Better Off in a Pine Box?

interesting enough, today i saw a story in USA Today about biodegradable coffins. the story is here http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-26-coffins_N.htm

I'm thinking that if you want a pine box for the last ride, i can make one for you! cost you about $200 + shipping. i can get some nice Black Hills Pine for the box, and perhaps use some rope for the handles. I'm thinking a natural finish would be linseed oil and rubbed to a nice shine. and being that you wouldn't want it to fall apart during the ceremony, ill just use a little glue and iron nails that will rust and decompose along with you.

if you want one, send me email or comment

Got it Done!

Yes! With an hour to spare, i finished the macniene shed for the nephew and made it to grandmas house in time for dinner!

dosent the sweet child look so excited? he cant wait to get it home so he can park his John Derre combine inside.

here is another closeup, shh! dont tell but i spent about $8 on this project

christmas crunch

working hard, or hardly working... for the nephew that has everything except the perfect shed for the new JD tractor in 1/16 scale... i took the picture around midnight when i ran out of trim. i think ill have it done in time, but then i always am overly optimistic.

Uncle Rog?

....can you make me a barn for my toy tractors?
not a problem, i live for this stuff!



should be able to cut this down to 1/16th scale and have it wrapped and packed for xmas in just a few hours... i just need to find a few hours to do it! thanks morton building for the pic!

can i have the next project please????

next up on the never ending to do list is a trash can for a friends kitchen..i dont have any pictures yet but will be posting as they are available

here is the plan sheet i drew up to work off of..

converting from a dwg to a jpg realy screws up the picture.. i have a great pdf of this dwg but cant get it to upload....

Working hard....

and using that shop time most efficiently! yea, get a little time and all i do is play with a sign...

We have some friends up north who put on the biggest private fireworks event in this corner of the world. there are a lot of friends and family who camp out in the yard and the site was jokeingly refered to as "Camp Cowpie" being that it is in a pasture....


look mom what i did!!!

they should get a kick out of this

could it be?

it looks like the wife is going to Fargo to do a little x-mas shopping and catch a show with some friends... that means i will have an entire weekend mostly alone in the shop....Hmmmmm what will i work on??????

Turkey day is over!

Its amazing what ill do for a turkey sandwich... i don't care if the high temp is only 28 deg Fahrenheit I'm going to finish Granny Flow's deck this weekend, snow or not... winter is on its way and i need to finish this project to free up some shop time.

went on a week long cruse and in the Bahamas i saw a really cool bar stool that i want to build... perhaps with a few modifications... ill post pictures when i down load em...

The adventures of Granny Flow's Deck

i don't know why but it happens every time i try to do a project for friends or reliticks. its a simple project, a 10x12 deck off of the kitchen door, about 2ft off the ground. first of all was the screws, i know i should update myself but square drives are a pain, then the material was short and the additional stuff ordered was the wrong type. to make a long whining session short, a simple project that should have taken a weekend has drug out for 3 weeks and if i get it done before its covered in snow....

oh well i feel better now

Quickey....

i scored a couple of free hours last night, knocked together the drawer fronts for the fireplace pedestal.. going to stain them up tonight. i built a version of this miter sled, this one looks better than mine. if you are interested you can get the plans from Wood Magazine. the link to the site is HERE

very handy this is..... my corner miters even look good now...

October is....

...Crunch time to get everything buttoned up for the "great white winter". lets see, the STD list for this month includes..... build a 10x10 deck for the mother-in-law, bring home two more loads of firewood (dam, gunna be a cold one), clean chimney! and whatever repairs and projects i can squeeze in around the homework. I have a couple of non-wood projects to finish up as soon as possible, and i keep forgetting my camera to take pictures of the stuff ive done... and i supose the trees are going to drop leaves like they usualy do bout this time of year, someone is going to have to clean that up....

September

once again september flew by, i havent been slackin, but the only wood working ive been doing is chopping firewood.... lots and lots of firewood, its going to be a cold winter baised on the pile of wood this whiteman's wife is making me put in the woodshed.. there is a joke there someplace if you search long enough.

Three Project and.....

three Purple ribbons! great Job B-man! the judging was tough and took quite awhile, but B-man saved the day and talked the talk. he is really happy with the results, he needs to fix a couple of small things and will send two of the three projects to the state fair at the end of the month. i will post pictures soon...

One Down and ...

Two to go! all of the 4-H projects need to be finished and to the extension office by Monday...

so we are showing some progress but we have a long way to go.. i think the hardest part is not helping too much, my job is to keep the B-man from loosing any fingers!

Summertime.....

Ahhh yes, summertime is in full swing out here in the great white north. better enjoy it as much as you can, the first possible frost is only 40 days away.

i really need to install air conditioning in the shop for days like this but its hard to justify for only a week or two during the summer. like everywhere else its been to hot to do much more than sweat in the shop. but a change in the weather is coming and we should be getting back in there soon.

the B-man needs to put together his trophy case for 4-H, we are going to be hard pressed to get everything done... again...hahha if is wasn't for the last min.........

last weekend was the B-mans first sheep show, fun was had by all!

Achevment Days....

is fast approaching, and the workshop is humming with the sound of air compressors, sanders and a few choice adult words thrown in with a smashed thumb.....

here is the B-man working diligently on one project. he is refinishing a 4-H box that his mother used for her projects some 25 years ago....

