Silly Grandpa

On Christmas morning I unwrapped a gift that had been made for me by my incredibly talented grand daughters.  I found an assortment of wood pieces that had been hand painted by the little artists tied up with some string.  Well, I had no idea what the collection was but what with the string and all I figured I was supposed to make some kind of hanging decoration or something like that.  I left the pieces alone for a bit and then later in the day, wanting to play with my Christmas 'toy' I figured I'd make a collage out of the pieces.  I took to arranging them this way and that and decided upon a configuration I liked and glued the pieces together.  Before too long I got a call from the kids asking how I liked the puzzle.  What puzzle??  Then I cracked up because I had never thought of it being a puzzle and now that it was glued together I'd never see it assembled.  Silly Grandpa.  Things happen... got to go with the flow.  So, here is my puzzle-collage!

The now-known-to-be puzzle pieces, glued and clamped into what I thought would be a good looking arrangement.  Great to have something to play with on Christmas morning!

 

After attaching a little hanger to the back and regluing a couple pieces that had come off as I hammered on the hanger my hand-made puzzle-collage hanging on the wall.  Nice :)

 

 

And now my breakfast area looks to much the better, what with a glaring empty space now being occupied with the new art piece.  Thanks Hannah and Riley... it's wonderful !!  Of course I will always be wondering if I could have figured out the puzzle and what it would have looked like :)

 

 

Little Engine

So the cold weather really came to Georgia this week and that made it time to turn to 'inside' projects that have been waiting for just such a time that I would not be working or playing outside.  Last Christmas my daughter-in-law gave me a little building project knowing that I like to make things with my hands and such.  Bless her heart... her intentions were so good.  Of course now I know that she probably got this sucker from some old people torture web site!  I'm figuring it's going to take a few days to be able to focus my eyes normally.  Regardless, the project is completed and it will go along side my other little projects although the others aren't quite so little.

I think this is the first project I've every worked on where EVERY tool I used was bigger than the final assembly was going to be.  I stopped to take this on day 2 I think it was because it seemed I just kept going to bet more tools including the dowel to use to bend pieces around.  That's the work in progress sitting on the pale yellow instruction sheet.  Easy to follow instructions.  Of course not a word of direction... just pictures.

 

Just after I finished... 4th day on the project... I'm thinking about 14 hours.

 

 

 

All done.  Just a shot to show that this little sucker is indeed little.  No way to show the complexity of the project and I won't relate any conversations I had with myself along the way when dealing with the incredibly small and fragile/thin pieces.  Regardless... thank you, Samantha, for giving me a cold weather project to keep busy with :)

 

 

 

Van Awning

As some may be aware I'm taking off for a week-long trip in Florida and having discovered the very nice Florida state park system I'm going to be camping for 6 of the 7 nights.  No problem, I'm all set with my nice new spring-hung cot, little fold-up table, and my experience gained last year as to what I need to bring (little) versus what I can leave behind (a lot).  One thing I would have liked to have had was an awning for the van to provide a bit of shelter if it rains.  I looked around on the web and there are many available.  I didn't like any of them for one reason or another and I was a bit taken aback by the price of the suckers.  So, being a person with a bit of free time and figuring I can rig up something that is easily attachable to/removable from the van, easy to set up and take down, and costs as close to $0.00 as I can make it.  Well, I made one that I'm rather pleased with and got it done for $6.84 in new materials, using a brand new tarp I bought for something some time ago and found on the shelf in the garage a couple of weeks ago.  All in all... I'm rather pleased :)

OK... that's the handsome frame mounted onto the pretty useless cargo rack.  A couple of u-bolts and a bit of chiseling (of the wood) and I've got myself a frame that goes on in less than 5 minutes and is removable just as easily.  Whether or not it's going to fly off at highway speeds is yet to be found out but my confidence is high that all will stay in place.  But what about protecting the paint on the top of the van, you might ask.  Well...

 

... this model is equipped with nice heavy duty real rubber bumpers.  These pretty suckers protect the van and due to there aggressive tread pattern there should be no slipping.  Thanks for letting me take the blown bicycle tire, David.  I knew I'd use it for something some day, just not this soon :)

 

It took less than 45 seconds to hang the tarp from the mounts on the top of the frame.  This was my second attempt, actually.  It's pretty windy today and the tarp was blowing off the mounts.  I needed something easy to put on but that would stay in place to hold the tarp until I got the poles up.  So...

