Etsy Store Updated!
Finally got a few items finished and posted up on Etsy! Back by popular demand is my Kids Flat Pack Plywood Rocking Chair (named “For those who like to Rock!”)suitable for ages 18 months to 5 year olds (for average sized kids). I love this design and plan to make more of these over the summer to keep up with demand. New to the store is the Chunky Monkey, an end grain Pine Cutting board that’s just over 2.25″ thick! There are two versions with slightly different handholds on the ends. Both boards feature rubber feet to help grip the counter as well as a food safe mineral oil finish. Why Pine? Well Pine has some natural anti-bacterial properties that make it perfect for cutting board use, and by making it end grain the soft wood is plenty durable for cutting board use. Boards come with simple maintenance instructions.
Check out all these items at my Etsy Store
Photo Friday
Last Sunday was Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. In the past I’ve made a camera for the occasion but due to time constraints and laziness I opted for a pinhole body cap on my digital camera. I love how the light flares in the picture, and it also shows how dirty my sensor is!
More info on World Pinhole day and photos from around the world HERE Click on Gallery at the top of the page for photos.
Table Saw push stick
Surprisingly, I don’t actually have a push stick. All these years I’ve usually just grabbed whatever scrap was lying around. For awhile I had part of an old hockey stick that did a pretty good job… but today I figured why not make one, probably safer than what I’ve been using!
Pretty simple design made out of scrap 3/4″ plywood with about a 3/8″ lip at the back to grip the wood. How does it work? Well I had nothing that really needed cutting so I didn’t try it out, but I’m sure it’s just dandy…
Sawdust…
Well I’d love to say I accomplished everything I’d hoped to this week, but the reality is I didn’t… I did make a ton of sawdust though. Which leads to my next point, apparently sawdust can cause sinus infections, which might relate to why I didn’t get much done this week. After a couple of days in the dusty workshop (no dust collection set up in my temporary space) and my lack of a dust mask seems to have given me a sinus infection. I did get a lot of headway on one project, but another two seemed to have problem after problem and might best be abandoned.
Next week there will be something to report, which project gets finished first is anybody’s guess.
Looking for my keys…
A friend of mine mentioned this past week that she was “stuck in first gear”. I replied that I felt like I was still looking for my keys… Finding it hard to get motivated lately, lots of ideas but having trouble with the execution I guess. Still don’t have a permanent shop (or residence for that matter), but I did manage to get a few tools set up so hopefully this weekend will lead to something fruitfull.
Not sure if I need my tires pumped or simply a kick in the ass, but I need to figure it out soon.
Photo Friday
Well it’s actually Saturday morning, and I’m craving a “Full English” breakfast… Remembered this picture I took of a great Full English I had a month ago at Spitalfield’s market. Tasted as good as it looked.
Piano Bench refinish
Had a quick refinishing job last week on an old piano bench. The bench had a mahogany veneer on top of some cheaper wood and the varnish had worn off. The top was also dented and scratched and in need of repair. Unfortunately the veneer was too thin to do much, although some of the dents were sanded off successfully and the rest were filled. Several coats of poly urethane later, it looks almost new.
Photo Friday
Been thinking a lot about woodworking lately, add that to my reading of Terrence Conran’s “sort of autobiography” and I couldn’t help myself but use the above picture for photo Friday. Taken a month ago at the Design Museum in London at the Terrence Conran exhibit celebrating his 80 years of inspiring design. This tool cabinet was a gift from the workers at his own Benchmark furniture business. I’m not sure if I am more jealous of him having his own in house furniture company (it resides in an old barn on his property) or this wonderful cabinet stocked with all the hand tool essentials…
Bent ply bike seat
I made a wooden push bike for my daughter last year, but I kept the seat very simple, using just a small piece of flat plywood. I wanted something nicer but I was low on time, and she was still too little to ride it, so I figured it was better than nothing.
Fast forward one year and she is eager to learn how to ride and a new seat was needed. I’ve been keen to learn some bent ply techniques, so I thought this seat would be a good small project to start on. The seat is made of three layers of 3mm Baltic birch which I sandwich between a wooden form in a large vice. Layers were glued together using epoxy, and the final shape was cut out on a bandsaw. I’m really pleased with how it worked out, next step would be to cover it with some type of padding, but the neoprene I want to use is packed away in a box with the rest of my things and might not be found till next spring…
Bamboo ring
Thought I had posted this project last year but I guess it slipped through the cracks. Got married last year and never got a wedding band as I felt I just wasn’t a ring wearing kind of guy. Fast forward a year and I saw a post on the web about making rings with a drill press and had to try it out. This produced my plywood rings as well as a maple and walnut ring, but shortly after the bamboo rifle stock I decided to try one out of some scrap bamboo. The first one exploded (literally) while I was making it and shot little bamboo pieces across the room, but the second one worked out. I used cartelized bamboo which gives it a darker colour, and while I always meant to finish it with CA glue, I never got around to it. I make sure to not get it wet and so far it’s lasted a couple of months of daily use. It gets a little tight if my hands are sweaty but I love how the grain shows through the end.
