year ago I tried to stain a couple of dried flower vases blue and wound up with flower vases that were kind of a puke pink color instead. Ill spare everyone the details of that. This time Im going to paint the body of the box a blue-grey color and leave the lid natural pine color. So with paint there cant possibly be a way for me to screw this up this time (of course with all of the coffee scoop projects that have all gone bad, this may be too much to hope for) as Ill find someone to mix the color for me before I begin painting. So keep your fingers crossed, the blue period is coming back.
So if youre here in the mid west, stay warm and if youre elsewhere where its warm, stay cool and Ill see you later this weekend.
VW
Monday, February 10, 2014
Box O Chaos Project
In my shop, some projects get completed almost as soon as I think of them, while others need to wait. Some wait a long, long time. This one has been waiting for 10 years.
Heres the back story:
We used to live in Bend OR. When it was time to move back to Alaska, we packed every cubic inch of both our vehicles, had a major yard sale, and packed everything else into the maximum allowable size boxes and mailed them. We had been going great guns for several days to be out on schedule, and some things just kept slipping through the cracks.
The afternoon of our departure I realized that there was a rocking chair just sitting there in the living room. How had we missed that? There was no way it could get added to the "take along" list. There was absolutely no room in the cars (none - Im surprised we could breathe in there), and all possible space on top of the cars was already full. I didnt want to leave it, because while it might not be a great piece of furniture, it was the first furniture we had bought together as a couple. Nope, it had to make it to Alaska. All I had to do was disassembled it, with no tools (packed), get it to fit into the last remaining box, and make it to the post office before they closed (20 minutes). No problem.
So, I gently took that chair apart on the front lawn using a Swiss Army knife and a hunk of firewood as a club. I shoved it into the box and handed it over to the USPS with at least three minutes to spare. Then it was North to Alaska!
Back to the present:
As I am moving great heaps of stuff around in the garage I find myself looking at a large, unopened cardboard box. I was wondering what it could be, when two thoughts hit me in quick succession. First, its got to be the missing rocker. Second, I could fix it up for a Christmas present for my wife.
So I open the box and this is what I see:
Wow. Looks like someone smashed a chair apart with a piece of firewood or something.
Oh, but wait, its not that bad. I found the original fasteners randomly floating around in the bottom of the box.
Okay, so Ive got my work cut out for me. This is going to be close - wish me luck.
PS - Just to avoid any confusion, this rocker-in-a-box should in no way be confused with the other rocker-in-a-box project I have in the hopper. They are very different. For one thing, that one is actually in three boxes. For another, it has only been sitting in the shop for slightly more than one year. And finally, that rocker is from Oregon, while this one is from... never mind.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Guide woodworking plans for jewelry box
Nice woodworking plans for jewelry box must see
Useful woodworking plans for jewelry box
woodworking plans for jewelry box ,
Friday, January 24, 2014
Little Battery Box
This was a spontaneous project - created to address one of my silly habits.
We use a lot of rechargeable batteries in our house. Whenever I recharge batteries, I take the freshly charged ones and sit them on the desk by the computer - where they instantly start mixing with the uncharged batteries that also sit on the desk by the computer. Hmm. Not too bright.
Last weekend, after yet another round of trying endless combinations of batteries in the camera in an attempt to come up with a charged pair, it occurred to me that maybe what I needed was a little organizational help.
So, a quick visit to the shop yielded "The Little Battery Box." Just a small, rabbeted box, made from a resawn chunk of 1x scrap. The bottom is beveled to fit into the grooved sides. The divider is housed in dados cut with saw and chisel. It has one side for charged batteries, and one side for depleted batteries.
It looked a bit too plain after it was finished, so I gave it a hint of Tramp Art with a knife. Beeswax and oil finsish (none on inside bottom - no oil on battery terminals) completed the job.
A short, useful, and fun project. Perfect.
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