Wood working – Page 3 – Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

Back in the shop for a partial build day.

May 17, 2022May 17, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Yesterday I milled down all of the Cedar trim I would need to fill in the inside portion of my screen door. I cut a 1x6x8ft board down into eight .25 strips, and then trimmed those to be .75 inches wide by 8ft, by .25 inches thick. I pin nailed in the first layer. Now I have to cut up and staple in place the actual mesh material. Another big step forward. Makes me nervous. I have the second layer of trim cut and ready to sandwich in the mesh material. Fingers crossed I don’t screw this up, as I only have so much mesh to work with before I’d have to order & wait for more to arrive.

Once this goes in, I’ll affix the handle, and push plate. Then we are on to hinges, and hanging the heavy thing up in the door frame. Wish me luck! I’m going in.

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.

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?!?

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.

What is there to say…

March 30, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

We’re here, the flotilla has jumped in to battle. I can’t hide from it, nor steer into a detour any longer. Well, I think I have one last point of view to check in on before the big to-do of it all. Plus having written another 3,000 words of short stories yesterday, i may not write again today. “Can’t brain today, has the dumb.” Is a quote that oft comes to mind. The second installment yesterday garnered almost zero response, and it took some doing on my part to get it written. But I did it, I like it, and I feel it’s a worthy entry in the series. One of the longer ones too, clocking in at just under 2,000 words itself. Plus the somewhat related prior entry that was around 1,200, I think it fills an interesting space with more POV’s.

Have been running full steam in the garage shop. Managed to completed the following: wheeled cart, tool cubby, router table for table saw gap, built a peg board panel, a router bit display block, a T handle hex key stand for my Imperial & Metric Hex Keys. That makes for a pretty good build week.

If I get the rigid router sled made, and two adjustable saw horses, and the oversized 12×12″ router cover panel made from clear acrylic, I’ll be finished with all shop centered projects and can begin a real wood working project again. Like the nagging screen door, or a new coffee table build.

Work is going ok, some previously quiet clients (due to Covid) have started to make their way back into spending marketing budgets again. Happy to be thought of for stuff like that. There was some potential for new clients on the horizon, but I’ll have to wait and see. I gave my presentation, and now I have to wait and see. The Joys of freelancing solo.

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.

Let me tell you what kind of person I am.

March 24, 2022March 24, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

I’m the kind of person who hates having an appointment in the middle of my day, because I can feel it looming over me. So I don’t like to start anything prior to the appointment in case I forget about it, or turn up late. So in most instances I sit and wait, minute by minute until the appointment arrives. I hate that. So today I forced myself to run some errands, which took 45 minutes, possibly 50 to complete, that on any other day, I would have had to rush to complete after my appointment was done. But now those three things are done, and I have a full hour left to sit and wait. The waiting always makes things worse. I wasn’t nervous about it all week, or last night, or this morning when I woke up, but now it’s filling me with anxiety and bubble guts. Argh! Hate that. Oh well c’est la vie.

So day 100! Woohoo! Milestone for sure. Did you catch yesterday’s back to back chapter entries for the interconnected series Ghost of the Dirty Starling? Fun stuff. Those Bison drones sound gnarly, and a tad volatile. Hmmm… foreshadowing perhaps? Or just another side trip I can make later on if need be? Good to give yourself off ramps occasionally, I believe. I was going to do something funny with Norman and Gerty, but changed my mind. I like the self serving killer for hire in a tutu. I also liked the fact she knew enough about murder to do her gloating afterwards too. None of this providing your captive with extra precious seconds or minutes to formulate a plan or escape out of sheer luck. No sir! Gun’em and then gloat. Like a good little hitman – hired gun, contract killer etc etc..

I might be fortunate enough to pick up some bakery bagel display unit design work today or in the near future. Which is great. I kept in touch, once every six months since Jan 2020, with all of the folks I freelance for, and recently those connections have become active again, as people feel as though the pandemic is coming to an end. I have thoughts on that, but I am also a huge fan of the work coming in as well. Work in, and invoices out, this is good for business.

