New Trucks

 Last year I was asked to donate a home made fire truck for the annual John Cowell curling bonspiel and I was very honored to do so. Once again they asked if I would like another one, I was happy to do so, but I thought I'd make two this year as I was setting up to make one. These trucks are made from many different spices of wood. I used purple heart, walnut, mahogany, lace wood, zebra wood, birch, oak, clear maple, birdseye maple and rock maple. There are 107 pieces in each truck, 95 are visible and 12 you can't see, because they are hardwood pieces used as pins to hold the lights, siren and mounting brackets for the ladders and hard suction hoses. A few are made of several pieces and then reshaped, such as the fenders and engine block. All are hand made, turned on a lathe and/or hand sanded, milled from rough stock or previously milled material. It usually takes about a week to make one. I finished them off with poly to highlight the natural beauty of the wood and to protect them. Here are a few pictures of how it went and the finished trucks.

The new trucks.

One side view.

The other side.

How they started.

The factory floor.

Some assembly and finish applied.

Wall Unit

 My recent project is done. A wall unit for our living room. It's 11ft 3 inches wide and 8 ft 6 inches high. I built the doors, and shelving units from rock maple, very dense and heavy, making it very stable. The lower cabinets were made from plywood and the top from 12 foot pine boards. The TV is hidden behind folding pocket doors. There are 16 drawers in the cabinets, 3 on each end and 5 in the middle two, all made from pine and  I did my best to level it with the base, before installing the cabinets. Here are a few pictures of how it went.

Bottom cabinet and drawers.

Plywood to give us an idea of the shelves.

New wall mounted TV.

TV unit and doors.

TV unit with doors open.

Shelves installed.

Top shelf install with top filler strip.

One more, with the fireplace going.

Floreana's Treasure

 When I found out I'll be a Great Uncle I was very happy, and being a woodworker I thought I should make something special for a special little Girl. So I made a little treasure box for my treasured great niece. 

I made it out of one 1 x 10 x 14 ft yellow birch plank, except the bottom of the box and tray were made from 1/4 inch plywood with Cherry veneer applied, to help with stability. The panels are floating with small rubber bumpers inside to keep them from rattling and to allow the panels to move, depending on the humidity at any give time. I first cut the pieces to rough size and let them sit in the heated shop to acclimatize a bit before final milling. I used a spline to attach the sides to the front and back and a rabbit for the bottom. The top I first made square and then hand planed it over for a softer look. I used brass  hinges and hasp, then attached leather straps for handles. It was finished off with a few coats of poly. 

I know she'll like it more when she get a little older but for now it looks like it's perfect, a treasure box for a little treasure.

 

58th John Cowell Curling Bonspiel Fire Truck

 I was asked to donate one of my fire trucks to the annual (59th) John Cowell Curling Bonspiel, as I enjoy working wood and it's been a while since I made one the decision was easy. I used several types of wood such as maple, Birdseye maple, oak, mahogany, walnut, lacewood, and purple heart. Like the other trucks I made, all but a couple of the parts are hand made, either on a small lathe, hand sanded to size, even the little pegs I used to hold the lights in place, about 110 pieces. Here are a couple of pictures of my latest creation. 

Candle Stand

 It was brought to my attention that we needed a small stand to go beside one of our chairs. I found this candle stand design in an older woodworking magazine, and decided to make it. It was also one of the episodes from The New Yankee Workshop. I make mine a little different and I used Birdseye Maple. I finished it with bees wax furniture polish.

My newest piece. 

The Birdseye really stands out.

Tables

There is always a need to maximize a space and in one of my wife's studios she needed a table that would fit over top a group of organizing carts. It needed to be 36 inches high, 82 inches long and she only needed it to be 19 inches wide. To keep it from sagging if there was too much weight put on top or if someone just leaned on it to look out the window I put a 1½ inch high support rabbited in the front and a 2 inch one on the back, this provided the support required. 

The other table I made was a sofa table with floating top, which doesn't need to be by a sofa. The design was altered a bit so the top would fit snug against the wall, therefor the legs needed to be 1½ narrower on all edges to offset the depth of our base boards. I used pine boards, applied walnut gel stain with MINWAX polish. It turned out a bit better than I thought. It's nice when that happens. Here is a look at this months work.

The studio table. 

Another look at the sofa table.

The sofa table.

New Cabinet

 I finished a new filing/storage cabinet for the office. I needed a couple of more drawers for the things I had in the old desk hutch. I can store my printer paper and other paraphernalia. It has full extension bottom drawers for the files and standard draw slides for the others. I cut in the ends so I can pull the drawers out.  Here is what it looks like. 

Drawers nicely spaces.

A good balance.

How it looked before.

Now with the new cabinet.