Bent wood and a sinking ship

Here's this past week's effort: a canoe bookshelf. Better versions are rounded—like real canoes—but this is my first, maybe I'll get there one day. Also my first time bending wood. Didn't steam it, just slowly torqued it over a few hours. And the first time using chalk paint, which was real easy to work with. Here it is mid-build and in place.

 

 

Summer Catch-Up

So it's been a while since I've updated the blog, and for one very good reason: it's summer! We've been very busy having a good time, enjoying the unseasonably good weather, and working our tails off. In fact I'm writing this from an airport—downtime during a business trip—waiting for the flight back home. But I'm already sketching out the next project for the woodshop, hopefully something involving steaming and bending wood. Been wanting to do that for a while. Since I last posted there's been a few projects worth mentioning...

The Ping Pong Table

We've been talking about getting a Ping Pong table for a while and this 4th of July we finally decided to pull the trigger. The boy had drawn up plans to make one but I was leaning towards buying one. The size of the project alone was enough to ward me off, but once I had seen what was out there—and for how much—I shrugged and said "Lets make it". 

Regulation competition size, 9' x 5', made from 3/4" oak plywood, stained with mahogany, and coated in several layers of shellac and furniture polish, here it is:

  

 

Shinel No 2

There's no shortage of childish humor in our home and when we became aware of Poo Pourri and their hilarious advertising campaign, it didn't take long before the Mrs had engineered her own version of the indispensable concoction, Shinel No 2 (Chanel No 5 for your bum) for use around the house. It's so effective and easy to make, she elected to give a few out as gifts. Good products need good packaging and that's where I come in. 

Label inspired by the original Chanel design, outer packaging constructed of pine and cedar with a Woodshop branded decal wrap. Take a look...

Hm... MINTY

About the same time I had been working on the cookie jar (previous post), I was working on a segmented bowl design using contrasting woods. Here's the completed prototype, serving as a mint dish in my downtown office. 

 

Walnut and Cedar Jars

For my birthday my brother-in-law gave me a very generous gift—several feet of walnut and cedar planks. While a lot of that wood is tied up in a personal project that I one day hope to show you, there's still a wealth of wood to use in other ways. Once of those ways became gifts to the same brother-in-law (hint hint: if you give me wood, I will make something of it and give it back), and also my father—small cookie jars. Measuring about 6 inches wide and about 8 inches tall, these jars are made of walnut, with once using cedar as an accent around the rim, and are finished with hand-made and hand-rubbed French polish. The grain in these pieces came out beautifully and I love that I was able to give back to those who're so important to me.

   

 

Finally... 

One of my favorite things to do lately to sit on the back patio in the porch swing and relax. I love listening to music as I chill and listening to the tiny iPhone speaker or not so small, but not that great either boom-box, just doesn't cut it. So I gathered some very disparate materials—an old Altec Lansing speaker set (with subwoofer), scrap white birch plywood, pine dowels, an old pair of black tights and some Bronze tacks—and made what I call the SpeakerBox. Just plug it into the wall and your phone and you're in business. BTW, it sounds awesome.

   

  

Cookies anyone?

Latest from the woodshop—a pine and cedar cookie jar. Technically a prototype for different jar—which is why the lid handle is a bit off. But the finish came out quite well and I learned from it, so a success piece.

Oakey Dokey

Years ago I had an red oak tree taken out of the yard and I had requested that the arborist leave a slice for me. This is long before I held nary a chisel in my hand and at most was thinking I could build a tabletop from whatever they left for me. Well, their version of a slice was about 13 inches thick from the trunk, which was about 30 inches wide. It was so incredibly heavy it took a couple of us to prop it up on one side just so we could roll it into the garage. Not having the first clue what to do with the beast I left it in the garage, where it over the course of a year it dried and split severely. I borrowed a chainsaw and sectioned it into manageable wedges- most of which were about the 13 inches tall by 6-7 inches deep and wide. I placed some of the wedges around the house like doorstoppers and book case fillers. The rest I guess I gave away or trashed—I cannot remember.

