Just for Fun...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

The Beginning...

So I've lived in the same two bedroom apartment for ten years now. The second bedroom is my workshop and has a closet that's been my catch-all for anything that I don't immediately know what to do with. Needless to say, it's gotten to be a pretty scary place! A couple of weeks ago, I finally set myself a goal: to take out and sort one box a day until I could see the walls of the closet again…
As is usual with such things, the longest journey begins with the first step, and once I began I found myself sorting 3-5 boxes a day and the job was finished in a week or so. I found trash and treasure, meaningful and meaningless things. And this[IMG alt="My Grandparent's "Big 10" Sign"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3865449913_daaff6f529_o.jpg[/IMG]
It came from my Grandparent's house but holds no real sentimental worth, no fond memories. It's a mass produced item, no real value. I hold the "Big 10" in my heart, and live by them daily, but don't care for a daily reminder on my wall…What do I do with such a thing?
Well, upon turning it around, I discovered why I hadn't tossed this old thing in the first place
Yes, it's "only" Pine, but it looks like it came from a venerable old tree! 5/8'" thick, about 12" wide. As I couldn't bring myself to throw away the Ten Commandments, and NEVER throw away any wood, Friday afternoon I decided to separate Church from Wood. I saved the Brass Plaque, which was of surprising quality, but now can be slid easily into an old book or something, and the Wood is now mine to have some fun with! Started out by giving it some rough sanding
The next step was to plug the holes left from the nails. Set the depth stop of the drill press in my usual fashion, by hanging my 3 lb. Estwing off of one of the handles of the press to hold it in the down position, and raising the table.
When I want to really fine tune, I raise or lower the drill bit in the chuck a bit.
Glued some dowel into the resulting holes and filed and sanded flush.
A decision had to be made at some point about what exactly I was planning on making here, so I asked myself "What does Mike make besides boxes?". The answer, of course, was "MORE BOXES!!"
At first I was thinking of squaring up the piece, but that's easier said than done, with the curves on this piece. Ahh, the curves…they intrigued me and since this is "just for fun" and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway, I thought "Why not leave them and see what happens?"
And so, not having any clue, I pressed forward and cut this piece in half
Upon measuring, I noticed that the crests of the curves were equidistant, 5 1/2" apart. Looks like this one's going to be square…
After cutting the pieces as near as I could to the center of the crests, and all 5 1/2" long, I brought them to the "Marking Board". Marked the depths of the cuts by using the pieces themselves
There's still the detail on the other side, and I can't extend finger joints into that region. Let's see…I'd like 3/8" fingers for this project, but the wood I have to work with isn't divisible by 3/8". But 4 1/2" is. I'll just tilt the ruler! Nobody's watching!
After that, I'm on familiar ground again. Drill some "maneuvering" holes
And off to the scroll saw
There's probably a bunch of people now who are saying "What a Nit-Wit!! Has he never heard of a box joint cutting jig?!" and they'd be right about the nitwit part! But I don't own a stacked dado head cutter and it only took 6-7 minutes per side, and this is JUST FOR FUN! It does take a few minutes to mate each joint, filing one side and then the other until they mesh snug, but not too snug
And so, to make a long story even longer, after 4 hrs or so total,I went from the unwanted sign to this
I've begun to call it the "Poor Man's Box".
In the next installment I hope to finish whatever it is I think I'm doing…

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

Of Tops and Bottoms

So when we last left the shop, we had four sides to this "Poor Man's Box", but no top or bottom
It's not much of a box without a top or bottom, ha ha ha! I guess I'll have to try to add some!
The whole reorganization thing is giving forth first fruits, in that I was easily able to lay my hands on some scrap Mahogany strips that I might be able to use…
Now I just need some slots or channels (whatever those things are called) to fit them into. It's Table Saw time…
Maybe it was all the cartoons and movies I saw as a kid, where the Hero (or Heroine) was tied to the log, heading towards the blade at the saw mill, or maybe it's the horror stories that I've read on these very pages, but I have a real aversion to pushing stock into a rotating blade. When possible, such as in this case, I prefer to stand astride the machine and use it more like a rotor table, drawing the piece by the blade, rather than standing in the line of fire and pushing the small piece over the blade…
In any event, I have the blade raised about a 1/4" or so and after one pass, I "kick" the fence over a little and take a second pass
After cutting the four sides in this fashion, I've checked with the strips and the slot is still a little too small, but that's fine. Everything is fine!
I'm still not certain if I just cut the slot for the bottom or the top, but I cut the "other" end next with a slightly different set-up but similar results.
Ordinarily, I cut these slots first on the "whole" board before any of the fingers are cut or the board is sized, but it wasn't possible to do wrap-around grain here, and first or last, this is all JUST IN FUN!
I then measure with my handy-dandy homemade calipers
If I've done everything right, which is extremely unlikely, the inside of the slot should be just as square as the outside of the box and I next make a template for marking the strips.
Mmmm, Cupcakes! Oops, sorry…
I use the template to mark the Top Panel (or is it the bottom?)
Then cut and fit the pieces, very much like Coopers attached bottoms to pails and barrels, tapering the ends and sort of "pillowing" them into place…
The Wood Gods that be must be smiling upon my work (though more likely they're laughing at me!), but astonishingly, it fits!
I'll repeat this process for the bottom (or top?)
I had kind of hoped to wrap this up, but only had a couple hours for fun yesterday and that's as far as I got. Phones ring, and life beckons, so I'll have to return to this another day…but it's all good, the fun gets to continue!

