Pallet Coasters

As I have stated before I am always looking for a use for all my offcuts and when I saw this project on Steve Ramsey’s ‘Woodworking for Mere Mortals’ http://www.woodworkingformeremortals.com/2013/05/pallet-drink-coasters.html#pallet-drink-coasters.html?s=2&_suid=138036292054408656889188224006. 

I thought it was perfect. Steve used old pallets to make these coasters however I used my fence paling offcuts.








Not much to the construction just cutting the pieces to size, the 9 slats are 12 x 5mm and the 3 bearers are 12 x 7.5mm, and the gluing them together with Titebond 3 wood glue, leaving them over night to set and then give them a good sand. Then a couple of coats of polyurethane to finish them off.  






So far they are working well.



 

SWSi Sign

While I was acting in another position at work recently I reorganised my temporary office. When the organising was done I realised that the back of my computer screens where facing any clients or visitors that I had in the office. So a screen was required however rather than just having a blank board to look at I thought I would dress it up with the company’s logo.

I started by cutting dressing and then gluing together some old pine bed slats to form the background of the logo.
 








Due to the size of my panel clamps this had to be done in to stages, firstly gluing 2 smaller sections up and then joining them using my sash cramps and a few smaller clamps to keep it flat.


 







Once the glue dried I used a straight edge and my circular saw to straighten one edge and then ran it through my table saw to get both edges parallel.









Then using Matthias Wandel (woodgears.ca) Big Print Program I blew up and printed out the logo to the size needed and then using carbon paper transferred it on to some MDF to use as a template which I cut out with my Jigsaw.

 

 
In the meantime I had prepared 2 more panels for the 2 different coloured text back grounds, one from Oregon and the other some of my old fence palings. These then got inlaid into the pine background using a Router Inlay Bit and Guide. The wording underneath was routed using a straight router bit with a template guide.
( The block of concrete is a balance weight out of a washing machine that I pulled apart. I use them to weigh down hard to clamp items.) 


 



The remaining text was then inlaid into the initial inlay and the whole thing coated with a two part epoxy pouring gloss to fill the lower lettering.











Since building this I have moved back to my normal office so no longer needed the screen however I took it with me and it now sits above my desk.

Desk Boxes

At work I have had the need off a set of stackable boxes so I can put all the paperwork and handouts in so they are all together to take to class. So during the April holiday I built myself a set.

Once again they are made from recycled hardwood fence palings and uses Dovetail joints.

I started by running the palings through the thicknesser and over the jointer and then cut them to length and gluing them together to get the required width of board that I required.

I used a Panel clamp to clamp the boards together. The Panel Clamp not only squeezes the board together but also stops them from bowing and cupping under the pressure.

The boards were then cut for the Dovetails using the Gifkens Dovetail Jig, cut a curve as a access point, angled the tops and bottoms of the boards so they would centre on themselves when stacked. I also recessed the bottom so they could slot into the groves that I cut with a 5mm router bit.

Once assembled and glued together 3 coats to Polyurethane brought them up pretty nice.





                                              

Now that the boxes have been used of a semester they are working well.



Gifkin's Dovetail Jig Storage Box

It may seem obvious that the first project you would do when you purchase a Gifkin Dovetail Jig would be a box to keep it in however this was not the case for me. As I have indicated before I had access to a Jig from my place of employment prior to purchasing mine and when I did purchase one I had a particular job in progress at the time. 

 The postage box that the jig arrived in was quite adequate for storage although it is cardboard and will eventually get damaged due to the workshop environment so when I got the chance I built the storage box pictured

Again made of old fence palings

Previous Project - Shelves

I was looking for a solution to a problem that I had in the Kitchen. I was looking for somewhere to store the potato's, onions, dog and cat food etc. I had a blank section on the end of the pantry above the bins that I had been considering for a long time. I had thought of a small cupboard that incorporated the bin underneath however nothing really worked for me. Then one day I was watching one of the Harry Potter films and in one scene in Haggrets cottage I saw something that I thought would work.

I'm not sure if you would call these Cubby's or shelves but they work well

 Again I have used the recycled fence palings and the Gifkins dovetail jig to join the corners.

As you can see I have made 3 in total which are screwed to the side of the pantry and above the bins giving easy access to the things that you use regularly.

Gifkins Dovetail Jig

From everything that I have read and watched the Gifkins Dovetail Jig http://www.gifkins.com.au/ is the quickest, easiest way to cut dovetail joints and having used one and now owning one I have to agree.

Luckily I was able to purchase one for work before I invested my own money in one and i was so impressed that I brought two templates. I got the Deluxe Package with the A10, for thicknesses up to 13mm, and the B10, for thicknesses 13 to 22mm thick, templates. These are to 2 most popular size templates.

I have to say that the purchase process was a great experience with the online ordering and and additional communication followed up via email in a timely manner.

Since the Jig I have made a few boxes and draw units each time getting a nice tight fit with next to no setup time.

 Including a box to put the Jig itself in



 NOTE: Yes, All of the above jobs are constructed from the fence palings and will will look at each job individually in this blog.

Previous Project - BBQ Trolley

I was looking for a project that used up the palings from my hardwood fence and I saw this on the New Yankee Workshop and thought would give it a go.

The only part which is not fence palings is the handle and the bolts holding the wheels on.

Pretty simple, 3 trays, which I mitred the corners, if I was to build one again, now that I have a Gifkins Dovetail Jig, I would dovetail the corners instead. The Legs are 2 palings glued together and half lapped where they cross.

