Wishing Well Planters

These flower planters look like wishing wells and stand close to four foot tall. To give you an idea of the other dimensions, the roof panels are twenty four inches long. I made these out of cottonwood and sealed them with Thompson's Waterseal. I plan on doing some more at a later date out of some better weather resistant wood, but this is all I had at the moment and could not afford buying cedar or cypress as I wanted.
The patterns come from the Berry Basket Collection. You can purchase them here. They are easy to follow patterns. You simply print them out, tape together parts that are larger than the paper using the easy to follow pattern lines and then go to work. I especially like patterns from this site because they are instantly downloadable. I hate ordering patterns and then waiting a week or more for them to arrive in the mail. I'm an inpatient man in that regard.
In the downloadable plans, you get the pattern for the tulip and the heart style side pieces. You also get a pattern to make a bucket to hang on the movable crank rod, but I opted to hang flower baskets there instead.
This is not a hard project to do. I completed both of these planters in three days. I cut all the parts on a scroll saw. I believe all of it could also be cut on a band saw though. I just prefer the scroll saw.

They Don't Make Them Like That Anymore

I love old tools. As a matter of fact, the older they are, the more they draw my interest. What I don't like it old wall hangers. These old tools, in my opinion, were made to be used. Usually, if I wind up with an old tool that cannot be made usable again, I can find someone who wants it. In order for me to keep it though, I have to be able to restore it to a usable condition.

So this is the state of disrepair of my latest find. This is an old Craftsman saw that, as far as I can find at this time through my limited research skills, was made maybe as far back as the forties. I do know that, based on the styling, it was one that was made for Craftsman by Walker Turner. It was a very interesting find for me and it seemed to be in a condition that could very well be made to run again.

One of the things I love about tools from this era is the fact that they're completely rebuildable. I was able to tear the saw all the way down to the bare frame. I cleaned it up and sprayed a fresh coat of paint on it.

The most interesting part of this particular saw to me was the gear box. The side cover leaked. So when I removed it, I found out it still had the, probably original, leather gasket on it. The inside of the gearbox, which I found almost impossible to get good photos of with my camera, works almost like a miniature cam shaft, with offset lobes that push the drive shaft up and down. On the side of the vertical shaft is a little cup that acts as an oil slinger. Each time it dips down into the fifty weight oil, it brings up a little bit of it and slings it all over everything, keeping things lubricated and running smoothly.
I tore the dust boot on top while trying to clean it and had to sew up a new one. The original was made out of some very thick denim. I didn't have anything that thick, but an old pair of jeans loaned some similar material to get it back on track again.

The only major part that was missing when I got the saw was a motor. I used the smallest motor I had around, which was a Craftsman half horse motor.

I painted the raised letters on the side white, just to make them stand out more. This saw has a twenty four inch throat. It will use blades from five to seven inches by adjusting the plunger assembly in the head unit. While playing around with it, I found it easily cuts wood three inches thick, something no modern scroll saw even claims to do. I think I'll be putting this old iron into service doing a lot of work. So far, it seems to be a real pleasure to use.

Unicorn Mailbox

This mailbox idea started out with just an idea to route a sign with a name and address on each side of a post. After doing so though, and standing back to take a look at my work, it simply didn't look good. I think I did a good job on the sign, but now the mailbox looked too plain.
So next I started bouncing around some ideas for making the mailbox more interesting. I thought about making the mailbox itself as part of a truck. I looked at the shape of the mailbox and thought it would make an interesting hood, with the front grill opening up as a mailbox.
The lady of the house has to be happy though, and she likes unicorns. So, my truck idea was put away for a later date and I started on this unicorn themed mailbox.
The external box and unicorn head is made of cottonwood. The mane is made of pine and mahogany. The eyes and nose are made of mahogany and Walnut. The base that the head sits on is oak. Then everything was finished with five coats of Hellsman Spar Urethane, which should protect it from the elements for a long time to come.

