Spilling Blooms/Audience of one

This, finally, is a update to a post from a long time ago... Neighborhood cheer. If you go back far enough, I had posted about crafting ( I like that word!) a new planter box for my mailbox and made a really nice one I was happy with. Sadly, that was stolen, along with the flowers inside. I was quite disillusioned as to who would even think to do something like that, but it is what it is. I intended to replace it, but with life's circumstances, it was not to be at the time.

Now, after a 2+ year hiatus on projects, I am finally in a place to be able to do so. Not with nice cedar and Mahogany like before, but at least with some leftover rough cut pine I had, trimmed and painted to match the post. This time I wrapped a metal box with the wood and screwed it to the post to perhaps discourage the sticky fingers a bit.

I have been fairly fortunate in that I have only had three things stolen from me in my life (not counting loose change shakedowns while on assignments in foreign countries). My iphone, the previous planter box and more recently, some birthday decorations I attached to the mailbox as a personal celebration. Having secured them tightly, I weighed that knew I would have had to later cut them off, but I didn't want them to blow away and was certainly saddened and surprised to see them missing later that afternoon.

Anyway, as a once again replacement, I am hoping this box and these flowers placed here today might be found as a "Happy Birthday" gift to anyone who might pass by... a celebration in blooms and growing bouquet to enjoy with each passing. I don't really know that anyone would notice it to be honest and this might end up being just for me... my own little 'audience of one' as I have become, but never-the-less it is my small way of trying to bless another and enhance this new world that I struggle to find real beauty in anymore. I so want to. Now, I can only hope with seeing them daily, someone would feel honest love like I wished I did. Last night while typing this early into the morning, I stepped outside to look at the full moon and a now familiar constellation, looking up, I saw a shooting star drop over my field heading into my view to the west. I took the time for the obligatory wish, so maybe it will be true. One can hope...after all... it is only a grain of dust burning up in the sky.

To Project or not to Project

That is the question...

I am certainly guilty of projection...and thoughts and speculations as to what people say and do or don't do, etc, etc... but in the spirit of this blog...a play on words.

Coming up onto some major neck surgery on the 24th of this month, I am faced with the reality of allot of down time alone at home during the day as I recover over the next several weeks. Not wanting to fall into a tv viewing trap and knowing the loneliness I will be facing, as I progress to feeling better, I am hoping to be able to work on some pre-set up 'light' projects that I can do as I am able without physical exertion beyond my abilities and can start and stop to rest.

One of them will be to try and convert an old, acoustic drum set I have into an electronic one. This has been something I have wanted to do since I got this free (thanks Brother Rob!) set a couple of years ago, but projects for others always shouted "me first" and I had access to a set I could play. With completing this now, it will allow me to practice anytime, without involving and disturbing family and neighbors when I do. It will be quite the project of cutting and separating each drum I have into two, sanding and finishing the exterior and interior, making a support structure to fit  inside to hold an electronic drum trigger mechanism I am making and then assembling, wiring and somehow making mounts to install them back into a set, which will be tricky as I will have twice as many drums as I have now. Thankfully, others have done this before and there are allot of ideas out there on the web as to how to do it right, so as of now, I am reading, reading, reading.

Playing them..., that will also depend on my recovery pace and the fact that I have yet to purchase a 'brain' module to electronically create the sounds the drum triggers will produce. Being the expensive part of the project, that will be further down the road when I can afford it.

Playing the drums is a fairly recent thing for me. Being a musician on a few other instruments, I have always wanted to play the drums and had an opportunity through my church to do so for about 5 years. It was a wonderful passion, that was invigorating and freeing in spirit on many fronts and physically fun, and I was blessed to enjoy. Very sadly that opportunity is now gone, so I am endeavoring here to get a set up at home to play. I hope I can make it happen and perhaps if I have my own set, there will be a church that would welcome a drummer.

Here is a sample of the drums as they now are:

4/16/14 Step #1

I removed the heads from the drums and found a very interesting jelly bean-ish choice (it is Easter time!) of inside colors and started removing the chrome hardware. At this point, it gives me pause whether to just polish the hardware, or prep and spray paint it satin black, which was my original idea. or maybe a cool darker copper color I found. The stands are chromed. The insides of the drums will be flat black and I am debating whether to just sand, stain and finish the shells as is (though they are pretty rough right now), paint them a solid color or purchase wraps which opens up a world of finish options, but all at a cost. Like with any project, each additional idea comes with a cost attached. Thinking also to wrap them in metal and painting them.

 

4/21 O.K. Got all the hardware off and took a sander to the shells to remove the existing finish. Unfortunately, the Luann veneer was very thin and unsalvagable, so a metal wrap it is....painted copper color with the orignal chrome hardware and satin trim black accents. In doing so, I thought to 'stretch them back to original height to keep the original 'acoustic' look and am now set to work out a brace system to do just that.

