Christmas Gifts 2013

I got a jump on this year's Christmas crafting as I decided what to make by Thanksgiving. Since that's usually the toughest part for me, I was very happy to have it figured out early.

For Sarah, I made this Christmas tree decoration. I milled all of the slats out of 2x4 hemlock left over from the barn project. Since that's an old project, the wood was suitably weathered.

The slats start out at 24" long and taper by 2" or so to the top; each layer has 5 slats. I drilled a hole in the middle of each slat so that they'll slide down a 3/8" aluminum rod that's anchored to two 14" 6x4 chunks that are lapped together in the middle. I got the rod at the hardware store and I think it's 48" long. The spacers are 2" pieces of maple with a hole drilled through the center. The whole thing is quite heavy and stable (25-30 lbs.?) It came out great.

The milling of all these slats made me realize that I really, really need a dust collection system in the shop. By the time I was done, the whole basement was coated in dust which will be very difficult, if not impossible, to clean.

For the girls, I made journaling accessories. We all love to journal on vacation, so I wanted to make something that'd make it easier to keep all our supplies together. I started by simply making bandoliers out of elastic for the journals and a few pencils, etc. This was fun and quick, but I didn't think it'd be enough.

I decided to head back to the shop and make the gifts a bit more useful and slightly more elaborate. What I ended up doing was making a box with a dado around the top that exactly fit the journal. By adding a (slightly bigger) bandolier, the journal becomes the box top and will keep everything all neat and tidy.

The whole thing is 2" deep which, when you take away the dados for the top and bottom, leaves about an inch inside for pencils, pens, post cards, etc. Overall dimensions are 8-3/4"x5-1/2"x2". The bottom dado is 1/4"x1/4" and the top dado is 3/8"x3/8". Basically, though, the size of the journal really drove the dimensions more than anything else.

The box is just 1/2" poplar from Home Depot and the bottom is a piece of hard board that's set into another dado on the bottom and glued. I use the Home Depot "craft wood" for a lot of projects: I just love that stuff. It's cheap, clear, and easy to work with. And since I don't have a planer, it's especially convenient.

This was a fun set of gifts to make this year and I didn't feel the pressure I've sometimes felt in years past which made it especially pleasant.

Spoon Carving in Maine

I've been wanting to try my hand at carving a spoon for quite a while now. Both daughters carved beautiful spoons at their Waldorf school but I had never tried it. Elizabeth and I started to do it one weekend this winter but we didn't finish so I decided that while I was on vacation in Maine, I'd finally give it a try. I had a lot of fun doing it and now I'm hooked!

I started with a pine branch that had been cut about a year ago. I think it was about 1.5"-2" in diameter. When I was cutting the branch, it split in half which was really handy, as you can see.

First, I took off all the bark and the stubs of branches.

Then I started to rough out the shape with my larger knife. At this point, it's really more whittling than carving but it's still fun. BTW, I don't know if this Opinel knife is the "right" tool, but it felt good in my hand and was the sharpest pocket knife I had at home so I figured I'd use it.

I used some carvers tape to protect my right hand and wore a leather work glove on my left since that's the hand I used to hold the wood. My knives were moderately sharp, so the blades were doing most of the work but as I got further along on my second spoon, they were dulling just enough that I was worried about a slip. Luckily, nothing happened but did I ever learn: use really, really sharp knives to be safe. Counter-intuitive, I know, but true.

For Christmas last year, Sarah gave me a hook knife which is a knife with a curved blade for hollowing out spoons. It was very handy.

You can see the hook knife in this picture.

The knife on the right is a regular detail carving knife which I switched to after I had roughed it out with my big blade.

This is what the spoon looked like before I started sanding. I tried to get as many knife marks off as I could but that's a lot like plastering a wall: the art is knowing when to stop.

I started with 100 grit sand paper and then switched to 220 after a while. I think I probably sanded for about an hour total, maybe a bit more. I just sat on the rocks in the sun with my dog and sanded away so I kind of lost track of time. It was very soothing.

