A new, versatile addition to the workshop, and another project

© Joshua Stark 2016

After finishing the duck straps, I used some recent archery class earnings (I teach archery, if you are interested in learning) to purchase a 10 in. bench-top drill press.  It isn't a super-expensive model (it's from Harbor Freight), which means I will be using it for other purposes, as well.

Yes, it can drill holes in wood and metal with it -- but I also stumbled upon a great other purpose, one that serves my leather work:  You can use it as a leather press for rivets and punching holes.

For years now, I've been working at a workbench in the living room.  It's a cheap Ikea dining room table, and it doesn't have the sturdiness needed to pound in rivets, snaps, eyelets, grommets, etc.  When I need to set those, or punch holes, I've had to take out a sturdy footstool (confession: it's also from Ikea) and a marble slab, bend way down and hammer away.

I'd been looking at a nice press tool at Tandy Leather, but I'd been turned off by the price ($155!) for something I can do with a rubber mallet, even if I have to take a few more steps.

Then I thought, why not look for another kind of press?  After all, the Tandy press is just a handle and a place to hold dies.  Well, lo and behold, a small arbor press can be quickly modified to hold the dies and tools used for making impressions and holes in leather... which led me to thinking, why not just use a drill press while it isn't moving?

So I Googled it.

Yep.  Here's a great little video with a couple of good tricks for quickly modifying your drill press to set rivets, grommets, etc.  It's not mine, and I don't know the guy, but it's a good video (except for the part where he says, "Who's your daddy?"... that's kinda weird.)

I tried it, and was able to punch a hole in no time, with no modifications, and set a rapid-style rivet.  It works great!

Okay, so back to another project -- this one a sheath for my cousin.  I've only made one other sheath, and this one has an odd handle.  Here are a couple of pics:

Here's the leather, cased, before staining and stitching.

Stitched and stained (with a saddle-tan antique).  All that remains is putting on a keeper, and a copper rivet into the top left corner (maybe).

It's been a fun project, another boost to what had been my flagging confidence.  Even my mistakes (hammering it dry, and cracking the leather a tiny bit) have helped build my confidence.

BIG homemade clamp - no problem

© 2012 Joshua Stark

Thanks to the note I left myself in the previous post, I measured out my adjustable sawhorse to adjust to the height of my Workmate bench, so I can postpone a second sawhorse for the time.  Today, then, the little guy and I went to a local hardware store to pick up some carriage bolts and wingnuts.  He fell asleep on the drive home, so I gingerly placed him on the bed, then ran outside and cut two 2x2 pieces to five-foot lengths and drilled twenty-two holes into them (eleven in each one).  Now I just need to cut two triangles from a piece of oak I've got lying around, and I've got a five-foot clamp for edge gluing wide pieces.  For about ten bucks.

All this is in preparation for my first major project:  A sturdy, utilitarian tilt-top table/bench combo.  Of course, I got too squirrely-excited about it and showed my wife what I was aiming to build.  It's from a library book, and when I showed her the cover picture of my proposed project she then asked, pointing to a chimney cabinet with raised panel doors, "Why don't you make that one, instead?  Where are you going to put a table?"  I suppose I should thank my lucky stars she didn't ask how much the materials will cost, but nevertheless, it was a blow.  I picked the table because it looks super-easy and useful for my workshop (maybe I can even take down my packed-away fly-tying materials and put them on it), and hopefully continues to help my confidence. 

It is nice that she thinks I can cut raised panels and mortise-and-tenon them by hand (no router; no table saw).  Heck, it's nice that she thinks I can cut wood both square and true.  However, neither of these are yet within my skill level to the degree that I could make anything approaching a pretty cabinet for my wife. 

But you can believe that's what I'm working toward.

(Pics of the clamps later, when they are holding something worth photographing.)

Projects for projects

© 2012 Joshua Stark

Today, for about five dollars less than the price of a plastic, standard sawhorse, I built an adjustable-height one:

Reminder to self:  Make sure it adjusts to the same height as the workmate bench

This took about two hours to build, not including the constant running back into the house to look at the plans on the computer (yes, we have a laptop, but it was really windy today, 30 mph with 50 mph gusts, and I didn't want to break it).  I wish I could say I designed it, but no; the plans can be found here.

