Busy Busy

I've been pretty busy this week. The band saw just won't adjust right and it's a puzzler. All the parts work properly but it may need new tires or a new blade, not sure but we'll figure it out eventually. I finished the build of the coffee table. It just needs sanded and finished. I may wait on the finish to see if there are any takers and then they can customize the finish to their liking.

I purchased a block planer and I've been planing the sides of some pallet boards for another project. It's a bit of work, especially on the arms but it will make for a better finished look to have them fit together properly.

I got a last minute request from my cousin this week as well. He needed a little church steeple built to use at his church. Two hours Thursday and a few hours Friday morning and it was done. So on Halloween I was building a church. Not really what I expected lol. I'm hopefully gonna have some pics of it in use later on. The lighting is pretty bad in the garage but it was painted white and the doors black. In the back of the middle picture you can see my nephew who actually hangs out in the shop with me more than anyone else.

Halloween

It's almost Halloween and I wish I could show you the best Halloween build we ever did but there are no pictures of it and it was disassembled pretty much after that Halloween. We had a party one year and made a little haunted house on our back patio out of large sheets of black plastic that my dad got from his work. We lit it with a strobe light and had a fog machine as well. On the inside were your typical put your hand in the bowl type stuff but I wanted a coffin. My dad helped me put together a coffin with a false bottom. I would lay inside and I could lift the bottom up and the top open at the same time and sit up and scare people but when they lifted the lid the coffin was empty and they couldn't tell the bottom lifted up at all. I thought it was awesome but we didn't need a coffin laying around or have the space to store it afterwards, so we just used the boards for various other projects.  

I also remember another Halloween when my grandpa had given us a microphone and speaker system. I'm not sure if it was all assembled when we got it, but they were about the size of drive in theater speakers. My dad got the idea to stick a speaker in a dummy we made and then we could hide inside the house where we could see the kids through our kitchen window. We would wait until they said thank you or something then say you're welcome through the microphone. This was some pretty impressive stuff back then. We didn't really have this kind of stuff around unless you wanted to spend a bunch of money on it. It scared a ton of kids that year and we got a lot of fun out of it.

This year I only have a few decorations that my son wanted to put out and we carved a pumpkin but I'm sure as he gets older we'll come up with some equally fun Halloween builds. In the mean time my dad has been fixing my band saw. I was hoping I could just cut out the broken piece and replace it with the new piece but the new piece wasn't made for my exact saw and even though it fits, it still needed some fabrication. I bought a piece for a Powermatic band saw because that brand is pretty pricey and rightfully so. As I was hoping this meant the new piece I got was much stronger than the old one and with the new fabrication by my dad, it's not likely to break again. If I really misused it I could probably break it but it would probably be the remaining old part that breaks and not this new part. Because this has been such a wordy post I'll throw in a picture of the new piece. On the right you can see where the old piece broke and the bits of it left over after we cut it off of the rest of the part we needed to reuse.

Progress

It's been a few days and I've been working on a few different projects. My coffee table that will be for sale is nearly to the finish stage. I've been putting it off because it just isn't as fun to work on as other projects but I got the supplies I needed so I have to be a grown up and work on the projects for profit as well *sigh*. I will be buying a block plane though because the bin that goes under the coffee table is a bit too tall and planing it down will be the easiest way to fix that. The second picture shows the bit of overlap between the table and the bin that rolls underneath.

I'm waiting on a part for the "new" band saw. Here it is in current state. I've been cleaning some of the rust off as well while I wait.

I finished a small box that will hold some of the little ninja turtles my son is getting for Christmas. I'll paint it in a ninja turtle theme. He fell in love with the small "half shell hero" turtles which is great for me because it means everything I make for them can be smaller. I hope to build a miniature sewer lair for them based on a huge ninja turtle toy that was made for the full size action figures. He's been asking for it for the last two Christmases. Because it was about $200 last year and $100 this year and looks like a huge piece of junk, I figured this solution would last longer and not take up precious space in his room.

Band saws

I've been pretty busy the last couple of days. I said goodbye to the band saw I had for a short time. There was just no fixing it this time. Luckily my wonderful cousin had a band saw to give me. I've been looking it over and getting it ready to use. The bottom wheel's tire is a little worn but I don't think it will give me any trouble. The tensioning and alignment of the top wheel is giving me trouble so I think I'll have to bring in the big guns (aka my dad). 

