DIY Keva Planks Complete!

The finally tally is 1,212 planks, with a total cost of $120.  Not too shabby.

I'm not 100% convinced I picked the right color rope.  If it continues to bother me, I'll change it later.

Another Gremlin!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled woodworking post for this special announcement.  The project took a brief hiatus because my wife gave birth to our second son, Workshop Gremlin #2.  D'awwww!

As you well know, if you should ever catch a Workshop Gremlin, he's bound by an ancient agreement to sweep your shop floor.  If you manage to catch two Workshop Gremlins?  Well... that's never been done before...

Alphabet Building Kit

A super simple and quick one.  My son is learning his ABC's, and my wife saw a plastic version of this where the child assembles the letter-shapes.  So I figured out the minimum number of sticks necessary to build the entire alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, and cranked this out in 20 minutes.

It fits in a ziplock bag so we can take it with us and get it out while waiting for food or whatever.  I liked it so much I made another set for my niece.

Boden's First Set of Tools

A gift to my son on his 2nd Christmas.  When he hears me sawing a board downstairs he grabs his toolbox and runs down to work with me.  Maybe when he's old enough I can delegate my sharpening duties to him as part of his apprenticeship, along with mowing the lawn and doing the dishes, and...

The Workshop Gremlin Returns!

Who knows what evil lurks below the benchtop?  They don't call it a Sliding Dead Man for nothing!

Workshop Gremlin

Clearly, these dowel rods go on the floor, Dad!

Arts & Crafts Entry Bench Update

I mentioned earlier that I screwed up resawing the wood for the lid and had to order more lumber.  While waiting for the new wood to arrive I got started on the floor boards using my new scratch beader and then shiplapped them.  Scratch beading works way better on hardwood than softwood.  You really need a delicate hand with softwoods so that you don't dive into the board.

Scratch Beader at work on the floor boards.

Rabbeting for shiplaps.

So here's one of a dozen or so dry-fits.   

You might be wondering why the front/center panel is missing.

Because I'm the biggest idiot in the world.  That was a very bad day.  I wasn't paying attention and was so focused on making progress that I didn't realize I was cutting the rabbet on the wrong side of the panel.  Every panel is supposed to be flat in the front and rabbeted in the back.  I can't simply flip the board over, because the other side is a non-bookmatched substrate with an off-centered seam.

I had put so much time and attention into choosing those panels.  They all came from the same board to ensure grain and color match, the grain patterns are the craziest I'll likely ever see, and the board is simply irreplaceable.  The cry of anguish when I realized what I had done still echoes in my house.

I attempted to glue pieces of wood back on, but eventually gave up.

I found another board with decent grain and built a replacement.  At least if it doesn't match it will be in the center on not to the side.  I'm hoping that the aniline dye will make everything look like it belongs together and cover up my mistake.

Dry-fit #13,342

The front-center panel is a little thinner than the others.  I had trouble resawing again (of course).  You can only tell from the inside, so who cares?

Boden says it'll be okay.  Moving on...

A Diabolical Puzzle

My wife gave birth to our first child on August 25th, 2012.  I took 6 weeks off of work to help out, which ended up being more necessary than we expected.  A vacation it was not.  But we got a pretty cool kid out of the deal, so no biggie.

In any case, my time in the wood shop has been less often, for shorter durations, and with more interruptions lately.  I tried to find tiny projects I could complete in 90 minutes or so after he and my wife went to bed.

This is a little puzzle I found on Roy Underhill's The Woodwright's School website.  Casse-Tete Diabolique, which is French for Diabolical Puzzle.

I made it out of scrap hem-fir as an initial practice attempt, using only hand tools.  This was wise because I learned the importance of hard wood and tight-fitting joints for this particular puzzle.  The more it gets used, the more the wood gets pushed around, the looser it becomes, and the easier it is to solve.  Though I find it interesting that while it's incredibly easy for people to take apart, they never remember what it looked like initially to put it back together.  :P