Daughter-Father Project

We had the pleasure of having Kymberlee, David, and the three kids with us for the holidays.  Kymberlee had this idea for a wall hanging so we headed out to the shop for the evening.

After a couple hours of sawing, resawing, jointing, planning, sanding, and finishing the project is complete. They started out as oak and walnut logs from our woods.  After processing the wood we put a couple coats of poly on them.  Then the words were applied with a paint pen then a couple more coats of poly.

It is so much fun to share my shop with someone.  I can wait until the grand kids are old enough.

The cabinets are started

The practice face frame is complete.  It is the first of seven I have to make.  There are four more just like this one then two without the drawer slots.

I've decided to use Kreg pocket joinery for the cabinet construction.  This process drills holes at an angle in the back of the pieces then drives self-tapping screws in the making piece.  For my first attempt using them, it didn't go too bad.  I learned a few things that will be helpful making the other six.

After completing this cabinet, the remaining six will all be made at the same time to save set up time and increase consistency,  The practice cabinet will stand alone on one of the shop's side walls.  The others will be side by side, along the back wall, with a continuous top.

Fall Harvest

Image from maps.live.com

One of the things I love about where we live is the way we can use the various resources.  We love walking through our woods.  One of the times we were back there we found some large pieces of wood that had been cut up.  We noted they had also had a tarp placed under them to keep them off the wet ground.  The next summer we went back there thinking we were going to cut them up for firewood.  To our surprise, they were very large pieces of black walnut.  Since they no longer qualified as firewood, we let them be.

I haven't been back down there much since.  The trails through the woods have grown over and a ton of trees have come down in storms.  With the nice weather this weekend, I decided it was time to bring them up the hill.  The pieces were so large I couldn't even roll them so cutting them up was a painful necessity.  Below are the piecess I collected today.



To give you an idea of the size of these things, here is a picture of my size 13 boot on one of the average size pieces.

The best part, there are two pieces down there yet that are larger in diameter than my 20" chain saw,  The one is about 6 feet long but the other is only about 3 feet long.  On the other hand there are 2 or 3 walnut trees that are down in there too.  They are about 12 inches in diameter and 75 feet tall.  These trees are in a dryer area of the woods and are not fully on the ground so they will be good for a while yet.

My plan for this wood is turning blanks.  I may resaw some for use in other projects but not sure of that.  The logs need to dry out some more so there is time to decide.  I"m sure there is opportunity to sell some of it, but I hate to do that too.  I know if I sell it off, I will never get the opportunity to work with walnut like it again because of the price.  Now all I need is a full size lathe to be able to turn it on.

Below is the nostepinne I made from another walnut tree on my property.  I still have several feet of that branch in the shop waiting for the perfect project.

Some Assembly Required

After spending 3 months learning Google's SketchUp followed by designing my cabinetry (and of course the pre-requisite redesigns) it's time to start building.

 

The wood is in the shop and construction will commence shortly.  After some consideration I went with the oak.  I just love the look.  The only alternative I really considered was maple.  Though beautiful, I thought the maple might be just a little too plain.  I do have some concern that the oak will be too busy but I am not planning on staining it.  It will be finished with a clear finish, which will add a slight yellow component to the color, but I think it will still be amazing.  There are, of course, other, and cheaper, woods that could be used.  By and large, the price difference is negligible and I think I would regret spending the time on something that wasn't what I really wanted.

 

 

I have been able to carve out some time to get on the new scrollsaw.  The scrollsaw is probably my favorite tool.  This Noah's Ark is a project I designed several years ago.  The animals are borrowed from another project.  The first was made for our church in New Jersey.  This one is number two and has a special destination.  Maybe someday I will make another one but that will probably be it.

Of course, there's always pens in progress.  This one is Cocobolo (I am making 3 of them).  Immediately after cutting, the wood is a pleasant brown with a nice grain pattern.  It also comes with a nice little surprise in that it oxidizes very quickly (overnight) to add a beautiful golden hue to the wood.  The waterbased finish I use seems to accentuate the tones (perhaps adds to the oxidation).  These pens will have a gold kit to round out the cigar style pens.

In Design Mode

While I haven't been posting much lately, I have been woodworking.  Just not in the shop.

With all of the projects for others complete, it's time to work on some of my own.  For the past two months I have been learning Google Sketch-up and designing my wainscoting and cabinets.

The cabinets will be maple (the pics below are when I was thinking oak).  I think the red oak would be visually too busy.  I love the grain in red oak and the large sheets of it are beautiful but I thought there just might be too much of it.  The maple will be lighter and just as nice.

Here are some details of the cabinets.

• 7 - 37" lower cabinets
• 5 - 2 drawer/2 door cabinets
• 2 - 2 door cabinets with 6 drawers behind them
• 6 cabinets side-by-side (about 18' long total) and 1 stand-alone
• 18' of upper cabinets for my library (not actually drawn yet)

 

 

Garden Check-in

We continue to be impressed with how our container garden is doing.  We've added trellises for the beans and peas and it looks like we will have more zuchini and cucumbers than we can eat.

See for yourself.  Here's how it looked this morning.

Back in seclusion

So I can't tell you what I working on now because it is a gift.  Not even from me in some cases.  Each one is unique and all are going to be amazing.  Pictures will follow as the delivery occurs.

Hey!  The shop is officially a man-cave.  On Saturday I set up my new 42" TV and Internet connected Blu-ray.  I also found out that when I hook my cell phone up to the TV I have a true web browser (Firefox) and access to all of the apps I have on my phone.  That solitaire game has never looked so good.  Hasn't helped me win any more than before though.