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The Kidwash Project: For the School

craig — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:07:36 +0000

So I had lent my kidwash (http://www.bushwoodworking.com/2008/07/05/the-kidwash-project/) to my son’s school last year for their “splash day” and it was a hit. So this year, I received a request to build an additional 2 for use at the school for their summer camp.

You can see the construction fairly easily, but I’ll be posting the construction notes shortly so if you want to make your own version, it should be easy to replicate what I did.

Adirondack Chairs

craig — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:49:27 +0000

I’ve been commissioned by Woody to build a nice set of adirondack chairs for his covered porch. Pine ended up as the wood selection due to its wide availability, and also that it would be used in a covered porch setting. Cypress, white oak, teak, and redwood were options for wood, but most of those were either not easy to obtain, or a good choice for the application. Cypress was seriously considered due to its outdoor properties, but I just couldn’t find decent enough cypress that was free of checking.

UPDATE (Jun 1st, 2008): The chairs are progressing. I received the stainless screws and hardware I’ll be using. I decided to modify the design and add torque washers and carriage bolts to strengthen the front legs. I also had to make a taper jig with some t-bolts and some clamps to handle the tapers. All the major bandsawing is done, and the curvy parts were sanded with a spindle sander.

UPDATE (Jun 9th, 2008): I have all the parts cut and edges smoothed using the router table. I have also started assembly of the table, where I included a rough tile for accent on the table top. The pieces of the table top were assembled using a biscuit joiner.

UPDATE (Nov 30th, 2008): I finally have had the time to start the assembly. I have the table complete, and 1 chair assembled. The rest should go very quickly.

UPDATE (Feb 10th, 2009): The chairs are completely done.

The Sand Boat

craig — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:31:00 +0000

After much deliberation about what we were going to do with the backyard, it was decided that we were going to build a sandbox. My wife had found some plans for a boat shaped sandbox plan in a book, and we thought it would encourage many hours of play and fun. I remember my first sandbox that my dad made for me in our backyard.

We bought some cypress 2x materials, as well as some pressured treated lumber for the ground contact stuff. We also picked up a plastic steering wheel (because how can you have a boat without a way to steer it?) We still have to figure out a canopy, as it’s designed to have a canopy above the mast for shade and it is secured with bungee cords.

I also have some ideas about a small ship’s bell, and a pirate flag on the mast.

We have to fill it with sand shortly, but the basic work is complete.

UPDATE: We added a cover with the leftover “sail” material, which was basically fabric cloth we purchased which is primarily used as a garden shade cloth. It has grommets you can add, which was perfect, and with the leftovers, we made a cover for the sandbox, so we don’t have to clean it out each day. We also added a “buoy” that a neighbor gave us while he was cleaning out his garage. Makes it look more “boat-ish”.

Helicopter Pad

craig — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:10:56 +0000

I had some scraps of wood lying around the shop, some pine and plywood, and figured I’d put it to good use. My son needed another helicopter pad for his wooden helicopter, so I just knocked together a quick little pad for him with a little ramp and building. The ramp was just sanded down using a belt sander. I used a router to make the circular pad. I coated it with some non-toxic varnish oil from tried and true. He likes it.

Mod Stereo Stand

craig — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:52:47 +0000

Well, Woody got me started on this whole stereo thing what with the amp and speakers, so I just had to quickly knock together a nifty little set of shelves with the leftover plywood. Nothing fancy, nor even perfect, but it holds the amp just fine, and has a bit of room for more components later. I slapped on two coats of shellac. The best part is the rear cable management in the column in the back. I drilled a series of holes in each of the braces all the way down the back, and it provides a method by which one can route cable from each shelf down the stand and out the back to the wall.

Amp6 Basic Portable Enclosure

craig — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 01:12:16 +0000

Woody had enclosed his Amp6 Basic that I soldered for him into a plastic case. After having wood case envy, he asked me if I could make a case for his Amp6 out of wood, that was a bit smaller than mine. So I did. See the pictures for my results. The wood is Anigre and an unidentifed species of wood that I salvaged off a pallet from work. 2 coats of high gloss Tung Oil is the finish.

Load Block Project

craig — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 17:47:19 +0000

A co-worker of mine asked if I could make him a glued-up block of hardwood for a specific work application. For my company’s yearly trade show (AAOS), they were demoing the amount of force that is applied to one of our knee products during a knee replacement surgery. The block of wood was to go between the knee joint and the load cell (which measures the amount of force used to insert the joint onto the existing leg bones). I made the block of wood 3 3/8 square and 1 foot long, and it was made with three pieces of anigre glued together with Elmer’s Polyurethane Glue (which is similar to Gorilla Glue). He finished it off by bandsawing the correct shape to fit the knee joint and coated it with a satin spray poly finish.

Escutcheons

craig — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:07:57 +0000

A nice friend of mine requested I make a special project for him, which was a set of escutcheons for his garden fence project. The escutcheons are to be used to cover a hose bib pipe to make it look a bit more attractive than just a hole in the side of the fence. The escutcheons are made from pressure treated pine cut to size, and then chamfered, drilled, and I then chamfered the screw holes for a #8 screw.

Tool Tote Project

craig — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 00:22:27 +0000

From the pages of Shopnotes issue number 91, I built the tool tote. It is made from 1/4″ birch plywood and required only 1 2′ x 4′ sheet to do the project. I think the most tedious part is laying out all the holes and slots for the tabs to fit in. The whole tote is assembled without glue, and fits together like a nifty puzzle. I’m going to half the dimensions for all the parts and make one kid-sized for my son.