Wonderful idea

Hello!  Weve been so busy lately so Im a little late to the table decor party but I finally had a chance to put everything together yesterday and wanted to share it here on the blog today.  I also built a new table that we are planning to give away at our shop grand opening during a drawing which Ill show you below.  First up, our fall table.....


I really like to keep things simple and natural, whenever possible.  I also tried to use everything I already had.  The only thing I bought for this table were the pumpkin colored napkins for a steal on ebay ($11 for a set of 8) and the faux wheat and candles.


To keep things natural I used wooden salad bowls and my bread boards as well as the little rosewood dipping bowls.  I love the small pop of color the pumpkin colored napkins provide. 


To add a metal element to the table, I used vintage silver flatware, candle holders and salt and pepper shakers.


To continue with a farmhouse feel, I picked up some faux wheat at the craft store and placed it in one of my ironstone white pitchers.  Then I simply wrapped a piece of scrap burlap around it.


For the hutch, I added more faux wheat in a smaller milk pitcher and picked up some apples in the grocery store to put in my vintage dough trencher.  And of course, a couple of extra bread boards.  :)



My absolute favorite thing is the new rug my hubby bought for us for under the dining table.  Ive had my eye on this rug at West Elm now forever and they finally went on sale for only $129.99.  That is our kind of bargain.  :)


The vintage industrial table under the subway art is the table I put together yesterday.  I was thrilled when my hubby told me he found a couple more scrap pieces of bowling alley floor remnants in our storage building so I went to Lowes and bought a bunch of iron piping and got to work.


I wanted to create something to give away during a drawing that we are having during the grand opening of our shop so this is what I came up with.  I happen to love it and Im really looking forward to giving it away.



I cant wait to sit around that table at Thanksgiving with my family.  I love the holidays!  What are you thinking of serving this year?  Any traditions?

Wisconsin weather has hit my shop and hit it hard this year. Such is the adventure of having an out door shop I guess. We had freezing rain a couple weeks ago and the snow around the shops directed the water under the steel walls and across the floor, where it conveniently refroze into my own skating rink.

I guess I need to figure out a D.I.Y. Zamboni so I can take up ice skating again. . .

Instead of sawdust, Ive been biding my time both writing here and prepping some work for the books Im starting. Ive also been selling some tools and making some room in the tool chest. (Thank you to any buyers out there). Still Im having shop withdrawals.

Maybe thats why I fell victim to temptation.

My wife and I were out on the town with a few hours to kill between child related errands. We happened to be in the vicinity of a good antique store that had yielded several vintage tools to me in the past and decided to stop and browse.

"Im not gonna buy anything" I told myself as I walked bravely past an OK Stanley 5 1/2, it was pretty grungy, needed a replacement blade, and was a little precious in price. The obligatory bin of handsaws turned up nothing I was interested in. I am pretty flush on hand saws already. Then I turned the corner and there it was again.


A Stanley Miter Saw. I knew it would be there. Its been hanging out for nearly a year. I checked the price the first time I saw it and Ive walked past it a dozen time since. I thought the price was reasonable the first time, but I could never justify buying one of these marvels of engineering for myself.

The booth had a sign that read "25% Off Everything" so I stopped and looked closer than I had before. The saw was in relatively good shape, straight and fairly clean, I could read the Goodell Pratt etch under the Henry Disston back stamp. The handle was a dog, and obviously a replacement for some reason. As far as I could tell almost all the parts were present. My wife knew what was going to happen long before I did.

Sucker me, I picked it up and brought it home.

My shop is no place to start a restoration right now so I asked my dad if hed loan me a corner of his workbench to clean and restore it. Of course that was no problem, but this explains why my pictures appear to be coming from a different shop.




As I started looking, I realized how little I knew about these machines. Ive never really used one,never seen a "good" one up close, (whatever that means), or even read a thorough description of one. I found myself a little intimidated. I started really inspecting all parts that go into one of these and I started to think "Holy crap, I may be in over my head here." but things started to make sense and I could begin to identify where things were obviously missing.

I spent a couple days trying to read up about these beasts on the internet and was really disappointed at how little good information I could find. There are several "Hey Look At What I Restored" pages, but nothing with specifics or info on parts. There are a million "Restore a Stanley Plane" pages out there, even ones that help identify the planes, but not much for these puppies. I had trouble finding anything specific to the model I bought or even much helping me track down the particular model number and make.

I did find one write up by a Brendan Dahl about his restoration of a similar miter saw. Its on a blog called Pith and its pretty good. It helped a lot. I also managed to find a couple .pdfs of the manuals that might have come with the saws and those were something at least.


These things helped me decide how to tackle this project, but as I flash information up here I would love for any of you experts out there in Net-landia to help share your knowledge. At this point Im calling it a 358 because its very similar to the one on the Pith Blog, but there are differences. The places for the extension arms as a stop block for one. Ive found some stamped numbers and marks, Ill post them in the near future to see if they help.If you have some knowledge, please feel free to comment below or email me. Id appreciate it a lot.

