General DIY – Page 3 – Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

Busy working on the screen door today.

May 5, 2022May 5, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

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.

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.

What a busy day it was, yesterday.

May 1, 2022May 1, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

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.

Looks as though the plan is working.

April 28, 2022April 28, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Every single day, for an undetermined amount of time I put some work into my childrens book, and thus far it seems to be paying off. I have the whole layout done. The type is set in place, the cover & Title design is done, and I have started to produce artwork for the internal pages.

This is way more work than just writing stuff. I knew it would be, but sweet cheese. I still have a lot to do. The bonus is, that I am making headway after more than a year of putting it off. Much like my short story series I don’t believe this will bring me any sort of fame or fortune. I just wanted to do it, so I am. In my own way. No need to be hood at it, just trying things out, striking items off of the bucket list. It’s actually fairly rewarding in an internalized, intrinsic way. Good enough for me.

My thinking for the books interior pages is this, I will build out all of the colorful backgrounds first, as I’m enjoying the painting process in Photoshop right now. Though I wish my tablet was still supported, but it crashes everything when I plug it in, so mouse painting it is for now. Then I’ll have to settle on the design for my two lead characters, and some peripheral materials. But that’s a decision for future me to wrangle with, not present time me.

Slowly filling in the background of the illustrations. Some I like & will keep, while others are a starting point to be improved upon.

Still working out every single day. I used one skip it day, when my back was really jammed up, so I’ll take that 24 hours of no weights, or body weight exercises as a small win. As I came right back too it, instead of three months from now. I might even ride my bike today. Or I’ll shape up the hedge rows in the yard. Or continue to line the curbs. Cutting away all of the over hanging mess along the far side of the property.

Trying to stay busy, and focused on getting things done around here while I can. More outdoor birthday parties coming up, so saving things for the weekend weather gets harder to do, when I loose prime sunny working hours. No matter. All good here. Stay strong, we’re all ready at Thursday! Yay!

One fine day… Saturday.

April 23, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Another week in the can, with a few brand spanking new physical wood projects to show for it. Fantastic! I love when things come together. Now if I could just focus that drive into my children’s book, I’d be all set to go. I’m trying to have fun with drawing again, and I have a lot to do, so it could take some time. I’m resisting going to the computer first, because I always wanted to illustrate a book by hand, and what better thing to do that with, than my own? Right?. So I will keep trying. It’s not like I have a publisher or editor waiting for my work, it being a hobby and all, so I should try to keep it light. But on the other hand it means something to me, so I want to put a lot of effort into it. Tough balancing act.

I managed to get a fair chunk further on my old fisherman bust sculpture, which is great news. Nothing boosts morale like some solid wins under the belt. Been a tad out of practice with sculpting lately as well. Have to build up my finger sensitivity and 3d spacial awareness. Takes a different kind of thinking to build out primary shapes and build a life like form. Hard to describe it, except you know very easily when it’s wrong. Lots of adding, subtracting, and pushing clay around to get the volume and shapes correct. Playing around with it in my palm until I’m happy with it. Same goes for drawings too. Could be a bit of a wait until I get it all where I want it to be. Should be all the better for it.

I originally wanted to edge the drive way and front lawn along the curb, but it is to rain for ten hours today, so that’ll be a tomorrow thing. Though we have a children’s birthday party to attend (masked, obviously). Which will eat up my morning. But if the suns out after lunch I can get some minor lawn care done. Perhaps tackle the lawn mower maintenance too. Who knows!

Things I’ve built recently. A 4ft long bench, a smaller 2ft Cedar toy box, an Ash cutting board plank, a 3ft Pine toy box, and a Walnut tray with floating inset plywood panel. It was a productive week in the shop. None of it is heirloom quality mind you. No fancy joinery. Just butt joints, miters and glue and Pin/Brad nails. Quick and easy. Plus various grits of sandpaper. I also busted out the palm router to round over edges, and my plunge router to add details to the large Pine toy box that now lives behind a couch under a windowsill.

Ugly bench made from scrap pressure treated wood.

So that was my week. With any luck in the next few weeks we will see the weather start to get warmer, and then the kids and I will start to walk to and from school every day. It really helps to tone down the hyperactivity when they have to walk everywhere. We do have to be prepared to leave 15 minutes earlier than normal, but if we don’t need boots, snowpants, scarves, hats, gloves, neck rings and toques, maybe we can manage it? Maybe?!?

Returning to my Children’s Book.

