by via The Daily Sudoku
Monday 31 December 2012
Sunday 30 December 2012
Saturday 29 December 2012
Friday 28 December 2012
Thursday 27 December 2012
Family Project
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This was a project that was started about 15 years ago when I was a child. My grandfather and I were building birdhouses and giving them away to family members, friends and really just about anyone we knew. He had been building them for awhile before he asked me to help and I think he just wanted to spend some time teaching me how to do “guy” stuff. Since I was only a child at the time he didn’t allow me to use any power tools but I did do quite a bit of hand sanding. We had built a number of them and he had made one for his youngest daughter (my mother) his son (my uncle), but hadn’t finished the one for his oldest daughter (my aunt).
It was the day before Easter in 1998 and we were out in the garage working away, I can remember asking him all kinds of questions while we worked. Questions about what tools did and how things were made, I can remember the band saw he had and asked him what it did, he grabbed a scrap of wood and cut a key’d slot in the wood like a puzzle piece and gave it to me and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing in the world at the time. I would ask him all day about what things were, the walls were lined with what I thought had to be every tool in the world and he would always laugh and try to explain them in a way that a 9 year old boy might understand. The day after Easter he passed away and the garage with all the little projects he had been working on were frozen in time for over a decade until my grandmother also passed.
Going back into his garage was like walking back into a time capsule, everything was almost exactly where it had been all those years ago. The walls were still lined with tools, his workbenchs still had half finished projects and the old station wagon he and my uncle had worked on and made into a drag car sat idle. My uncle had been in and out of this place a number of times but nearly everything was left where my grandfather had put it. Everything except for the birdhouses he and I had worked on, I found them eventually in a large plastic tub that had been pushed into a corner. There were several birdhouses in severe disrepair, some half finished ones, and a bunch of the small pieces that he had made.
My aunt who never got a birdhouse had rented a moving truck to clean the house out and the tub went into it and was put in her barn where it sat idle for another 2 years. One afternoon I thought about the things my grandfather and I used to make and decided it was time that my aunt got her birdhouse. After a brief search through her barn my uncle was able to locate the box and I was able to smuggle it home without her seeing it so I could finish what had been started years and years ago.
While finishing the birdhouse I found it was a very effective form of catharsis, and since finishing it I have kept building small things out in my garage, it’s a labor of love and I’m glad that my grandfather spent the time with that bright eye’d little boy who always asked too many questions.
-Conrad-
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Wednesday 26 December 2012
Bottle Puzzle
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I’ve seen pictures and videos of these puzzles, always wanted to make one and figured it would be a great christmas gift. Here is my first go at it! The receiver of the puzzle had some leftover bamboo flooring, so I made sure to use that for the base (unfortunately there was some chip out).
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my first picture frame
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I had a picture blown up for my son for christmas of his last football game being in high school. I wanted it to be more meaningful by making the frame myself. So I decided to give it a try. I got everything cut, biscuits in place then glued up. I was so happy everything was coming together, that I forgot I had no frame clamp, so now I have glue on everything and I started to panic! I ran out to my truck and grabbed a rachet strap, it was not pretty but it worked. The end result was a very happy boy!
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Rustic Table
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Made this at some friends’ request to hold their old big screen rear projection TV (which is being demoted to their game room). It’s made out of reclaimed 2×4s and pieces of four old, brittle, splintery, warped oak pallets. What I’m most proud of is that I managed some how to cut everything with hand-held power tools (my table saw is still in storage pending a suitable location to put it at my house), and it came out rock solid and square and doesn’t rock even a little. They were pleased with it, and I made $300 cash two days before Christmas…so, of course, my kids were pleased with it too.
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Help with Dart Holder!
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I used to play darts all the time, well the other day I dug out the old dart board and darts.
I got some 1/2 plywood for a backer board to protect the walls ” I Rent” So I’m gonna start practicing again
and my son (11) and daughter(13) is showing some interest in the game. I was looking on ebay for darts and odds and ends and came across this wooden dart holder that would hang on a wall.
My question is how could I make this or something close to it, with the limited tools I have to use.
How can I drill the holes without a drill press and with out a Kreg drilling system, I have hand drills and such!
Any help would be appreciated, I am on a tight budget and don’t have the funds to by a lot of tools.
The one pictured here is on ebay for about $44.00, I think that is way over priced.
What do you think! Thanks—Robert
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Tuesday 25 December 2012
Screw Handled Mallet for Smitty - Mallet Swap!
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I made this for the mallet swap (found here: http://lumberjocks.com/topics/42130)
I had different ideas for the mallet but when I found out it was for Smitty I tried to up my game a little. It had to look nice siting on his beautiful bench.
I have been trying to make wooden screws for a while so I have had a few that have not worked out. So I came up with this idea to use one as a handle for this mallet.
After a lot of shaping and sanding on the lathe I think its fits pretty comfortably in the hand and adds some extra grip plus I think it looks cool.
This is my first carving mallet ever. It’s all hard maple, finished with Tried & True Danish oil and dark wax.
Now I think I’m going to have to make me one!
Thanks for looking,
Merry Christmas,
Mauricio
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