LA Photo frame..Maple and Ebony

Sue Parry, one of the glass artists in the centre, stopped by a couple of weeks ago and asked if she could commission a photo frame.

"The only thing is" she says "I need to take it to LA next Wednesday"

Out comes a blank sheet of paper and we're off...designing the frame that's going to be flying through the sky over the pond, before the finish has had plenty of time to cure...

Sue and I are going through all sorts.. then I'll be back in a minute. In she walks with her laptop, on Flickr going through some photos of the furniture and home of the person who will be receiving the frame... brilliant, this really tells me a lot about this guy, what he likes and dislikes...

So back to the drawing board, and it's then I say," why don't I just make it like the inside of my cabinet door, I think that would suit.."

 

So Here's the Sycamore, Maple & Ebony Cabinet

 

 

and this is the inside of the door shape..

 

 

 

Here's the lock mechanism and the corner 'key's in Ebony

 

 

Back to the drawing board, within minutes we've sorted the design, and now we're onto the sizing.

Out comes the cardboard, I cut up the card to the size of the photo, and start drawing around it until Sue's happy. "There we go, done".

Not quite, the Maple is only at 14% moisture. So I rough cut the Maple and took it home for a couple of days. Sitting on top of the wardrobe, then after each time I worked it, it was back home in the warmth easily down to 8-9 % before it was jointed.

 

This is the mock up on the wall..

 

 

Patterns and Maple cut...

 

 

The inside edges were cleaned up before assembly,

and the outside were done after the frame was dry...

 

 

Here's one joint from behind.. showing the kidney plate too..

 

 

It really started moving along now, I fitted the Ebony keys, rebated the back to take the glass, fitted some mount board to the photograph and some board for the back. Note the use of the kidney plates to hold all of the parts into the rebate. I like to use a hole for the method of hanging, that way the frame will sit tight against a wall, and I stamped the back board.

 

 

But..before I fitted the back board..

 

 

I placed one of my cards, dated and signed.

 

I gave Sue a nail and another card, folded in my tea stained recycled paper envelope..

It's just one of those things I do...saves paper and I like the stained look that a tea bag leaves

( I know...)

 

 

    

 

Showing the end and corners..

 

 

Done...

 

Sue was over the moon with it..and it jetted off to Los Angeles the next day.

 

 

All the best

 

Jamie

Chopping Boards..

Some things can start with a simple move around of some shelves..

I had put some new lighting in the Gallery part of my workshop, and it's looking pretty good, but in doing this the shelves needed dusting off, so I set about dusting, and in moving things around, found that I had a chopping board under a Wedding Archive box...I just hadn't picked up on it being under there..

Later that week, in walks Wendy, and straight away says she likes the Oak board on the shelf. When I tell her that it is all finished by hand, as in planed all round, then I use a scraper to finish the surface and corners.

Then after oiling with Mineral oil, I stamp my 'mark' in the middle of both ends and finally I burnish the corners and edges with a small block of the same timber, this gives a wonderful natural shine to the surface..

No sandpaper...at all..

It takes a bit longer by hand, but worth the effort and you can see it..

So it went. Number 1 gone

And it was time to make some more out of piece's of Beech and Oak worktop ends, sink cut-outs and hob cut-outs hanging around the workshop since I moved in.

Each board is a different size and while I have this stock I'll keep track of the sizes and they'll go through my books with a number.

So on Thursday, I'm working with Chris one of the students, and I'm showing him how to use the cabinet scraper, in walk a couple of ladies, Pat and Patricia, and before we know what's happened, Pat want's one of the boards, the one we're working on.. After a few minutes we have to prepare this board for sale, and go through the above process to complete it.

Wonderful.. It's great when people 'get' what it is you do...

Oak & Beech chopping boards.

Different sizes every time so I don't waste any wood, no two the same..

Have a look in the

 Gallery Items for sale

Come and have a look and enjoy seeing what I get up to in my workshop.

Every day is a different day.

All the best

Jamie

One for Cat lovers...

Based at the Ruskin Glass Centre, means that there is always something going on, and leaving the doors open means that anyone can walk in at any time. I'm okay with this, if I need to do some machining on the bandsaw for example, then I just shut the door and if I'm making lots of noise I'll turn the key. Do whatever needs doing then unlock the doors afterwards. That way people in the centre don't hear my loud machinery, and I get dedicated, safe time on the machines.