 

... I went back to the bicycle tire and crafted myself some rubber hold downs.  These soon to be patented slit rubber all purpose hold downs will be available soon.  Again, thanks for the tire, David :)

 

Poles up and secured and all is ready to go.  Total time to erect... less than 3 minutes by myself.  Note the color coordination of the frame and poles.  Nothing less than first class.

 

Same shot, this time with the side door open.  Plenty of coverage and plenty of room to stand upright within 4 feet of the door or so... a bit of bending over approaching the poles.  Now I'm ready to try this sucker out and I am definitely looking forward to it :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entry Table

Since moving into this house I have wanted something to place between the 2 pillars in the foyer.  I knew what I wanted... a longish, narrow table of some kind... but hadn't come across anything that really seemed to suit the purpose.  So, in the spirit of continued learning and experimentation, I decided that I should make one.  More lessons learned and damn if I didn't make a mistake but I'm rather happy with it.

As always I started with the most choice raw materials.  In this case an 8 foot 1x12 and an 8 foot 2x6.  Have I mentioned how very much I enjoy having a van??  Easily sliding this stuff in the back and shutting the door is made so much more enjoyable as I watch the guy next to me in his mighty pickup truck balancing a similar load sticking off the back of the bed as he ties it down so it doesn't fall off the truck.  I always offer to help but never has it been accepted.  I think it has something to do with the image of the  'construction worker' type being seen as needing help from the geek in the crocs driving a mini-van.

 

I'm becoming more adept at rigging jigs to make working with the wood a bit easier.  Working with the longer shelf boards was not the big challenge I thought it was going to be.  This setup let me slide the boards in, adjust them, flip them over as necessary, and had my 'stops' all set. 

 

And the finished table.  Sized perfectly!  Now I just need to stop at a few flea markets and/or junk stores to get some stuff to put on it :)

 

While working on this I came up with an idea for my next project but that will have to wait a couple of weeks as I have to tend to the yard a bit and then I'm scheduled for a trip to see the kids!!

 

 

 

 

End Tables

My sawdust-breathing adventures continue and I'm having quite the delightful time of it.  I continue to experiment and learn and I do believe I'm reducing the number of dumb things I do when trying out design/construction attempts.  Something I really did want, not that I needed, was a couple of small end tables to accompany the love seat, so I made a couple.  This is my most ambitious 'shaping' project thus far and I did screw up a number of attempts prior to getting it right but I believe I did.  Again, I had a lot of fun doing it which is, I'm thinking, the number one objective :)

As they sit along side the loveseat.

 

Sitting on the hearth just for the light.

Little Stand

I didn't need this thing but wanted to try out some design things as well as doing a bit of practice.  I guess it's a small bookcase or 'thing' holder or a combination thereof.  As it always seems to be when I'm putzing around smelling sawdust, I had a good time doing it anyway.  Made a couple of mistakes but learned a couple of things for next time as well.  So... time well spent :)

I sized it to fit along this very short wall in my office bedroom which is where it's probably going to remain lest I give it away.

 

Putting some stuff on it makes me kind of like it.  Maybe I won't be so quick to give it away!

 

Feel Good Chair

Little Riley is little and one of the things that David and Samantha, and I when I'm visiting, was trying to find a chair that would let her sit at the table to eat in a more comfortable fashion.  I thought we had it solved when I brought over a very old metal kitchen chair but it was too high and wouldn't let her fit under the table.  This resulted in the little lady sitting back away from the table which made it very hard for her.  Well, I decided to just build one for her from scratch.  I've never made one before and I knew it had to be pretty sturdy to let her climb up onto it and such.  David gave me the measurements I needed during a phone call and then it was off to the races.  I really like doing this stuff but this project really had me feeling good.  It still makes me feel good!

Wanting to use only the best, premium raw materials I selected these 2x12's having first removed the boards I had previously nailed onto them for a project up in CT.  So, Riley's chair began life as a work table I had made for myself sometime while living in Florida about the time David was born.  Same table later served as a laundry table in Brookfield and then as scaffolding planks for some stairway painting both in CT and here in GA.  As said, only the best for my grand daughter.