My original idea while getting started on this was to simply make the box out of wood with a wooden door. However, I thought about it and gave a call to my friendly local post office. They informed me that, although there are no rules about how to decorate my mailbox, the box itself did in fact have to be a postmaster approved box. So I made the wooden box that encases the regulation one.

Then I needed to do something about the flag.



So I built the box with a slot where the flag raises up and down. This way, it works as it's supposed to without interfering with anything else.

Do not fret though, I didn't forget about my truck idea for a mailbox. I found mailboxes cheap at WalMart. So I bought two. Soon, I hope to build a truck and a car themed mailbox and see if anyone would be interested in buying themed mailboxes.



I'm Baaaack!

Last night I sat, broken hearted, and typed up a post, which I have now happily deleted, about the end of this blog due to a non-supported operating system. I was not willing to let it go that easily though. I mean, almost everything I've done in my shop in the last few years is posted here.

So, it took some serious internet research, but I was able to get this old computer to update the way it was supposed to do. For some reason, my computer simply refused to update to newer software so that it would be compatible with this blog. I found out it was possible though to manually download everything and get it updated. So I am happily back to banging away at the keyboard for my blog. I hope to present you all with many projects in the future.

Actually, the next one is coming in a few minutes.

Here's Your Sign

I have wanted for some time now to make some wooden signs, starting with a sign for my shop.


I checked into the router template methods, like the Milescraft Sign Pro, but none of them offered letters that I felt were large enough for outside signs that are meant to be seen from the street.

I built a pantograph with the intention of making templates to create signs. The pantograph works great, but as I started trying to gather everything I needed to make the templates for them, I came to the realization that, holy crap, that’s a lot of templates if you want various letter size and styles.

So I sat down online doing some reading up on how other’s create these large signs successfully. For the most part, what I learned was that most people at least claimed to draw out their letters and route them freehand. I thought there was no way. Now, I at the time was thinking of my large Ridgid two horse router that I have felt numerous times what happens with that kind of size and power if you hit a knot or grain change while not using a guide or template. So I really couldn’t see how doing these sign freehand could work safely.

Then I decided to back up to square one and reconsider something that had not occurred to me. The large two horse router is meant to have that kind of torque and power. However, the palm router that I’d gotten for the pantograph was meant to be used in your hands smoothly. Maybe it would run smoothly enough to do these signs by hand. What did I have to lose?
 
If any of you have a palm router and have thought of making some signs. Draw out some letters and give it a try. It’s much easier than you may think it is.

Keepsake Boxes - Graduation Gifts

This is one of those simple projects that turned into an interesting journey.
I started out with the idea of making my daughter a very simple, plain keepsake box for a graduation gift. As usual though, nothing that starts out simple for me stays simple very long.
First I got the idea to make her best friend one just like hers, so it then turned into two boxes instead of one.
After that, it sort if evolved into making stacking boxes instead of just a plain box.
Then I thought of adding their school initials and graduation year as scrollwork on the side of the boxes. Somehow though, that changed into making those out of three quarter inch stock and making that the handles for the top boxes.
After that, I still wanted something to break up the look of the sides so I scrolled their initials and placed that on the sides. This seemed like a good idea because these two girls are planning on sharing a college dorm room in the fall. So having their initials on them will help them know which belongs to who without having to open them first to look at the contents.
The light colored wood is cottonwood and the dark wood is mahogany. It is finished with three layers of Minwax polyurethane.
I also wanted to show how the boxes break down.

You can remove the lids on the top two small boxes.

Next, you can remove the two small boxes to reveal the middle large box.

Then you can remove that box to reveal the bottom large box.

And this last photo shows how I cut the bottom of the middle box and the bottoms of the two top small boxes to sort of nestle into the boxes below them.

I swear, it baffles me sometimes how a simple project like the one I started out on here can turn into a week long project without even giving it much though. Thus is the nature of wood work I recon. It is a very interesting journey though on which one always learns something new.
I had a lot of enjoyment and sorrow while doing this project. While working on it I thought a lot about over the years of my daughter growing up and came to a realization. She has grown up way to fast for me. I would give anything in the world just to have my little princess back. If any of you have small children, cherish every day with them. They will be grown before you know it.