The first step was to tear the old girl apart and get all the grime and rust scrubbed off her. And there were many, many layers of grime.


As I started taking it apart I was still amazed at all the parts. Keeping track of all of them is going to be challenging. Stay tuned to see if I get this all back together.


Then came the time for some Simple Green, some Scotchbrite Pads, a very fine grit sponge sander, some rags, and some elbow grease. I have always had very good luck with this combination for cleaning old tools.


I started work on the base since it was the biggest part.




I was pleased when my efforts revealed a nice shiny degree gauge on the front. I didnt even know it was there until it started to clean up. I have to figure out the numbers on top, Im thinking they relate to rise and run measurements, I could be wrong, (maybe you guys can tell me about that too) but I was happy to see the degree measurements Im used to thinking in there as well.


It took a couple hours to scrub up the base. All the time I had for the day. So I oiled it down for the night to disperse any remaining water and keep it from rusting over night. Tomorrow Ill rub it down with some denatured alcohol and start to apply some new coats of paint. Ill have to look and see if I can find some light grey enamel that matches the current paint on the back wall, but its back to black for the rest of it.

Ratione et Passionis
Oldwolf

After a stalled few weeks of Tree House building due to Woodworking in America and Hurricane Sandy, I managed to get back out to work last week.

After cutting all the T1-11 sheathing/siding to length, I managed to get 2-1/2 walls hung. Hopefully next weekend Ill get to finish closing in the envelope.

This weekend I made a quick project for a friend. Its a cover to fit over one of his basement window wells. Its designed to allow light to come in, but keep rain and snow out.

The wooden carcass for the window cover.

To make the well, I built a simple frame from 1/2" plywood. To join the frame, I used sections of dimensional lumber and screwed both faces in, rather than try to pocket screw or screw into the end grain of the thin, 1/2" plywood. The back of the frame was cut as an inverted "U" shape so as not to block the water. On the top, pitched surface I installed 1-1/2" wide strips to support the Lexan top. I place one of these strips on each end and one in the middle.

Fabricating the aluminum was much easier using commercial equipment such as this finger brake.

Once the wooden carcass was done, I then clad the sides and front apron in .040 aluminum. The aluminum extends 2" down passed the sides and front to lap over and seal the joint between the wooden window well cover carcass and the masonry window well. I also covered the center support strip. It didnt need the aluminum from a waterproof perspective, but I though the clean white surface looked much better than plywood. To fabricate the aluminum, I used our commercial sheer and brake at work. Using commercial sheet metal equipment is much faster and cleaner than forming each piece by hand. Once formed I attached each piece to the carcass with neoprene gasketed stainless steel screws.

I was careful not to crack the Lexan when I drilled out for the fasteners.

When I installed the Lexan top, I ran a thin bead of M-1 sealant under each side to seal it. Since its a water shedding design, the bottom didnt need to be sealed. The overlap at the bottom is sufficient to keep water out.

At the top edge the aluminum trim fits over, rather than under, the Lexan to shed water.

Dry fitting the cover over the window well.

The entire assembly rests loosely on the existing masonry window well. In order to keep water which may run down the wall from running behind the cover, as separate, nail-on counter-flashing was installed on the wall. Its sealed with a non-curing butyl mastic under compression and more M-1 to prevent water entry.

The nail-on counter-flashing is the only part actually attached to the house. The top trim of the window well cover extends behind it.

The top of the cover extend behind the nail-on counter-flashing. This properly sheds water while allowing the cover to be removed if and when its necessary.

The completed cover, installed over the window well.

This wasnt the most existing of woodworking projects, but I did get to use my track saw and I do like working with sheet metal. Most importantly, its a simple project that should help my friend out and keep his basement dry.

Basement Window Well Cover

ok, the top one arrived in florida on tuesday, just in time for turkey day.  the curly one above has been hanging around the shop since may, waiting for the clients home remodel to be finished.  that one will leave for brooklyn on tuesday.  it was first pictured in this post  back on may 28th and now soon it will be on its way.  click the photos to enlarge them.

the top table started with this monster slab, about 11 long and 3+ inches thick.  we learned a few tricks on this one.  it was a heavy one ....
one trick we learned was to build a really substantial and well made cart with serious casters.  once we slid it off the workbench and stood it up on the cart. it was a piece of cake to get it out the shop door, on a ramp into the back of the truck, and into steves shop for the matte finish that the client requested.

the client selected our trapedzoid base, and sam cut the parts and welded them up in our metal shop.
later, after polishing, the base was blackened with our normal blackening patina and sealed with a low lustre lacquer.
there were a couple cracks we had to butterfly and one or two random small defects that we just left as is.


there was one sort of large (+/- 3/8ths") bolt in the slab that we drilled a bit and pounded a bit until it was below the surface enough to fill it so it looked like some of the other knots in the area.  pretty good in the end.
i got a wonderful email from the client wednesday and i think ill use his comment as our new business motto .... better than i expected ... can you ask for more than that?