Draw knife

Here are the photo's of the drawknife I talked about back in July. I am almost done with it should have a photo up in the next few days.

Where has the time gone?

Geez here I am thinking that I will be keeping up with this and then my summer is over and gone in the blink of an eye and I haven't done a thing on here forever. No wonder no one is checking it out. Oh well. I am going to do my best to get back to work on it and see if anyone cares about it at all.

I will try my best if anyone does start to read great!! If not then I guess I will at least be able to see what I have been doing myself.

Draw Knife

I was searching in another barn for some decent wood to salvage and came across an old draw knife. It's rusted pretty bad but seems to be solid underneath still. I think I will work on it the weekend and see if I can save it and still use it or if it will become another old tool to hang on the wall and look at.

Milk Cart

Well after much delay and lots of Blacksmithing.  I finished the milk cart I was asked to refurbish.  I was asked if I could replace the wood on an old Milk Cart, and of course thought replace wood no problem.  then I went and picked up the old cart and realized just what I was in for.  I should have really said I need see it first. ( I never seem to remember to do that.)  But after going through and getting most of it straightened out it turned out pretty good I think.  I was almost finished when The client showed me a picture of one she found with a planter box on it to put flowers and pine boughs. 

The Fort Update

Just an update on Friday the 1st of July we had 85 to 95 mile an hour striaght lying winds come through.  The fort had a tree fall on it with only one two by six joist cracking under the pressure.  I will be fixing the joist and will have new pictures of it both with the tree on it and after cleaning it all up.  Thanks.

Bird Bench

I was asked if it would be possible for me to save an old bench for a freind that her Grandfather made when she was younger.  I said, " Sure no problem".  I should have looked at the bench first.  Not that it was too bad, just that it was almost all rotted out.  I keep some wood behind my barn so that it can grey from weather.  At first I stacked it back there because I hadn't made enough room in my barn for it and needed to pull all the old nails out of it.  Now, it turns out that having some wood on hand that's grey and weathered is a good thing to have for "repairing" projects like this.  I'm going to have to make a rack out back to store some wood occasionally and weather it.  But the rest needs to be put inside in some racks up in the hayloft now.  I finished the bench without too many problems.  All but the back rest and back legs had to be replaced.  She was very happy with the finished project.  I told her to let it sit out until this fall with her plants on it and I would come and get it and finish it with some linseed oil to preserve it.  It should all be the same shade of grey by this fall.

Door With a Star

So I finished the Barn door that my customer wanted a star cut into.  Man I wish all my jobs could be as easy as this one.  Took all of about 15 minutes, start to finish.  I had her find the exact star she wanted and printed it out to the size wanted.  Then I took the star and placed it on the door in about 6 different spots and took a picture of each position, and emailed her the photos and asked her to choose where she wanted it.  When I got the email back, I took the paper star and sprayed contact glue on the back and placed the star on the door.  I drilled five 3/8 inch holes at each inner point so that all I had to do was to cut each side of the stars without having to turn it on the jigsaw.  When I finsihed cutting it out, I took a router and gave the whole thing a slight round over and sanded the outer points to match.

Sunday

When the kids came out Saturday night to see how it was going, they all just stopped in their tracks and looked in awe.  One of my boys said it looks more like a cabin than a fort.  On Sunday I headed back into a old shed that I found, and started to tear off more siding.  After about an hour and a half, I called my wife and the kids to come in with the trailer and load it up for me while I tore more off.  Then back home we went (with a trailer so full that I thought the tires might pop).  I started on the next side.  The screen door came from the shed also, it was just sitting there against a wall.  So when I got home, I dug around the shop and found three hinges (three different ones of course).  One of the hinges is a self closer, so that was nice - don't need to have a spring on the outside to catch on the kids or their stuff.  They all spent the night out there last night and are already having a blast in it.  Now to get a railing up before they start having friends over!

Another Busy Weekend

The whole weekend was about the fort again.  We spent Saturday getting the steel roof and siding on the front.  Then I put the windows in.  Two of them are hinged so that the kids can open them, then there is the big one and a little glass block up beside the bunk, so that whoever is sleeping up there can look out too.

New Customer

I picked up a new customer this week.  She has an old milk cart, that the big cans went on, that needs all new wood and some metal work that needs to be heated and straightened out.  Not sure how I will do with the metal work, but I am going to try.  Along with a quilt rack that is just huge and needs resizing, and a small barn door that they want a star cut into.  Then this really cool old garden bench that is about to fall over and die.  I am really glad that I have been raiding all of these old barns of wood before we burn them down.  New wood on the bench or the milk cart would just look awful.  I will post before and after pictures of them.

Fort Update

We had a perfect weekend here.  I got one step further on the fort so the boys are getting super excited with their fort now that they can see it with the plywood on the walls, and the joists up for the steel to go on.  My daughter even made lunch yesterday for everyone and we sat in the fort and enjoyed a nice little picnic.  I am hoping to get started on the steel tonight (which is salved also from an old pole shed).  A buddy of mine stopped by and told the kids that they were spoiled to have such a big fort.  Then he told me that with a fort like that, there was no reason to have to spend money to go on vacation - the kids would never want to leave it.  And yes, you do see three ladders standing there.  I even have one inside the fort - who knew that it would take as many ladders to build a fort as it does to build a house.

