debor054

Another quick and dirty 'project'...and still distracted by the gardening bug. We needed a small bench on which to germinate our seeds indoors and then later put outdoors as the weather warms up. I certainly wasn't going to pay the ridiculous garden center prices, especially on something that might exposed to the weather!  So ... An afternoon's work, a handful of basic tools, an old broken pallet and some pieces of recycled wood from the dump for the legs and a £1.35 bag of screws later... Our 'new' seed propagation bench was born. These are the tools used, a square, pencil, gimlet (i love gimlets), screwdriver, chisels and a small saw. It's not built to last a lifetime and it's not pretty ... but, It's functional, almost free and it was a great way to spend an afternoon! Broken and discarded pallets can be a readily available and free useful source of wood, so keep your eye out for them!

As mentioned previously , my poor little bench recently decided to give up the ghost and collapse on me. Until, I get round to building a proper bench, I have decided to make some 'improvements / repairs' so I can at least carry on working wood. It's been ages since I have actually built anything useful!.... Anyway, the first thing to do was to lower the bench height by a good few inches. I have always found it hard to get some weight squarely over the plane and pushing sideways rather than downwards increases the lateral forces being exerted on the poor little bench frame therefore increasing the racking. The bench felt quite a bit more stable immediately the legs were shortened.  Next, add some bracing... I had some pieces of wood  that were perfect for the job! With the four braces added and reduced height, I could really feel the bench frame start to stiffen up. One of the biggest annoyances with this beginners bench has been work holding. All the dog holes are some s...

Just a quick post... I have been playing with my new Axe  and 'carved' a basic cooking spatula and kitchen spoon. Neither of which are finished yet, so this is more of a progress report really.  The wood is from a small Ornamental Cherry tree that I cut down from the garden a few weeks back and is soaking wet green. I don't really know much about Green Wood Working (yet), so I imagine I have to leave things to dry out before they can be finished? Any advice from readers would be appreciated! The cooking spatula is functional from a 'Bushcraft' perspective but that's about it! I should have paid more attention to the small knots, the main one causing problems is on the side and there is another tiny one in the center of the 'blade' - A lesson learnt. Once the wood has dried out I will try and sand a finish on it and oil it properly. As for the spoon, well these pics are straight off the axe I haven't touched it with a knife yet. I have tried to keep t...

Another post ...at last!... Sadly again without in any real useful or interesting content. Lately (as regular readers can probably tell), I have been lacking motivation in the wood working department - for a number of reasons.  Firstly,  I don't have any wood around that's suitable for any of the things I'd actually like to make - such as a tool chest. My ' Timber Investment ' is still drying out in the shed and wont really be ready for anything other than really rustic work and gardening projects for a little while and I am too tight to purchase more premium cost wood from the timber yard. Secondly, in my quest to escape the timber merchant , I have been trying to process the raw billets of Oak and Walnut with a lot of frustration! While my little bench was fine for pre planed wood, it's simply not man enough to handle the rough 'scrubbing' of the billets down to usable dimensions. The poor thing racked so violently, it almost fell to pieces! The base ...