Oak Jewelry Cabinet

Money is tight. That should be no surprise as times are tough all over. Since I can't afford my wife something nice for the upcoming Mother's day, I decided to build her something nice.
This jewelry cabinet is sixteen inches wide and two foot tall. It is made of solid oak. It is not a light cabinet at all.
All six drawers, along with all the other finger joints you see on the cabinet were made using the box joint machine I posted a while back. As you can see, the machine works beautifully.
The cabinet has six drawers riding on wooden slides. The two sides swing out to reveal ten hooks on each side to hang things such as necklaces and bracelets on. It is finished with Minwax Gloss Polyurethane.

I really enjoyed building this. While I cannot claim this as my own design, I did not work from plans. I didn't even write down any perceived measurements before I began building it. I just sort of made it up as I went along. The design cues came from various ideas I'd seen here and there.

Pantograph

This is what is called a pantograph. It is a design of Matthius Wandell. You can see his website here.
So, what does a pantograph do? I'm glad you asked.
A pantograph such as this one works by allowing movement on three different axises. The end, the piece you see at the far right of the machine, is called the follower. With the follower, you follow a pattern or template. The router that is mounted in the middle of the machine follow the follower, left, right, up, down, or wherever you go with it. Because of the full range of motion, you can cut three dimensional cutouts from pretty much anything.

This is a good example to demonstrate what I'm trying my best to describe. I followed the crescent wrench you see in the photo with the follower. The router cut that three dimension item into a blank of wood at one half the size. As you can see, as long as you have or can make a template of anything twice the size you want it cut, you can cut anything you wish in wood.
I have some ideas for this in the future. It will be fun though experimenting with it though and testing the boundaries of just what I can do with it.

A Shop Made Scroll Saw

I have seen many designs for home made scroll saws that were foot powered by way of pedals or a treadle, like old sewing machines. I have always wanted to build my own scroll saw ever since I got into scrolling and seen one of these designs. Because of my ongoing back problems though, I was always worried about building one. If I built it, I wouldn't be able to resist using it, and possibly hurt myself again. So when I seen this design, it was an instant must do project for me. I just had to build it as soon as I got the chance.
A while back, a good friend of mine who knows I like woodworking magazines for when I'm down, saved a huge lot of them from a dumpster with me in mind. It was in one of those magazines that I found this scroll saw design. I like these magazines because when I'm down, even if I can't do much in the shop, I'll put on a cup of coffee and look through them for future project ideas.
This scroll saw design came from the August 1986 issue of WOOD magazine.

I made this scroll saw out of all pecan wood. I chose it over oak, which is recommended in the magazine article, because of it's strength and beauty. To me, when finished with a clear finish, pecan is one of the most beautiful woods around.

All the corner joints in the saw stand has open mortise joints, which are then pinned with three quarter inch hardwood dowels. This, in addition to other interlocking joints in the design, create an amazingly strong frame for the base of this saw.

It has a twenty five inch throat and an eighteen inch wide table for plenty of work area. The plans give clear instructions on how to make your own blade holding mechanism for pinned end blades. However, I had a Craftsman aftermarket set laying around the shop that will allow me to use pinned or plain blades. So I opted to use that set instead. I also made a few other minor changes to the design, but nothing major. The design, as it's printed in the magazine, is a great design if you didn't change a thing on it.

I think the photos pretty much tell the rest of the story. It is an interesting piece. I'm not exactly throwing out my other scroll saws. This will be more or less a conversation piece and a little eye candy for anyone coming into my shop. I hope you all enjoy seeing it as much as I enjoyed building it.

