Thursday, February 28, 2013

makin things again

 Found a lamp and having some inspiration from Cerno, I figured I'd redo this thing to something we would like! Forgot to take pics of it before destroyign it, but it was a gawdy white deco big ol lamp.


 Basically, I saved this part of the lamp, and made a simple cube with some pieces of scrap wood.

 Hole down the middle and slot out the back on the middle piece =


 This, open still.


 closed

 Then I had to make the new shade, because the shade below is from the old lamp: huge and awful

 I got some scrap material from Cerno, which is like posterboard, with one side that peels off and is sticky. Basically, I cut out the shape of the shade, and then peeled the sticky side off:

 
any oil or dirt on your hands immediately shows up on this stuff, which i learned by ruining some big shades at Cerno...

Mel had some linen, so we used that to stick to the sticky side of the poster board, slowly peeling away the sticky cover, and pressing the linen to the sticky posterboard.

All stuck in place! Next I just trimmed the linen to about half inch around the posterboard material, and then formed the cone of the lamp shade. Slowly, I hot-glued the linen up around the metal ring of the lamp shade. I am not overly good at doing this nicely, but most lamp shades actually look pretty bad I've noticed since a coworker pointed it out to me. Anyways, that was it and the product was this:

On the new nightstand

I also made Mel a tray, which she'd been wanting for a while! Again, from scrap wood, almost as always with me.
I didn't take pictures along the way, but here's the finished product. I made the four sides and the flat panel all seperate, and routed out channels for them all to fit together. I'd never done these kind of joints really, and they turned out nicely! Psyched. This thing can carry a load!


 Channels routed out show on the ends though, but oh well.

 I also made this branding iron using a bolt head. I used a dremel to carve away the material, and came up with this! It works, but it's not the best. But I'm pumped on it!


 When I went to brand the tray though, I didn't practice on anytime else, and I held it on there to long. It burned it too much. Rookie mistake. Oh well, learning.

 Umm, it was bottling day a couple weeks ago! Tried the first few this week and they are good!



 This is not really a fun day though, just lots of cleaning....


We went car camping a couple weeks ago also, up near Topanga Canyon. After some pancakes off the camp stove in the back of the car, we hiked around for a while, in search of a waterfall.
It was pretty cold though! Mel bundled up and charging away

Here she is, warming up :)

Maybe

Vest couple that day

Neato flowers

We came across this big old structure, but never found the waterfall, oh well

lost the trail

Nature is pretty cool


Vest couple, again

It was weird, at the top of the stairs here, it was easily 15 degrees warmer. it seriously hit you like you just opened an oven as you walked up the stairs. pretty awesome, ha


I took home a bunch of scrap wood from Cerno, and scrap wood from Cerno is walnut, which is freaking awesome! We have a weekly tradition going for Pizza Tuesdays right now, and the pizza stone is awesome, but it's hard to get the pizza onto the stone after we prep it, so I started making this pizza peel

After gluing it all up, I routed out an X in the underside to add in thinner strips for looks and for some support. The pizza peel is roughly a half inch thick, and sturdy.

Cut thin strips from the scraps I had to glue into the routed out X

And then sanded it all up, and oiled it with Butcher Block oil (basically mineral oil)

The X didn't come out too well. There were lots of gaps on the edges, which I filled, but it still looks cool. Never had done an inlay like that. Learning!



Saturday, January 26, 2013

Recent projects

Been working on some stuff, and some stuff's been changing around here, for the better... for the much better :)

 My friend ben made me this sweet sign for the garage. This is hanging on the inside of the door now, waiting to get covered in sawdust and foam dust. I'm super pumped on this thing!

 After picking up another windsurf board from a guy around the corner (for 10 bucks), and after Ben and Cameron both brought over foam blanks to shape, the garage is once again full of soon-to-be-surfboards

 I just wrapped up this night table. Used some wood I found somewhere, not sure where, but had enough of the same two pieces to make this thing. I made it kinda "farmhouse" style, with thick pieces, a rough look, and solid construction (i think). Here it is coming together, while enjoying some tea.I tried to do some new joinery (for me) here, as you can see the legs and bottom piece all join together more than just a "butt" joint. I think it came out nicely and more solid than my usual...

Getting clamped!


And boom!, skipped a few steps in pictures, but glued on the top with some biscuit joints, then stained it with a dark walnut stain, and then put a few coats of urethane finish on it. I had spar urethane leftover from other projects (handplanes) - this didn't need to be waterproof, but oh well, I didn't want to buy more finish, and have the urethane go dry over time anyways. So now, we can spill all the tea we want on this thing!




Top left view, showing the cracks and little warped-ness of the top and bottom. I like it.


Psyched on this little guy



In place


I made a hanging pot holder/shelf also, to give us a little more cabinet space. I found a couple pieces of this red oak (i think) a long time ago in an alley,  and have now had enough to do several kitchen shelf projects, which looks good to have the same wood all next to each other I think. (as seen to the left of this shelf)

 Long screws into studs to hold these pots up!

Finished this frame last week also. The print is a Joe Hodnicki print - check his stuff out at sharingthestoke.com - super awesome stuff! so hard not to buy more of his stuff, but this is the second one we have already. Got Mike a sweet "dawn patrol" one for his birthday too. 

 Other print in the background. 



Mel wanted another shelf for school stuff, and since I have school books also, I made this to help keep us somewhat organized. I kinda threw this thing together - the construction of it isn't that great to be honest, and the wood is just pine pieces all glued together from an old desk, but I still like the design of it and how it came out!

That's it for now! 











Indiana Winter

Long overdue, but here's just a few pics from Indiana during Christmas. Not too many, but a few


 I went through this chest of old woodworking tools my dad got not too long ago. Pretty awesome handmade tools -some from the early 1900s. pumped :)

 Custom tool box with mounts for specific tools - awesome

 On to opening Christmas gifts! Helia was just too excited and couldn't keep still!


 I love this girl :)

 The day after Christmas we got about 8 inches of snow! Super super awesome to get to see this stuff!

 Pretty

 The trees are getting so big at my dads!

 Gunnar and Jenny, chillin

 Backyard

More backyard