Hanging Shelf (WiP)

 

Being accumulators of books and knick-knacks and things as we are, we have an ongoing need for more places to display that sort of thing, and this is another part of that process. It's the first of a pair of small hanging shelf units, made from recycled rimu.

In this picture it's just propped up on the end of a shinai, to hold it in place for fitting. I discover that I have not taken into account a notch in the lower shelf to accommodate the paneling batten, and I also need to make and inset a couple of hanging plates on the back of the stretcher. And looking at it now, I think it could do with some titivating of the leading edges of the uprights... maybe a relief bevel on the outside edges or something, though being at this stage of assembly I've made that sort of thing a lot more difficult for myself.

Also, before I finalize everything, I should probably make sure that it's not going to catch people in the back of the head, who are sitting on the sofa immediately below — if so, they'll probably have to go on the other side of the room. The shelves, that is, not the people.

Hopefully, having worked out all the quirks on this first one, the second should go more smoothly.

Next day:

As I suspected, it hangs a bit low over the sofa for head safety. It could go right up above the dado, but that's lath & plaster under there, and trying to find studs to hang it from would be a nightmare and would inevitably leave so many holes the wall would look like the site of a machine-gun massacre.

I'll just put it on the other side of the room, over the telly.

Stool

I have a sad case of Finish Regret.

I made this macrocarpa stool, and decided at the last minute to use polyurethane to finish it, instead of tung oil. I figured that polyurethane would be better for a piece of indoor-outdoor furniture; the finish wouldn't last forever out in the weather, but it would be a lot more resistant to occasional raining-upon than would an oil finish.

The theory is fine and dandy, but I failed to take into account the temperature. The coolness means that the polyurethane's curing was retarded, and it has slumped in places on the vertical surfaces. I'm going to have to sand it back and reapply, probably in several very thin rubbing applications, with about 24 hours between each.

So, poo bum wees.

Another Dresser

 

On to the next project, another dresser restoration.

I've stripped the old varnish off the cupboard door on the right, and the little top curved-faced drawer, and given them a coat of finishing oil. It brings up the colour of the rosewood veneer beautifully, and the whole thing will look pretty luscious, I think, when it's all done. The old varnish is pretty faded and stained, so good riddance to it.

It's going to be a bit trickier than the last restoration though, as there are quite a few fragments of veneer missing, and I'm not sure where to go for replacement stuff. The handles will need attention too; there's only one of the drawer handles that hasn't been broken in the lifetime of this piece, and there's absolutely no chance of being able to buy exact replacements. I'll probably have to make something.

The mirror from this dresser has been transferred to the one I just finished. Whether it gets transferred back again is an issue for a future time.

Garden Seating

A long time ago, I sawed the bench seats off one of our picnic tables, because they were more of a nuisance than anything else.

Then, quite a bit later on, I dragged them out of storage and turned them into seats again by making some trestles for them to sit on. I thought that using trestles would be a good idea.

I was wrong.

It turns out that trestles are actually kind of a pain in the arse if you want to move the bench around, because each trestle and the bench-seat have to be moved individually, and then be set up again.

So now I've dismantled a couple of the trestles and turned them into permanent legs for the benches, which makes the benches themselves easier to move about, and also got me back four strap-hinges I can use on some other project.

I might have to add stretchers between the legs, but maybe not. I'll see how they go.

New Monitor Stand

Yesterday I set out to tidy up my workshop a bit. I didn't do much of that, because I got distracted, and accidentally built myself a new monitor stand out of some old rimu shelving.

It's taller than my old one, which is good: hopefully having the monitor a bit higher will help me to avoid slouching in my Kneely-Chair. Now the centre of the display is exactly at my eye-line, instead of me looking down at it.

An added benefit is that now I have a shelf to store my graphics tablet on, instead of having to leave it leaning up against the side of the monitor.

Quite apart from its better ergonomics, it's nicer to look at than my old one, which was just slapped together out of some bits of MDF and a vinyl cover stapled on.

There's nothing much to it in terms of woodwork, just a few housing dados, some glue and some screws. I could probably have got away without the screws to be honest; it's not as if it's ever likely to be under enough physical stress to make them necessary.

Stool Time

Here's yet another stool, a very simple one this time, made out of reclaimed rimu.

The pieces of wood I had to work with were full of old saw kerfs and screw holes. I cut around the old kerfs and plugged some of the holes with dowels, but I see one that I missed — I'm not really sure that it's worth the bother of revisiting it, but we shall see how much it preys on my mind.

I do like rimu as a furniture timber, but it does have its issues. It can have a tendency to warp, but this timber is so old that I don't expect that. As it ages, it gets harder and more brittle, which isn't usually much of an issue when using it to make things, but it means that it tends to split and splinter when you're de-nailing recycled wood, and you'll probably have to be sure to pre-drill every screw hole.

