Saturday, September 6, 2014

Getting Some Freebies and Working on some UFO's

My wife is a quilter and in the quilting world they use the term UFO for "unfinished objects" or Projects. Well as things go I have several of those and I am trying my best to catch up.since my last post I did manage to do a local art show, sell a table, and meet some very nice folks.There was a couple that I was talking to and the gentleman ask me if I wanted some free wood that was cut 1/4" thick. He seen that I was doing marquetry and thought I could use it. It is not like I don't have enough odds and ends around but I said I would take it. He was a professional woodworker that works with slabs and has a lot of off cuts of some pretty nice wood. What he didn't mention was the thicker 3/4"to 1" mostly high figured and burls that he had . Below is what he gave me and I admit it was more than I expected.
Box of 1/4" thick wood pieces

  I normally work on one project at a time and then move on but since I have been working with the chevalet I end up with several marquetry projects also when I did the tea table I cut parts for two more. All this adds up to doing several of the same projects over again and getting the ambition up for that is like pulling teeth. I must admit though when I am working on them it is still enjoyable, I just want to start something totally new.

The first thing I began was refining the legs on the tea table. The finished table was fine but it just didn't look as light as the original .


I took the leg down to 5/8" from 13/16 " on the bottom and that may not seem like a lot but the difference is very noticeable I wanted one to be as close to the original as possible so I made a scratch stock and cut some flutes along the leg close to what were on the original. I'm not sure if I will add marquetry to the other one or not.











 I also started on the other three tiger pictures. This seems to be going a little better than the first one because I am assembling all three at the seem time instead of just one at a time. It is still a time consuming project but I will end up with three pictures in just a little more time than I spent doing one.





 I started with the head because its the hardest part and has most of the tiny pieces.





Another project that was started but never finished was the tenon jig. I had all the wood cut and even had a start on laying out the dovetails. 
After all the layout was done on the joints I cut the the dovetails on the table saw and chopped the pins by hand with chisels.



I made a mistake and didn't take into account the 1/2" I cut away on the inside of the tail sides and the pins stick out by that amount on both sides UGH! The only bad thing is I will lose about an inch of space on the inside of the jig for real large tenon's but I don't really work on that scale much so I don't think it will be much of an issue.I had to cut a recess on the inside of the front piece to accept the steal vise and give me a 1/2" more room.
I just glued it up as is and will cut the excess off when it is done.



The last little project was not something that was started but only took a hour or so to complete. It started when visiting my in-laws in upstate N.Y. They had a friend who lost her elderly parents recently and her father had a wood shop in the basement. She was selling the house and wanted it cleaned out . She told my father in law and me to take whatever we wanted and she didn't want anything for it. Although he had some power equipment I could have taken I didn't want to take something I didn't need just because it was free. What I did end up with was a few nice saws, one of which was a very nice backsaw, and some drill bits for a brace, and a oak shop stool.


 With all these new (old) saws I needed somewhere to store them, so along with a few I already owned I made a rack and mounted it to the wall next to my bench.
I already ordered the files to sharpen them so once sharpened I will be pretty set up for hand saws. I would like to get a 5tpi rip saw but that can wait as I do have a table saw that I don't see me getting rid of to go powerless in the near future. I will eventually have to make something for all the drill bits to keep them from being knocked around and getting dull, maybe a case for the braces and bits together.

1 comment:

  1. Gain your access to 16,000 woodworking designs.

    Teds Woodworking has more than 16,000 woodworking plans with STEP BY STEP instructions, drawings and drafts to make all of the projects easy and simple.

    ReplyDelete

Comments, as always, are welcome!