 4/22 Made a jig last night to facilitate cutting the drums in two and it worked perfect! I almost felt like an engineer, but then realized as they usually are quite dull people... I couldn't be. Phew! So... now I have a snare drum (yellow one in the middle) and 7 toms! It looks like the beginnings of a awesome set and is a good start before the surgery.
The jig:

 

5/4 Progress post surgery has been slow for serious pain is hanging around, but I have so far done some of the light weight work of cutting out foam inserts for the triggers and screen heads and polishing a set of hardware for one complete drum!

Old rims vs newly polished. 

 

5/19 Update: Making decent progress, but it has been slow. Working with this 'collar' (being nice) around my neck tires me quickly and it is naturally hard to move and see close-by. My left hand has ceased to fully function, so that also has slowed me down and makes typing very difficult. With my right hand, I can barely write now. As all the drum heads are done, almost everything polished and so forth, I have decided to take at least one drum to completion and test it out with a module I can use. From there if it is successful, I will follow with the remaining drums, but it is a big project! Photos of the inside 'stretchers', the piezo triggers I wired and the metal drum shell finished.

 

Update: 5/21 They work! Tested them tonight at church and it performed flawlessly. The photo below showing the dual triggering set up and the finished drum below. Now onto the rest of the set.

 

 

Neighborhood Cheer

Through rain and sleet and snow... Isn't that how the Postal motto goes? Well, the least I can do then for such steadfast service is provide a nice box for the mail lady to deliver to.

After 15 years or so, seeing it needed some attention, I gave it a fresh coat of paint as well as solid stained the cedar post (bottom photo). Then after seeing how nice it looked, our old store bought mailbox planter box was in contrast, looking shabby (things have a tendency to happen that way) and one afternoon, with some scrap cedar and mahogany pieces I had laying around, I set out to make a new one. Upping the original design from original, I added a top rim and contrasting outside corners,adjusting the size to fit a decent sized flower pot. I was very pleased with it and I hope it was a nice addition to our tiny street in a meadow. This one is shown above. 

Unfortunately, someone else also appreciated it a little too much and decided to take it home… as one afternoon when I was pulling up to the mailbox, I found it was gone, along with the flowers! I was very sad with this inconsiderate theft which brought me a sense of unease with safety at home, something I had never had living here for 20 years. 

So…round two and here we are. This time, without spare nice wood cedar pieces around the house, I am choosing simple rough cut pine and planning to paint it to match the post. This design and materials, to minimize cost will also be a little simpler and I hope to add a steel internal framework to discourage easy removal. I do not care for it as much as the cedar one to be honest, but I have kids to feed, so this was what needs to be done for the cost. In doing so, I do hope this one stays for many years for all to enjoy and is a little spot of cheer for my neighbors. The old (first) one is shown below and the (second) above and  I will add the photo of the newest one when it is complete

A Base for the Bum

No, not bum as in un-working castoff, but a proper English term for ones seat, dupa, tukus, rear end. This is a simple bench I am making for a quiet spot of prayer, reflection or to read a good book. I designed this really about a year or so ago and over the fall made some progress in that I constructed the base, rough and sturdy from a 6 X 6 pressure treated post, notching and fastening them together with thick spikes. It is meant to be set into the ground permanently, while the top is to be easily, seasonally removed for inside winter storage. Using mahogany porch flooring, I rip cut the tongue and groove off of each board and sandwiched full length boards, alternated with 3 sets of shorter pieces to allow drainage and for the Japanese inspired design I had envisioned. The three shortened stacked sections will each conceal a 3/8” threaded rod and nuts to hold it all together along with exterior wood glue. I love using curves within my designs so as I progerss further, the front, seat and aprons all will have curved reveals. I need to add a curve to the front edge as well and will make an outside apron of ¾” thick cedar for a rustic and durable, yet pretty finished look. I will sand it thoroughly to a nice contour for comfortable, prolonged sitting and finishe it with an exterior polyurethane or some sort of oil preservative. I look forward to setting this up and it finding some use for whomever cares to enjoy it. As I progress, I will add the photos and updates but for now you can see the original drawings as they were approved and the top as it sits in my shop. 

Cough Cough

O.K. Sticking my neck out here with a project I am just starting.... and the pressure to get it done 'publicly'.

When I original divided out my basement after years and years of planning (I think allot) I finally had the opportunity to make a workshop space… a room to be able to actually make real all these things floating around in my mind. In doing so, I initially designed and bought all the needed pieces to install a dust collection system to benefit both my own health and those in my home outside of the shop walls. Since, the duct work, fittings, hoses…all of it, has sat in a box while I worked away on this or that, cutting and making and sanding things, foolishly dragging around a portable shop vac from tool to tool to try and keep as much sawdust as I could out of my lungs. It did not work that well. 

