Tone Drums

I have been working on the tone drums for a while.  I have seen several different versions and it would be easy to make.  But I wanted this pattern so I got it.  This project taught me patience. The tops were supose to be 3/4" thick oak.  I cut the tops out and hit them and all I heard was thud.  Made the boxes.  Then I clamped the tops to the boxes and hit them.  All I heard was thud.  The material was too thick so I planed it down to quarter inch thick and tested again and had the same result.  So I glued everything up and then I could hear the tones.   However I will not know if the thicker wood would sound better and on some of the drums I have some that had a twang to them  I don't know why.
A lesson learned about super balls.  They don't drill well and if drilling in the parting line they split. Here is a link to a project that would take a lot more time and patience then I will ever have Music in the forest.

The Chest of Drawers

I just finished the baby furniture to complete the kits room last weekend.  I have all ready talked about the bookshelves so I will not bore you with the details of the project.  The chest of drawers was a fun simple project.  I cannot say I am pleased with the finish because I rushed through it but the joinery is fantastic.  I modeled the frame and carcass attachment after what we are moving towards at work.  I used a ½” deep groove to locate the side panels.  I am amazed how much stronger the face frame joint is.  I didn’t even use mechanical fasteners to attach the sides.  In fact the only mechanical fasteners used on this project were:

·         Pocket screws to attach the rails of the face frame to the stiles.

·         Screws for drawer front to drawer box attachment

·         Top to carcass

·         I had no choice to use screws to attach the glides

The carcass I used a stringer method.  It basically is connecting the side panels by running strips of wood between them.  Let’s face it, there is no need for a bottom panel in a chest of drawers.  By itself it is not very strong but when the face frame is added everything squared up nicely.  I had more problems with keeping the drawer boxes square then the carcass.

Drawer boxes are out of cabinet grade birch plywood.  Everything else is out of solid pine.  I attempted to make all the drawer boxes universal and I was good until I put the drawer fronts on.  I was less than a 1/16” off in my spacing so the top drawer does not interchange with the bottom.  So close but I was with in my tolerance.

My wife and I determined we would not add hardware to open the drawers easier.  We all ready have one climber and we don’t need another climbing wall.  We can open the drawers just fine without hardware.  A lot of it is due to the full extension ball bearing glides.  As I was moving it into his room Kyle had fun climbing on the face frame and sitting in the carcass.  It made it very hard to make sure it fit in the closet.  Katie had a few good laughs at the process.

The edit feature in blogger distorted the picture but this is the unit.

No bottom panel but the face frame is deep encapsulated.  Love this design feature

Full extension ball bearing glides.  Drawers come out a full 14" with a 100 pound load rating. We did put Kyle in a drawer.

When I was finishing it a neighbor came over and asked if I made it.  I told her I did and discussed a little about woodworking.  She asked if I would sell it and for how much.  I said I couldn't because this one is for a babies room.  I told her if I would sell it for $150.  That was actually a really good deal considering how much the drawer glides cost (I got a good deal on them).  We now have a six drawer plastic unit.  does any one want it?  Please pick it up.

Tales of family and pay back

Here are the stories as they were recieved:
Laurel Price:

Well I think that the blocks deserve to stay in the Price Family. After all Katie was a Price.  She has several Price siblings and cousins. One of which is her cousin Sam in South Carolina.  Sam and his beautiful wife Cheryl are expecting their very first baby.  The due date is very close to their 6^th anniversary in August.  All Price kids love to play with blocks.  Just think of the stories and construction projects they can make up with blocks from their Cousins Brad and Katie.  Their little one can exchange videos and pictures with their second cousins thus keeping the family connection strong.

That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

Jacqueline Pineda

Why I deserve these blocks:

I love wood.
My kids love wood.
My kids love building things.
My kids don't throw toys, so my house is safe with blocks.
We don't have blocks.
All the kids that come over to play would enjoy them.
I haven't seen Brad in forever and lets face it- this would be a great excuse to see him again.
Cause I'm awesome.

and lastly, ( here is my great story) these blocks would be a great payback. This is a true story.

Once upon a time, there were a group of awesome college girls that loved hanging out. It was getting close to Valentine's Day and they wanted to do something special for the guys in their group. So on the eve of Valentine's Day they gathered at ( we'll call them Kim and Michelle) one of their homes. They spent hours cutting out hearts of many sizes, creating poems for each guy, and baking and decorating cupcakes. By the end of the night, they had cut 3600 hearts for nine guys.

After getting everything into a van, the girls spent the night driving from house to house, quietly sneaking around the front lawn and cars, giving each guy a "heart attack". Many of the hearts were on sticks and they planted them in the lawn. Others they taped to the car and house windows. It was hard not to giggle and get caught.  They left the cupcakes ( wrapped up so bugs wouldn't get them) on the car and hung up their poems by the door. Once, a late night walker stopped and asked them what they were doing, wondering if he needed to call the police. Some of the girls freaked out a little, but they were able to pull it off without incident. It was a great night.

