Woodworking

I gave myself 3 days to build this since our Doc wants to get the baby born earlier than we thought. We needed a changing/diaper station/holder of misc baby things table for the nursery and being short on cash and time I bought some “Espresso” shelves from the bargin bin of HD and used some cut offs from my workbench build to get this done with. It aint the finest thing ever built but She loves it and that’s all that matters.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd I think it’s done. It still needs a coat of wax but other than that it is ready for use once the 3-2-1 dries. I tried the “Espresso” crap and what a load of poo that was. I told her that I would rather masterbate with a cheese grater than cover this oak with that! And she agreed lol so this is the result. It’s not the best changing table in the world but it’s solid and and should last quite a while I hope. Thanks for following along!

thanks to LJ (lots of advice on elecrical wiring do’s and dont’s) community…and research just about everything about what to do for electrical add ons, the city inspector came out and was amazed at how “correctly done” and “in code” my rough-in was for someone not being an electrician by trade. he said most small hobby type garage remodels for electrical are disasters (double lugs, bonding grounding bar, wrong wire size, no GFCI in first plug in the series, etc). he was highly pleased with the separation of the wires thru the sub-panel knockouts and how organized the wires were. he liked it so much, the even signed off on the final even though this was just to be the rough-in inspection. gratned, the easy part comes next (hooking up the outlets, putting bulbs in the lights, and hooking up the 10/4 to main panel 60amp fuse).

I just got the first draft for Secret Doors: The challenge. I’m underwhelmed. I hired an artist to create something for me and she said she could get it down in a couple months tops. I hired her at the beginning of December. I’ve written two and a quarter novels since then and she’s gotten me one cover that looks like she spent about forty minutes playing around in DAZ. It is really frustrating. Cover design is hard and my vision for this one was rather specific, but then I didn’t think she could pull it off, so we changed to something much simpler. I told her to come up with something that would be right in her wheelhouse. I hoped that flexibility would yield magic. It hasn’t. I even feel like the male character is a bit stiff. The worst part is I paid her upfront. She’s poor, which I can understand, because I’m poor, too. There won’t be any getting my money back, as I’m sure it is long gone, but I doubt there will be a cover, either. It has become apparent that I’ll be needing to hire someone else. I’m open to suggestions. It needs to be an artist who can create from scratch, not just use a 3d modeling program and a few freebie models. I’d prefer someone who is willing to read the book before they start. My current artist said she would, and told me she has, but she doesn’t know anything about the story. I’m quite sure she lied. Also, I don’t want combined photos. It should be an illustration. If anyone has a cover artist suggestion, please let me know. I’m also sort of stuck on Touched, too.

A co-worker found a Rocking Horse at a yard sale. She said the woman she bought it from told her it was her son’s (He’s 37). As you can see the rails were of plywood and the tail was split horizontally, she asked me if I would replace the rails and refinish the Horse. The photos show Before and After.

I designed and built a local theatre production of Ted Tally’s “Terra Nova” It’s about the R.F. Scott expedition to the South Pole. The construction is way weird.

Today I received this unexpected package in the mail from LJ Peteg in New Zealand. Inside was a miniature vase and a miniature cone shaped hollow vessel. The vase is the gift which is a twin to one that Pete made for a challenge on another site. Thank you very much, Pete. It is just gorgeous. I really like the detail you put around the rim. These pieces were made from NZ native Matai wood which is now a protected species. Along with the pieces was a 2×2x8 block of Matai from which the two were made.The challenge is to create a piece from the Matai to either support or suspend the hollow vessel. I’m not good at little things like that but I accept the challenge!! Thanks again, Mate Cheers…...Jim

All poplar. Black stained poplar for the spindles. My wife’s father brought the marble top back from Europe after WWII but it’s cast iron stand was cutting up our carpets and gouging the wood floors. So I built a table around it. It’s pegged mortise and tennon construction. Satin Polly finish.

I’m making progress on my Not So Big Workbench from Fine Woodworking. I spent the better part of today wrestling with a big ole slab of walnut. Resawing it was no a pleasant endeavour, but I got it done. In the picture, I just have the drawer fronts stacked up on each other so that I don’t mess up the order. In doing so though, it looks like they are not going to be square to the drawer boxes. Then it occurred to me that I did sand down the bottom supporting stretcher, because one corner of one of the drawer boxes was catching. That could cause one of the drawer boxes to be sitting off kilter, but both boxes are off… So where do I go from here? Do I just adjust the space in between the drawer fronts to accommodate the angle?The plans call for installing the pulls next, but I don’t want those to look ‘off’ either. Any suggestion are appreciated. Once this sucker is done, I know it will get used and abused, but I’m learning a lot by building it and want to get it right. Thanks

Rock Maple, Black walnut and the joint keys were made of some left over tiger striped maple. It’s finished with olive oil.