Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Month: May 2022

Getting dirty to create something for the future.

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Things are in motion, and projects are coming along nicely. The door is dry fitted and I can see a path to the finish line. It’s not going to come together exactly how I had envisioned it, but it’ll work out in the end. Not just for me, but for the kids and whole family. Got a bit dusty, dirty and grimy in the process, but we’re building towards a better future at this house. So I’ll take it.

Taking an easier day today after whacking my off hand with a hammer the other day. The wrist is a tad swollen, and it aches vaguely off and on. Just glad I didn’t damage the tenons I was pounding on to get the door dry fit together. That would have upset me, no, enraged me to no end if I had done so.

Which reminds me, I really need to get my mower tuned up for the season, and start cutting the grass. Oil change, filter clean, spark plug brushed off, and new gas put in, along with a blade sharpening. Lots to do for Saturday.

Busy working on the screen door today.

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I have (for me) what I would consider a reasonable dry fit for the outer frame of the screen door. It’ll need a wedge or two to fill gaps, but it holds up, and is somewhat square-ish. So I measured out the tenons and mortise for the center brace, marked them on blue tape, and used a forstner bit to hog out as much of the meat as I could. I used a multitool to cut straight lines through the center so I could hammer out some substantial chunks, and now I’m going at it with a mallet and chisel to clean back to my scores lines. Maybe I’ll try a dry fit of all five pieces today, or maybe not. Once I start to rush, this will collapse in on itself. So slow moving it is.

I have lots of trim I need to mill up to sandwich in the mesh, plus wedges for gaps to make. Then wood filler, sanding, rounding over edges. Glue up and then more sanding, then primer and paint. Plus hinges need to be cut out of one long side, and the door frame where it’ll all hang. Then I have to put the door stop inner frame up so it won’t swing inwards and wedge shut. Hooks, push plate, handles and all sorts of hardware has to be fitted to it too. I can see this going on for another week if I do it correctly. Which would be nice for a change.

Cross pieces with tenons.
Me, this is my proud face.
Measured and cut on blue painter’s tape. A visual guide.
Hog out meat with fat bits and a drill.
Nearly done one full mortise. Needs a touch more clean up.

So in all, a good day today. Sunny and bright weather. I need to eat breakfast soonish though. Then on to illustrations for my book. I have six backgrounds left to go, and then character drawings to populate those backgrounds.

Is it really Wed-NES-day all ready!?!

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Where has the time gone? Oh right, sick child, yep, that’ll do it. But a great nights sleep, nose cleared up, and no major coughing fits, and a negative cheek/tongue/throat/nose swabs says back to school with you! Plus it’s Star Wars day at school, they had new Grogu shirts that they really wanted to show off, so all for the best.

I’m hitting up my book illustrations, and doing some minor story editing, to clean up the story a bit. Next I’ll head out to the garage to work on my door. I do have to watch the time as I get jab #4 today. Right in the middle of the day. But I won’t let that stop me. Maybe. Possibly. I’ll try not to dwell on it, nor forget it entirely. Both are bad options. As for the illustrations I found some new brushes, that feel pretty good. There are 40 of them, so will definitely not use them all on this project. But good to know I have them lying around.

Still plucking away at dry fitting my door tenons. It’s slow going, but I think it will ultimately be rewarding? I hope. And not a total cock up / mess.

May the 4th be with you! And the 5th with you also.

Yet more non-Covid illness in the house.

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Just what we’ve all been waiting for after two years of being sequestered apart, the new mingling is bringing back all the other bugs, one right after the other through the schools. Not a real great place to be right now. At least it’s not Covid. Thankfully. Coughing fits and vomit aside.

Birthday party season is going full tilt, so a fair chunk of my weekends will be devoted to that until the end of June, and school ends. Yay! Back to buying gifts and standing around with parents making small talk for 2 hours at a time. My favourite. Not a fan of trying to guess what gift other people’s kids will like. I know our kids are laser focused on specific items, so no clue what their friends go ape for.

