Puzzle Ornaments

 This is another pattern that I found on the web.  Thought it looked interesting and I had some scrap that I could try them out on.  I like the idea.  My execution and final assembly was not good.  My hole for the ribbon was too big.  I drilled it at 1/4" and I should have made it closer to 1/8".  I think the patterns could have used a little work also.  Not all the pieces lock together.  It is a pet peeve of mine if they don't.  Painting them was not difficult and added a nice touch.  I don't know if I will do these again, but I might actually take the idea to some line art in the web.  I also might consider making them bigger and changing some of the lines.  Again, I liked the idea and the concept is good.  I fault myself on the execution and look.

This Year’s Christmas Ornament

This was a crazy year for me.  I had the nativity ornament already picked out.  The wood choice for the family ornament is poplar.  There is not much special about poplar.  It is considered a hard wood even though it is pretty soft.  This wood is always in stock in my shop because it is what I use to make the toys that I designed for the first time.  It is also what I make most of my toys I donate.  It paints very well and is inexpensive.  Poplar will always have a place in my shop. 

It came clear in April that another ornament would need to be made.  I found a couple designs and saying on Etsy about this pandemic.  The ornaments I found were laser engraved.  I took them and cut out then used paint pens to paint the designs in paint pens.  The lesson learned from this project is that carbon paper does not wipe off with a little bit of water.  It is my first-time using carbon paper where I was not going to sand it off.  I wanted to copy the lettering, but it was not going to work out.  I used my own handwriting than a decorative lettering.  I will not be offering these to the public because I took the design from someone else.  These are going to family and coworkers.  When I started these, the coworkers were not very many so they were made out of solid wood.  I had a team of four and a couple of others in the office.  I was let go due to the pandemic.  After a short time, I was rehired by the parent company of the company I worked for in California.  This made my coworker pool increased a lot.  I took some ¼” plywood and painted one side white.  I then cut out and painted them.  I actually like the white painted ones better then wood ones I made.

That is this year's ornament.

Honey, I Blew up the Toys

I had a fair amount of off cuts of several thicknesses of cherry from the furniture that I have been building.  I wondered for a little bit what to do with it.  My small series was made mostly of 3/4" material so it made since to just double it, sort of.  

The problem was that the lumber I had was not all the same thickness and too small to run through a planer.  I took some liberties on thicknesses and dimensions to make it work.  I only had enough off cuts to make four different models.  I probably like the jeep and the plane the best.  I would like to see what the dump truck would be doubled.  Maybe after a few more projects.

Fun project to double the size.  I needed to enlarge a couple of the templates.  I took a couple of liberties with the dowel placements and widths.  It was also surprised how big they were compared to the originals.  I will probably do this again when I get different thicknesses of lumber.

 

Bug Chest of Drawers

 

My middle child needed a dresser for his room. He had drawers that went under his bed but we lofted the bed so the drawers just moved around the room when he needed space.  I put together a design for a painted chest of drawers that he could help in the color and painting.  

I figured I would use cheaper materials, but I don't know how much cheaper they were.  The side frames are poplar and the rest of the carcass is MDF.  The drawers are the cheap import plywood that is a pain to work with.  I used a stain blocking primer, because I knew there were places in the house that I would need to prime also.  I purchased a quart of flat bright white interior paint and half a gallon of orange acrylic paint.  For the top coat, I used water based polyacrylic.  

Construction is pretty simple.  The sides are a frame and panel where everything was pre-finished.  The only thing that I would have done different would be to stencil the patterns on before assembling the panel.  Th insert panel is MDF that has been primed and painted.  The face frame is MDF and screwed into the sides.  I had some left over poplar so those were made into the back rails.  It has a full back panel and the top is 1/2" MDF.  I should have used 3/4" but I did not want to buy a sheet for just one top.  The top is held in place by construction adhesive.  I would have liked a couple of mechanical fasteners.  

I did have my helper paint.  It was good for him to be part of the project.  He did do all the the stenciling.  I did learn a couple of things with working with my son on this project.  The first and most important is that I cannot do it for him.  He rolled the primer on all the parts and put on the white paint.  I did do some touch up work, but he did do a god job.  I also learned that there is a time limit for how much he will do.  Once the time is up, I can work on the parts of the project that he is not able to do.  It is hard to hold back "suggestions" on how I would like to see it done.  He needed to chose the stencils and placement.  He is a very linear thinker that thinks outside the box.  The stencils are all oriented in the same position, but the color scheme is all his.  I would have liked it a little more symmetrical but he wanted nothing to do with it. he also did not like the scorpion and centipede stencils.  

I think the project works well for my son.  He was extremely proud of what he did and how it turned out.  I would have liked it to be a little cleaner in the paint area but a lot of that was my fault.  He now has a place to put away his clothes, now we will see if his room stays cleaner longer.  

The inspiration for the project was first to have a place for my son's clothes.  After looking at the costs of dressers I thought I could build a better one for slightly over the cost of buying one.  I was looking at around the $220 range. Here is the cost break down and total

hardware	$49.98
lumber	$77.62
tools	$40.17
paint	$48.36
Grand total	$216.13

If you add in labor at $10/hour (minimum wage and easy calculation), the labor cost alone would be $240.  This brings the total to $456.13.  I know that people would say they would buy it for this much to be nice, but in reality they would go for the mass manufactured one about half the price.  When you look at craft fairs and think things are expensive, the makers are not really making a lot of money because most do not add in labor.  I woodwork because I like to create not to make money.