April 20, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Now that I most likely have all of Book Two completed, also known as 41 Chapters of The Ghost of the Dirty Starling, I may actually bother to rewrite my childrens story, and begin to illustrate it myself. Of course I might end up writing an epilogue to my interconnected space serial, which opens it up for more exploration, but we’ll see about that. I seem to need a break from it for now. That happened last time as well. I am astounded by authors who are able to create fresh new worlds and pump out glorious novel after glorious novel, year after year. My hat is off to you lot. That hurts my brain to think about. My childrens book is simple and short and features only two characters. I’ll need to come up with an appropriate look for them. One was based on our former dog, now he’s been dead for nearly a full calendar year. I hope that doesn’t make me weepy thinking about him. Hard to say.

The other major question is; do I bust out the pencils and ink, or draw it in illustrator? I could draw it up by hand, scan it and colour it in Photoshop. That would work pretty well for me. I think the simpler I keep it the more likely I am to follow through with it. Hell I wrote 50,000 extra words of a second novella rather than tackle it from December through April, so that might tell you how I feel about starting drawing/inking again.

I have a bust in the works in my office in Chavant soft. I hate the soft Clay’s. So sticky. Plus it deforms too easily as I handle the piece while I work it. Nothing like working hours on a nose or ear, to mash it the next day because you grabbed it with warm hands and forgot to watch out. I tend to use Hard wax/oil Clay’s to avoid just that scenario. Or I use Sculpey Firm and bake as I go, to avoid it too.

Today I build myself an Ash cutting board. I wanted to test out my 45 degree cutting jig, and see how the saw stacked up against 8/4 barn dried Ash. It burns, is what it does. My planer doesn’t care much for hard woods either. My new electric hand planer from Bosch was amazing though, so kudos to them on a find product. I also practiced my trim routing of round over edges. Cut in some 45 degree hand holds, and a through & through finger hole, about 2 inches in diameter. Then used my propane torch to burn the top surface and bring out the grain. Looks interesting. Sanded to 220 grit, and finished with a butcher block prep oil. Not great, but not awful. Works as a cutting surface.

About 24 inches long, 1.75 inches thick, and nearly 11 inches wide. Had a huge crack down one corner, which I cut off, as I don’t have epoxy to fill in the rather large gap. I chose to cut that corner off instead. It’s pretty heavy. I have it resting on a cookie drying rack as the oil penetrates the wood. Nice quick project.

123 – easy as do ra me, simple as ABC…

April 16, 2022April 16, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

What a funny looking number. Looks fake to me. Or oddly staged, as though someone were trying to find a random number. But here we are on day 123 of writing every single day. Yesterday I sort of completed my story arc, and now I’m trying to decide if I need to add an epilogue to fill it out a bit, or just leave it be. I could easily fill book three with the whole thing in greater detail, but I’m not sure at this point if I want to. Feels a bit rushed, but that’s the thing, building up to nothing is how life tends to feel. Blink, breath or loose focus for an instant and it’s all over and done with. Like studying your whole life for an event, having a sneezing fit that obscures the brief pinnacle moment and you’re left wanting at the end. Tragic, I suppose. Inevitable? Not sure. But that’s how I write. The fiction in my writing is that nobody gets off scott free, they all die in the end. Not so true here, is it. Awful, horrible people shrouded by money, privilege and power can do as they please and languish in luxury until their natural deaths. Fuck that, I say. Treat them as you would any, and every throw away character. Boring, work a day deaths for all involved, hero or not. A stubbed toe that gets infected, and they die of blood poisoning even though they were set to ascend the power structure or live forever after one more minor detail was completed. Nope, not on my story arc, fuck face. You die, no pomp, no circumstance, no banners or lying in state for you. Left to rot and decay in a random unlisted room someplace. Maybe the janitors turned off the environmental controls after cleaning, and didn’t realize you had a panic room back there, but were so cheap you used Company environmental facilities instead of paying for your own separate supply, and it’s constant maintenance. Ha. Eat shit.

I’m thinking that as the weather gets better, I want to focus more attention outside at the house. Windows, tree pruning, the lawn, the gutter blockage, driveway, vehicles. I’d like to start the screen door or coffee table build soon. I’m thinking about sculpting more again too. Playing the guitar and/or piano is somewhere I’d like to focus my attention as well. Same with teaching the kids about baseball, soccer and bicycling. We got out yesterday morning and played some ball hockey which was a lot of fun. So much to do, and try to focus on. Easy to get paralyzed by it all and wind up doing nothing at all. Except write. I’m pretty good of late about doing some of that every day.

Oh-oh, Spiderman No Way Home arrived this week and I got to watch that with my wife one evening for a date night. I ended up having to work for forty minutes in the middle and missed a chunk, but I liked what I saw the first time around. Watched the middle portion the next day, and liked it even more! Was pleasantly surprised by it all. Made me tear up in a few spots too. Not that that is particularly difficult as I get older. I’m sad that some major plot points were spoiled for me on Twitter, but I still enjoyed the whole movie anyway.

