Sun is out but that minus nine looks unappealing. Scattered clouds on these blue skies makes me think it isn’t all that windy, which is a plus. Let us all try to avoid any brushes with Frost Nip this weekend, please and thank you. Luckily last time it was the merest of tickles upon the Frost Bite spectrum, but I don’t want anybody to risk it for a snowmobile ride. Put on a helmet and a weather suitable balaclava to stave off the worst effects of the cold. So if we could all do just the bare minimum to avoid the cold that would be much appreciated.
Doesn’t feel much like a Saturday morning. Not sure what’s making the vibe feel off. Hmm… I’ll have to think on that for a bit to see where things feel different. Perhaps it’s because this is a long weekend, and the extra day off feels weird. Is it the presence of snow and cold after that long warm/dry spell. I don’t know what it is. Could be the looming feeling of Ugh! From next Friday’s funeral and visitation services putting a dark cloud over everything.
On the plus side nobody rushed to call me with the results of my small intestine MRI from Thursday. Which makes me think the news will be mild to good. No news is good news. I’m still worried about having my mask off partially to drink at the hospital, and inside the actual machine. I really hope I haven’t tracked home Covid or anything along those lines. I feel fine thus far. My kids have been coughing and in various stages of gooey for several long weeks now, which I have avoided. Could be the near continuous running of our Hepa filter in the living room. Or my immune system isn’t fighting it and my chest feels a little less than normal, but I’m not oozing like they are with it. Is that a blessing or a curse?
Good news is we can go tobogganing now that we have six or so inches of snow on the ground. We haven’t been able to go for a number of weeks. The town doesn’t even have any outdoor rinks out like during the lock-down periods of 2020-2021. It was pretty awesome, you could go to any number of local parks and skate outside with hardly anyone else around. If I recall a fair few winter birthday parties were held on skates during those years.
In other news I broke down and bought four more substantial caster wheels for my rolling tool cart build. One of the four small ones I had lying around shattered into two halves and would not go back together on the bearing. I went up from a 1 inch wheel to a 3 inch. So it didn’t effect the overall height by too to much. Plus it rolls like a champ now, and all four wheels can be locked, and swivel independently. Very maneuverable. It’s ugly as sin, but suits my needs to a “T”. I even got to repurpose several pieces of our old change table. Now I have memories to keep.
My wheeled cart with shelves, drawers, storage space, and an open top for power tools access. Just what I wanted!
It started with a quick trip to pick up some pre-cut bits of Red Oak wood, hopefully eight (8″) inches in width, a quarter inch thick and around four feet long. Couldn’t find any, so I bought additional five and a half inch (5.5″) boards so I could join them to get the height I was after. I chose the straightest boards I could find after digging through a pile of about twenty or so pieces. I then grabbed a two inch wide, by three quarter inch thick piece to become the trim for my plywood core base. And then I also grabbed some two inch by quarter inch, by four foot strips that will eventually become a tray that sits inside the top of the urn’s central column.
So first off, I rounded over one edge of my two inch wide by three quarter Red Oak strip. Then I cut it down the middle to be one inch wide. Two inches, after further reflection was just too much. Too over powering. Too chunky. Then I flipped that strip rounded edge up against the fence of my table saw and cut out a quarter inch channel for the plywood core to Nestle into. I then spent a considerable about of time measuring and cutting and sneaking up on the mitred corners for my base. I got three that were perfect and one that was off. Seems as though, when I cut the two inch strip down to one inch I released a bunch of tension in the board and it went catywompus on me right from the get go. Not enough to be visible, but enough that with matching lengths and cuts, one corner was out by nearly an eighth of an inch. Very frustrating. Once I had this cut and roughed together I was able to cut down the plywood core that will be ensconced within the red oak chunky trim pieces. After gluing it up, and then spot patching the one sides gap (I managed to get it down below a 16th, but just barely. I was able to sand it, and clean it up to look as though I know what I’m doing.
The Red Oak Urn, loosely held together with clamps so I can measure & fit what’s in front of me, and not what I had on the plans I mocked up.
With the base glued up, I can begin to cut down one of my 5.5″ boards and do a couple glue ups to get my eight linear feet of 8.25″ wide boards for the inner column of the Urn. After the glue up, I extracted them from the assembly table, and the myriad sets of clamps I had used. I used a paint scraper, and then a card scraper to clean off the surface, and then tackled what was left of a visible glue seam with some higher grit sand papers to make it mostly disappear. Next, using the hard measurements from my newly constructed base I began to cut down the outer walls of the urn. At this juncture I decided against more mitred, and went for butt joints. Simple, yes, but effective. I had, at this point, decided that I wanted two layers of wall for the column. The exterior being the full 8.25″h, and the interior two inches shorter, all the way around, so that my tray, once built, would have a partial shelf to sit on, and thus, not potentially fall all the way through into the ashes below. You know, because it’s an urn.
