So there I was at home alone. The wife working late and the bug, the wood bug, hits and it hits hard. Chances are if you’re reading this you know what I’m talking about. The only real difference between me and you is I have little to no experience dealing with this burning excitement growing deep within me. Now I have taken some minor steps to prepare for such an itch. Things like buy a $20 off brand band saw from a friend and of course watch as many YouTube videos as I could manage. I mean heck I’ve been inadvertently taught by some of the greats like Mr. Steve Ramsey and Mr. Laney Shaughnessy. With those two alone I must be well equipped to deal with whatever the wood could throw my way. But I didn’t stop there. No!!! I went on to watch Garage Woodworks, This Woodwork, Stumpy Nubs, The Renaissance Woodworker, Jay Bates and even Jon Burros. Hell one day I sat and watched as much Wood Whisperer as my laptop would allow. So with all this “experience” under my belt here I stand alone and unafraid with a crappy band saw, a box of cutoffs I had bought offline while bored one night and an idea.
What was that idea?
I thought you would never ask.
Intarsia
Ambitious I know but I had a plan and a damn good one too. So I thought. Well I grab my box of pretty cutoffs and pull out the want to be craftsman 10” band saw and develop a plan. I am going to pull a clip art bass and put it on fishing rod rack. This is not the bad part. See I only have 2 blades for my band saw and I need to resaw some of these cutoffs. (never said I was a genius). So I turn on the band saw loaded with the 1/4” (I think) blade and grab this chunk of cutoff and here I go. Things start out ok and then I realize …………… my blade is not going as straight I think it should. Well I keep pushing and all of a sudden my 3/8” resaw becomes about 1/8” and then BAMN the blade comes off the wheels and is now firmly lodged with this beautiful chunk of purple heart (guessing again). Out come some choice words that I am extremely happy my grandmother didn’t hear me scream cause I just don’t think her poor heart could take something so fowl. Well I open the cover pull the blade out and decide to get the only other blade I own and put it on. (had to pull it out of the package). Luckily this is a thicker blade and once I am able to wrangle it on the wheels (20 minutes later) it cuts through the next piece of purple heart I decide to try. (Minimal blade drift). Thank goodness I have already picked out several other already suitable width pieces of wood to work with. So I grab my nice little clip art bass and proceed to cut it up and stick it to my desired colors of wood. After the stick glue I used sets up I start dismantling these pieces. I have to say I am glad I didn’t not post video of this process cause the safety patrol would throw me in Leavenworth for shore. You see what I failed to take into account was the picture I was cutting up had some extremely small pieces and I have a 2” by 2” opening where my blade meets the table. It only took me about an hour and 1 piece of wood falling in and jamming up my wheels to figure out I should probably cut an insert. Now with my extremely crude insert installed and wheels and blade realigned (as best as I could get it anyways which was not very good cause when I would cut it off it would come off the wheel a little and hit the guard with the teeth) I finish cutting all the little ridiculous pieces out.
Finally I am done all I have to do is sand glue and put this little puzzle together the way it is supposed to go and I am officially a wood aficionado right. WRONG. Half of my pieces don’t fit together quite right cause apparently I had blade drift even on the little pieces. Either that or I was moving it to much and not perpendicular with blade. So after some sanding in some trouble spots I have a half workable project and away runs the wood bug for the night.
So there it sits this unfinished project on a shelf in my garage waiting patiently for me to get home from work tomorrow with a fire in my belly and a renewed false sense of knowledge and skill.
Until next time ………… Happy Woodworking.
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Crafty Puzzles
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