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Project Photos (page 4)
More Projects!
Click on any picture for a larger image
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The "Golden" one...
Here's one of the golden ones up close and personal.
I've made one of these before and it's what spawned the interest.
Check out " "Project Photos 1"
if you want to see mine in action :)
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rel·i·quar·y; A receptacle, such as a coffer or shrine, for keeping or
displaying sacred objects.
I'm not sure if this is the correct term or or not, but it seems to fit.
A close friend of mine had an old friend, who'd been with him through his
"tough" years, and never let him down. At 16, Opie was having a tough time
enjoying the days, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Doug knew it was time,
and the little golden cocker spaniel went to sleep one last time.
Doug asked if I would make a box in which Opie's ashes could be appropriately
kept. I was honored, and set about the task of deriving a fitting design.
It took over a month of thinking, and sketching, and waiting, but what you see
finally came to me. It's made of birdseye maple, with a bookmatched center
strip of figured walnut. The sides taper in just a tad, and the top's as smooth
as it looks. The finish is simple linseed oil, tung oil and wax, and it's
designed to polish with years of handling. It was a high gloss finish, but
after looking at it, it was the wrong finish, so it's now a comfortable satin.
This project was truly enjoyable to make, even though the purpose for it
wasn't. Thanks for letting me do this Doug, and Opie?... sleep easy little guy..... |
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Weapons and exotic woods....
The single weapon is called a "dang bong". It is only used in the martial art
Sun Hang Do and is used
as a focus while going through internal energy drills. The wood used for this
is Osage orange, and it was the first lathe project by it's owner (a friend
from the great white north). With the wood more than a little "springy", this
simple taper presented numerous "manufacturing" challenges!
The paired weapons are called "tonfa" (no plural) and are used in many
different martial arts. Again, the main wood used for these is Osage orange,
and the handles are cocobolo. The handles are fastened to the body of the
weapons by means of a rectangular through-tenon that was hand cut. Both tenons
were then wedged with more Osage to assure a solid mechanical fit. Polyurethane
glue was used after all glue surfaces first received a good bath of acetone to
remove the natural oils. Finish on all pieces is three coats of hand rubbed
oil.
Thanks for the day Andy, I enjoyed it.
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The Quisenberry Bench
Friends of ours were building a new home in Port Orchard WA. As they were kind
enough to purchase one of my (many) magazine racks, I wanted to give them "a
little something" to go along with it. This is the result. Their home design
incorporated the bench idea near the front entrance and I was asked if I would
do the honors. I went to site with wood strips, a block plane, glue and a
staple gun and proceeded to scribe a template that matched the walls and base.
Once home with it, Matt and I got to work converting a bunch of rough red oak
to what you see now. In typical Rob fashion I timed it "to the minute" and
finally finished it a 3:00 AM the morning it was to be installed (there's more
work that you think in this thing!!). I arrived on site at 09:00 the next day
to find an audience. Lovely. Holding my breath I placed the seat in its alcove
and wouldn't you know, it fit like it was meant to (imagine that !?). We
managed to match the color of the floor stain pretty closely and a year after
it's install, it's expanded and contracted nicely (no cracks!), still looks
like new and is full of winter boots.
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Mail call !!!!
On one of the Internet forums I participate on, a fellow advertised "post
office box doors" retrieved from a post office in Panama. I bought ten, and
had no idea what I was going to do with them. They sat. I then had the brilliant
idea to build mailboxes for them….I know I know, but sometimes the "obvious"
isn't (to me). I spent several evenings on AutoCAD and eventually came up with
a well-proportioned box that resembled a mailbox 12" long, 6" wide and 10" tall.
I ordered a mess of poplar and began building. The lower box portion is built,
well…. like a box. The bottom is ½" thick and floats in ¼" dadoes cut into the
sides. The sides, back and front are joined with box joints with rabbets at the
top to receive the barrel portion. The barrels were made as cylinders with 12
staves, spun on a lathe between home-made tapered plywood centers to round them
and then cut in half along their length. These halves were then further
machined to match the awaiting rabbets on the box. They were put together and
the final fairing was done by hand with a #4 hand plane (fluffy shavings
everywhere!!!).
I primed them and painted them bright colors prior to installing the doors.
They were given as Christmas presents along with notes explaining the heritage
of the doors and additional notes were slipped to the parents containing the
combinations to the locks.
To date, all boxes are in use and while the paint
has cracked because of the "contained" wood movement, I think they're going to
be around for a good long time.
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My first (and almost last) commission
A fellow spent a little time on the web site (this one) and contacted me
asking if I'd make him a storage/display case for his pocket watch collection.
I said no. He insisted and after going around, I agreed. I took his ideas and
converted them into a design that I documented in AutoCAD. For a while he and
I shared emails where he looked at the design, modified it and sent it back for
revision. We soon settled on the piece that was to be built and away I went.
The case is made from both red and white oaks. The top is a piece of ¼"
tempered glass and the hinges fitted to allow the lid to stop at 95 degrees
open. The base is fully lined with velvet and when the lid is closed it's
virtually airtight. I finished it, shipped it and waited.
The response? "It's not exactly what I had in mind". I was heartbroken. I did
everything I knew how to ensure we had a common vision, but I guess I missed
the mark. He also commented on the price…. Which was about 1/3 of what I should
have charged had I actually been billing for time and materials but he felt
was still too high. Alas…a lesson learned and another piece of scar tissue to
add to the pile.
Since this project I've done a few "requests", but I'm sure
leery now. I'm still not sure where I went wrong, but then again, I'm not so
sure I did.
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"U-build"
We were to have houseguests for the period between Christmas and New Years
and the kids wanted to build something in the shop. As we also had to squeeze i
n shopping and tobogganing, I thought it best to do a little prep work.
The design was finalized and the wood donated to the cause (yup…donated. Thanks
Sumner Woodworkers Store!). I carefully cut and fit all the "kits" including
drilling pilot holes for the nails (yes…nails. Yes…I cringed as well but hey…
kids dig hammers right?!). After laying the kits out on the table and
assembling four complete tool kits for them, I turned out the lights and went
in for leftover turkey.
The next day the kids came out…. and it was mayhem.
There was nails and glue and pieces everywhere BUT…. in about an hour, all kids
had their own tote box and each of them built it by themselves. After picking
their colors (those out there who are observant…yes, the paint was left over
from the mailboxes) we let them loose with the spray cans (woohoo!!!!)
OK…that wasn't one of my better ideas and while the kids were getting scrubbed
down by their collective mothers, I continued to add paint. A day later and
we turned the kids loose with MORE paint (see, I DO have an influence!) and
instructed them to decorate their totes with their names and anything else
they wanted.
As with the mailboxes, the totes are in use every day and yes…. I've been
guilty of borrowing one of them to pack my woodworking tools out to a site.
Nope…. I don't explain, I just smile as the people on site work hard at not
letting me see them read all the decorations…
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