Wooden Plaque in Hebrew

This was a wooden plaque that I made in Hebrew. I do not read Hebrew, but was a gift for someone who does. This translated is "They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles.."

Wooden plaque made of Teak wood and Neem wood lettering

The base is teak wood, the letters made of thin whitish part of neem wood. The teak wood is tained with walnut stain from sheenlac.

Finish is a polyurethane gloss finish from asian paints.

Planning the plaque

Doll's House bed

Doll's house bed made from finger jointed rubber wood

This is a doll's house bed made of 12mm  finger jointed rubber wood.
Dimensions of the bed: 31 cm x15 cm.
The thin grooves are made with a dremel and dremel router table attachment.
The main dado is made with a router.
The design was cut using a scroll saw.
There are no nails. The picture above is not glued up. I plan to glue it up after the final sanding.

We are planning this for the first woodworking club project.

Lumber storage Cart

I have a lot of wood that makes my room very messy. I saw Steve Ramsey's lumber storage cart and wanted to build something similar.

The partitions were made from 18 mm plywood. I used a bit of 12 mm MDF for the main partition. I added wheels underneath.

The partitions made from 18 mm plywood

Lumber cart in progress

Wheels underneath. Should have used heavier duty ones

Finished lumber storage cart

Finished lumber storage cart

The finished cart really holds a lot of wood. However it is too heavy for the wheels. I have to upgrade it to heavier duty wheels. This has really helped organization of the workshop.

Crayon holder

A crayon holder to hold 24 thick crayons.

Crayon holder

Wood: Babul (karuvelam)
Finish: Asian paints PU exterior Sealant, followed by PU exterior Glossy.
Making it: the bottom of the boat was cut out of a 2x4 reaper of karuvelam wood using a jigsaw. I used a chamfer bit to get the slope of the boat.  A similar process was used for the top of the boat.
The holes are drilled at an incline so that all the crayons point the same way. This was done by tilting the drill press support table.

crayon holder plan

I made a small plan of this using powerpoint to aid the drilling process.

Wooden Plaque : Love never fails

This is another wooden plaque with the verse "love never fails"

Base: Padauk wood

Letters : Thin neem wood strips cut out with a scroll saw

Finish: Asian paints exterior PU sealer followe by Asian paints exterior Glossy varnish. 

Styrofoam box table

This was another small thing that I made for my son before I began woodworking. It is a small  table that was made by cutting out the sides of a thermocol (styrofoam box)

Table made from a styrofoam box

It was fun while it lasted. 

However it was too light and my son could toss it around and hammer things into it. Surprisingly it could take his weight. 

The chair was a flat piece of thermocol with some old spice bottles used as the legs. 

Cardboard Carton House

This was a house I made for my son way before I started woodworking. It is a TV carton covered with color paper. I used a black marker to highlight the edges.

Cardboard carton house

House made from an old cardboard carton

Cardboard carton house. 

My son loved it. It is now difficult to get rid of large cartons as they have to be converted into houses. for my later houses I did not have the patience to cover it with color paper.
This did last for a few months.

Basic techniques : jigsaw guide

A jigsaw is very useful for cutting free curves.  However for straight cuts  a guide is very useful.

What can you use as a guide?
A piece of wood (factory cut edge).
A piece of aluminium profile. (Note for long pieces there may be slight curves) the heavier the piece the less it may bend.
A commercially available straight edge. ( I have not found any in India. If anyone knows of them please do add your comments)

Make sure that the  straightness of the guide is checked against something reliable. Walls of a house are usually not perfectly straight. Metal rulers usually are straight along the marked edge. A good straight edge reference is a three foot long metal ruler. It is not useful to use as a guide but can be used reasonably well to check straightness of the guide you are going to use.

Jigsaw guide : A piece of molding. Crude, but serves the purpose. 

Straight cuts are best made with a circular saw (with guide) or with a table saw.

Wooden plaques from babul wood

Here are another set of wooden plaques that I made.
The base is made fro karuvelum wood, bevel cut with a jigsaw.
The lettering from thin pieces of teak wood, cut with a scroll saw.
Small headless nails hold the letters  in addition to glue. The heads of the headless nails have been cut off with a rotary tool.
Finish: Asian Paints PU interior glossy.

Wooden plaques made from karuvelum (babul) wood base and teak wood lettering

The workshop : A family affair

One of the things I enjoy a lot is when the others in the family join me in the workshop. Fortunately for me my children have not been in the habit of taking my tools and screws and other potentially dangerous tools. But for that matter even a sharpened pencil can be extremely dangerous in the hands of a child.
Nina here insisted on vacuuming the workshop. It has been a marathon few days sorting out junk and trying to bring some order into the spare room that I dare to call my workshop.
Somehow I get reminded of Tom Sawyer whitewashing a fence. I suppose whatever the task, if you enjoy (or pretend to enjoy) doing it, it can really be interesting.

Nina vacuuming the workshop