The wheels are made up of 3 layers of palings glued together with Titebond 3 glue, the same as the rest of the project, in squares and then turned into circle using my router and a circle jig.

As you can see the tray on top comes out so that you can take it inside an load it up while there is a slide out cutting board that stores underneath.


 

Kitchen Refurb - Stage 2

So with the Australia Day long weekend upon us the time had come to commence Stage 2 of the kitchen renovation, ( I’m still not sure how many stages there will be but I could be quite a few), Remove and replace the old wall oven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The oven came out with relative ease and once I was able to get a mate around to disconnect the gas supply I was then able to remove the cupboard unit as a whole.

To reshape the cupboard I have extended the lower draw unit up to the underside of the existing bench height, retained the panel that encased the fridge, cut the depth of the overhead cupboard down to match the existing overhead on the left hand side and then added an open shelf to match the height of the cupboard while not needing to make new doors.

 

 

I have temporarily covered the bench to with some off cuts to bring it up the same height as the rest of the benches while we decide on what to change them to.

 

Still need to make the new draw and the draw front, we have decided to paint all the cupboard units and the doors so that will make matching the doors easier.  The tiles will also have to be replaced and extended across the new cupboard so as I said before this could be a long drawn out project.  

Previous Project - Shoe Box

I know that I have always had a pretty full house, 4 kids plus in-laws for most of the time, but I swear that there must be a couple of centipedes living here as well. The number of shoes that seem to gather around the front door at my place was ridiculous.

I also needed some where to hang a couple of coats and hats, somewhere to leave my keys and wallet so I could find them again, somewhere to sit while I put my shoes on and some way of seeing if my hair was OK before I walked out the door (not that I have that much hair to worry about).

So this was the answer.

 



The unit is 1.9m high, 1.6m wide and the box is 400mm wide and 450mm deep. It is constructed from Radiata Pine using the rail and style method. 

 

70 x 35 for the Frame, Lining boards to fill in the panels, 120 x 19 for the shelf, a few 190 x 19 for the Box lids and ply for the box base.

 

From memory I gave it 3 coats of Shellac and then a couple of coats of Polyurethane to finish it.

 

After a few years know the unit is working well although I am still trying to train certain people to put their shoes in it.

 

 



Previous Project - Book Ends

I really hate wasting timber and I am always looking for small jobs where I can use all the small off-cuts that I end up with from the larger projects.

When my number 1 son asked for a set of bookends that looked like a house that had been cut in half I had the perfect opportunity to use some.














As you can see it is made from of cuts of Hardwood fence palings that I had laying around the workshop just cut to shape and glued together. The roofs lift off so they can be used as a storage box as well.

Best of all it didn't take a lot of time and the kids were able to help with the glue up and the finishing.

Previous Project - Wall Unit

Lounge room at my place has a wall angled at about 30 degrees. This makes it a real difficult room to put furniture in. There is also large windows on both ends. To fix this I decided to build a wall unit to fit into this area and have a go at making some raised panel door as well.

What to make it from, well I still had a stack of fence palings in the yard so what else.


Needless to say there was a hell of a lot of gluing to form the panels and I had to buy a set of Panel clamps to help keep them flat. I also had to buy a set of Raise Panel bit to cut the styles and rails of the doors and drawers.

The far right hand draw in the photo is only the front due to the angle of the wall.

The carcass of the unit is constructed from 16mm MDF with a 20mm hardwood edge strip on the face. For the top I riped the palings in half and then glued them together on edge to give me a 30mm thick top.






I had to make the top in 2 halves so I could run the finished glue up through the thicknesser. I then bisculted the 2 halves together and router in some stiffener at 90 degrees to the paling to hold it all together.



 






 I then had to fill in the gap behind this unit so a constructed a full height cupboard with 4 drawers for DVDs etc and storage, made up a 6 panel screen for behind the TV and also an open set of shelves for above the TV.

I can't remember how long this project took in total, I am pretty sure that it was during this project that i had to get another fence which I found on "Gumtree". However as you can see in the photos it was finished for Christmas a few years back and it squares up the lounge room and holds hundreds of DVDs, games to keep them out of site.

Previous Projects - Outdoor Setting

This is the project that started it all for me, I had just replaced my old hardwood paling fence because it was falling into the park next door and I had a heap of wood to get rid of ( the fence is 45m long). I knew that the palings, rails and posts would dress up great so I purchsed a cheap Ryobi thicknesser ($430) and set to work.

The Thicknesser is still going strong 4 years latter and while I don't use every week when I do us it it gets a fair workout as I usually clean up about 50 - 100 palings at a time depending on the projects that I have in mind. However if you keep the the blades sharp and don't try to take to much off a a time it works well.

The table is based on a smaller version which I saw on The New Yankee Workshop however this one is 2.5m in length and the top is 1.2m wide. The table is a combination of

                          The Table,                     seat and                   a storage box.

It takes 2 people to tilt the table top into it's alternative position.

I originally built 8 chairs for the table however I found that 8 still wouldn't go around it so i had to make another 2. Each chair is held together with 26 mortice and tenon joints and Titebond 3 glue, no mechanical fasteners were used. The chairs can stack up in piles of 4 to help save some room in the yard.

 This project is now 4 years old and still going strong. I have reapplied the decking order a couple of times and have recently had to fix a bit of a bow in the table but it is still functioning well.