Check, mate

 A good friend of mine mentioned that he was interested in getting a chessboard.  A few years ago we cut up an old celery pine at his property and I have had the wood seasoning in the shed.  A lot of it was punky (hence why it died I think) but there was still some good useable pale-coloured timber.

Also in the woodpile was the remains of the two-foot long purpleheart wharf beam offcut previously used for picture frames.  The two timbers would make a nice contrast for a chessboard.

Strips were jointed, thicknessed, ripped to size and then laminated together before being cut into strips on the tablesaw sled.

These were then laminated again to produce the chessboard pattern and this was then epoxied onto a plywood substrate to keep it stable.  A thin border of recycled jarrah was glued on to cover the plywood end grain.

With all of the various offcuts utilised, there was enough for two chessboards - one for my mate and one for us.  Sanded to 320 grit, they were then oiled with two coats of Danish Oil and some beeswax.

Your move.

Picture this

 With lockdown still on and the timber pile shrinking I have been moving on to some smaller projects.  I was given a two foot long wharf beam offcut a while ago.  It was full of nails and old bolt holes but beneath the surface was brightly coloured purpleheart, ideal for some picture frames.

The corners were splined with oak and a boarder was cut from leftover MDF, spray painted black.  Some nail holes were left in for character.

Also in the leftover pile was some 25mmx25mm oak, which I ebonised with a solution of white vinegar and steel wool.

All up, eight picture frames as gifts for family.

 

White on White

 Another couple of recent projects to pop out of the workshop made with offcuts and salvaged fittings, all finished with leftover white house paint.

An electric vehicle charger holder for my lovely wife's new Nissan Leaf (new to her anyway):

Balancing out all of that good karma, a mobile fuel cart for the chainsaw and mower fuels, oils etc:

Pentominoes

 A small project with some 3mm MDF offcuts and a bit of leftover spray paint.  Pentominoes are one of the polyominoes, popular as puzzles and for recreational maths.  Because there are 12 different shapes of 5 squares each they can fit in a 6x10 rectangle (or a 5x12 or a 4x15).  According to Wikipedia there are 2339 solutions to the 6x10 puzzle.

Back to Work, Mate

I inherited my Dad's old Black & Decker Workmate but the jaws had a significant bow in them, making clamping difficult.

I still had some leftover birch plywood from the previous projects so I laminated two pieces together for each jaw, making a nice solid improvement on the original.

Back together again and complete with dog holes and grooves it should be good for another forty years.

Another Lockdown in Paradise

Off to the workshop to see what we have: 

Two sheets of birch plywood

An old (very solid) chipboard fire door recovered from a friend's office alterations 

Some leftover decking

My Dad's old vice

How about a mobile sanding and sharpening bench with the vice attached:

Still some leftover plywood, so how about some mobile wood storage:

Now, what else do we have to make with...

The Cabinet of Doom

 I bought a partly wrecked oak china cabinet off TradeMe for $40 nearly a year ago.  Various previous repairs had only partly succeded in keeping the cabinet as useful piece of furniture.  It had a broken door frame, cracked glass, loose backboard, broken drawer sides, odd drawer pulls, jamming drawers and it was limping on three legs.  Perfect.  Could it be rescued?

Broken screws were removed using my vintage Dormer screw extractors.

New oak floating tenons were morticed into the broken door frame to give it strength.

Not much of the door frame left here:

The broken leg was cleaned up ready for a new mounting plate.

After repairs, it was fully stripped down to remove the remains of the old shellac.

After some frustrations with the leadlight glass doors, new period-correct handles were sourced and hidden rare earth magnets were glued in place to keep the doors closed. It was given two coats of Danish oil.

Was it 'worth' the effort?  Probably not.  Was it satisfying to save from the bonfire?  Yes!

Vintage Tesla charging station spotted in Cardrona

 

Recent Projects

 How quickly time flies, even in the midst of a never-ending pandemic.  The workshop has not been idle though.  A couple of herb boxes were knocked together from some budget redwood garden sleepers, which were ripped and planed smooth.

The corners were rounder over and they were finished with some leftover decking oil.

My wife bought a print from a New Zealand artist.  A picture frame was made from an old totara post.

My sister was looking for a serving tray.  Could I make one?  A length of interesting looking rimu came out of the wood store.

It was ripped down the middle, book matched into four boards and then fitted with a finger jointed frame / handles.

Continuing on the finger jointed theme, a spice box was made from some leftover American white oak.  It included a lightweight frame for a 3mm floating base. 

The base was stained and the box finished in Danish oil.

And finally three chairs were repaired and then re-upholstered by my lovely wife and sister in law.

That was it for the second half of 2020.  So far 2021 has been very busy with work (the paid variety) but another restoration project is coming to completion, plus some exciting developments in the workshop - a new shed, and a whole new building material: metal!