Next steps are the glue up the outer, and inner walls of the central column, pin them in place discretely, but not fully attach it to the base just yet, so that I can sand more unencumbered. Then I can build the tray itself, which will get lined in a 2mm thick felt (Green, Yellow, Burgundy or Blue), i haven’t decided yet. The red oak will dictate what looks best at this point. And once all that is done i can build the decorative outer display cap. This i want to sand and polish up to a very high sheen. It will require hours of sanding, up to about 600 or 800 grit. Then the use of my polisher and wood polish to get that majestic final finished look to it.
The weather is cold and miserable once more, it is February in southern Ontario, so no surprise there. This is the middle of winter, and we’re having the strangest winter I can ever recall. So it might need to wait a bit until I can go back to do more. I have it all documented, and labeled, so I can go back at any time and not be lost. I have no heat, nor moisture control in the garage shop, so let us hope it doesn’t all go ape shit if left for a week. Fingers crossed.
Some of you may know that I had intended to build this out of Walnut, Ash or Spalted Maple which I had lying around the shop. After a good think about how long it would take to mill all of that up into useable lumber pieces, and given the (potential) time constraints of the Urns requester, I felt starting from wood that was already 4s was a smarter choice. My planer, and bandsaw hate to work in the freezing cold. And they make a nasty racket too at the best of times. Oh well. Now I can make one for me with my own materials later on, and it won’t cost me much beyond my time.
That’s it, game over, today is the last day of my 365 day writing challenge. Obstacles met and over come. Bam! Something about apples….
But seriously, it’s a big day for what amounted to a difficult task. We had power outages, illnesses, trips, travels, and heavy work days that made this a real barn burner of a challenge. But I got through it all. Wow!
But now what? Maybe I go the whole Calendar year? that adds what, an additional seventeen days? Not bad. Maybe I can break the 200,000 word mark? I thought i just might do it, but I got to around 185,000. So close enough, I think.
So what’s on the docket today. I think I’ll do a double header and will begin my year in review of the wood working projects I built this year. There are several, so settle in. I made furniture, jigs, objects, and some pretty random items to be certain. I did at one point have the list in chronological order, but that list has gone into the ether, so now i’ll just have to randomly talk about the things as I recall them. No don’t worry, it’s not off of the top of my head, I did spend some time the other night writing them all down – again. Just not in any order beyond what i could remember first.
For my sister in-laws baby shower I made two new Cedar newel posts for my in-laws house. As I recall those were about 8.25″ square, and about 2″ high. I painted them white, and they are still affixed to the front exterior stairs. For the new rabbit Butter Scotch, I made two rabbit houses, one was a 13″ square, the other was smaller to fit into the reserve cage at the cottage. In September I used dowel construction to build a Pine display unit for my kids toys, and for them to play dolls on. My youngest has since etched her name into the top with a black ball point pen. I made a rather tall end table to display things in, that was Walnut & Ash. I made a tapering jig for the legs, so that counts as another build item too. I made a Hickory & Ash end Table / coffee table with slatted shelves. That currently sits in our basement and has not been attacked by either child as of this time. After several long years I completed the last 80% of the Ash screen door, that went up prior to my wife’s birthday party in early June. Has not collapsed or fallen off it’s hinges as of this time of reporting. Ha. I used a bunch of scrap wood to build a cubby system for all of my drills, drivers, heat gun, and staple guns, pin nailers etc… It was more shop infrastructure, than anything else. Much like the wheelie cart for my planer & jointer. It isn’t much to look at, style wise, but it’s sturdy and easy to move around in the confined space of my shop. I took some time to try to see if I could build a proper floating shelf drawer out of Walnut. It has a blue felt pad on the interior, and has remained fairly square since I built it. That also taught me not to use Wax on Walnut, as it clouded over almost immediately, so now I use the wax only on non visible portions to lubricate drawer slides and moving parts under jigs etc etc… For the farm orchard I built a scrap wood bench, that was four feet long, and a foot wide, and about fourteen inches tall. My wife, and my mother in law wanted some place to sit when watching the kids down at the farm when they go tree climbing, or apple picking. It weathered the Dericho wind storm and stayed put, also remained upright, when trees fell, and the silos were mostly ruptured. Go me! At the cottage I refinished an old iron & wood bench. Sanded it down, and put two or three coats of tan stain on it. That was done in about a day, less than that, late one afternoon in August. On the lathe I turned down some Walnut bases for some sculptures, namely my Hellboy bust and the cruddy looking great ape I made where I botched the nose terribly. I also turned down a handle for the screen door out of Maple from our tree out front. In the shop I built two peg boards, a Dado jib, the aforementioned tapering jig, and a 45 Degree cutting jig, plus a smaller tenoning jig that I used on my Pine Display Unit. In the way of metal work, I built a router sled flattening jig out of angle iron and nuts and bolts, doing the cutting with my angle grinder and a cut off wheel. That was pretty loud, and thrilling. Didn’t set fire to anything, so that was a major plus. I built a whole slew of Ash chisel caddy’s that hang on the wall. I built two toy boxes, one large one out of Pine, soon to get caster wheels, and a smaller one out of Cedar for my little ones bedroom. And last on the list is the Air brush caddy I made for all my paints, mask and the air brush compressor unit. That feels like just about everything that I made this year. If I remember anything else, I’ll be sure to mention it. I have posted photos for many of these items in previous posts throughout the year, so i won’t bore you with more at this point. Just kidding. Here they are in no discernable order. Also, just realized I made a massive Ash charcuterie board this year too. Duh!?! Can’t believe I forgot about that, I only see it 8n the kitchen every single day.
