Learning The Wood Thing
(or my sawdust factory)
and other stuff

Much like many of my projects this wood working thing has been something that I have wanted to learn for some years.  I am now starting the process.  My shop (anyway the wood whittling part) is real basic and I have only the basic tools so far. Above is the main wood bench with a table saw, router and a scroll saw (behind the router).  It is all built on a "T" shaped bench that I can roll completely under with the wheelchair.  The major concern of course is with my lack of hand function and poor balance there is a safety factor with the high speed metal tools that remove fingers as well as wood.  I DO HAVE a a lot of respect for these tools and always approach working with them with great caution.

My favorite saw is the scroll saw so far.  My first one used only the pinned blades and was a real job for me to change them as well as the options for pinned blades are very limited I found out.  My new one takes straight blades and is much simpler to use.  Along with the saws I also use my drill press, a dremel an old 12 inch lathe that come over on the Santa Maria ( it was made by Toastmaster) of which I want to replace some day and of course various files.  The hard part for me is the sanding for several reasons. One of which is the fact that my fingers don't work so coming up with some way to hold onto sand paper to do fine stuff or in odd shapes and places becomes a real challenge. the next and bigger problem is by the time I get to the sanding portion of the project I run out of patients. Most of my projects so far suffer from poor sanding which I am finding really messes up what could be a very nice piece of work. Living out here in a small town the education  process is limited as well. I know no one local that I can ask questions or go see how something is done and to get to any class on something like this (even if they did offer it) would be a minimum of 20 miles and probably 60. That leaves me with trial and error and error and error. My only guidance is via ham radio where I do get some hints and advice from knowledgeable people who guide me along. Below are some projects I have done so far.  With each one I have learned something however so it not a lost cause as of yet.

Below are some pictures of my attempts.

my first true project. My neighbor was impressed with the waterfall on the pond so ask me to make her a small one for her turtle aquarium. Well I wound up building her this terrium base for her turtles.  it is 4 ft long and 18 inches wide. The waterfall is above the blue catch pan (it is a paint roller pan) there are flowers, rocks and a hummingbird on the water fall.  Gravel will fill the base to the top of the catch pan and of course she will put Plexiglas around the sides.  The two posts in front were lodge pine pieces I finished out.

the chain between the posts hold a sign and a small turtle sits on the edge. 

there are some small rocks glued to the sign that I had polished earlier last summer.











The next project that come along was a holder for an old decorated bottle gourd. Back in the late 1980 something or another I lived in Northern Arizona. For several years each summer I would grow various types of decorative gourds. Among them were crown of thorns, turks turbans, dippers, mexican bottle gourds and bushel gourds.  Of the lot I found that the dipper and bottle gourds grew fastest and were easier to grow so I grew a lot of them. When My mom passed away she had a bottle gourd (natural, not finished) which sat on a shelf in the living room.  A friend of ours ask if she could have it and I gave it to her. That was in 1993. in 2005 our friend had someone do a special paint job on it for her.  The problem was that the stand the person give her for it let the gourd fall of if bumped slightly.  She ask me to build her a stand that would hold the gourd secure.  this is the stand with the gourd

I am not sure what kind of wood it was but it was sure hard stuff.  I finished it with a gloss black and it has a black felt liner the gourd sets on. The finish is glass smooth. It is hard to see but there are 4 arms, front, back, left and right. The one pointing straight at you is the shorter of the 4 and has a reddish goldish polished rock mounted in a cradle ( yes another rock from my polishing spree).This mexican bottle gord I grew in Az back about 1986.  It was my moms and was given to my good friend Margie Conner, she had it painted and I made the base for it (above), it is about 22 years old (2008)

some other wood stuff

a jd tractor

jd lamp

   
steer head
Queen Gator

terrium top

terrium top....now overgrown

neat dragon cage

mr-n-mrs gnome

thier house

made this fountain thing for my sis' fish pond
 
da plane..da plane

how about a key made out of plumb wood
 

Well cross your fingers that as I continue to learn the wood working that I maintain all of mine.  I will post more pics of projects if they turn out presentable ( next big wood project is to build a water wheel / house for my spring pond project.

THE GORD THING
GOURDS THAT I GROW AND STUFF MADE FROM THEM

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