Fort for the boys

I had a busy weekend - spent it framing a fort for the boys.  Tonight I will put the rafters on, then we will put 1/4 inch plywood on so that all the old barn siding can go up and I won't have to fill all the old nail holes.  I also had a chance to go and tear down more wood from an old garage.  Holy cow - the lumber was six feet high in there, alot was rotted but I still came home with three trailer loads full including oak flooring and walnut boards.  I am hoping to go back this weekend and get more siding and dimensional lumber from there before it gets torn down.

Old Betsy Steering Wheel

Here is a photo of Old Betsy's steering wheel finished and waiting to be put back on the steering coloumn.

Fire Truck steering wheel

Well, I finally finished putting off refurbishing the wood steering wheel from my department's old fire truck.  It took a lot of time to get all of the dirt and grime of 70 years out of the wood - not to mention the Duct tape that had been used to hold the finger joints together for the last 15 to 20 years.  I don't know how many hours were spent sanding it exactly, but there were a good ten to twelve, at least.  I stained it to help cover up some of the coloring differences between where the Duct tape was and where it wasn't.  Then I hand rubbed about five coats of poly on it so as not to have to worry about it being too slippery (we are going to be driving the old beauty in parades, you know).  I will post a picture today or tomorrow.

Boys Closet

Well, I finished up my boy's closet unit tonight. A nice custom unit that most women would kill for. I will post a picture tomorrow after they finish putting their clothes back.



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Diamond Willow Walking Staff

Last fall, my brother-in-law gave me a cluster of diamond willow trunks from his yard (he has about 250).  I brought them home and shaved all the bark off of them, then just let them sit in the house for the winter to dry.  Last night, I took mine out to the shop and put a heavy layer of laquer on it.  The plan is to let it soak in and dry for two days, then take it and sand it down to prep it for a second and final coat.  I figure two should be good since it will be used to go on all the hikes my boys and I go on with Scouting.  I will post pics after I have finished.  I think I might even have to do some knot work on the upper part for a grip, not sure if I am going to use paracord or leather.  Any thoughts about which will last longer?  I have a lot more years and miles of Scouting with the boys in my future.

Shopping for cabinets

Thought I would try a new set up with my kitchen cabinets, instead of going with the normal Melamine interior.  going with real wood veneer plywood.  This of course means a whole number of extra steps of course ( Sanding painting, or staining as well as then applying a coat of poly.)  But this is for my house and for my wife.   I will be taking pictures as i go along to show the whole process from start to finish so that you can see.  I plan to start next week.  I need to finish the steering wheel for old betsy and take the boys camping this weekend for scouts.  The big delay at the moment is to get my wife to come up with a final sketch of exactly what she wants so that I can start.

Laminate flooring

Well just finished putting a laminate floor in for some nice folks. Folding just wasn't meant to go in nicely on the landing of a split entry. Lots of trim to under not to mention going into closets and under newel post and such. Oh well it looks awesome now that it's in and done.

Cafe Table

My brother gave me a Cafe/Bistro table a few weeks ago.  Nice Maple top on it but the base, post and chairs were repainted from black to white, whoever did it did a butcher job, drips and runs all over it.  So I guess I have found my next project.  I dont know for sure but I a bet it's either Pine or Birch for the rest of the wood.  But maybe if the wood has decent character I will be able to just stain and poly it.  I will let you know after I am done with the stripping of it. 

Grandpa's desk

Taking grandpa's desk apart so I can fix the finish and build a new top for it to fit in my office. Using Howard restor-a-finish to try and get the old finish to come back to life. It's not working that well though. Guess I will have to try using steel wool, hopefully that will work or else it's time to start sanding it back to raw wood.

The running boards were the easiest to decide what to do with.  I started by taking my Dewalt Power Plane and taking a 1/64 inch off of them to get the dirt and grime off, then I sat with my chisels and cleaned out all of the little valleys of the dirt and grime they had also.  Next came the bed of the truck, that was also a no brainer, when I tried to remove all of the old bolts and screws holding the boards down the wood was so old and dry it just exploded and cracked into a thousand pieces, so those are going to be replaced with new, I am going to take chains and stiff brushes to distress them slightly. 

Old Betsy

So my Fire Dept has a 1940 something fire truck that we are refurbishing and I am in charge of all the wood inside and out of it.  This means the bed of the truck, the frame of the windsheild, the floor of the cab, and the running boards and tail gate.  Not to mention the steering wheel that was handed to me taped together with Duct Tape that was about 15 years old on it.  So I have been stripping paint and stain and dirt off of all these parts now for the better part of the winter and need to completely replace some of them.  The other guys on the department took the truck apart (I wasn't on the department yet) and took about 200 photo's luckily while they did it.  My problem at this point is that some of the parts were covered with a foil like veneer to try and hide the wear and tear of the wood.  So here I sit at my bench trying to decide how to save some and which to just replace.

What am I doing now.

Okay so here we go I going to try something new here and just put my thoughts out there for everyone to see.  I'm not sure if anyone will care.  That's fine if they don't and great if they do.  I'll probably just rant sometimes and other times just brag about my kids, post pics of my latest projects with woodworking.  And otherwise just see where this takes me, not sure exactly but we'll see what happens.