A Journey In Search Of Easier Joints

I love the look of dovetail joints. While I know how to hand cut them though, people just don't want to pay the price for my work to make it worth me going through that trouble. Besides that, most average people cannot tell the difference between a hand cut and a machine cut dovetail. Now don't get me wrong. If someone wants hand cut and is willing to pay for it, I enjoy doing them. For the average person though, the fact that a joint is hand cut does not matter to them as long as the overall quality of a piece of work is up to par. So I went into some research of an easier way to make dovetail joints.
Before I done anything else, I spent two days testing the quality that is possible with a certain dovetail jig I already had. I started to post a photo and name of that jig but decided against it. I instead posted a photo of some of the test pieces I made with the jig. With some time and patience, it can be of use to some people. As picky as I am though, this jig just did not consistently provide repeatable quality that I could ever be satisfied with.

What you see in this photo is the machine I built using plans I purchased from a man known in certain wood working circles as Stumpy Nubs. This machine provides me with everything I want in a dovetail jig. It does so much in fact, that it is not called a jig, but the Dovetail Machine. This thing provides consistent repeatability, tight joints, adjustability. It has it all. A comparable, factory made machine, is extremely expensive. I wound up with around fifty bucks in the building of the Stumpy Nubs Dovetail Machine.

So what makes it so great? Notice the fingers. They slide along the track they are mounted to so that you can adjust the tails and pins of your dovetails as wide or narrow as you'd like. Also, you can even do variable spaced joints to give it more of that hand cut look. This machine also provides a means for cutting sliding dovetails. It is everything I want in a device to machine cut dovetails and more. I am extremely happy with it.

If any of you want to build this yourself, you have to wait. There is more to this story. I will provide links to more info at the end of this post though. First, read on.

And the proof is in the joint. This photo shows the first test piece from the Dovetail Machine. This was quickly whipped up out of scrap and hastily setup of my router. It is tighter than most hand cut dovetails I have done. Even without any glue on it I wouldn't be worried about using it as is. When I use this joint in projects with glue, it will give plenty of strength in addition to the good looks of it.

So after building the Dovetail Machine, my attention quickly grew to another type of joint after looking at what else Stumpy Nubs had to offer, the box joint.

I already had a way to cut box joints. I made a jig for that a long time ago using miter gauges. While it was primitive, it worked. It had it's limitations though. It was set up for three quarter inch fingers. I'd always done just that size because it was such a pain to reset the jig to do anything else. It would have been easier just to do hand cut dovetails. Well, Stumpy offered plans for a machine that offered infinite adjustability and looked like it would work well. So after I had such a good time building the Dovetail Machine, I just really wanted the Box Joint Machine as well.

The Box Joint Machine design using a lead screw system that is controlled with cranks and a handle on the left side of the machine. You can cut any width fingers on your box joints simply by counting different amounts of turns on the crank handle. It is a pleasure to use and opens up a whole new world of possibilities for me for using box joints.

The lead screw controls a carriage that you clamp your stock to that is being cut. This means no more moving my stock for each cut, which was always a pain in the butt. Every time I moved it, I had to take the time to reassure everything was straight and square before making the next cut. With this machine, you clamp your material to the carriage. Then your carriage moves when you crank the handle, while the stock stay clamped in the same place. This, in addition to the fence that keeps everything square, means I can now cut box joints in a fraction of the time it used to take me.

The machine rides in both miter slots on my table saw instead of one. This helps assure everything stays square. I really don't know how much more I can brag on this machine. I guess the best way is to show you what it can do.

This is again just a test piece in scrap wood. These are quarter inch box joints. They provide amazingly strong joints. Now let me tell you, this is the first time I've ever put this small of box joints on three quarter inch thick wood. I've just never had a way to cut box joints accurately enough to make fingers that small. I am overjoyed with this machine and am sure it'll see plenty of use in my shop.

So I recommend the plans for these machines to anyone who likes them. They are worth more than the ten dollar price tag that Stumpy Nubs gets for them. Stumpy, like me, is not trying to make a huge profit on his designs. He just wants to keep his shop running. So if you think you'll like something like this, go watch some of his videos and order some plans from him.

You can watch videos of Stumpy Nubs at Blue Collar Woodworking.

You can go straight to the Dovetail Machine video here.

You can go straight to the Box Joint Machine video here.

You can see the available Stumpy Nubs woodworking plans and purchase them at the Stumpy Nubs Store.