Tomorrow's project is a homemade clamp, but not just any clamp.  With this clamp I'll be able to edge-glue large, flat pieces, like what you might find on tables.  More pictures soon.

These projects, tools and equipment for other jobs, are doubly rewarding.  They provide cheap alternatives to store-bought products, and boost my confidence with each build. 

The workshop works, now on to the projects.

© 2012 Joshua Stark

I've installed the second pegboard, finished my rotary tool storage, and put a hole in the workshop wall and stuck the back end of the vacuum through it, so I am ready to go.  For my first project, I started small:  An Aldo Leopold bench (just google "Aldo Leopold bench" and find a design while also learning a bit about the man).  Today me and the boyo went down to a local big box store and picked up a couple of 2x8 boards, and put it together:

One Leopold bench... now to finish that boysenberry trellis.

Now that I have successfully built this bench, I've get some much-needed morale for some of the larger projects I ultimately have in mind (table with storage, swing set, outdoor kitchen, second floor for the cottage, etc.).

The garden is going up and experiments continue, in particular the filling for the potato bin.  This year, since we don't have ducks, we haven't bought additional straw, so I'm using the walnut leaves from the leaf pile.  I'm pretty sure their composition has changed in the past few months, and it looks like good stuff to use.  Best of all, it's free.  Phoebe and I cut some seed potatoes, tossed them in a few at a time, and filled up the bin with the leaves.  Keep your fingers crossed.

In the meantime, the raised bed where those leaves had sat looks good, and after this next cold front moves through, we'll start putting in some other seeds.

The worm bin has been going slower than I'd hoped, and we don't really have a whole lot of worm compost.  Now, I'm stuck with a nitrogen problem in my cabbage/collard/onion/leek bed.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  The slugs haven't been too hard on the plants, yet, and I've been picking one or two per day out from under the slug board.

The weather has been wonderful:  When it isn't a day in the mid 60's-low 70's, it's dropping a half-inch of rain here in the Valley and multiple feet of snow in the mountains.

Oh, and this week I'm out cutting rose shoots for arrows.  I'll have pictures later.

Storage and organization on a real budget

© 2012 Joshua Stark

Last year, for some godforsaken reason, we finally succumbed to our media overlords and purchased cable TV.  In our defense, it made internet access much cheaper and gave us a land-line.  Plus, we bought the cheapest deal, the "family package", in which we discovered that families don't watch sports or news (you know, like the kind that basic cable gets you), those being too fru-fru, I suppose.  There is probably a gem about the economic well-being of American families in there, somewhere; I'm just too tired to mine for it right now.

Anyhoo, I must admit that I have become hopelessly addicted to the DIY Network channel, with its interesting shows, its upbeat personalities, its 'go get 'em, Tiger!' attitude.  Even its commercial breaks tend to be entertaining, containing little tips on how to lay a floor, build an addition, put in crown moulding, etc.  The danger of the Do-It-Yourself channel is that it starts to convince you that you can, in fact, do it yourself.  However, there are some pitfalls, especially for a person who can only afford cable that doesn't even give him CNN.

It's the little things that get to me, like how to save ten grand on your kitchen upgrade (if my kitchen upgrade saved ten grand, it would leave me about $9,950 richer than I am now).  Or the army of helpers, power tools, and expertise each show comes equipped with.  If I had a radial-arm saw, a four hundred horsepower compressor, nail guns and a table saw with a cavalry's-worth of sawhorses, I honestly believe I could do it myself.  But, as I am reluctant even to purchase the 4x8 plywood for the lazy susan spinning shelf, my abilities are a tad constrained.  (In its defense, DIY Network has a show called "Renovation Realities", where they basically pick on people who don't have bottomless tool sheds and scores of minions... but, at least it is reality TV that shows reality.)

I do have a ($75) bandsaw and some rotary tool stuff.  I even have a circular saw.  And I have various wood-removing hand tools (scraper, teeny handplane, dentally-challenged Japanese pull-saw, tiny Marples saw*).  Of course, most of my tools have a beautiful, light, even layer of rust on their flat parts, a result of the seive-like roof of Castle Rattington, the storage shed.  I don't know if you've ever had the pleasure of sawing down a palm tree with a Japanese pullsaw, but let me tell you that it's even more fun when the sawblade is missing a few teeth and looks like it was stored in a collander in a tidal zone.