Had my oldest child help me with some cleaning in the garage. I had to tear down some tables and stands I had for equipment. I have a larger table saw now, so I need to recover some space by placing my jointer and my planer together on a low lying wheeled cart, so it can be tucked under the rails of my hybrid saw. I can’t have that space go to waste anymore. I have completed projects eating up space, which I need people to collect, or accept delivery of. It’s all bought and paid for, and I knew I would have to hold on to it all, but now it’s getting on a bit, four plus months later, and I would like to not have to maneuver around it any more. It’s not a huge deal, but it aggravates me. I’m not working with 40,000 square feet here people. Think, tall single car garage stuffed to the gills with house hold stuff, Christmas lights, bikes and wood working tools. Not a pretty sight to behold.

If I had the money, and paid work, I would use a dedicated dust collection system, and air cleaner, rather than my ShopVac. But it’s nice and compact, and I can store it under tables and shelves with ease. But the dust means you have to work in a mask at all times. Not a real problem, since I use a fair bit of Walnut, and you want a mask for that stuff anyway. I have my eye on a hickory slab waterfall coffee table I want to make later this Spring/Summer/Fall. Could be a real looker if I take my time with it. I have the angle iron I need for a rigid router sled to flatten the slabs. I am looking forward to it a lot! I will also venture to build adjustable leveling saw horses to hold said router sled. So those will be fun to build too.

Welcome to the future…

January 1, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

It’s really very similar to the recent past but otherwise it offers you hope, if only a sliver. The weather outside is pretty strange, seeing as the temperature is slightly positive in January, in southern Ontario Canada. The roads are clear enough we can ride our bikes or roller blade, which is very strange. The snow seems to hold off longer and longer, if it doesn’t absolutely dump down on November first in a 12 inch blast of school closing insanity.

We were all in bed asleep by quarter to eleven last night, because we have small kids who wake up exceedingly early, and can be a real bear to deal with by seven pm. After getting them off to bed and watching an hour or two of HGTV no one felt the need to greet midnight, and a potential 5:45am early rise from one or both kids. I was going to pour myself a drink and watch a movie, but my enthusiasm for that waned quickly and I watched part of a Jim Gaffigan stand up special on Netflix, but turned it off half way through instead. The life of a rock star over here folks.

Things I’d like to do more of this year are, and in no particular order; creative writing, sculpting, wood working, miniature painting, assemble the giant G-System Best resin model kit. Obviously if I am able to gather, retain or reclaim more paid work in graphic design/illustration & packaging, those items will take precedence. But I have made a plan to utilize my down time to be more rewarding personally. It gets all too easy to climb into YouTube or put on a movie and space out for 2hrs on any given day.

First things first though, we have to get COVID-19 under a modicum of control so that our kids don’t get violently ill at school, or develope life long medical issues due to rampant exposure. This fact alone will have massive knock on effects for our day jobs, and hobbies, not to mention the whole rest of our childrens lives. It is no small matter. It weighs heavily upon us all. Welcome to the future, the same as before, only different. Hello 2022.

The rocking chair of 2019

December 18, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

The first item I refinished was an antique rocking chair which I tackled in May & June of 2019. That was my first taste of tearing down, repairing, sanding and refinishing an actual piece of furniture. It was hot, difficult but ultimately rewarding and educational. So much so I wouldn’t do an other item until 2021, ha! But seriously I swore a lot, and picked away at it, 30 minutes here, 45 minutes there, every so often over a two month period. Seems to be the way I work on my hobbies.

The OG rocking chair, and various states of sanding and stripping the old finish.

Even more sanding of those damnable spindles, and then the dark walnut stain I ended up using.

It was pre-covid times, and I didn’t document all the steps I undertook all that thoroughly. If I recall I used 80/120/220/320 & 400 grit sand paper to make the seat, arm rests and head rest as silky smooth as you can imagine. Felt amazing under my finger tips. Had a rich warm colour when finished. All in all a pleasant project to undertake.