24/2 kid watch day two, so no work on either my book or the wood working projects again today. No biggie. I hope that by moving slowly and trying to be methodical about it will end with a better product for both items, door & illustrated book. But in either case I can fill in the cracks and gaps to make it better once I’m 99% done with the heavy lifting. “Hide those wood working crimes”, should be the name of my next non-fiction collection of short stories.

I had a quip for this exact thing, now where did I put it? Must be somewhere safe.

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Had intentions of working on the door and book today, but child two has taken to coughing with a runny nose – again. So all projects around the house, or in the hobby space are to be placed in hold. Great. Was just getting into both projects, and potentially starting a new sculpt, but the kids health and well being takes precedence. Perhaps it was too much outdoor strenuous activity this weekend. Masking up only does so much for the under fives with zero vaccinations for Covid. C’est la vie.

So cuddles, movies, reading and workbooks is the order of the day, along with stretches of bed rest. Propped up bed rest at that to hinder the back slide of phlegm to the lungs making them cough. Medicine to the rescue. And lots of bed rest, steam and fluids to drink.

Last night I had thought of something really funny to mention, which I did not write down, of course. And yet again, I’m left racking my brain to think of what it was. Perhaps it’ll come to me later on today when I think about other things for a while.

Oh, if anyone wants the collected short stories in pdf, you can email/comment and I’ll send you either Book One, Book Two or both. Until I get book two listed on Amazon Kindle Unlimited with the first one. Cheers!

What a busy day it was, yesterday.

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Took the kids for a two hour play at the Tree Top Trekking village, which they loved thoroughly, and I was able to participate and enjoy the obstacle course aswell, even masked up. Then we had a big group lunch where they played for another hour or so, all told it was four hours of fun from start to finish.

After a brief rest at home we finally got to meet our newest nephew outside, while masking up to protect the 7 day old newborn. Can’t be too careful! He’s a sleepy cutie pie, who didn’t make a sound. The kids were enthralled by him, though my youngest got bored of the baby lump action and went for an hour long trampoline jump-a-thon to stay busy in the warm and welcome sunshine.

I need to go do a smaller grocery shop in a few minutes, so I’ll cut this short. Much as I predicted, I have done nothing with my illustrated book this weekend. I did build an armature for my next sculpture. I finished off my other bust a day or two ago. Trying to bring the memory back to my hands. I think I’ll either do a ninja turtle in Super Sculpey or a Killer Croc bust. I have several clay ninja turtles, but nothing in ceramics, or polymer clay which you bake to harden. But I’ve never done a DC’s Killer Croc before. Might be fun to try something outside the usual for me.

I have made headway on my screen door build. I put the dado blades on my table saw for the first time, ever. And made the tenons for my three cross braces of the door. It’s a very tight press fit, so I’m shaving them down a touch so it won’t shatter or explode from the stress. I see a lot of wood filler, sanding, additional planing and painting in my future. I had hoped to stain the door, but my prowess with wood is low, so thick primer to cover my various failings it’ll be! Gotta love it. I’m glad I got over my fear of the dado blade set up. Cut like a hot knife through butter. Better than I’d have done with a hand saw or my tiny Skil bandsaw. Which is a glorified scroll saw at this point. Not good for anything more than .5″ thick hard woods. My doors are 2″ thick, and 4″ wide. So the Skil bandsaw isn’t really an option.

I will most likely need to mill up more thin strips to line the inside panels of the screen doors, so I can sandwich the stapled on mesh material. So I have a fair few steps left to go. Plus I still need to drill and chisel out the mortise for the center cross brace. But the tenons are shorter, so I don’t have as much to dig out, hopefully. I’m definitely going to need to pin the top and bottom braces in place with dowels to not have to rely solely on the press fit and glue holding. I have a handle, push plate, and hook latch to add after it’s all sanded & painted. Plus I’ll be cutting in the hinge plates to the side of the door, and the frame at the back out the house. Maybe a router jig would be better for that? Not too sure. I have weather stripping for the door to butt up against so it won’t swing inwards and get wedged in place. Good lord I hope this all works out. I’ve put a lot of time and effort into this door these last few years! Bah! At least at this point I’m spending time and not money on the project. Happy Lazy Sunday to you all.