Monkeypuzzle

I was offered some wood from a Monkeypuzzle tree some months back – the tree was planted in the front garden when the chap (now quite a few years older) moved into his house.

I’ve left the wood for six months or so and today I got around to turning the first bowl. It was immediately evident that the wood was far from dry, so I just rough turned it and will leave it on the shelf for another 3 months or so. Here it is at the moment…

I am not at all sure how it will turn out as the wood seems quite open-grained so might not finish too well, but we’ll see in a few months.

Here’s one for Jeremy…

A couple of years ago I made a long round trip to darkest Worcestershire and picked up a load of wood from a colleague. This was dumped in the back of the car, driven 100 odd miles back up the M6 and then stuffed under the bench in the barn where it’s been sat ever since then.

I’ve turned the odd small piece since then (primarily into mushrooms), but today I fancied tackling a bowl so dug out a reasonably sized lump and had some fun with the sledgehammer and wedges, so that I could start with something that wasn’t too large.

I then cut the corners off the lump and stuck it onto the lathe – here’s a picture from half way through the turning process…

I’ve just hot-glued some Iroko to the base so that when I turn it around to mount it I don’t have to screw into the base of the bowl.

It turned out really well, despite nearly flying off the faceplate when I was finishing the base – here’s the finished article…

It’s easily the most beautiful bowl I’ve made, I’m looking forward to cracking open another lump to see what I find inside!

Another one bites the dust

It seems I’m destined not to make larger bowls – after obliterating one last weekend I tried again this weekend, with a large lump that I rough turned when it was green last September. All was going well and then my chisel caught and this was the result…

I don’t think a bit of glue will fix that one!

An evening of bits & bobs

This evening I tackled a couple of jobs I’ve been putting off for a while, then had some fun.

The first job was to fix some battens to the wall, slide in a shelf, then fit the oven that’s been sat on a brick in the same hole ever since I bought this place (the oven was here, I knew it would come in handy sometime)…

The stuff inside the oven cooking gently is some driftwood, more on that later.

The second job was to build something that I can store my sanding discs in, as at the moment they were all over the place. I just used some spare MDF that was hanging around the place, and whilst now I need to find somewhere for this one to go at least I can now put my hands on a disc when I want one!

Now back to the driftwood. We stayed in a gorgeous cottage near Bude a couple of weeks back and as I was picking up some tools (which can be seen in the background, a large pillar drill and a bandsaw) I took the opportunity to fill the trailer up with whatever I could, and so a bagfull of driftwood came back home with us. My wife wants to make some things for her business, and this evening I dried out some of the wood in my oven and then set to making some tea light holders…

The first above was just 5 small pieces, the second used some chunkier parts…

I need to use a little less glue next time but other than that I’m quite happy with them.

Wood!

I have wood – a load of it…

It’s a load of Iroko from my dad’s shed – some of it nearly 2 feet wide. The boards were originally about 23’ long, I had to cut them down to about 6’ to get into my trailer, which felt like a travesty but in all honesty I’m very unlikely to need long lengths, and I’d rather have them at this length than sat in a shed 300 miles away for another 5 years.

Now I need to plan what I’ll be making with these – I have some earmarked for a new desk for my office, and another Adirondack chair is on the cards too. As for the rest, we’ll see!

FInished drawers

This evening I finished off the drawer fronts for the cabinet that’ll go under the bench. It’s a bit on the heavy side now so I need a hand to lift it down.

I made a set of handles from Iroko on my router table. These were much, much cheaper (well, free really) and look the business too.

They were made with two cutters on the router table. The first, a 1” radius cutter from Axminster provided the ledge for my fingers underneath the handle. I then rounded over the top with a Porter Cable bit I purchased when we were on holiday in Florida a few years back.

The whole lot was sanded (80,120,180 & 240) and then given a couple of coats of teak oil. I’m very pleased with these drawers, now I just need to decide what’s going in them!

Finished Adirondack Chair

This evening I’ve finished the chair, with just 4 days to go until it’ll be given to my lovely wife. Here’s the chair in all it’s glory…

It’s rather comfortable – I don’t think I’ll be able to get her out of it during the summertime!

Let the finishing begin…

The Sikkens stain I purchased turned up today, along with 100 pairs of rather fetching purple gloves, so armed with these I’m ready to start finishing…

I find it helps to have everything to hand before starting, and with this many pieces to do (35 at last count) it’ll take a while. I’ve already put a sealer coat on, and am planning on 3 coats of the Sikkens product before final assembly.

Here’s a closer look at the parts – I’d forgotten to remove the brass feet I added to the front legs here so had to remove these before I got going. I thought this would add a nice extra touch to the chair, and also keep the moisture a little bit further away from the chair too.

After some while I have all pieces covered with one coat…

The Cetol finish I’ve put on should last a good few years and was easy to apply with just a rag. I bought mine from Decorating Direct who delivered it superbly wrapped – it took me quite a while to extricate the tin from its wrapping.