I made two spoons. The first one is on the right and the second one is on the left. (I consider the one on the right a rough draft.) When I felt like they were smooth enough, I used Beekeepers Gold on them. That's a mix of bee's wax and mineral oil. I applied it with my hands to rub it in really well and wiped off the excess. I think each spoon got 2 or 3 coats.

I'm really happy with how they came out and I'm looking forward to making a bunch more now that I know a bit more about what I'm doing.

Screen Porch Refit

Building the screens for our screen porch was one of the early projects I did once we moved into our house back in 2006 or 2007. The screens frames themselves are quite nicely built and sturdy but I took a shortcut with the screening. I just stapled it on rather than doing it right. They held up for 6 years but it finally became apparent last summer that they needed to be re-done.

The first step was to unmount all 12 and pull all the staples out. These had multiplied over the years as the screens aged and the cat climbed on them. There were a LOT of staples.

Next came routing a dado around the tops, sides, and bottoms which is what I should have done originally. I used a home-made guide that made a really big difference. One-handed quick-clamps helped a lot, too.

Here you can see the grooves. I went through two 3/16" router bits. The dado ended up about 3/8" deep or so. I then used .175" spline which I bought in bulk from Home Depot to get the screens in place.

It took a couple tries, but I figured out how to get the screens in nice and tight and now they're all done. I just hope the cat doesn't decide to climb on them again this year. I think I'll keep a super-soaker out on the porch just in case (and for a little amusement, too).

Some Fun Time in the Shop

Today was a nice, snowy, lazy Sunday so I decided to build a couple things in the shop that I've been wanting to do for a while. Nothing complicated mind you - just a couple things to relax with and maybe use a bit.

The first is a new monitor stand. At my new office, I've just got a book under my monitor so I built this stand with scrap lying around the shop. It's certainly nothing you'd call elaborate, but if it holds the monitor at a comfortable height, maybe I'll bring it back home and paint it. If I'm lucky, my daily notebook/journal will fit neatly underneath.
Update: Looks like it works!

The other item I built was a stand for my shop journal. You've seen the journal in other posts and it sure is handy to have. I'll be able to keep it open and flat with a couple large binder clips. That'll definitely be a handy addition to the shop!

Valentines Day 2013

Valentines Day is a big deal at our house. Almost as big as Halloween or Christmas. We all make handmade Valentines and this year was no exception. Rather than craft mine out of paper, pens, glue, thread, etc. this year I decided to make little boxes for Sarah, Helen, and Liz.

They were kind of fun to do but took longer than I thought they would! The only supplies I had to buy were some super glue and a half pint of bright red glossy paint. I already had all the wood. I glued up all three boxes at the same in one long segmented box. Then I cut them apart and sanded them down.

The lids proved to be tricky because I tried to make them fit too tightly so I ended up having to trim them with a saw and chisel after I got them painted because they were too tight. I think they came out well and they were a hit with all the ladies!

Handmade Christmas 2012

This year's handmade gifts were, once again, a big hit with all of us. I wasn't as stressed this year about mine, which was nice, so I enjoyed myself quite a bit while making them.

This is a small shelf I built for Sarah to go in our downstairs bathroom. It's quite simple but it does the trick. Made from pine with simple dado and miter joints, it was pretty straight forward to build but looks good (if I do say so myself).

Both girls have fallen in love with the BBC series, "Dr. Who", but especially Elizabeth so I made her this Christmas decoration of the Dr.'s ship the Tardis. I used the wood from a clementine crate for my materials so I didn't really have to do much milling or anything. I used thick super-glue on it, so once everything was cut out, gluing it together was very quick.

Lastly is this earring hanger for Helen. She's been making jewelry like crazy for a couple years now so this is a really useful gift for her. It's about 12"x14" with plain old construction mesh stapled to the back. As you can see, she's already started to use it!