I'd been overwhelmed by the notion of tackling that storage shed for a couple of years, and it wasn't until I tore out every hidey-hole for furred vermin that I realized I had a diamond-in-the-rough.  It's big enough (say, 14'x7'), and after removing the weird shelving from a previous owner, I felt like I had something to work with.  I knuckled under and bought a sheet of pegboard, hung a bunch of tools, and suddenly the place actually felt useful.  What I needed was more organizing storage... which, if one were completely seduced by the DIY channel and various interesting sites on the internet, would require more purchases.

Shaking my head to remove the consumerist fog, I looked around at what I already had:  An old duck-and-dog house that, for emotional reasons, I still can't touch; a few cedar fenceboards that I'd purchased when I realized how useful and cheap they are; various hinges and such from previous unfinished projects; a pile of wood boxes I'd acquired via craigslist's free site (another addiction that doesn't cost a thing, except perhaps the emotional state of one's spouse).  I cut a couple of boxes to size, attached them to a piece of cedar fenceboard, and now I've got a nifty little container for the rotary tool drill press.  I plan to mount it to the bottom of of a cedar fenceboard shelf, and build a cedar fenceboard spinning shelf atop it for the rotary tool bits and pieces. 

I just may have the nicest-smelling workshop in town.

...did I mention that the boxes were free?

 *Why did I buy a bunch of tiny tools?  Because I needed/wanted woodworking tools at one time, and in the store, the tiny versions are about twenty bucks cheaper... for good reason.  Advice for a future me:  just buy the danged router and regular tools, and don't think that tiny tools can do anything other than make tiny things.

Looking inward... to the workshop, and to personal space.

© 2012 Joshua Stark

After seeing Mr. Fashion House's amazing hobby-shop, I knew I had to organize my space.  I'm now going to town on my workshop, having purchased not one, but TWO pegboards.  I just tore out some old shelving put up by some previous owner, and installed one of the pegboards, and I must say, it is looking much better.  So much better that I am beginning to believe in starting some projects again.

Of course, I was going to head out today to pick nettles and see if my old single-shot twenty gauge still worked, but today was the day Winter decided to come out here in California, so the rain sent me inside.  I'm not complaining about the rain - in fact, by putting me in the shed, it gave me a twinge of hope for a space that is mine, a rare commodity in a 900 sq. ft. house with two little children.

I'm not the type to bang my chest and say, "my ManCave, my Space!  You Go!" to my little, doe-eyed, amazing kids.  First of all, I've noticed that the ridiculous trend of putting "man" in front of words kinda makes things sound gay (not that there's anything wrong with that).  But, even if I did try to get all macho and keep them out, one (five year old) would just laugh at me and the other (16 months) would push me out of the way; he could do it, too.

Really, I wasn't raised to make a fuss for a grown-up space; I was raised that children are people just as adults are people, and so I give "my space" up for the time being.

How I get some space is through cunning mind-games:  First, just like drinking iced tea without sugar, or eating liver, I get space by making it boring or distasteful.  Second, I make it so that I can watch them in another space, and then make that space much more fun, while I do some of my own things. 

Do these tricks always work?  No.  For example, my children absolutely love liver.  They would eat it every day if they could.  But, do these tricks almost never work, but sound good?  Absolutely.  You see, kids like to do whatever grown-ups are doing, whether it be sitting on our butts watching some horribly inappropriate murder mystery, or building a bow.  As I've heard it put, "they'd want chocolate covered poop if you had it", and really, you don't even need the chocolate.  So for those of you with kids, no more crack!  And for those of you without kids, you had darn-well better absolutely flipping love children if you are going to have them, because they will be doing their darndest to give you a colonoscopy for years.

Right now, my wonderful kids are being watched by my absolutely amazing parents, and so I have time to do things that would be dangerous for them.  Okay, at this moment I'm typing, but in a few minutes I'll be vacuuming up rat feces (sadly, child labor laws prevent the latter from being delegated, but it is all for the Greater Good).  Soon, I will have a space to make better and faster bows and arrows with which my children may more effectively terrorize the neighborhood.

So, back to my shed before I get to run down and grab up my children.  And for the record, I absolutely flipping, head-over-heels love them.  