I would have liked to have tapered the legs a bit to make it a bit more elegant, but by the time I'd cut the baulks down I only had 30mm square sticks to work with. Maybe a bit of tapering would be all right, but I worry that it might have made the legs too delicate for the hurly-burly of day to day use.

Knobby Knobs

I've been getting some practice on my little lathe, turning some drawer-pulls for my little chest of drawers. I actually ordered some cast metal ones, but those cost very little so I figured that I had nothing much to lose by making some of my own, and it would be nice to have a piece of furniture in which every single component was made by hand, by me..

There are enough here for all ten drawers, plus some spares so I can discard the crappiest ones. They're made from beech, from an old broom handle.

Some of them are fairly similar to some others, but none are identical — I have real problems with control and repeatability on the lathe. I decided that since I was unlikely to get them all very similar, I wouldn't even try, and made each one an individual.

Drawers

My little chest of drawers is about done now, except for the drawer pulls, which are coming from Far Cathay and won't be here for a few weeks.

All in all, I'm fairly happy with it. I'll be happier still when I can actually use it.

I'm kind of curious to see how the colour of the sapele alters as it ages. Will it darken, or will it fade? I'm all agog. I guess I'll find out in ten or twenty years or so.

In retrospect, it might have been better if I'd made it of such a size that the drawers could accommodate an A4 sheet of paper, but alas, I did not. I guess I'll just have to make another one.

Carcass

A few years ago I got a bunch of free reclaimed timber from an organisation that was clearing out its workshop. Among it was some laminated sapele, which appeared to once have been a counter-top.

It's taken a while to get around to using it, but finally I have, and over the last couple of days I've put together the carcass for a little chest of drawers. Now I just have to make a bunch of shallow drawers.

It's about 600mm tall, and the drawer spaces are only 25mm (35mm for the bottom two), so very shallow. I'll be using them to house my 6mm micro-scale models, so they don't need to be any deeper than that — in fact, deeper drawers would just be more difficult to use for the intended purpose.

The runners are ash, so should be tough enough to stand up to plenty of wear, though in truth they won't have to carry a lot of weight.

Sapele is quite nice to work with, but it does tend to have a bit of interlinked grain which can make planing a bit tricky — the issue is exacerbated by the fact that these boards are laminated, so fairly often there are strips of wood right next to each other with the grain running in opposite directions. I have to make sure my planes are super-sharp, and taking super-thin shavings. Even so, I was still getting the occasional tear-out, but it's pretty minimal.

The Little Cabinet That Could

A few years ago I bought a whole lot of 6mm WWII models at the Christchurch Wargaming Club's annual bring-and-buy, and they came in some simple trays made of pink birch and hardboard. Those trays have been sitting around doing nothing ever since, and yesterday I thought I might as well make use of them for their original purpose.

I whipped up a carcass from MDF (boo! hiss!), slapped some handles and oil on the trays to turn them into drawers, and voila, a little cabinet for my tiniest war-dollies.

MDF has many virtues, but it has many faults as well. Among those faults, the fact that it's a real pain to get a decent, even paint coat on. Especially if, like me, you're basically pretty crap at painting things that aren't models.

Rough-Sawn Macrocarpa Stool

This is a stool entirely for the Outside, that I whipped up in a few hours from a macrocarpa board I found hiding away down the back of the section.

It's very simple, and as far as is possible, without subjecting its users to the dangers of splinters, I've kept the original rough-sawn finish — I've just sanded it down a bit to smooth it off.

I've applied no finish to this one. I'll just leave it out in the weather, and over a couple of years it will develop its own silvery weather-beaten patina.

Stool Sample

I had a macrocarpa plank that was getting in the way, so I turned it into this stool.

For some reason it seems to me that it has a somewhat ecclesiastical feel, probably because of the scallops and what-not.

I like working with macrocarpa, but I can't say I'm especially fond of the knots. They tend to be dead knots too, so they fall out.

The stool is 600mm long by about 450mm high, a very comfortable sitting height for me. It's long enough for two people to sit on, as long as they're two very friendly people.

Upcycling

Some time ago, we bought a couple of cheap shitty $12 Warehouse folding chairs when we were on a road-trip and realised we had nothing to sit on while drinking our wine and slapping at sandflies. They were functional enough, but nothing to write home about.

As it turned out, they're not made of the sort of materials that appreciate being left outside in all weathers, and the MDF that provided their main structural sitting-resistance has become soft, spongy, and unreliable as a sturdy sit-upon. So, I decided to do something about it, and slapped on a new seat and back-rest made from macrocarpa.

From this....

To this.

It's not best-quality macrocarpa, but it's not too bad. Knots aren't entirely avoidable, but I managed to keep them away from any edges.

In my dream home...

I want this. I NEED this.