Weeee!! The Flag Box gets an Award!

And, for those Last Minute Elf winners…

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Well, the holidays are just about over, but the fun is getting ready to begin! First, we would like to thank everyone who took the time to submit projects for the Last Minute Elf event. We had 28 entries, and all of them were winners in our book! There were some great ideas in there, but, as you know, there can only be a few winners. So, without any further ado, here they are:

1) Best turned project: Adam Wroten’s light sabers.
The force is strong with young Adam, as he turned the handles on his light sabers. Using PEX tubing and some inexpensive flashlights, he is ready to rule the galaxy…

Adam’s light sabers

2) The greenest project: Krishen Kota’s lobster sign.
Take some scrap wood, put it together with a great image, and you have a beautiful hand-made sign that would be fit for anyone in your family. A great reuse of materials!

Lobstah, anyone?

3) The best project to fit inside a USPS flat rate shipping box: Brian Igielski’s candle centerpiece.
This project’s simplicity made it a favorite, with the sloping sides and alternating species of wood adding a touch of elegance to any holiday table.

Brian’s Candle Centerpiece.

4) Best for a child: Chet Kloss’ child block carts.
What child wouldn’t love one of these colorful block carts? Chet made these babies to be fun, exciting and something that kids could enjoy for hours!

Chet’s fleet of block carts

5) Best for an adult: Marilyn Guthrie’s flag box.
Not only is this a great box for a commemorative flag, it’s also a beautifully built version of it. We loved the use of the splines to hold the edges together.

Marilyn’s flag box

6) The coolest tip: This one came from Gary Shuler. He made a number of cribbage boards as gifts, and gave us a few golden bits of advice, including making an extra board or two in case something should go wrong during the build, and finishing the boards before drilling the holes, making finishing a little easier.

And, for the best overall gift, it was a tough choice. We had to go deep into the monkey cage on this one to find out, but this year, the best overall prize goes to Brian Eve for his Coffee and Cream Roorkee Chair. I mean, who wouldn’t be pleased to receive a fine piece of furniture like this?

The chair in all of its glory

Congratulations to all of our winners, and we hope you enjoy your gift packages courtesy of the Gorilla Glue Company!

By the way, we will have more opportunities for prizes, including the upcoming Get Woodworking Week. Mark your calendars for the week of February 8 – 14.

Final details on the Flag Box and Shooting Boards

Final details on the flag box include fitting the back frame to hold everything in place and making the French cleat for hanging. I probably don’t need a French cleat, but using it will help prevent the box getting unintentionally knocked off the wall.

When shooting mitres, I use two different mitre shooting boards and I haven’t talked about the Evenfall picture shooting board that I use and comes in particularly handy when I need angles that are different from 45. Silly me build my flag box not at a perfect 45 degree angle. But have no fear, the Evenfall picture shooting board is adjustable.

Evenfall shooting board

Perfect fit

Adjusting to get a perfect fit on the hanger.

Perfect fit again

Clamping the cleat in the vise and creating matching 45 degree?? angles.

Finished cleat

I got big teeth

So it turns out that the panels for my TV Lift cabinet are just slightly too big to be resawn on my band saw. I’ve been wanting to build the Roubo Frame saw for just such jobs soI built the 36″ version.

I was able to cut the Dovetailed Bridal Joint with my hand saw.

The I laid out the handles

Duplicate lay out for both handles.

Once I traced the dovetails onto the handles, I chopped them out with a chisel.

After cutting out the ends with my bandsaw. I shaped the ends.

Finished saw.

Walnut and Cherry Frame Saw.

For a how to on building the saw, check out Shannon Roger’s Handtool School Semester 4. Here’s Shannon using his 48″ saw. I’ll do some photos of my resaw practise and final panel resaw next.

Pre-Toothed Blades: Blackburn Tools is now making blades with teeth already punched in a variety of widths and lengths.

Saw Hardware Kit: available through Artisan Iron Designs.

A coffin full of donuts

So I haven’t been able to blog much. Its been time to replace my computer so I got a new one and then went on vacation for two weeks (more coming on that). Now I’m back only to find that my new computer is malfunctioning and I have to send it back.

So, I’ll be a little light on the blogging front until my computer is returned. In the meantime, here’s sneak peek at a vacation pic. Since Chris Schwarz has been talking a lot about coffins, I thought I’d join in with my own contribution.