I'm going to work out some kind of card system to put in the windows, This should make it easier for the communication between myself and a visitor.

Anyhow, over the last few weeks I've had a number of visitors, who have made some fused glass in a workshop here at the Glass Centre, and was after some wooden blocks to stand the pieces in, quite a straight forward job. But one that a larger company probably wouldn't bother with..

I don't mind doing them, it helps them out and I make use of some small piece's of timber..

 

A lovely piece of glass work, with two siple 'feet' made in Beech to go with the wood in her kitchen.

Diane's going to oil these...

 

 

And another block for this piece

 

 

I'll put these and some more on the miscellaneous page.

 

All the best

 

Jamie

 

 

First evening class piece finished..

When Rebbecca had finished her first piece of stained glass, the only thing it needed was a frame...

She came to my workshop with a few ideas, but not really sure which one would suit the piece, it was then that I thought that if she came onto my evening class, we could work out the design as she made it, to ensure she got exactly what she wanted.

And tonight, Rebbecca has finished her Pine wood frame, made for the stained glass that she made in another class at Ruskin Glass Centre, with Paul Floyd.

Then what finish? the black stain originally wanted? or not...

Well, we sampled the Black Stain, and tried out some Oil, Rebbecca has taken the samples home and is going to live with it for a while, before comiting..

I think it looks great natural.

All the best

Jamie

  

At the bottom of the garden...

Friday was another cold day, and that morning was already in the diary to go and replace a gate, so at 7am when I looked out of the window there was snow blowing around in the wind, only a light sprinkling...but you never know


I got to the house and there was an area cleared for me to build up the gate. Tools first, my little car was full of all types of things I may need..

The next thing to do was clear a bit more space and start dismantling the old gate. The strap hinges were lovely, a fair bit of wear on them, but still more than adequate for the size of gate that they were going to support.

I got to work on removing the hinges from the old gate and was pleasantly surprised that the screws came out quite well, no chewed up slots helped and the rust from screw to hinge didn't slow it down either. In a short time the gate was off and lent against the wall.

I had already cut the timbers to length (plus 30mm), run the ledges and brace through the saw and put a few degrees on the edges to stop any water standing. I'd also cut the diagonal brace ends on my cross-cut, to save more time. So, it appeared that this gate was only going to take a few minutes, but I did give it a head start. I placed the old gate on top of the new, pencilled a line around the gate plus a couple of millimetres and cut the head shape (plus a bit)..

With the gate assembled I held it up to the wall, fixed through the strap hinges into the gate and got to see how it was looking, I had to plane a bit off either side, but on the whole it was pretty good. Some more shaping to the top to get the curved top similar shape to the brickwork and it was looking great.

The bolts were a bit of fun, an outside bolt was on, so if they went through the gate for a walk they could lock the garden behind them. A good idea I thought, so that one went on first, the inside was a bit trickier. I had to put another ledge on the gate to get the bolt to work in the old holes, so it had to fit up to the brace, and to make it look right I added the one the other side later. But the bolt wasn't too much trouble and the padlock still fitted too..

The bolts were held on with some of those bolts that we all seem to have a few of... Sometimes in an old ice cream tub or box, plenty of different sizes...and I managed to use half a dozen bolts, nuts and washers, so that felt good, and does save some money too. We did have to get some more bolts for the heavy end of the strap hinges... and guess what.. a couple more left over...

Job done..

And still there was the occasional flurry of snow in the wind...

 All the best

Jamie

Parkinsons Perfect 15 vice.. not so perfect..vices...

I've been after some more vices for the workshop benches. Last year I picked up a Parkinsons Perfect 15" vice for only £5.00, what a bargain. And with the travelling only into Worcester town, 20 minutes in the car, that's great..but there is something going on on Ebay...

You see, since then I've had a few saved searches watching out for vices, and they are not as cheap as before, looks like the second hand/used market is on the up for tools.

But where they were around £20. ... now, they are going for around £40.. is this because people are beginning to realise that sometimes the old stuff is better than the new? or is it that people are buying old ones to reuse, recycle etc...

