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

Magnetic knife holder

This is a magnetic knife holder made from karuvelam (babul) wood. The edges are rounded over using a router.

Knife holder from babul wood using neodymium magnets. Two 5 mm magnets used for each knife. 

I used two 5 mm neodymium magnets for each knife. I drilled a sligthly smaller hole and then tightly pressed the magnet in using a C-clamp. This ensured a tight fit. I used a bit of fevicol just to be on the safe side.

Impressions
The knives stay on. However not all knives are magnetic. Really heavy knives do not stay. I did not add much finish to it. Now that this holder is used a lot, I have noticed some black staining on the wood from the magnets. This is most likely due to hanging up wet knives on the holder.

On retrospect A larger magnet could have been used with a thin piece of wood protecting it. It is a bit scary having all your knives hanging there, and I plan to build a normal knife holder later on. 

Scroll saw wooden fruit

This is a bowl of wooden fruit (well and other foodstuff as well)

The fruits were cut out of 12 mm thick finger jointed rubber wood using a scroll saw. The lines were added using a soldering iron.
Finish is Asian Paints Touch wood applied and immediately wiped off to give a dull, thin finish. This is not very quick finish. 

A bowl of wooden fruit and other foodstuff. 

Wooden fruit and foodstuff. cut out with a scroll saw  (Not to scale )

The fruits are all similar sized, and not to scale. 

Wooden plaque from Padauk wood

This is a plaque made from Padauk wood. The words trigger a lot of family memories.
The base is made from Padauk wood, cut with a jigsaw to at an angle.
The letters are cut out of Neem wood. They are cut with the proxxon DS 230E scroll saw.  They are fixed with small headless nails. Even headless nails cause these small letters to split. To prevent this one has to cut off the heads of the headless nails. A pilot hole also has to be drilled.
I like the natural red color of Padauk wood.
The finish is Asian Paints Polyurethane exterior glossy coating.

Wooden plaque made from Padauk wood and Neem letters

Scroll saw work

This is a piece made by my friend Sharon Roshan using the Proxxon scroll saw.
She cut out the image from 3mm veneer (I think it is birch).
We stuck it on a background of red Padauk wood, whose sides were rounded over with a router. We used a thin metal chain at the back to hang it up.

Scroll saw design of a grandfather and daughter

Simple whiteboard

The need: A small whiteboard for the kitchen to put up a shopping lst

Materials: I already have a white door and a piece of perspex.

Small piece of a perspex sheet 

The white door

Cutting the perspex: With a jigsaw with fine blades. The perspex cracked twice so I had to cut it twice carefully

Cutting the perspex sheet

The finished product : Four holes in the corners with screws fix the plastic sheet on the wall. The finished product serves its purpose though is not really a white board. 

Perspex sheet acting as a small kitchen whiteboard