Hope you enjoyed all (41) forty one parts of book two, The Ghost of the Dirty Starling, as much as I did writing them. It started out heading one way, and moved around a bit, and was ultimately a fun little novella to write. Maybe now that it’s off my shoulders I will write some one off’s about my dad life experiences. Or not.

A Cedar Toy Box: Just because I can.

April 15, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

While I am waiting on parts to a report I decided to build my kids a cedar toy box, lined with burgundy felt, to store their new horde of LOL Dolls, and OMG Queen Surprise fashion dolls and their myriad accessories. I once again used only materials I had on hand, which meant I could built a 2ft long, 10 inch high box that was 7 inches wide along the sides. The base is made from half inch plywood, and I used spray adhesive to cover the top/bottom of the precision cut plywood base to stop marring our floors, and to cushion the blow from dropped toys into the box itself. I had thought about using box joints, or lap joints, or even miters. But in the end, to save time (as I’m waiting on parts to a project) I did butt joints, glue and Brad nails to lock it all in place. I sanded only to 100 grit, to removed the graying outer surface on the cedar boards, and to round off all the edges and corners. It’s functional, and currently resides under a window, behind the couch.

2ft W x 10″H x 7″ D. Lined with 2mm burgundy felt to cushion dropped toys, and save my old floors.

I need to take Wednesdays bench build down to the orchard at the farm, but my uncle in law has Covid, and I don’t want to bother them while they recuperate.

Holiday Friday today, so need to find things for the kids to do to not drive us crazy. We are also on baby watch for my SIL’s second child. Due date was yesterday, and she’s gone over. Now we wait for the good news, and potentially in a few days, see the new baby from afar! Weee!

Today’s Task: Build a rustic bench for the orchard.

April 13, 2022April 13, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Starting off with pressure treated wood, as it will sit out in the open for the foreseeable future, directly on grass, in mixed sunshine and shade. Doesn’t need to be a beautiful work of art, but should be sturdy enough for two adults or four squirmy kids at once.

I’m thinking a 36 to 48″ wide top, that’s at least 11 inches deep, and 2 inches thick. Four struts of about a foot in length/height, also 2 inches thick. And then braces cut at a forty five degree angle to support legs and top. Counter sunk holes and 3 or 4″ wood screws to pull it all together. Also means I can replace parts as they saturate or rot out over time.

Do I split the top bench to help water pour off, or leave it as one big plank? Decisions, decisions. I’m not going to lie, I think it’ll be ugly, but functional. To dress it up, I could round over all edges with the router. I could paint it? But it is pressure treated, so maybe no paint. Do I use mortise and tenon joinery or skip that to get it done sooner rather than later. We’ll see how busy the say gets before I decide.

**Due to work requirements I went for 3 inch wood screws and 45 degree braces only, no mortise or tenon joinery. I used pressure treated that I had on hand, but some of it had a twist, some had cups, and some were just ugly. So no beauty pageants, but it is sturdy as all get out, and should last a few seasons left out in the elements 24/7 – 365. And that’s all that matters. Plus I got it done in an hour or so, which is even better.

Ugly as sin bench, viewed from upside down.

Yesterday I even managed to finish my 45 Degree cross cut sled for my HP Trunk building operation. Nice to have a parallel surface to work off of, and a place to keep your hands safely away from the blade. Plus the sled means I can reliable make repeatable cuts without having to measure each time I make a cut. Or end up have to shave every piece down until I have too little left for what I was aiming for.

I have a couple of minor leather projects I’d like to do, mainly upgrading my shop apron, and adding some more functionality to it. Make getting it on and off easier, and keeping the shoulders where they need to be. Displacing the weight of the tools more evenly, and adding some quick connectors for tying it on me. If I had the money lying around I’d get one of those split legged Savage Industry aprons, but I don’t have $100 USD burning a hole in my pocket at the moment. Plus whatever the shipping is from San Fransisco to Ontario, Canada.

Our children’s school currently has

March 31, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

No EA’s in the building, and at least four teachers off sick. Oh! Who ever could have foreseen this happening? Uh, everyone!?! So we have that going for us. My youngest is off with a lingering cold (not covid – tested negative twice over a period of six days). Who would have thought that no longer wearing a mask in a building full of unvaxed four year old was a good idea. Not too mention the poor vaccine uptake in the five to twelve year olds. Ugh. So what’s next, a school closure because they don’t have the physical adult bodies to keep it running. Get all those consultants and board folks in here to keep it running. They were so keen on their political aspirations, and ambitions to find a cushy job later on, that they signed off almost immediately on dropping masks in schools, with very little push back, if any, at all. But they still work remotely because their offices are too dangerous to go to work in person. Must be nice to set different parameters for yourself, and leave the kids your jobs are centered around, out to dry. Very frustrating. If it was dropped for some, it has to be dropped for all. You made those decisions, now go wallow in your folly.