 

I got all the big boards cut down to working size, sanded a bit, and then the pieces cut for the chair.  This was my first time working with compound miter cuts which went pretty well.  Hardest part for me was then working to keep all these multiple angle pieces 'square' to the piece as a whole.  I made a couple of easy jigs and things moved along smoothly from there. 

 

All the joints cut in the pieces and each lettered/numbered so I would know where they all went when it came time to assemble them.  Trying to keep the angles running the correct way gave me fits but I only screwed up one of them necessitating making a new piece.  I'd call that a major success.  The legs are on the left... kind of look like Jenga pieces!

 

The legs assembled and the top boards joined together to make a solid seat.  I took this photo while thinking how I was going to join the top to the legs.  Hadn't thought that far ahead! 

 

All assembled with a coat of primer on it.

  

Ta da!!  All done and ready to be delivered.

 

Finally got myself back over to visit the kids and deliver the chair to Riley.  As said I felt very happy the whole time I was making it and Riley's reaction was just some loving icing on the happy cake.  Best part for me, and her parents, is that it was sized properly!  Now she can crawl up and join the rest of the family for dinner just like the big girl she is.  Grandpa Bob is very, very happy to have helped her out.

 

Love that little kid :)  The matching panties were a coincidence!

 

Benches



Last year or the year before I made some benches to hold potted flowers and such and they worked very well for the purpose.  Nothing fancy, just useful.

Here's one doing it's job last summer. 

 

Well things change and the butterfly bushes are in the ground and I found the roses, still in pots, do better in a different place in the yard.  I didn't need the benches anymore and I offered them to Samantha and David who will likely use them for similar purposes in their new yard.  Much to my dismay the benches got attention from Samantha's father, which is high praise indeed coming from a craftsman, and also from a good friend of theirs.  I came home with an 'order' for 2 benches to be delivered my next time visiting NC.  As I've been noting my projects here I figured I'll put the 'bench project' up.

 

They're not fancy and I just use construction 2x4's to make them.  First step, sand off the mill marks and such.  They're not fancy but I don't want them looking tacky!

 

I split the 2x4's down the middle.  I don't use 2x2's because it's hard to find a straight one and I also need one flat edge.  As you know, the edges (corners) of a 2x4 or 2x2 are rounded a bit.  This isn't Garry's incredible word-working barn but it worked pretty well.  I purposely made the height of the new workbench the same height as the saw table just to hold long/large lumber pieces like this.  So, it goes in this end...

 

... and it comes out this end.  Notice the brilliant use of an old grill stand as a run-out table.  I can turn it sideways when cutting large sheets of plywood.  Doesn't look like much but it's sturdy, it works, and it was already on wheels :)  This set up really worked well and I never had to hold up a piece of wood... just slid it through the saw.

 

All the lumber ripped down and ready to be finished and, as if by magic...

 

... it's all done.  I used a different finish than I did last time and although this is quite pretty, it took 2 coats and was a bit hard to work with.  We'll see if I use it again.  It's a lot of finishing... 512 feet of surface to be covered... twice.  By far this step requires the most time to both get the finish on and then drying time between and after coats.  This ate up parts of 3 days.  Did I mention it's incredibly boring as well ???

 

All the pieces cut to size and ready to assemble.  You can probably tell it's enough for 4 benches.  That long piece is leftover... about $1.87 worth :)  I bought 8 2x4's and only needed 7 1/2.  I'm rather sure I'll come up with some use for it, practical or not.

 

Voila!!  Two the completed benches.  One is 2" shorter than the other because that's what the requestor asked for so that's what she's getting.

 

That's it... the bench project!  I really, really like doing this stuff and making these 4 benches had me working on them for 5 days, some days longer than others, and it was 5 great days of pleasure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Little Camping/Tent Table

One thing I found myself wanting when I went overnighting in the van last fall was a little table to set my phone, clock, and little lantern on next to the cot.  I made do with a plastic container but this is a new year and I deserve a little folding table for myself.  I looked around on the internet off and on for the last few months and the closest I could come was a folding table from REI but they wanted $38 for the thing, it wasn't the 'perfect' dimensions, and when folded it was 4 1/2 inches thick.  Give me a break!  So I set about to make myself one and I kind of like it :)

Started like this.  Two pieces of wood I had laying around just waiting to be turned into my new table.