The Table Refinishing Project of late 2021

December 17, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Some of you might know that in late summer through until late fall I had attempted to build a screen door for the back of my house, which I started far too late, and missed open window / wide open door season by several weeks. So that lead me to putting that project on the back burner until Spring time when I feel as though I can devote time to it, and the weather will warrant my doing so. So, after putting that on hold I wanted another project to do in my down time between paid graphic design work. The table was delivered in several pieces on November 2nd, as I recall, and was in a state of disrepair.

It had cracked and crumbling paint, water stains, mould, flaking lacquer finish on the top, and smelled a bit funky to boot. It didn’t have any middle leaves, and the leg attachment points were worn out or missing or entirely broken. So it required me to strip it all down to bare wood, cut new hardwood braces for the legs, glue/ screw / pin nail portions together and then to be refinished with stain & paint and possibly if the weather holds out a clear coat on top of Varathane’s Diamond Wood Finish.

Follow along on my mini wood refinishing project from November / December of 2021

The original Table top with water stains and mould patches.

As I stated earlier, the table arrived in pieces, and I needed to break them down into smaller parts for cleaning and sanding, and looking for any major cracks, weakness or damages. This didn’t take me more than about thirty minutes for the whole table. I knew the leg braces were either missing or broken, and that the lower portion of the table legs would need some putty work. No big deal there. I opted not to use any chemical strippers on the table as I don’t have an exhaust fan at the moment, and smells from the garage make their way into the basement (which isn’t ideal). So I used sanding, a whole shit load of sanding. I went from 40 to 60 to 80 to 100 to 120 to 220 grits on all of the parts. The table top I went an extra step and went up to 320 grit, because I had it, and it gets so smooth, it feels like glass. My work flow was to do every piece using the same grit, so that I always knew where I was with my sanding schedule. It helps that this old workers table was put together with a lot of screws, so I could disassemble it easily to get to all of the nooks and crannies. Also made putting the sections back together a breeze.

The legs were stripped using a heat gun and putty knife, and then a card scraper.

The legs were by far the most difficult portion to work on. I had originally thought I would chuck each leg into my lathe, turn the speed right down and sanding them with little to no physical demands on my body, but my four jaw chuck choose this moment to crap out on me, and replacing it was too expensive at this point in time. So the forty dollar heat gun makes an appearance and storms the barn! It was great. I could get through one leg in about 1 hr. After I had the heat gun and putty knife put away, I turned to a curved card scraper to really get in there and get those layers of nasty chipped old paint off of the legs. Leaves a nice finish that is easy to sand – relatively. Then it was about four hours of hand turning the legs with one hand, and sanding vigorously with the other. My forearms and hands did not appreciate this at all. Once I got up to 150 grit, I used an air compressor to blow off the dust that gathered in the crevices. I used the bolts to hang them up along my garage door, and then used a rattle can of white paint/primer 2X to paint them a bright white again. Originally I wanted to go with a softer off white, borderline yellow – feel more french with the walnut top, but I couldn’t find any, and I wasn’t going to drive all over town just to not find it. I let those hang dry, and then I artificially antiqued them with some 220 grit sand paper, and they were done.

If it weren’t so close to zero degrees celsius here in Ontario I would venture to add the spray on clear coat of Varathane Diamond Wood Finish, but I don’t want it to get chunky or spit out blobs that you can feel under your hand. So all in all it took me about twenty hours over six weeks to get this project done, and I enjoyed just about every minute of it, except those spindle legs! Straight blocky chunky legs only next time!

Two years ago I refinished a rocking chair, but I can’t find any of those images. Next year I hope to tackle either another table or perhaps a chest of drawers or an old hutch of some kind. Hope you have a great Holiday Season, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! May your wood working DIY projects go smoothly or at least teach you a valuable lesson. ~M

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