Sheep are stupid.....

but i still need to transport the little critters to the vet to get a health certificate and then we are off to the show. the Clark County Prospect Show is this weekend and we are entering the larger black face lamb known as "Chops". the FLCC is mostly a joke, it stands for "Foote, Land and Cattle Company. my wife believes that this is the most redneckish thing ive done yet.....

One more time

OK here is a project that i have had going for about two years. finally got it done, i don know why it has taken so long, its been kind of fun. kind of says it all don't it?

Sheep need to Eat

and some place to eat at. ok so i suppose that the little critters could just eat out of a pail. but your know me, why not build something that is kind of cool?

June is gone

but i did get quite a bit of stuff done. this time of year is always crazy, with the construction season in full swing. so i was determined to build a blocking stand for the kids 4-h project and here it is...

yep the little critters definitely need a hair cut....

prairie maggots..... hahaha

Summertime Fun

Spent a great weekend remodeling the shop, moved the table saw to allow more room in front of the overhead door. There might be a project in my future that requires more space... Once i did that, i noticed that i have more stuff that really needs to be stored somewhere else, so i spent the rest of the day building a floor in the attic space. i am still trying different things to come up with the perfect layout for the shop. ill let you know when i get there.

next project: wooden blocking stand............... for sheep

Happy May Day....

sort of.....
ok so im a little late, been busy. as the school year winds down, there seems to be less time spent on homework and more stuff to do in the yard. but the spring cleanup is about done and time to start a couple more wood projects. i did break out the chain saw and start carving on the log i have laying out in the yard. going to put our names on it.
the B-man wants a couple of sheep for a 4-H project so we are going to build a little barn for them. should be cute when we are done... if we get it done before the sheep grow out of it...

Rejects

Whoops! i had 8 hearts fail the Pam test..... need to make some more. ill have to double check the Quality Assurance procedures next time...

April Fool's

sure every blog on the net has a title like that! however this post has nothing to do with an april fool joke, besides me putting a snowball in my son's bed....to wake him up...

anyway, im still working on low tech improvements to the shop, this weekend i built a 28 cube storage rack for fasteners. each square is sized to perfectly fit a folgers coffee can, the plastic ones. i used a sheet of 1/2" osb and half a sheet of 1/4" osb. the stuff was on sale at Menards... it wasn't to warped for me to cut up. i spent all of $16 and ended up with a very useful cabinet.

then i spent a good half hour filling coffee cans and labeling them, im telling ya that happiness is a nice neat row of cans labeled 1", 2", 3" and so on!

master woodworker?

well, no super fancy projects this weekend. i didn't use fine wood, expensive laminates or even fancy hardware. i suppose even the greatest woodworkers need to build silly little projects from time to time..... i built 6 magazine holders, from scrap pine....

Great Weekend

i just had a great weekend, started off by going out to dinner friday night. then helped a friend work his cows saturday morning. had to package up the Pam blocks saturday afternoon and then went out to the in-laws to help paint the new house. paint paint paint all day sunday. it is nice to do a paint job before the carpets are in... well its a good thing i came to work this morning, i need some rest.

Ok, here is the latest project. its a paying project but just not very much. ever want to change those silly blocks that are in the corner of every window and door in your house (older houses mostly).

well here is an idea, instead of a typical rosette block have a couple hundred custom made... you can change out the heart later if you get sick of it.

Here Ya Go...

here is the not quite finished picture of the fireplace surround, if you want to see what it looked like before i started it, look here i still need to add a mantle, and the overall plan calls for bookshelves on either side with an under window seat on the right side. and it looks like i have forgotten to put on the drawer fronts.

happy hammering!

productivity

Ah Yes, i love a good long weekend with lots of shop time, and even a little time on the ice. I finally managed to finish the fireplace modules #1 and #2. but didn't catch a single fish! oh well, all time spent sitting on a bucket is precious.

anyway, we did the final sanding on the fireplace surround and primered it with a kills wall paper primer. the wife found a cool wallpaper, it looks like a rock wall, limestone or slate. then we put a small chair rail around the edge between fireplace and sheet rock. the total effect is stunning. the wife found some slate tile/rock to put down on the hearth and i mortared it in. again the overall effect is quite stunning. ill have to take home the camera tonight and get some pictures.

Farm show 2007

Yes we did the farm show again this winter. the theme was "procrastination". anyway Brandon managed to get his project completed on time, but of course a few more days would have helped the polyurethane dry better. as it was we had to bring the project inside and put it by the heater....

Ok, Where Was I?

Lets see, its been awhile sense i posted. just like everyone else in the world things have been busy. anyway I'm getting back in the groove.

I have an order for 300 Pam Blocks which should be a lot of fun to make. they are simply rosette blocks for my Sister-In-Law's house but instead of the target, i am putting in little hearts! yea, i know, if i had to look at hearts every day for the rest of my life i would get pretty sick of them in a hurry. so i am setting it up so the hearts can be popped out in the future and replaced with another carving when she finally comes to her senses.

the blocks are simply 2-7/8 square with a 7/8" flat hole in the center. i am using a 1/4" round over bit to smooth out the inside edge, a 1/4" beading bit to put a little profile on the outside edge and am using a flush trim bit to shape the hearts to a template after trimming on the band saw.... can you believe that Menard's doesn't carry a decent flush trim bit? i can find a pair of socks but not a router bit? perhaps they moved the bits i want over to the paint department?

i need a new store.....

anyway ill post pics when i have a few