Thread: Hey Girls

We are all very quiet. What you up to?

My "proper" woodwork projects have lapsed since we got an early burst of spring and I spent some time doing garden jobs and painting inside.

Oh I also entered a 100km mountain bike race in November so I have had to devote a big swag of child-free shed time to training.

I did manage to finish cleaning up all the recycled Spotted Gum I acquired and now it's stashed under the house.

I am somewhat reluctant to admit this but I bought a whitewood chest of drawers for the living room . Waiting to make one just wasn't going to happen any time soon. Got some stain and Danish Oil ready to put on but have been waiting until I get around to sanding it properly. Have already wiped a thin coat of Estapol onto all the drawer insides and sanded smooth to seal the timber. I'm also getting new handles from Hafele who very helpfully sent me a sample for no charge .

Going to the woodwork show with father-in-law this arvo so hopefully that will give me some inspiration . Before I go I want to clean up a bomb-site of a kitchen, bake a cake and do some more sewing of a roman blind I am making for daughter's room.

Have a good weekend all!

Steph

Sorry for the delay, I fell asleep on the couch last night

Finally got the pictures sorted.

1. First up is the Artwork I now have in my still-party renovated Laundry.
Couldn't think of a more appropriate picture for the Laundry than one of Mud

2 & 3. The tambor door for the ironing centre. 4 coats of Wipe of poly on the slats which are at present just stapled to the calico back. The next step will be to add glue and then build the unit around the roller door.

4 & 5. The silverash and jarrah workbench top. Ended up with only 6 coats of wipe on poly, but this will be easy to sand back and recoat when needed. The toolwell is brilliant. I used a piece of ply and as it's removeable, is very easy to clean it out when I can't find my tools in it anymore. The big benchstop is great, but after having used the bench for a couple of weeks, I find I now need to build a benchstop on the other side as well. I haven't decided on where to site the vice yet, other than thinking I really should do something about it sooner than later

cheers
Wendy

Lovely lovely job on the workbench

Like the tambor door - might implement one or two of these for our kitchen reno (a long way in the future). How do you get the glue in?

I went to the woodwork show today and bought lots of framing supplies - a mat cutter and rule and point driver and points and framing tape etc. Plus some purpleheart which I want to use as accents on boxes and frames etc.

Steph

Hi Spring, nice clock, you have a lot more patience that I do

Ruffly, I really like the idea of the toolwell in your bench, did you come up with that idea?

We are all very quiet. What you up to? that shed kidnapped you all????

I wish that I could get in the shed, but, I have to admit that like most good women, I know my place belongs in the kitchen

not likely

.. waiting for this to dry out so I can finish removing the wood stove and modernise

Thanks Steph

The workbench has been well worth the wait. I love using it and find I am careful of what happens to it, but don't mind the scratches, nicks and dents that occur. The one rule I do follow is not to do any finishing on it, especially if using shellac. Two drops of shellac on it = a bald spot

Thanks Tam

The tool well idea I got from many sessions of researching workbenches here and in a multitude of books. The boards of silverash also helped with implementing the idea as one board was a lot shorter than the others so it unless I'd joined in another piece, a tool well would be the easiest thing to do. I do wish that I'd put the tool well one board back closer to the middle of the bench as that would make life easier in working on small items. The benchstops came from the same thing where the timber was shorter than the general length. It's great being able to work on all 4 sides of the bench too. I think the bench will be a Mark I and in time I'll probably relegate this one to elsewhere and build another one.

The tambor door - the staples allow for the calico to be pulled back slightly so I'll do this on each side of the staples when applying the glue - I'll take pictures too. The staples are definitely not strong enough by themselves for the door.


Speaking of time and shed work etc, how on earth do you juggle everything we have to do as mothers, wives, girlfiends and ourselves?? Do you find yourself not doing some things as often as you'd like to make time for something you really want to do?

cheers
Wendy

Spring your trinket boxes are lovely. The designs look like they are based on lacework.

Wendy your bench looks great. I wont be making one for me though until I put the roof on the house, cant afford to get sidetracked. My friend has a roller door like yours in her kitchen which covers the coffee/toaster area of the kitchen, which keeps it looking neat.

Tamariska, I moved our wood stove out of the way to paint our floor, hubby was horified that I had shifted it by myself, but it was an easy task using a couple of pipes underneath and rolling it.

