Off-cuts

Cutting the hole for the sink in our new laminated macrocarpa bench top resulted in a nice piece of wood, surplus to requirements.  What better use for the off-cut than another cutting board (or three) - this time butcher's blocks.

After gluing up strips of the laminated wood they were flattened with a combination of a hand held belt sander and a block plane.

The block plane was originally developed to flatten butcher's blocks but is one of the most useful tools in the workshop.  Here is my one (image from the Veritas Tools website).

Celery Pine

Recently, a good friend of mine had a tree fall over at the top of his property.  It was not a big tree, but it had some relatively straight branch-free sections.  Known as tanakaha (Phyllocladus trichomanoides) it is also called celery top pine, or just celery pine for its distinctive leaf shape.  It was used by maori for canoe and house building and is considered strong and durable for a pine.

The tree had fallen over onto one of the cattle fences.  Fortunately it was caught up by its branches, but it needed to be cleared before it damaged the fence.  It seemed like a waste to turn it into firewood so we cut it into manageable pieces, which I took home and then I sealed the ends with some leftover paint.

Next, I made a small sled to run the logs through my 14" bandsaw.  The log here is screwed to the angled timber fence to keep it parallel with the saw blade and the whole assembly was then slid along against the factory aluminium fence.

Once I had two flat, square faces I then mounted my custom made MDF ripping fence and cut all the logs into 50mm planks.

Except... I didn't.  The home milling attempt was a slight disaster.  My small 14" bandsaw simply wasn't up to the task.  The band kept slipping on the tyres, the 3/4" 3tpi carbon steel blade couldn't clear the waste from the green wood and wandered like a lost schoolboy.  The bearing guides vibrated and shook so much that they literally fell apart mid-cut.

This was really not going to work for the rest of the logs.  Fortunately I found a guy called John Furniss up the road (www.woodyone.co.nz) in deepest Makarau who has a portable Woodmizer sawmill and was easily able to convert the logs into nice 50mm flitches.

  And this is where they will stay for the next two years to fully air dry.  Hopefully 2017 will see them turned into something other than firewood!

The Kitchen Build

This project has been on the back burner (so to speak) for the last few years.

After drawing up the layout and elevations, it was back to Cypress Sawmill for some more macrocarpa (Cupressus macrocarpa) - this time three 600mm wide pre-laminated boards for the benchtops.

To create the L-shape in the benchtop, rebates were made in the underside for standard benchtop joiners.  This was done with a Forstner bit, and cleaned up with a router.  The trenches for the bolt shaft were made with a hand saw and chisel and a few biscuits were added to aid alignment.

We chose to round-over the edges with a 1/2" radius on the top and a 1/4" on the bottom to give a traditional look.

I did the engineering on a new factory for a kitchen company a few years ago, and so we came to an arrangement that they would build the basic cabinets for me.  It also worked out well that they made such a solid product compared to the standard offerings.  Hibiscus Kitchens make their cabinets with a rigid aluminium frame, which means that the hinges and panels are firmly attached to the carcase, not screwed to chipboard or MDF as is more common.  We are really pleased with the cabinets and they should outlast us with any luck.

Once Mike and the Hibiscus Kitchen team had installed and cabinets I then fitted the doors and drawer hardware and did a dry fit on the benchtops, masking them ready for silicone sealing and screwing down.  The benchtops were oiled with two coats of Danish Oil, and will be occasionally scrubbed and re-oiled as necessary, with an understanding that we will still get some staining and discolouration over time - all of which will add a patina of age and use.

I then fitted the sink and and connected the water and waste pipework for the dishwasher etc and we now finally have a proper kitchen! (Only 3 1/2 years after we moved in).

There is still a lot of finishing to be done - kick plates, tiling, extractor ducting etc, but overall we are pleased with the way it has come together.

Adirondack Chairs - tick

New Year's resolution No. 4 was to build two Adirondack chairs (often called, incorrectly, Cape Cod chairs in NZ).  These chairs have been around since the turn of the 20th century and come in all shapes and colours.

So where to go for a good design?  The chairs are named after the Adirondac Mountains in upstate New York and are more carpentry than fine woodworking.  Possibly the most well known American carpenter is Norm Abram of the New Yankee Workshop fame - a legend in a plaid shirt.

He produced a version of the Adirondack chair on one of his shows and then subsequently America's Popular Woodworking magazine profiled it (and Norm) in one of their issues.  The article, with basic drawings can be downloaded free here.

To make this and any subsequent builds go as smoothly as possible I first made a full set of MDF patterns.

Next, the patterns were traced onto the timber using the most appealing grain and avoiding timber defects like splits and knots.

For this project I used macrocarpa (Cupressus macrocarpa) because... well, there is a sawmill down the road specialising in it.  But also because macrocarpa heartwood has natural durability and is easy to work.

And because when I was a boy my father made a boat from macrocarpa.  The distinctive smell of the wood still takes me back to the boatshed in our back yard, when as a 10 year old boy I watched this huge hull take shape.  I am still in awe at my dad's abilities to turn his hand to anything from fixing electronics to building an extension on the house.

The shapes were cut out with the bandsaw, sanded and rounded over with the router.

Next, a little assembly and dry fitting...

Followed by disassembly, gluing with a waterproof adhesive and reassembly, then a couple of coats of outdoor furniture oil.

And there we have it, ready for use.  A bit late for summer maybe, but no doubt ready for many summers ahead.

The Free Boat

Who could turn down a free boat?  And since we built a dam and created a small pond about a year ago we now have the perfect place to launch it.  Of course the boat was free for a reason.  This is no QE2.  It is a tiny six foot dingy.  Once several holes in the hull were repaired with fibreglass...

...the inside was painted with leftover house paint (to cover up some ugly spray paint tagging) and a new seat was made from a plywood off-cut, which was glued and screwed to the old one...

...and a central support was added to strengthen the broken seat using timber from an old barbecue stand...

....it was then ready for sea trials....

Just don't mention that I managed to tip out of it while showing off to my lovely wife.

New Year's Resolutions

I'm not sure where the last three months went but Happy New Year!

Resolutions for 2015:

1. Write more blog posts.
2. Finish the Entertainment Unit (covered here).
3. Build the kitchen.
4. Build two Adirondack chairs.
5. Restore a second wardrobe.
6. Get hand surgery for a 27 year old injury, which will make achieving 1-5 a challenge.

October to December were not completely given over to earning a living.  As a Not Christmas Present, I built a 'shoe tower' for Shirley to match the recently restored wardrobe No.1 (covered here).

It's made from plywood and stained to match the antique wardrobe.

And Shirley bought me a Not Christmas Present - a macadamia nut cracker (from Ohiwa Macadamias - a very good quality mechanism), which I mounted on a nice piece of Australian silky oak.  (It seemed only fitting as macadamias originally come from Australia and it has a particularly lovely grain).

So we will have to see how the year progresses....

Hotel, Abu Dhabi

Masdar City, Abu Dhabi

...but the TGV is faster

The Eurostar is fast....