Fast forward a few years and here I am, chisel in hand, looking for wood. So I collected the wedges—there were four—and took them into the woodshop. I must admit that these weren't easy to work with as the oak was very strong—but the wood itself is beautiful and I could not be happier with the results. Here are the four pieces to come out of that slice, all finished with nothing more than a wax and linseed oil slurry. All colors are as nature provided. Enjoy.

Here's some more detailed pics:

In the meantime...

So there's lots of stuff going on in the woodshop this month, and I'll have lots of things to show you very soon, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share something small. We had a very busy weekend and at one point the wife had to go to a dance recital (for our adorable niece), and while she was out The Son and I made something purposefully small to surprise her with. When she got home later that night she discovered what we had done and everyone had a good laugh and warm fuzzies. Here's what she found...

Skull Box

The woodshop is in prep-mode right now, getting ready for some larger summer projects, but I still want to show you guys something. If you're popping over here from Facebook, you'll have seen this already, the skull box. 

I saw something like this a friend bought from Etsy and new I had to make one. My mother had given me a couple of very cool fleur-de-li hinges she had pulled off a piece of furniture she was refinishing and I had been waiting for the right project to come around to use it on. So with coping sway, file, and some cedar in hand, here's the output:

As I said, this is all cedar, and the hinge lets the jaw open and close freely. The kids had fun making him 'talk'.

I have the other hinge and have plans on making another skull box, though I am thinking of a bright red finish with some dia de los muertos motifs worked in...

Cat Tree

It's been a while since I posted, but I have good reasons. This spring we added a new member to our family, Emmet, the cat. Full name, Emmet Brickowski Mauger. Yes he's named after the hero in the Lego Movie. And yes, I have yelled his full name at him. Not that he's cared, he's a cat. We also call him a bunch of other things like Emmy Whemmy, Snack Hunter, and Hey You; my favorite is Fuzzbutt.

What does this have to do with the Woodshop? Glad you asked. In preparation for cat ownership I had purchased the requisite litter and food and nip-related items. When it came time to look cat-trees and the like I was dismayed that so many of them looked like carpeted monstrosities. I get the functionality, but the aesthetic has no place in anyone's living room. Unless, I guess, you're Becky, Queen of Carpet. What I wanted, regardless of what the cat might have wanted, was a cat tree that could be in the living room as a piece of furniture—something I could look at and not be distracted by. So I did some research and turned up a lot of great ideas, but the closer I got to what I wanted the further I got away from my budget. I guess you know, by now, what some next…

I built one my damn self.

After reviewing the ones I liked with the Mrs., we selected a design we found by a company in Korea, Trillo. Once I had the basic idea, I modified from there to suit our space and my available materials.

I'll put the details after the pics.

 The details:

The legs are Douglas Fir 2x4 milled down to 1.75x3. To achieve the correct angled half lap—which you can see in the first picture—was a bit tricky. The angle was too severe to get it on the mitre saw, and the boards were too big to cross cut on the table saw, so I measured a hand cut the primary shoulder-cut and routed all of the rest out. During the glue-up I discovered I had cut the laps a bit wide so I shimmed them and tweaked the angle a bit further to reduce the footprint. 

The platforms were made of 2x4 scrap—some pine, some cedar—each rip-cut to create 1.75 wide planks. I glued the planks together to form boards which I hand- and machine-planed down to a uniform thickness of about .75 inches. 

The box was constructed out of various plywood scraps. I put a piece a chipboard in the box interior to make sure it would be nice and comfortable. 

The finish is a combination of differently tinted Dutch Oils, and Shellac. Once more than enough coats were on and dried, everything was gently wet-sanded with 800 grit. 

The lap joints are wrapped in sisal rope and 2 platowms, as well as the box sides, have carpet stair-steps glued to them. 

Not pictured above is the final resting spot for the tree, which is front of our basement walk-out, where every platform gets a great view of the yard. 

I will proudly say that the cat loves the tree and can usually be found there when banished to the basement during dinner.