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

Of Tops and Bottoms

So when we last left the shop, we had four sides to this "Poor Man's Box", but no top or bottom
It's not much of a box without a top or bottom, ha ha ha! I guess I'll have to try to add some!
The whole reorganization thing is giving forth first fruits, in that I was easily able to lay my hands on some scrap Mahogany strips that I might be able to use…
Now I just need some slots or channels (whatever those things are called) to fit them into. It's Table Saw time…
Maybe it was all the cartoons and movies I saw as a kid, where the Hero (or Heroine) was tied to the log, heading towards the blade at the saw mill, or maybe it's the horror stories that I've read on these very pages, but I have a real aversion to pushing stock into a rotating blade. When possible, such as in this case, I prefer to stand astride the machine and use it more like a rotor table, drawing the piece by the blade, rather than standing in the line of fire and pushing the small piece over the blade…
In any event, I have the blade raised about a 1/4" or so and after one pass, I "kick" the fence over a little and take a second pass
After cutting the four sides in this fashion, I've checked with the strips and the slot is still a little too small, but that's fine. Everything is fine!
I'm still not certain if I just cut the slot for the bottom or the top, but I cut the "other" end next with a slightly different set-up but similar results.
Ordinarily, I cut these slots first on the "whole" board before any of the fingers are cut or the board is sized, but it wasn't possible to do wrap-around grain here, and first or last, this is all JUST IN FUN!
I then measure with my handy-dandy homemade calipers
If I've done everything right, which is extremely unlikely, the inside of the slot should be just as square as the outside of the box and I next make a template for marking the strips.
Mmmm, Cupcakes! Oops, sorry…
I use the template to mark the Top Panel (or is it the bottom?)
Then cut and fit the pieces, very much like Coopers attached bottoms to pails and barrels, tapering the ends and sort of "pillowing" them into place…
The Wood Gods that be must be smiling upon my work (though more likely they're laughing at me!), but astonishingly, it fits!
I'll repeat this process for the bottom (or top?)
I had kind of hoped to wrap this up, but only had a couple hours for fun yesterday and that's as far as I got. Phones ring, and life beckons, so I'll have to return to this another day…but it's all good, the fun gets to continue!

Click to expand...

littlecope said:

Of Tops and Bottoms

So when we last left the shop, we had four sides to this "Poor Man's Box", but no top or bottom
It's not much of a box without a top or bottom, ha ha ha! I guess I'll have to try to add some!
The whole reorganization thing is giving forth first fruits, in that I was easily able to lay my hands on some scrap Mahogany strips that I might be able to use…
Now I just need some slots or channels (whatever those things are called) to fit them into. It's Table Saw time…
Maybe it was all the cartoons and movies I saw as a kid, where the Hero (or Heroine) was tied to the log, heading towards the blade at the saw mill, or maybe it's the horror stories that I've read on these very pages, but I have a real aversion to pushing stock into a rotating blade. When possible, such as in this case, I prefer to stand astride the machine and use it more like a rotor table, drawing the piece by the blade, rather than standing in the line of fire and pushing the small piece over the blade…
In any event, I have the blade raised about a 1/4" or so and after one pass, I "kick" the fence over a little and take a second pass
After cutting the four sides in this fashion, I've checked with the strips and the slot is still a little too small, but that's fine. Everything is fine!
I'm still not certain if I just cut the slot for the bottom or the top, but I cut the "other" end next with a slightly different set-up but similar results.
Ordinarily, I cut these slots first on the "whole" board before any of the fingers are cut or the board is sized, but it wasn't possible to do wrap-around grain here, and first or last, this is all JUST IN FUN!
I then measure with my handy-dandy homemade calipers
If I've done everything right, which is extremely unlikely, the inside of the slot should be just as square as the outside of the box and I next make a template for marking the strips.
Mmmm, Cupcakes! Oops, sorry…
I use the template to mark the Top Panel (or is it the bottom?)
Then cut and fit the pieces, very much like Coopers attached bottoms to pails and barrels, tapering the ends and sort of "pillowing" them into place…
The Wood Gods that be must be smiling upon my work (though more likely they're laughing at me!), but astonishingly, it fits!
I'll repeat this process for the bottom (or top?)
I had kind of hoped to wrap this up, but only had a couple hours for fun yesterday and that's as far as I got. Phones ring, and life beckons, so I'll have to return to this another day…but it's all good, the fun gets to continue!

Click to expand...