Bedroom Furniture: Bookselves

I recently completed the bookshelf for our room.  It is in the same design as the other pieces of furniture.  The bookshelf has open sides with slats and two sections.  One side has one adjustable shelf and the other side has two adjustable shelves.  I did not do a complete design of this, only sketches like the other pieces.  It was designed at 15" seep to handle some of our photo albums. Looking back, I probably could have reduced the depth to 12" and put the photo albums elsewhere.  It is deep but it does work.

The construction of the unit is very similar to the night stands with thicker legs and top.  I purchases 8/4 (1 3/4") thick lumber instead of 6/4 (1 1/4").  That was not planned but it looks good because it is a larger unit.  I used the slats to hide the shelf hardware.  the concept work well.  I used a template to make sure the hole spacing was consistent on each of the legs.  I used a router this time to cut the grooves in the rails that hold the slats in place.  I was hoping this would be more consistent than the dado stack on the table saw.  It was for all but one of the rails.  I am not sure what happened with the one piece.  It all worked out in the end since I cut the slats thick.  I did find out that I do need a better slot cutter than the one that came in the multi pack. The one I have dulled after half way through the parts and started to chip out on the edges.  All joints are mortise and tenon and I would hope that I would have become a little better.  I don't think I have improved much.

The cabinet is totally over designed.  It is all solid wood, even the shelves and bottom panel.  The shelves are 7/8" thick.  I now buy rough lumber, so I just plane to get the defects out and that is the final thickness.  I did have a little issue with the glue up this time.  I glued up the right side panel and left side of the center piece.  with hand cut joints each one fits in one spot.  I had to clean out a lot of epoxy.  The good part was my loose joints were no longer loose.

I am happy with the project and how well it goes with the rest of the set.  I think I will be doing a printer stand next.  I need to test a look before I put design it into the headboard

The New Computer Desk

This project went a little faster than expected.  I was working more from home and needed something in a quieter place than the family room.  A desk was planned for our room, it just moved up in priority.  It is a very similar design to the nightstands and constructed in the same manor.  I wish that I could say that it was easier since I had made the nightstands but there were still some major mistakes made in the building of the project.

The design is pretty simple.  I wanted a simple, straight forward desk that would not hold a lot of stuff.  It was supposed to hold a printer, but I think that changed.  It can but it makes it a very tight fit.  It was going to have a single drawer to hold pencils and a note pad.  We found out after that will also hold a wireless keyboard.

The main difficulty was the size of the top.  There is an undercut bevel that would not fit on table saw.  I had to cut it with a circular saw.  It did take a lot of cleanup afterwards.  The jointing of the three pieces also proved to be a challenge that I was not ready for.  I did it by hand first because my planer could not edge plane the pieces. I ended up cupping the boards.  I ended up running the smaller piece through the planer to edge joint the piece.  That gave me a reference surface to match the other two pieces.  It was a pain, but the glue joints came out great.

The other issue I had was a complete mistake that I should have known better.  I was moving the base and the top clamp came off.  I was using 5-minute epoxy and it had been clamped for 30 minutes.  I did not put the clamp on because I figured it was cured enough.  The back to joint separated just enough to make me annoyed.  I did not fix it because the back is going to be up against the wall.

I like how the desk turned out and it works well.  I also got the dove tails fight this time

Catapults

I think I cope with stress by designing and building weaponized toys.  The ping pong ball guns and now the catapult.  I can remember the stress I was under when I made the trebuchet and the rubber band Gatling gun. The intent of the catapult design was for science.  The design was to allow to figure out the best angle of trajectory, where the rubber band should be placed, and the length of arm.  

I probably oversized the catapult.  The length of the catapult is 24” and the plans need to be printed on 11x17 paper.  I don’t regret the size; it works well.  I might come back and make a desk top version.

The saw tooth design is so the dowels can be moved to change the angle of trajectory, where the rubber band is placed.  It also allows for the arm to easily be replaced.  Over the process of making it, I realized the location of the rubber band was not important but how many rubber bands. 

My kids assembled most of the catapults.  The oldest choose not to participate.  The younger two glued and screwed most of the pieces and cut the dowels to length.  They installed the hooks and placed the location of the dowel stops.  I actually think that I was able to teach the middle child some tricks. 

Here are the mechanical advantage lessons that I think I taught him.  If he remembers them that is a different story. 

• Wedges to split glued parts that are not supposed to be glued.  We used a chisel to separate a clamping joint that got stuck together with squeeze out
• Lever arms, we used a screwdriver to put in the multiple hooks required for the project
• Blade pinch, he learned what happens as you pinch a blade when trying to cut material. 
• What happens when… The catapult has several different options that can change trajectory and tension.  He was able to figure out that different angles caused the marshmallow to fly differently.  He was also excited when I added a second rubber band and told him I doubled his power. 

Overall, the project went well.  They are a little bigger than I thought they would be. They launch marshmallows and ping pong balls about 40 feet.  The kids had fun.