The next morning while at the institute, they had many inquiries as to what they were doing the night before, but they never confessed. They only admitted to having a study group the night before. One of the guys had even woken up late for school and had driven to school with the hearts still on his car! It was a fun night for the girls, and even greater that the guys never really knew the whole truth as to who was involved. 

Mark Yote

I have learned that it is a lot more rewarding to see a smile on a child's face than it is to be paid for a talent one possesses.  If these blocks are awarded to me they will be donated to a local charity

Please only vote once.  You are on the honor system.

The book shelf

We realized that the dry sink was not going to work to hold the kids books anymore.  It was overflowing and Kyle used it to climb on.  Katie found a stack able bear bookshelf in a Meizel Hardware catalog.  She fell in love with it.  On the same page was a similar coat rack with three different animal heads on it.  The coat rack had all the components needed for the shelves accept for the shelves.  So we ordered the coat rack and converted it and it was not all that hard.  For all the math teachers out there I had to use construction geometry to find a couple of arc centers.
Patterns from Meizel Hardware come in 30 x 36 inch sheets so when I get these patterns the first thing I do is copy them so I have a copy to destroy.  So I took it down to staples to get one blue print copy and two 11 x 17 copies of the bodies.  The 11 x 17 copies were $0.20 the blue print copy was $5!  Next time I will copy the sheet on 11 x 17's and tape them together.  It would have been a lot cheaper.  For this reason I destroy the copy and put the cut out patterns on smaller sheets so that I can copy them later for less.
The first task was to make a template of the bodies so they are all the same.  The template worked really well.  I was able to make six pieces the exact same and I can make more.  It was also nice to be able to rough cut the blanks out to reduce the work and force exerted on the router when cutting the bodies to size.
The next part was assembly.  I thought this would be a lot easier then it was.  I didn't realize there were not very many flat edges that I could measure off of to make the rails level and square.  The entire bookshelf is biscuit jointed together.  With some help from my father we figured out how to put the back rail on.
I learned children's books are narrower than I thought so some of the book have to go in a plastic bucket on a shelf.

Just for your viewing pleasure:

He likes his spaghetti-o's

I want it but my wife does not

In a recent publication of Meisel Hardware I found this:

  

The link is found here.  I would love to make it, but my wife says no (Room and she thinks it a waste of money). It is only 4 feet tall and 4.5 feet long and the cost of the plan and hardware are in the link.  If any one would like to pay to make it I will be happy to do so.  Do I have any sponsors for this project?

The Workman Train

Finished another train.  This one was also featured in the Sacramento train museum.  Sorry the picture is so bad.  If you want to see the picture better copy and paste it into MS Word and play with the bright and contrast buttons.

Here is the complete train it was fun and a challenge to build.  It was worked on along with the train in the previous post.

There are a five cars to the train and some are suppose to have moving parts.

The locomotive and tinder are made out of pine.  The boiler is actually made out of cypress.  I was given a turning blank from a co-worker and this seemed to be the project to use it on.  Just a note, I did an initial turning to cut it down to size and get to rough dimensions.  I missed a week of class and in two weeks the wood had warped where I did the plunge cuts.  Lots of sanding on the lathe and the parts remained a little over sized.  It still turned out though.

This is the crane and taker.  The tanker was pretty easy the crane however was the last car finished.  the crane does move but not very well.  I don't know if I could design it better or I just like that it sort of works.

This is the side dump car and the hopper.  The side dump car really works.  The hopper was made on the band saw.
There are a couple of cool features with these trains. The General,  Diesel, and this train are all interchangeable cars.  This means that one of those long trains that blocks traffic for a while can be made out all three of these trains.
On a side note.  if any of the people that I have given blocks to have a block that has this profile to it:

Can I please get it back.  I miss counted how many wheel covers I needed and I am about 16 short.  I may have used the block all up so I don't know if it made it to the scrap block give away.

The General Train

 

Well I completed another train.  I thought I was done with trains and this was in the Great Book of Wooden Toys.  I had to use a lathe so I completed the engine in the class I took a while ago.  The cool thing is that I was able to see this train in the Sacramento Train museum last year while I was making it.  

 

This is the complete train.  It only has four cars and not that hard to make except the engine.  The hardest part was the engine.  The engine looks like a deadly weapon with the cow catcher on it.  

 All the round parts for the engine was made out of a single turning.  Fun to do but it was a trouble to make sure the smoke stack, sand pipe, light and bell all in the same line.  The cow catcher was one of the last parts I made because I needed a bandsaw.  I really enjoy using the bandsaw and it makes the smaller cuts a lot easier.

 There are three passenger cars to this train. These are the baggage and passenger car.  

The final car is the observation deck.  It was a lot of small parts and drilling.

The train is made out of pine and walnut.  There is some birch, maple and beech because they were conveniently the correct size scrap.