Are we all just after a bargain, and it's driving the prices up...I'm not sure.

A couple of weeks ago I was going to start a table, and looking around for timber to build it with, no luck in my shop. I was after contrasting colours in timber, and I have plenty of Brazilian Mahogany, so wanted something pale like Maple. And then it came to me Molly, the lady I had some Ebony off last year, I called her up and went over to see what she had in the way of pale timber. And as I was looking around I noticed a couple of vices on benches, and there it was a Record 52 1/2, the industry standard bench joiners vice, fitted to one of the many benches...

I asked Molly if it was for sale and we soon agreed a price, then the fun started. It took me over an hour to remove the vice, Molly's husband had done a smashing job of fitting the vice, but with all the dust, general mess and the fact that it was really quite dark, it was challenging...I even managed to save the bolts..

I found some timber, Maple, put away a fair few years ago, and it seems pretty good. I'll be making something out of it soon.

So here's the Record 52 1/2, an old one, there's a label in an Art Deco font on the cover plate...

I cleaned it over with a wire cup brush in my old Black and Decker drill,

I then went over it with some wax polish...

And here it is attached to the student bench, note the holes in the top of the bench,

more on these later...

I fixed more timber under the bench top to take the weight and support at the correct height, this vice went on so easy, I even managed to use those old bolts from it's previous home...

***********

So onto the Parkinsons Perfect 15 Vice

This is the one I've had to wait a while before fitting, so here we go..



The back casting was a pain, not square, so had lots of fun fitting to my bench.. and the old wooden chock will come in useful later...

It looks great doesn't it..a great casting and I love the small neat quick release lever,

and of course Made In England...It took a lot more cleaning than the other vice, due to all of the Red Lead paint and loads of oil and grease that the previous owner had put on.

I got through loads of cloth and White Spirit..

This was my old York plain screw vice guide, I bought it from Axminster,

and it will be put away until I have another use for it..no rush

I've removed the old vice, and had to remove some of the fascia to get the Parkinsons vice to fit to it, I left the old bolts in the bench under the two disc shapes on the top, and just got a grinder to the studs beneath the bench... But getting this vice to sit right was a right old pain, the castings were not really as good as the old Record 52 1/2 and it took a while to get it right...

How to fill the bolt holes up..I was given a Bay tree trunk by a friend, and thought that it would make fantastic oyster plugs. I turned part of the trunk on the lathe and made 8 tapered plugs, just cut each one off, a bit of glue, tapped in, allowed to dry, then I ran a plane over them. That's another different timber added to my benches...

In the chipboard top of the student bench too... this bench is all re-used wood

it's great to mess around with different timbers.

So while I'm on the subject of vices, you may as well see the tail vice on my bench..

Inside the Teak, American Cherry and Maple is a York Tail Vice Screw, the jaws open to around 10"

and the Tommy bar is made from Ash (an old bakers 'peel' handle)

It could do with a clean down and probably would benefit from being trued up,

with a sharp plane, a straight edge and a bit of time..not just yet then..

All designed and hand built by myself



So there we have it, I still need to put faces inside the jaws of both vices..

The next posting is all about the table...or gate...

If you agree, like, disagree with anything I've put in here then please make a comment..

Just about all the comments get published

all the best

Jamie

  

February is flying along...

So, in a previous posting I had mentioned an Oak staircase with quite a few watermarks. The staircase was salvaged and reused in this home, and when you look at it carefully you can see where some jointing has taken place to make it fit.

The watermarks were made when someone had left a bucket of water on the treads whilst doing some work on the walls. There were around eight or nine of the marks, some so bad that when they were gone I noticed some more on the same tread that none of us had seen.

 

Here you can see the waring out of the Polyurethane on the treads, risers and strings

 

 

 

One of the water marks before

 

 

 

and after removal

 

 

 

Another before..

 

 

 

and after..

 

and the worst one..

 

 

you can really see the shape of the bucket, this was easily the worst watermark I've seen...

 

 

 

This is after, but I still hadn't finished.

 

Completed..

 

 



 So after Staining, some waxing, oiling, rubbing down and polishing I was done, and it looks a lot warmer, I've got rid of the water marks and dry patches, and put some life back into it.

 

more next week.

 

all the best

 

Jamie