Chair Seat Project-finish photos

Hello Everyone,

I'm sorry I didn't get back to this project - my old camera finally bit the dust (literally) and the new camera and I are warring back and forth. But I managed to get two photographs out of it so I can show you how this project went.

As a recap: the chair seats on my old dining room chairs were filthy and completely worn out and badly needed replacing. Originally I planned to re-upholster myself. When that didn't pan out, I used some scrap laminated pine panels to cut out a new set of seats.

From there I painted them a rust color to match the dining table. I used Behr Home Decorators Collection oil based paint in a rust color and I gave each seat 2 coats with 6 days of drying time between coats so the surface would be really hard. And I'm really happy with the way they came out:

And this is what they originally looked like:

I've got all 4 chairs done and now I can invite friends over for dinner. Anyone hungry?

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OK, I'm working on making a corner shelf for the tv monitor in my living room. It's also made out of a laminated pine panel and for this one I'm going to stain it gray and add some detail to the surface so be sure and stay tuned for that. When that's done a cabinet for my living room radio is in order and I'll post about that too.

Well, thanks for dropping by and I'll see you soon!

VW

The Little Free Library Project-Finish Photos and Literacy Wins!!

Hi Everyone,
I'm sorry I haven't posted this week-we had to have some unexpected concrete work done on our foundation and we've been busy with that. As the concrete was poured today and is curing as we speak, I'll update you on the Little Free Library project.

The Little Free Library was originally build last fall but the long hard freezing cold winter and tons of snow prevented us from putting it in place. And my camera broke! Well, the stars finally lined up this week-the weather is warm and dry and there were several volunteers who helped dig the post hole to place it in and so it's in place and open for business. Here's a couple of photos from a borrowed camera:







So there we have it. It should hold up well this coming winter.

I'm going to paint the chair seats today and I'll finish those later next week,

Stay tuned,
VW

Birch Brooms - And this is the 700th blog posting!

Hi Everyone,
How many of you have ever made or used a birch broom? I was reading Robin Wood's blog a little bit ago and found this video of a broom maker in Canada.

This is the blurb that comes with the video on YouTube:

Mr. Joshua Young demonstrating how to “run” a birch broom, in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, September 2015. Mr Young grew up in Grey River on the South-West Coast of Newfoundland near Burgeo. Mr. Young learned how to make birch brooms from his family members and continues to teach his grandchildren how to make the brooms today.

I love craft. I've got to go and find some birch and try this.
VW

Chair Seats project

Hello All,

Today I'm going to fix a problem that has annoyed me for a while now and here it is:

The most disgusting dining room chairs in the world. And this is the nice one! We bought these chairs many years ago and they've held up really well. But the last several years they've become more and more worn and now they all look like the chair in the photograph.

The frames are metal and in excellent shape and it would be silly to discard them so I removed one of the seats with the intention re-using the frame to re-upholster it. The frame is made out of some really solid hardboard and I have no way of stapling new fabric to it so that idea was out. 

I also couldn't find chair seating in the same dimensions as the existing frame. So I remembered that I had a couple of old laminated panels in the shop and given that they are about 1 1/2" pine, decided to use those.

So I used the old frame as a pattern and cut out a seat with my saber saw:

Next I smoothed the edges on the table sander. After that I rounded over the edge on the front of the seat to make it comfortable to sit on and I also smoothed all the sharp edges with sand paper:

And this is what it's going to look like on a chair:

As the panels that the seats will be cut out of are different colors, I'm planning on painting these to achieve a uniform appearance.

I need to cut out 3 more seats and figure out a pleasant color for the seats. Stay tuned.

VW

Perfume Tray-final assembly and finish photos

Hi Everyone,

Well, the monster weather we were supposed to have didn't materialize this weekend-it's bright, sunny, and calm today. Time to go down to the wood shop and finish the perfume tray. Here's the photos:

The first thing I needed to do was to attach the handles and those went on smoothly. I switched out the original handles for these longer, larger handles and I think they fit the size of the tray much better.

Next I trimmed the bottom boards to size and screwed them down to the frame:

Here you can see I counter sinked the screws so the tops don't scratch whatever surface the tray sits on:

And with that the tray is finished. Here are the final photographs for this project:

I must say I'm pleased with the way it came out. It meets the requirements set out by my friend and I think her perfume collection will not only look lovely against the grey stain, but she has room to grow her collection in the future.

Ok, this project is finished. Thanks for dropping by to watch.

Next is the dining room chair seat project which I'm going to get set up for this afternoon.

Stay tuned!

VW

Perfume Tray continued-working on the finish

Hi Everyone,

Well the stain on the tray parts dried over night and the color looks fine:

I put the first coat of polyurethane on the surface and I suspect given that it's a warm day today I'll be able to put another coat on this evening. As this is destined for the master bathroom at my friend's home, I'll put 4 coats of poly on it to help it resist the moisture. As soon that is done, I'll put the handles on and assemble it and off it will go to her house.
Stay tuned for the finish photos.

What's Next?

I've got several large logs from trees that fell down in a storm a number of years ago. I brought them home and placed them in the shop and promptly completely forgot about them. I dug them out last week and decided to split a couple of them open to see if they are suitable for carving:

So I got my log splitting stuff out. My kids gave me that hatchet for Mother's Day some years back. Great thing to give to mom on days like that:

And here's the log. It's from a pine tree that came down several miles from here:

Nothing can resist splitting wedges and me!

There it is. Hmmm...I'll have to cogitate about this. I'm going to bite the bullet and rent a chain saw next week and cut up several more logs and see what I find so stay tuned for that.

While I'm waiting on the saw and completing the tray, I need to replace the chair seats on my dining room table:

Yes, those are beyond bad-I'd say rather grim. I'm going to remove the seats and replace them with solid wood seats from some scrap pine I have.

So stay tuned and we'll meet up again here in the shop this weekend.

Have a good one,
VW

Perfume Tray, continued

Hi Everyone,

Today I planned to sand the tray parts, assemble the frame, and stain everything and believe it or not I got it all done. Here's the photos:

The first thing I did was drill a hole into the edges of the side pieces to put screws into. I did that because that section is actually two glued pieces of wood and if the tray was ever dropped I was afraid those two pieces could come apart:

After that, I proceeded to drill screw holes in the ends of the frame to get it ready to be assembled:

And here is the frame assembled. Now it's time to seal the wood and stain it:

While I was waiting for the pre-stain to dry I took some photos. It is absolutely cloudless here today and just beautiful. We may have fierce winters here but our springs are gorgeous:

My friend wanted the color of the tray to be grey, with just enough color for the wood grain to show through. I have to admit I hate the color grey as my living room is painted grey and after a while it looks soooo depressing. But that's what she wanted so I used Minwax Classic Grey for the stain. I applied it and let it sit for about 15 minutes and then I rubbed it down with a paper towel and I must say I'm really pleased with the color. I was worried it would turn out to be battleship grey like my living room but it's a very soft color and there's just enough visible wood grain to make my friend happy:

These photos show the color in natural light:

And these two photos show the color in artificial light:

Ok, all the parts are drying and I'll leave all of that over night. Tomorrow I'll attach the bottom pieces to the frame and get the tray ready for polyurethane.

In the meantime, a very handsome gentleman gave me a present so I'm going off to work on my garden.

See you all tomorrow.
Stay tuned,
VW