So, I am finally convinced that actually installing this system has to be the better way and have set out to do just that. Not really a ‘project’ in the sense of creating something fun or interesting, but probably of more importance as this will be a correct step to properly setting up my permanent tools in order to work more efficiently and certainly more safely. So... some of those original parts have been returned to the store and others purchased to really make it what I want and to make woodworking/ creating more a joy than a hassle. 

This might not interest you as much as my other projects, but none the less is an important step for the fun to follow. As I progress, I will post a photo here or there of the progress until it is done... I promise.

4/15/14 ***UPDATE*** My new fittings finally arrived and I went to town last night getting them in place AND... it works! With the remote control, I can turn it on from any where in the shop and each tool now has its own feed and blast gate to suck up the dust making it convenient and easily used. I also added a couple of layers to the work bench, the base of particleboard, then a 1/2 sheet of luann plywood and a top layer of tempered hardboard. I will finish the edging with mahogany and set in some wood and bench vises. Good progress so far.

4/17/14 Installed the feeds for the dust collector to pump it all outside. Upside, it works really well and there is no dust inside, but as it is attached to the house, when I fire it up, the upstairs dishes rattle in the cabinets...which surely will not fly in the long run, so I will need to find another, quieter solution. Perhaps attaching it to the block wall with a rubber type spacer insulating it from the house would be better. 

A Great Crossing

No, this is no great crossing, unless you need to get to the other side of my pond's spillway.

In the past, friends have had to jump across and risk a muddy shoe or two or perhaps getting tangled in a briar, so for those folks, it is great indeed. Utilizing some recycle deck boards I had on hand and a couple of 6 X 6 pressure treated beams already in place, I designed a simple deck bridge. Wanting an 'arched' design, I originally sought to make the bridge deck itself arch, but also wanted a way to get my tractor across and an arch complicated it all in both time and material cost. So I thought to arch just the railing top to give the same visual effect without the cost and fashioned the whole railing to fold down to be able to drive across. Not being an engineer by trade, but more visionary to the end result, I laid it out on paper the way I thought it should go and went from there. Once it was in place, I test set up the balusters and decided to go against my original drawing and finish it in a simplier way without them. I have always loved the look of cedar and with a good amount of sanding the top rail is very smooth and inviting to touch. I later added a couple of small solar powered lights to the railing for nighttime use and solid stained the deck and railing base to match the adirondack chairs and other pieces in the yard.

It is a really pretty addition to the landscape and anchors that end of the pond.

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Cat's Meow

O.k. o.k. Not the grandest of projects  Iknow, but it truly was a blessing to someone....specifically our cat Woodchip, who at about 14 is getting up in years and appreciates it I am sure. A purely 1/2 hour project from some scrap material to outfit some new stainless steel food dishes, elevating them a small bit so he doesn't have to bend down so far or nose his loose dishes around while eating. I simply gorilla glued together some scrap cedar pieces, jig sawed out the holes and put a bead of silicone around the their rims to keep them in place when inserted. He is a happy cat and expressed his pleasure with a good Meow and bouncing tail as he does when he is so.

Labor of Love

Although I have made many things over the years, this little four piece set of cookware is very special for several reasons. One being that this was my very first project utilizing wood that had not been store bought.
Scavenged from the woods from a long dead Elm tree, it was a interesting learning process to figure out how to get usable lumber from a log with the tools that I have. I was excited to try and do so. 

Initially, I chain saw cut the log vertically along a naturally occurring split into two halves, then cut 5/4 lumber pieces on my table saw to 3 ½” high stock. From there, I cut the raw shapes both horizontally and vertically on my band saw then used a stationary sander to hone the desired  curves. Allot of thought and effort went into the sizing and shapes as I wanted them to be both useful and comfortable for the hand as well as beautiful to the eye. Hours of hand sanding followed, progressing from a 100 grit, to 220, 320, 600 and finally with a 1,000 grit to really make them smooth to the touch, wetting them in between each step to raise the grain and then smooth it again. Finally, 6 applications of olive oil followed with a drying process in between each and an overnight soak in the same before a final drying. 

I was quite happy and excited with the end product, their quirky imperfect shape, how I worked in interesting knots, etc... and how soft and smooth they were. As they were made for beauty and anticipating that they would have likely seen allot of use, I wanted the maintenance to simply be a wash with soap and water and a occasional oiling. 

It is a gorgeous wood and I imagined them as a treasured gift. I at first thought to sign them with my favorite pen shown in the last photo, but then decided to woodburn in a 'signature' of three tiny dots (...) as this Ellipsis to me means something like "everything I can express",  a small pause to think and reflect, or an almost 'unending' signature. These pieces really were a labor of love and I found allot of joy in the process of creating them from such a raw state, imagining the joy that would be found in cooking with them, but they were very sadly lost before being used and enjoyed. I doubt I will ever be inspired to attempt a project like this again.

As a photographer, I appologize for the photo quality. I did not take photos with a blog in mind, so they are captures off of a computer screen. I will do better in the future.