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Note:  To check my spelling, I occasionally type in the Google box the first part of a word; in this case, I typed "colon" because Blogspot here tells me that "colonoscopy" is misspelled (of course, it also says that "Blogspot" is misspelled).  Anyhoo, I thought I'd share the top ten choices that Google offers a person who types in "colon".  They are: colonoscopy, colon cancer, colon cleanse, colon, colonial life, colonial willamsburg, colonic, colonialism, colonial penn, colonel sanders.

That last one just threw me for a loop.

My first bow... with pics! And a tangent on social trust...

© 2011 Joshua Stark

I have to admit, I was too daunted to attempt a bow for the first couple of years I'd considered it. 

I would start thinking about it, even buy a piece of oak to start, and then take my recurve out to the range, draw it, and consider the power in those limbs.  I'd wonder:  Do I trust my woodworking skills enough to pull a bow of this poundage wrought by my own hands?

That's an interesting take on a lesson I'd taught my high school students way back in a past life as an economics teacher.  You see, almost every senior would come into that class with the same bad advice about the world - trust no one.  So, one of my first lessons was to teach the two most valuable components to a functioning market system:  Informed self-interest, and social trust. 

That first concept appears in every textbook, along with other half-truth attempts by the authors at being "cool", with the same catastrophic results as if they, themselves had appeared in class in baggy pants and backwards ball caps to rap about the "invisible hand" or the "science of choice".

The second concept, though, that of a social trust, never shows up in any text - at least, not directly.  And yet, a social trust is as important to a functioning economy as an informed self-interest.  To prove it, I'd ask my students a series of questions, starting with this:  Would you give your credit card information to your best friend?  I'd get snickers of derision at that suggestion; "heck no!"  Then I'd say, "well, you gave it to the gas station attendant.  What's his name?"  Stunned silence would follow.  Other questions were similarly designed, with the goal of getting students to understand that a market system requires an implicit trust in others, and that without it, we cease to have the wonderful things the market provides us. 

And so, as I would stand at the range, I'd consider how I have no idea who built my bow, presumably some able Korean, but I trusted this person to make something that I would repeatedly pull back to my face, straining, to loose a deadly-sharp instrument through the air.  We are amazing, trusting creatures, and it provides us with much. I also thought it extremely funny that I wouldn't trust myself to accomplish the same task.

Then, I stumbled upon an easy introduction to building bows.  Particularly daunted by the time, patience, and space needed to work on finish-tillering the bow (where one scrapes off the belly of the bow until one reaches its desired power), I was elated to find instructions that required no tillering of the belly.  It was a youth bow, designed with wood from a local hardware or lumber store in mind, and it made a bow of around 15 lbs. draw weight.  It was also made nigh indestructible by a linen backing. 

I built the bow over a few weeks, although the actual work was very quick (I was thwarted by the second wettest December on record here).  I've shown it in various stages of completion here at the blog, and now here is the finished product in action:

The shooter is the recipient of my first bow, and the best nephew I've ever had.  Am I still nervous it will break?  Frankly, the only thing I'm nervous about is the string, which is the first bowstring I've ever made, too.  It's made out of silk threads, so I'm not too nervous, but the tips of the bow and the string serving (the extra cotton string wrapped around the string to help protect it from abrasions where it meets the tips and the arrow) could both be improved.  It's something I'll work on.

This first project has given me loads of confidence, and I plan to make more.  If you are interested in a kid's bow that works, please head on over to the TradGang site, specifically here.  I modified the design a bit (to make the limbs a bit stronger, and I used leftover purpleheart for the tips and handle instead of oak), but the general design is obviously a great bow for kids.  I highly recommend it, too, as a first project.  If you don't have kids, find a neighbor or friend who does, and make it for them.  You'll all be happier for it.

Here's one more pic of the bow in action:

Trusting fellow, isn't he?

Quick and easy woodworking materials and projects

© 2010 Joshua Stark

Bob Vila, I'm not.  But, I can make a cute little basket, if I do say so, myself:

The materials are what make this work.  The ends are cut from a cedar fence board ($1.96 for a five-foot board), and the sides and bottom slats are cut from redwood bender board ($.99 for an eight-foot board).  The dowel was, I think, cut from another $1 piece.  The "nails" are brads from my staple gun.  Total cost I'd estimate at about thirty cents or so. 