In other news, I have personally worked on two Ukraine Support gigs in the month of March. Which is cool. Raising money for displaced families via multiple micro breweries. Very different artwork for both ventures. I hope that they both manage to make a difference in somebody’s life for the better.

Hey! , yeah so yesterday I busted out the angle grinder, a cut off wheel and some angle iron to make my rigid router sled. After a practice cut where I was a full quarter inch shy, due to a wandering disk, I got two 6.5 inch cut offs made without maiming myself, or burning the house down from flying sparks. I wore my leather apron, gloves, goggles and ear phones, so I was most protected from a 10,000 RPM spinning wheel. Then I filed off all of the slag, rough edges, points and vein opening Shanks on both pieces. Then bolted it all together with quarter twenty bolts, washers and some nylock inserts to keep it from coming undone. Looks like I thought it would, and gives me just shy of 42″ inches worth of width to flatten slabs, or bigger chunks of wood. The aim was for a full 48″, but I forgot about my routers handles that stick out of the sides, and connect with the sides of the sled, impeding full coverage. But no matter. I don’t really have the room in my shop to work on slabs that are close to or over four feet wide. Three feet would be best, given the constraints of the space. Fine with me!

I had hoped to start in on my adjustable saw horses, but sick child #2 is home, so that’s a no-go today. And by the sounds of it, tomorrow as well. She finally reached the snotty expulsion phase, so we have another few days of this before it clears. Then I have the router table sacrificial fense to build, and the face plate for the trim router so I can mortise out wider pockets without it ripping downwards and gouging out uneven holes. So many things to do!

Busy work in the wood shop a.k.a. The Garage.

March 25, 2022March 25, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Started off on Wednesday with the school closure due to inclement weather, and had my eldest help me tear down my jointer table, and the old, heavy, unsteady planer stand on rickety old plastic rollers.

Then yesterday, after what felt like an ineffective interview with a potential new design client I built myself a 24″ deep, by 39″ wide, and 16.5″ high wheeled cart to house both my jointer and planer, so I can store them under my table saw. I was fortunate enough to be able to reuse some of the wood from the prior jointer stand to reinforce the new joint venture. Added a low shelf to put paddles and spare Allen keys on, and I’m good to go.

May find I want to bolt the items down, but I’m not sold on that yet. I used the better part of three two by fours, one two by six, a two by two foot piece of half inch ply wood, and a 39x24x.75″ piece of MDF for the top. Various 3″, 2″ and 1.5″ wood screws were used. I had a set of swiveling caster wheels already, two that lock, and two that do not. I have about 3/8ths of an inch gap before the top most part of my planer will hit the lowest part of the saw. I though a half inch would work, but I’m ok going just a bit tighter than that. Looks ugly but it works for me. Plus it got started and finished in about 2 or so hours. Lots of pre-drilled holes, and repeat cutting. Braced both top and bottom for the weight.

And today I build a six panel cubby for my drill, impact driver, staplers, 2 sizes of pin/Brad nailers and a heat gun. Works like a charm, and used up scraps left over from the jointer/planer cart. Win – win! That is 26″ wide, 13″ high, and about 11.5″ deep. So not huge, but not small either. I should have added a seventh cubby spot, but I was more concerned with not having to fight to pull items out of each cubby, so I got generous with my spacing. Could have been more conservative, but it works, is labeled, and everything fits as intended. Plus now I can get rid of a handful of plastic cases that I had to dig through everytime I wanted a tool. If you needed more than one you could be certain they would fall off a bench or get knocked over, and I’d have to go looking for oil bottles, Allen wrenches and any extra caps or guards that were stored in each case. Ugh. What a pain. But, no more! Out in the open, easy to reach from the bench. This also opened up some space on one of my other carts, so bully for me!

I was going to wait and use my new Dado stack to build the cubby for tools, but I didn’t feel like waiting for the new table saw cover to arrive, which will be in two weeks time. It would have been more professional looking, for sure. But it was to help me stay organized not be a showcase for any sort of wood working talent. That’s also why I used miss matched scraps that were three or four different colours. And some of it was particle board, mdf, and plywood. Not a glorious item to behold.

I would like to make a router bit holster in the near future, because I have several bits now, and they are all in boxes, bags, or cases and not easy to get to. If I can get them out in the open, and build my 12×12″ router base from clear acrylic I’ll be able to do more custom pockets and mortising. Which reminds me i need to build my router table at some point. I have the plate ready to go. Always more to do than expected. But once i get these things done, i have them at my finger tips for when i actually build something of consequence. The router sled for flattening is on my to-do list too.

If I refinish anything or start my hickory slab coffee table, I’ll be sure to take photos as I go, since that will require a fair few operations, jigs, and tools.

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