Closed for the Season-Happy Holidays-Already Bored and Trying to Knit a Sock

Hi Everyone,

I came home several days ago and found that my husband and oldest son had packed up the woodshop and cleaned it out. They also closed the shop down, which I hadn't planned on doing just yet. It's also colder than Mars here right now. The upshot of this is that the shop is closed for the season so  I'm going to defer my last two projects until next year when it warms up, if it ever does.

Last night I caught myself wishing I could go out and work on something so I perused the Internet and decided to try my hand at knitting socks. I used to knit quite a bit but haven't done it in several decades. I still remember how to do basic knitting so I thought I'd give it a try.

Here's the photo:

It doesn't look promising.

But it will keep me out of everyone's hair for the time being. I'll post again when I'm done.

In the meantime, I'd like to wish you all a very happy holiday season and all my hopes for a good New Year. And thanks again for dropping by the woodshop and being my partner in all the projects here on the SWW blog.

Take care,
VW

Scrap Wood project-completion photos

Hi Everyone,

The coffee shelf is finished. Here are the photos:

Today all that remained was to screw on the shelves and several hooks to hang coffee cups on. The bottom shelf was placed 4 inches above the bottom edge of the back so as to allow enough room for a cup to be hooked and unhooked easily.

The top shelf was placed 5 inches below the top edge of the back. And all I did was place two screws into each end threw the back of the unit:

Next I placed the hooks evenly across the bottom and screwed them in:

And here is the final photograph. It used up more scrap wood and it produced a usable set of shelves for bags of coffee and tins of loose tea.

Ok, this project is completed. In looking at it, I can see that it could be configured in a variety of ways to fit your needs. And if you made the shelves a little narrower, it would make a nice spice rack. 

I'm not sure what my next project will be at this point. I have some bookshelves to make for some young friends which I'll do off line and then if I have time, I'll construct a camp kitchen. 

So in the meantime, I'm feeding the local critters and going inside for some hot tea.

As always, thanks for dropping by and see you all soon,

VW

Recipe: Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Hi Everyone,

Well it's a pleasant November day and while I am still working on the coffee shelf, I decided that it's also good cooking weather so time for a recipe for chocolate oatmeal cookies.

I got this recipe many years ago from someone I used to work with. I've made it a zillion times and it always turns out great. It's chocolaty and chewy and it really hits the spot with a cup of hot coffee.

Here's the recipe

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups of sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1 stick of margarine

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup of milk

Stir these ingredients together and cook until melted.
Cook for 3 minutes after the mixture boils (rolling boil).

Remove from the heat and add 1 tsp of vanilla and 2 cups of oatmeal (quick or old fashioned).

Stir well.

Drop by heaping tablespoon full on waxed paper and let cool. 

These are really good.

See you all tomorrow,

VW

Scrap Wood project, continued-applying the finish

Hi Everyone,

I went down to the shop today and started applying the polyurethane to the backing of the coffee shelf unit and the shelves and this is the color it is going to wind up being:

This color is composed of Minwax wood stain  Early American and Minwax Polyshades color pecan. Mixing the two adds a red undertone to the finish that I rather like. I used the pecan color on top of Minwax wood stain color honey for a coat hanger that I built about a month a go, and that came out really really nice.

There is a guide to mixing colors on the Minwax website and you can click here to see it.

In a day or two, after I've finished applying the polyurethan, I'll screw the shelves in place, screw on some metal hooks along the bottom of the unit and the project will be completed. I'll post completion photos then.

Stay tuned,
VW

I'm Famous

Hi Everyone,

A while back I was contacted by Better Homes and Gardens. One of their editors saw the SWW blog and like it, and they asked me to write about woodworking for their magazine Wood Magazine. Well, the article was published and you can find it in the current issue. It's about woodworking and generosity, a subject that everyone who works with their hands, regardless of the medium, should consider.

And as usual, here's a photo of the article:

As always, stay tuned,
VW

Scrap Wood project, continued

Good Morning All,

Well, I've finished assembling all the parts for the coffee shelf project. Today I am going to begin applying the finish. Here are the photos:

Here are the parts of the coffee shelf-the backing and the two shelves. I made all of the parts out of pine:

First of all I'm going to apply a wood sealer to the wood. This seals the surface of the pine so the stain will absorb evening across the surface. It also allows the grain of the wood to show through. If I hadn't sealed the wood, the wood would have absorbed the stain unevenly and the grain of the wood would be obscured. Here I'm working on the backing board and I've sealed both the front and the back of the board and the edges as well:

This is what it looks like at present. I used Minwax wood sealer for this and I'm going to use Minwax stain and polyurethane for the rest of the finish. I like their products as they are simple to apply and I always get good results. Note: always used finishing products from the same manufacturer. Not all finishes are compatible with one another and you can wind up with a finish that won't dry. Then you have the unhappy experience of removing it and starting all over again. Meh:

And I also sealed the shelves. I am going to go and get a cup of coffee and let this absorb into the wood for about 15 minutes. When I come back I'll apply the stain:

Ok, I'm back. Here you can see the stain going on the backing. I used Early American wood stain for this as it results in a medium brown color. I think it will provide a good contrast to the coffee bags and coffee cups that I plan to display here. If it doesn't look very appealing I can always deepen the color by adding another layer of stain or I can also use a colored varnish over it to change the color. Or I can just use a clear polyurethane too:

Here are the shelves in the same color:

The last thing I did was stain a small piece of scrap lumber from this project. This allows me to experiment a bit before I do the final finishing. Another good reason to keep scrap lumber:

I'm going to leave all this to dry and tomorrow I'll do a little experimenting.

Just a reminder: if you live in a cold climate like I do, it's a good idea to begin moving wood glue, batteries, varnishes, etc, into a warmer part of your shop. Cold temps are not good for those kinds of products.

Ok, see you all tomorrow.

VW

Scrap Wood Project, continued

Hi Everyone,
I'm back-I apologize for the delay in working on this project but I've been a bit under the weather. I'm much better now so it's back to work.

When last we met I was working on a coffee shelving project out of some of the scrap wood in my shop. I worked on it more this morning and here are some photos of where I am right now with it:

To recap: I made the back of this unit out of some ship lap pine left over from a previous project. I love this stuff. The tongue and grove edges make laminating this together a snap:

The bottom shelf

The unit is going to have a top and bottom shelf to hold coffee bags, hot chocolate containers, a coffee grinder, etc. The bottom shelf will be attached 4 inches away from the bottom edge. This will give me enough room to attach some hooks for coffee mugs:

To assemble the shelf-first I screwed a 2x4 block to each of the ends of the shelf with the cut face facing outward:

This is what it looks like assembled:

 Next I attached a 3/4" x 1 1/2" strip to the edge of the shelf with some glue and a screw on each end:

The top shelf
The top shelf will be attached 5 inches below the top of the unit:

And I assembled the top shelf in the same manner as the bottom shelf with a small rail attached to the 2x4 blocks:

Here you can see I attached the rail with a spot of glue and a finishing nail instead of a screw:

 And this is what it looks like assembled:

Here I've just placed the top shelf on top of the ship lap backing. It doesn't look like much now but it will look different when I've finished it:

I've brought all the glued up parts inside as it's getting cold outside and I want the glue to dry out completely. When that's done I'll attach the shelves to the backing and then seal and stain the wood.

Stay tuned
VW