I took this design from John A. Nelson's, "The Weekend Woodworker", via my local library.

Anybody else making any gifts this year?

The first bow - but no pics...

© 2010 Joshua Stark

Well, I gave my nephew the bow I'd been working on the past few weeks (on and off, so quit laughing!).

He has to be with his Dad on Christmas day this year, and so my sister and he put together a party for the family the weekend prior, where the kids get to open presents from each other, so we don't miss out on the excitement.  Well, I wasn't fully prepared for the party this year, and with the wet weather we've had this week, work on the bow was seriously curtailed.  So, I decided to give him the bow, along with a promise to bring him over to help me finish it, as well as make some arrows and a string. 

It bends well with the jute string I made at the last minute (and string-making turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it'd be), and it looks nice with the mahogany Minwax finish I put on it.  I finished it with beeswax, although when he brings it back, we'll spray on some spar urethane for a final finish that should make the linen look better. 

The linen wound up being the most time-consuming part, because it's tough to get the edges to look nice.  However, next time I'm going to soak the linen in a water/glue mix, and just lay it on that way, to eliminate any potential for dry spots. 

For my next bow, I'll be making a scaled-down version of this one.  After that, I'll make a version with siyahs (stiff recurve ends glued on) that will pull a bit stronger than these.  We shall see.

As soon as I can, I'll get pics up of this finished bow.

Continuing with the bow

© 2010 Joshua Stark

We've got quite the rain coming down now, and we expect it to last a few days here.  Nothing as bad as back East, I hear, but it will keep us cooped up for a bit. 

However, I was able to get out to the workshop and shape the tips and handle of the bow I'm making for a present.  I also glued on the linen backing.  Linen is supposed to be a good backing for bows; it doesn't add any power to the limbs, but it keeps the wood from raising splinters.  Well, I glued it on (not my best gluing job, but I'm confident in it), trimmed it up some, and put a string on it.  And...

It bent!  And it didn't break!

This is my first bow, and I'm no pro, especially at finishing, but I think this one will be alright.  Here's a couple of pics:

It should be abundantly clear that I am no woodworker, nor do I play one on television...  However, this bow really seems like it will throw arrows, and for that I'm tickled pink (hence, the tiny slippers under the table).

Now, to make a string, and put a finish on this puppy.  Any suggestions?

Quick update: Bowyery

© 2010 Joshua Stark

Continuing my bow-making process, here's a picture of the handle and tip gluing process:

...and here is the wood after the pieces have been glued on:

I'm following the directions from this board bow buildalong at tradgang.com, using red oak with purpleheart tips and handle material.  The directions are fairly easy, but as anybody who knows me understands, my woodworking attempts are often fraught with peril for the wood in question.  I'm hoping the confidence from this bow will help me with new projects for Christmas presents.  We shall see...

Wood

© 2010  Joshua Stark

Having been blessed with some large logs from our giant redwood, I've a question out there for you all:  What can we do with it?  We are going to make wreaths from the boughs, and we are open to other ideas for the wood/bark. 

In related news, I'm trying, again, to make a bow.  Here's what I'll be working with:

Having never successfully made a bow, I hold no illusions.  But, I'll try - and I'll keep you all posted.

Mending fences

© 2010 Joshua Stark

If you are looking for Frost, or writing of his caliber, I'm sorry for the disillusionment.  Last night, while sitting with my family through a particularly fierce storm, a tremendous crack-boom! echoed through our little cottage. 

This calculation occurs frequently in our synapses:  Rain + wind + 100 ft. redwood + crack-boom! =...?

In this case, Rain = 1.5 inches in less than a day, wind = 30 mph gusts.

Crack-boom! = 

For accuracy's sake, please note that the ducks are five feet tall...

 These were two separate branches, in reality each about 15-20 feet long.  The branches tore through the fence, and broke off our neighbors' gutter.

So, no duck hunting on this bright, shiny morning.  Instead, I'll be out mending fences.  On Monday, I'll be talking to the city officials about the possibility of removing a 100 foot-tall redwood.  If I get the go-ahead, I'll put it up on Craigslist's "free" section, if you are interested...