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Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Make a gardening toolbox Customize it with a cool photo transfer Easy technique!

Spring is almost here!

Since March first is tomorrow, this is my official "kicking off spring" project. Yeah, I know spring doesnt start for a few more weeks and I realize many of you are still under a mountain of snow, but why not start looking forward to the coming season? Building a springy-type project will get you in a thawing-out frame of mind!

This tool tote can be made to function as a toolbox or as a decorative piece. As I began building mine, I realized that I liked it better as a planter. I suppose its like building a workbench that is so nice to look at that you dont want to scratch it!

However you wish to approach this, its a super-easy project you can make in a day. If you dont have a tablesaw, you can simplify it by eliminating the angled sides and cutting out all the pieces with a jigsaw. The dowel pins arent necessary: I added mine after the glued-up sides were dry, so they are mostly decorative.

Inkjet-to-wood photo transfer

The ink-transfer technique is a blast! If you dont build this toolbox, try out this image-to-wood transfer on something. Just print out any image on a sheet of label backing on your inkjet printer. I found my pictures on Google Images and printed them in reverse so the text was facing the right way. I also bumped up the color saturation a bit, but I love the faded look on wood!

Free plans

WWMM Gardening Tool Tote (pdf)
Sketchup File

Auction!

I would love for you to consider placing a bid on this toolbox. Remember, 100% of your winning bid goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Place your bid here! Hurry! Auction ends Friday, March 7th. Thank you all who have been participating in these auctions. Im so proud of you Me-Mos!

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Make a wood train whistle

I set out this week to make this years a New Years Eve noisemaker. I decided to make a horn or some other kind of wind-powered instrument. After making a couple of these whistles, I decided they wouldnt exactly make for much of a video.

I researched whistles and was reminded of the classic wooden train whistle. My son loved these as a boy and they arent too difficult to make. Its essentially the same whistle as the one above, but with four tone holes and a cap to direct air into all of them.

I took notes on the ones I made and you can download my measurements to try out. Its surprisingly easy to get good tones. Just take some time to fool around with it and come up with something that sounds good to you.

Easy to make plywood bongo drums

Bongo Cajón

I received an email from Ted Derryberry recently showing me a plywood cajon he made for his percussionist friend. I made a regular cajon a few years ago, but had never heard of a bongo version. As with its larger, deeper sounding cousin, cajónes are traditionally made with plywood, and have a thin tapa (top) made from 1/8" plywood which acts as a drum head. Some, such as the one Ted made, include snares inside that press against the tapa. I left them out of mine.

Wood

If you have trouble finding 1/8" plywood, it is often sold at lumberyards as a "door skin", and I presume is used to dress up a drab door. I have also found small sheets of thin plywood at some craft stores. You will only need a piece that is about 7" x 16". And if you have no luck finding 1/8" ply, I suspect 1/4" ply would sound pretty good. In larger cajónes, the thin plywood flexes to allow for a deeper sound. I used 1/2" plywood for the rest of the drum. Its sturdy, yet lightweight.

Construction

I jointed my pieces together with rabbets on the edges of the front and back, into which the sides fit. I cut dadoes (grooves) on the inside of the front and back to hold the divider, which gives the drum its two tones.

On standard cajónes, the tapa is screwed in place. This allows the player to adjust the tightness of the screws to create different tones. Due to the smaller size of a bongo cajón, I felt screws were unnecessary so I simply glued the tapa into place.

Playing

I angled the two short sides in at an 8 degree angle. This makes the drum more comfortable to hold between your knees if you play it that way. There seems to be no "right" way of playing a plywood bongo. I also added curved cutouts on the bottoms of the sides so the sound would resonate out if the drum is played on a firm surface.

Free Plans

WWMM Bongo Cajon (pdf)
Sketchup version

Super simple version

If you dont have a lot of tools or space, you can easily make your own plywood bongo drum! Cajónes were originally built by resourceful individuals using crates or old drawers. I like that the tradition of using an inexpensive material like plywood remains. It is somewhat ironic that music stores sell such expensive ones! So if you are a musician, make your own: its way cooler.

Use a handsaw to cut the plywood pieces to size. You might even be able to get them cut to size at your local home center. If you can find free wood, all the better! (Be interesting to try this with pallet wood.)

You will need:

3 boards that are 16" x 6"
3 boards that are 5.5" x 6"

To assemble it, just butt the pieces together and glue them. You can even use regular white glue. You will need to clamp the boards together to dry. If you dont have clamps, you can nail or screw the pieces together. Still use the glue...the fasteners will act as clamps. Let the glue dry for a couple hours and youve got a bongo cajón!

It will sound good if you play it on your lap so the the sound can resonate out the bottom opening. You can also experiment by cutting some sound holes in the sides and see how that sounds.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

MAKE YOUR OWN STENCILS sheet music dresser

I have a trick for you to make custom stencils, any size, shape, and inexpensively.

I dont have time to run to the craft store or wait for an order to come in the mail and because I

work on larger projects I like to be able to make my own stencils to fit the right size of my projects.

HOW TO:

** I print out a simple graphic on regular paper the size I need.

** Then I cover the front and back of the paper with strips of clear packing tape.

(This makes my stencil thicker and water/paint proof.)

**The final step is to cut my stencil out with a shape knife and get to work.

YES IT REALLY IS THAT SIMPLE!

I recently used these fancy Fleur de lis stencils to finish off a sheet music dresser I did.

Be sure to stop in to see whats new in shabby chic white hardware available at firstfinds.

The Etsy shop is filled with all sorts of vintage hardware.

There is over 1000 pieces of used hardware to choose from

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Lets make a thumb chair

There are several woodworking sites that I follow on Facebook and one of them is Ana Whites. She runs a DIY blog and gives out plenty of free plans that she sketches. A couple of weeks ago she posted a plan for a thumb chair that you can find HERE. Once I saw it I knew that it would be perfect for my two boys. It can be made out of 1x3s and some 1x12. My local Home Depot never has flat 1x12s so I picked up some 1x6s and will be gluing them up for the seat bottom & back.

This is the example from her blog.

I set the angle for 10 degrees

and the bevel for 5 degrees

Here is the mitre saw all set up and ready to cut

I am making 2 chairs and I set up a stop block to make sure all the

legs are the same length. I almost reset the saw to the other side to cut the other

half of the legs when I realized that you can flip and then turn them over to get the

opposite side.

Make sure that the bevel leans into the center of the chair when you

connect the pieces.

I drilled pockety holes into the cross pieces for the legs and the stretchers

that connect the two leg assemblies.

This Kreg clamp is a life saver. I have a real problem with the wood shifting

when I drill in the pockets holes and making the pieces uneven.

It wasnt in the plans but I used a 1/4" roundover bit on my router table

to ease over the sides of the legs and bottom of the crosspieces. I left the top
and bottoms flat. The top of the legs is at a 5 degree bevel but the crosspiece
is not so I had to be careful when I attached them to keep the high point to

the outside.

I also rounded over the bottom of the stretchers.

I used my Rockler mini clamp-it to get the strectchers in the right

place and angle for gluing and screwing.

Its always good to have a helper.

I marked the two pieces to make them easier to line up.

One side done.

I test fitted it before applying glue.

One of my legs shifted a little so its not quite square but

it sits flat on the ground so I am not going to complain.

Im halfway done with the first chair.

This is post 1 of a 3 part series.

You can read part 2 here:
http://blogspot.com/2013/02/thumb-chair-update.html

and part 3 here:

http://blogspot.com/2013/02/the-first-thumb-chair-is-done.html

Saturday, January 18, 2014

One woodworking projects that make money

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