I got the cabinets and table from my parents house put in. It was originally my grandma's sewing/craft table built for her by my grandpa. It's working out great. I love having the closed storage to keep things somewhat dust free. It's currently housing small cutting tools on one side and sanding tools on the other. I also love having the miter saw up off the floor. It's a huge improvement and I think I'll add some cutting extensions that I can put away when not in use. The vacuum system is still in the works but I'm making progress.

I also installed a paper towel holder to the right of the scroll saw and finishing shelves. It's come in very handy in this location. I put a cable above the shop as well and zip tied the extension cord to some shower curtain hooks to run along the cable. It didn't work as well as I'd hope and there is still a bunch of extension cord left on the floor so I'll either double it up or come up with another solution because I don't know if I even care for the cord this way.

I whipped out a little project for my younger sister to hold her blow dryer, straightener, and curling iron. I added another hole for future use or to hold a hair brush. She couldn't wait for me to paint it so it's pretty rough because I was in a hurry to cut the holes but it's sanded smooth and should be no problem. We tested it and it works great as well so I installed it for her yesterday.

I did realize upon finishing it that I had used up my rare exotic ostrich wood. Oh well it was in the scrap pile with everything else so it will be used.

Pallet Clock

I got my grandma's old craft table that my grandfather built for her into my shop now but I'm still working on organizing before I take any pictures. I'm also working on the two stage vacuum which is rather boring right now so I thought I'd just post another past project. 

When my depression and anxiety were really bad I didn't like being alone with my son because I thought I might panic and not be able to take care of him. I usually got through by going to my older sister's house across the street. My church however offered to have people come over who could sit with me. I deeply appreciated the offer, but because I didn't know them all that well it just made me anxious to think of them coming over. So even though I didn't take them up on it, it still stuck with me that there were people willing to do that for me who barely knew me. When I finally started forcing myself to work on projects, it helped to do little ones that I could finish in a day. I came across a clock design that said "and 5,6,7,8" in other words a dancers clock. I knew right away I wanted to make it for one of those people who offered to come over because she was a dancer. I had a lot of pallet wood and so I ordered a little clock kit and waited for it to come in.  I decided on a square shape because it was the shape of the pallet wood and I thought it was a little more interesting than the typical circle clock. I recessed some of the back of the clock to insert the clock mechanism as there isn't a lot of distance between the battery part of the clock kit and the nut that goes on the front to hold it together. Then I did some snooping on Pinterest to see if I could find her favorite color and found she had quite a few pins with mint colored items. So roughly painted a coat of white and used some number stickers then freehanded the word "and". I painted a mint color over that and peeled off the numbers before it dried. Then I sanded lightly to distress the paint, added the clock kit and a hanger and it was done. I liked the way it turned out and so did she.

a shot of the back workings

Entertainment Center

I've been in a bit of a funk the last couple days. It happens every so often so I'm just waiting till it passes but it means I don't really have a drive to work on anything. So today I thought I'd just showcase a project on which the the first phase is finished. This is my entertainment center. I've had the design in my head since we bought our house and I fell in love with the one they had in the model. It's made as cost effective as I could and still needs a lot of work. The plan is to put two bookcases on either side of the tv and a top all the way across the two. The tv is slightly higher now and I wish it could be even more so but for comfortable viewing it just didn't seem like a good idea.

I can't seem to find a pic of the desk part but it's to the right of the entertainment center. Here's a few more of some of the construction and close ups. I also plan on ripping the painted plywood tops off and adding stained wood instead. In person the tops just don't look right and I think matching the mantel will really look better.

Pallet Project

I haven't worked in the shop much in the last couple days but the other day my little sister asked if we could do a project out of pallet wood. I happened to have just enough left, but I'm always getting more. So I said sure as long as she learned to do it. So our older sister watched the kids for us and off we went. It was really fun showing someone how to use the different saws safely and also a little technique. She was a natural and did a great job. We mostly used a jigsaw to cut the pieces and a scroll saw for some of the smaller curves. Then we tacked all the pieces together with a nail gun. So here's our half day project. I think it really turned out great. In the second picture you can see the other part of the french cleat we made to hang it. A french cleat is basically a board cut down the middle at a 45 degree angle. One piece is attached to the wall and another to the back of the item you want to hang then they just fit together. This method of hanging something is really simple and holds a lot of weight.