That wraps up the build portion. On to THE BOOKS! This year my goal was to read twelve of them. Sometimes I waste precious hours scrolling twitter when I could just as easily read a book, so try as I might to resist the sirens song of doom scrolling, I often did, rather than read. So I’m a bit short. I gave up on the Grapes of Wrath about half way through. But I do know I will go back to it. It was just starting to lag a bit back in August. Also the last book, Carl Sagan’s about the Demon Haunted World, is good, but I’m not sure if I’ll actually complete it before 12:01am on December 31st, or a few days into January. Here is the list of what I read this year.
The twelve books of 2022.
This year I found Adrian Tchaikovsky and read four of his novels. I have a fifth ready to go as a Christmas present. I also have a Mary Robinette Kowal book to open aswell. I am anxiously awaiting any new Lady Astronuat books she might put out. Also if Martha Wells could pump out two Murderbot books per year I’d be very happy about that as well. I will also pursue more of Don Winslow’s books in the coming years, as Man on fire was really good. I don’t typically do crime drama, but it was compelling and easy to read. More of that please. I was more than happy to find a Robert J Sawyer book I hadn’t yet read in the Oppenheimer faux history. That was really great too. I, like many others, have been waiting for George R.R. Martin to finish the last damnable book of the Fire and Ice Series, so I’ll drop fifty sixty bucks on that hard cover whenever it comes out. Not to forget the fun romp that was John Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society. That was a pleasant read last spring. I’ll have my eye out for any of his new releases aswell. I see that Fart Quest has book four out. I’ll order that for my birthday come Spring time. That’s a really beautifully illustrated series that turns on D&D charm, and general fantasy tropes. Meant for kids and pre-teens but I get a kick out of it just the same.
Not much else to say. Had an email from a client whom I did work for late last year, looking to pick up where we left off, and that’s about as great a recco as I would like to get. Repeat happy customers that come back year after year. If you could only see my grin.
So this is it. The big Kahuna. Once I press send the challenge is complete! Wishing you all well. Those who followed along playing the home game. I don’t think I’ll stop just yet. I’ll aim for New Year’s Eve. Put another 17vseconds on the clock ref, I have a few plays left in me to go. Ciao Bella! Love you all.
Due to my missing a summer and early fall deadline for my hand built screen door build, I’m going to shift gears for a bit and move on to refinishing a table for my in-laws that has some water damage, fifteen layers of paint and needs some TLC. I’m going to break it down into the smallest allowable pieces and then sand the hell out of it, before I decide if I’m going to repaint it white, or stain it to make it look a little more classy. I had hoped to get further along on my screen door build, but my hand cut mortise and tenons are taking forever, and I can’t seem to cut a straight line for shit. On the up side, the reason I didn’t meet my warm weather deadline to hang the screen door, was because I used those eight weeks of school term without kids around to tackle every other home DIY project, so I’m not too upset about it. I may very well be worth it for me, to practice some of those mortises before committing to an exterior door. If I can remember to i will attempt to take some photos of the table to be finished, but I doubt I’ll remember. I was fortunate enough to get through one of this weeks two marketing reports over the weekend, freeing up some time to do more woodworking. I thought I’d have to wait to start until next week, but nope! I hauled ass, and did page by page proofing as I went. It also helps that I spent some time on the front end building up my pages so it could be a smooth process to build out my reports with actual, factual data sets. Time to clean up the yard, and put away the summer toys, as we’re in Canada and it could start to snow at any minute, and we’ll not come out of it until late April. Cheers! to you all!
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