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?
5 comments:
Goodness, your timber prices seem cheap!
I am not used to buying 'small' pieces of wood. They just aren't available here. What I have to buy is a whole trunk. Sawing loses about 60% of the volume so if I need 4 cubic metres, I need to buy 10 cubic metres at $800 per cubic metre and then pay $250 per cubic metre for sawing.
What I get in the end is unseasoned and if left untreated, warps in the sun like a twisted pipe cleaner. And to think Angola used to be one of the biggest timber exporters.
For all the guff we give to the Big Box stores, they do provide some things in affordable, and fairly finished, quantities. What I loved about this project is that it uses materials that aren't usual for little projects. The cedar fence board, in my opinion, is the best outdoor woodworking deal in the land ($2 for 5.5 inches x five feet), and the redwood bender board is so neglected that it sits outside in the garden center, getting rained on and weatherbeaten, yet still maintaining enough structure for little projects. And at a dollar for an 8 ft. x 1.5 inch strip, it's a great deal, too.
Our better woods are considerably more expensive.
Who knocked Angola off its pedestal, or was it self-inflicted? I'm straying into politics, I'm sure, but I'm okay with that.
Breif Recent history of Angola:
Late sixties, war of independance starts with three main revolutionary groups, FNLA, UNITA (supported by USA and South Africa) and MPLA (Cuba and USSR).
1975, Angola gains independence and Poertuguese leave en mass abandoning farms, plantations, boats, cars, house, everything.
MPLA seizes power and civil war breaks out between MPLA and UNITA. Assistance for both sides pours in. Cuban Soldiers arrive, the South Africans invade, both sides employ mercenaries. It is brutal, bloody massacre. Infrastructure of country thoroughly trashed, millions die, millions more displaced and starving.
Fall of Soviet Union leads to a cessation of external support but since MPLA have Oil Revenue and UNITA diamonds, they can fund their own war.
2002, UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi killed and war finally comes to an end.
The massive rebuild has commenced but it will take decades.
This above was the stitching beginnings of it.
It was fun and it challenged me to stitch a little doodle that I've shared here on my blog for awhile now. fence gate
Intereesting thoughts
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