 

And this is how it ended up!

 

Instead of folding up to a bulky 4 1/2 inches, my little table folds down to 1 3/4 inches, slick as a whistle.

 

And of course it's exactly the right dimensions, including the height, to set up along side my new cot.  Happiness is having something exactly like you wanted it to be :)

 

Building Stuff

There was a time, starting about 40 years ago, when I really had myself a nice woodworking shop.  I very much enjoyed making all kinds of things.  Through the years I sold off some of the big tools, some were stolen, and some I have no idea where they went to.  Lately I've gotten back into it again and it just makes me feel good to be doing it.  As I began to make things I really missed having a good workbench.  I haven't had one for a very long time.  Through the years I have had various work 'places' but not a good bench.  So, I've spent the last few days making myself one.  As I did so I tried to remember all the things I always forgot to include in previous benches and well as tried to remember to leave off the crap I never needed.  With my vision in my mind I set off and I'm rather happy with the results.

I'm rather fortunate to have a 3-car garage which means I wasn't hurting for work space as I got going.  I'd gotten a bench saw and it had a very clever setup for the wheels.  I duplicated it for the workbench although it's a bet tough to see in this shot.

 

The sucker had to be strong and this one would make a good house foundation.

 

Used the new table saw to rip the plywood.  Worked quite well.

 

Got a few coats of spar urethane on the top and although you can't see them I came up with the neatest set of swiveling handles ever invented.  Well, at least invented by me.  The thing is rock solid when in place and then very easy to move when I want to.

 

Had to have drawers and I made some as simply as I could with a couple of plastic totes.  This was one of the things I've learned along the way.  You need somewhere to put the tools you're using at the moment but need them off the work top.  These will do the trick.

 

Tried to get a shot of the handles but this is the best I can do because if you're not using them they swing down along the table leg.  I wanted to see how easy I could move it fully loaded with the miter saw stored underneath so I just walked it around the garage, smiling all the while I was doing it.  I crack myself up :)  OK... now I gotta figure out something to build!

 

 

 

 

 

Backyard Flower Progress

I'm delighted to say that the flowers and flowering bushes in the backyard are doing all right.  Better than all right, I guess, in that things actually seem to be growing.  I have plenty of color in front what with the rose bushes, lilies, purple things (Iris??) and other stuff but the backyard was a bit too green.  As I was having my morning coffee on the deck I was really most happily surprised yesterday morning to see a real blossom on one of the little hibiscus bushes and then this morning, another one.  Oh... rapture!  I planted 4 different varieties so I'm hoping for a bit of color for the summer.

This little thing started opening this morning.  Kind of a pretty color.

 

This one opened yesterday and was much fuller this morning.  I really had no idea what a hibiscus flower looked like... kind of nice.  This one kind of cracks me up because the flower is about a quarter the size of the entire plant right now.

 

 

The two remaining daisies are doing well.  No flowers yet but lots of buds.  The hostas are fine but the other flowers I had planted here seem to have died off completely.

 

I had a lot of trouble with the hydrangea last year.  Some kind of fungus or something got to it and very early this spring I just cut the thing down to almost ground level.  It seems to be doing nicely now and like the daisies, no flowers yet but lots of blooms and good healthy-looking leaves this time.

 

The hostas running along the back of the house are doing very well as they always seem to do.  They're actually getting a bit too big again and I will likely split them again next spring.

 

This clematis is the pleasant surprise of the year.  I've been trying to grow this thing for 2 years and it never got beyond the sickly-looking stage and I don't think it ever blossomed.  One day back in February or March I opened the garage door to see that it had been blown off the bench it was on during a storm and was laying on it's side, most of the dirt having fallen out and the plastic planter pretty much split totally open... still is.  Not wanting to mess with it at the time I just picked it up and darn near threw it to this location.  Lo and behold... the sucker is growing like never before and has been flowering profusely.  Go figure.