Now I just have a few more hours of finishing to do over the coming evenings.

Sanding done

This evening I spent all my time in the workshop sanding with a random orbital sander, and progressing from 80 through 120, 180 and 240 grits. It’s now ready for finishing!

Every piece has been across the bench from left to right (being sanded on the way) then back again (with a different grit). It took a while but will be worth it. Now I’m waiting for the finish to turn up that I ordered.

A new project

My wife has been asking for an Adirondack chair for years (probably 15 or so), and now that I have a suitable place to build one in I could put it off no longer.

It’ll be the 21st anniversary of when we first met in February, so I’ve made a good start and aim to get this done by then. If it’s a few days late it can always be a Valentines day present instead.

Here’s the armrests after a good sand…

I’ve also test fitted the base and back tonight too…

Like most workshops it’s always a battle with space. Now I have a *load* of sanding to do!

Drawer Fronts

I’m lucky enough to have a whole load of Iroko so I decided this would be nice as some drawer fronts…

These are just roughly attached at the moment, I need to think up what I’ll do for handles.

Safe Tools

I’ve a bunch of tools that are very special to me and so I don’t want to lose them – my 10th Birthday present was a plane which was stolen some years back, and since then I’ve not wanted to lose anything else, especially as now I’m the custodian of my late fathers tools.

So it was time to get something sturdy, and over a couple of months last year I managed to get just the thing. They’re now installed in my workshop and filled with tools.

The big on on the right is massive – I could stand up in it before I put everything in, I reckon you could get 4 average sized people in without too much bother. It was a fair old lump to get into place but I had some help and it’s never moving again!

The left hand one is for my less precious tools (there’s a hierarchy going on, you have to be good to get in the large safe). I wonder if other woodworkers have a similar categorisation of their tools…

Drawers for my hand tools

I’ve decided now that I want most of my hand-tools within easy reach of the bench, so set to yesterday and today building some new drawers…

First I built the drawers themselves so they could have time to dry whilst I built the sides. I set these out on the bench and fitted all of the hardware before assembling the case.

The case is a little strange in that it has no lid or base – it will sit on the bottom rails of the bench and I’ll fix it in place, so these extra pieces were superfluous (and I wanted to maximise the space I had for tools).

The last photo shows the drawers in place. I have some lovely Iroko that I’m going to use to face the drawers. That probably won’t happen for a while!

Christmas Pressies

I was a very lucky chap this year…

The paper is some 40, 30 and 5 micron stuff from www.workshopheaven.co.uk which I’ve used to make the chisels ‘scary sharp’. And they are superb!

A vice!

I’ve had this vice for many years (I’d reckon about 10) but never really had a place to put it. I’m really glad to be able to use it now – it was a present from my folks and as they’re no longer around it gives me pleasure to use the things they gave to me.

It’s a quick release vice from Axminster, mounted with some massive bolts I also had lying around. I had to do some work on the vice in order to get the bolts to fit as they were just a little too large, so out came the files and a bit later the bolts fitted.

You might wonder why the vice is flush with the top of the door and not with the top of the MDF – I’ll be putting wooden jaws on the vice to save my tools, so a gap is necessary.

A drawer

To add some mass to the bench I’m adding a drawer to one end. Not sure what I’ll put it in as yet but I have some MDF left over from the top so I might as well use that up…

The handle is also something I’ve had lying around, so thus far this bench has cost me one sheet of 18mm MDF.

The new bench progresses

This evening I did a load more work on the bench, such that it now resembles one fairly convincingly…

As the floor isn’t level I was in two minds as to whether to build a bench that would need levelling, or one with uneven legs so it was level. I eventually chose the latter option as my bench will be so heavy I won’t want to move it anyway.

I’m using a simple MDF top as I can then replace it when necessary – a bench is there to be used so screwing into it is very likely to happen, as is scoring it with blades etc. Having something that is replaceable seems like a good idea to me.

A new bench

I’ve been wanting a larger bench for some time and today I decided it was time to start building it. I had a load of wood already hanging around so didn’t need to buy much for this project – the top is a 7’ door that’s been here since I bought the place, so I decided to use it at last (and a load of other wood that was part of the garage door I took down).

This evening I built the first trestle and also removed all of the mouldings from this side of the door. It’s a bit rough and ready but will serve it’s purpose. Next I need to complete the other end and join the two ends together.

Hardware

I’ve recently come back from a trip to Cornwall as my great Auntie Gwen passed away – she was pretty great too!. Anyhow, I used the trip as an opportunity to pick up some hardware that’s been languishing there just waiting for me to pick it up. There were 101 boxes of assorted screws, nails, nuts, shims and all manner of other clobber…

Now I need to find space for them!

More wood

One of my friends is renovating a house and has a tree cut down in the back garden this week. And today I picked up some of the offcuts to stick in the loft ready for some woodworking…