I find it hard juggling work, building, woodwork, craftwork, husband etc. Of course the first thing that misses out on my time is the housework

Woodwork is something I have to apply myself to with no other interuptions, like I cant do it for an hour a day or anything, its gotta be all or nothing, like set up and do as much of the job as i can, cause if I get interupted for a day, the project is more than likely to start the dust collecting thing And the dust collecting thing can go on for several years. Hmmm... speaking of which...there is this bed I started making my son...

Donna

Tamariska, I moved our wood stove out of the way to paint our floor, hubby was horified that I had shifted it by myself, but it was an easy task using a couple of pipes underneath and rolling it.

Thanks for that flynnsart. I had heard of the pipes, but wasnt too sure of how heavy the stove was, (and if it would stay on top of the floorboards.)
I ended up reducing it to component parts yesterday, basically, because even if I got it out of the kitchen, we would have had to try to negotiate it down 5 steps off the back porch (not something I would wish to try :grin: )

Hi all,
Haven't visited the site for a while (working in Dubbo, live in Yass - not much time for anything when I get home).
My project at the moment is finalising the power to the shed!
Everything is all hooked up and ready for the man from the council to give the ok to switch on the power - but my brother in law (electrician) has gone on holidays and need him to meet with the council man.
Its been over 18mths in the making...a few more weeks won't kill me - though the current use of a single extension cord over 70m to the shed might - hence no real woodwork projects until I can have all my gear hooked up properly to 240v!!
If anyone's interested, I've put in 3x 15A circuits (each runs a designated 15A pwr point - one for dust extractor, one for welder, one for whatever I feel like!!) and about 10x 10A dbl pwr points on 3 separate circuits.
Nothing is gonna blow...nothing!!
Planned woodwork projects at this stage are: finishing off workbench (finally will install the record vice I've had lying around for the last 3years - makes a good doorstop) and perhaps the poker table featured in Australian wood smith (no. 44).
Leanne

Green with envy, we have been living off power cords for 7 years.

Donna

Hi Leanne,

I don't know how you can be so patient. HWMNBO still teases me about having to wait for my shed to be finished for only 6 months I hope the approval goes through without a single, further delay for you.

Tameriska - did the floor dry out?

Donna - totally agree, an hour of woodwork, while better than nothing, goes by way too quick. A whole block of time is indeed great, especially with no interruptions.

Tambor Door update I was making good progress on the tambour door and the ironing unit on Sunday, until I lifted the door. It is so heavy! There's no way it's going to work as the door for the ironing centre. It would probably end up pulling the whole unit off the wall. I don't think it will even roll around the very small corner area either. I think it would slump under the weight and jam. I can't see my MIL being able to use it, considering how ill she has been. Sigh, back to the drawing board for this idea. Now to design a unit to use the existing door.

cheers
Wendy

tameriska and Donna - thank you

Wendy, the workbench top looks great, I love the finish you've acheived.

spring

Tameriska - did the floor dry out?

Ummm, lets just say that I'm still waiting.
I ended up with about 1" water deep in the kitchen, so, timber floorboards and limestone walls may need some time to recover

Oh well, It'll just give me more time to work out how I want to build my cupboards

Hi girls... errmm... Whoops! Hang on while I go put my frilly knickers on...

Originally Posted by rufflyrustic

Tambor Door update I was making good progress on the tambour door and the ironing unit on Sunday, until I lifted the door. It is so heavy! There's no way it's going to work as the door for the ironing centre. It would probably end up pulling the whole unit off the wall. I don't think it will even roll around the very small corner area either. I think it would slump under the weight and jam.

Wendy, have you given any thought to using a counter-weight? You could use a bit of sash-cord from the middle of the top slat of the tambour, through a pulley at the back of the cupboard and then to a heavy weight which you could "adjust" for best performance. Much like a sash window.

The weight could be hidden behind a false back, or simply drop down inside a length of PVC pipe or wooden "tube." This'll also work to prevent both the cupboard being front heavy and the tambor from slumping under it's own weight.

An alternative is to have the tambour roll in from the side, but then you really need to mount it on a drum/axle arrangement like a garage roller-door. Not exactly space saving, although very effective if done properly.

Tam - that's one heck of a lot of water to dry out/away!!!!

Thanks Spring - it was worth the year's wait for the bench.


7 years!!!!!


Skew - I had thought of trying to use springs, but a counter sash weight would be much better. Thanks

cheers
Wendy