el Patio

Summer could happen at any time now. So I need to build a picnic bench for the bunkhaus deck. Thought I'd try Krenov sawhorses in aluminium. with some red cedar on top.

in-situ

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48193441@N03/sets/72157624413578554/

Snapped a few in-situ shots of the Mr Smith table. Pour a coffee and check out the slideshow.

All Terrain Wood Wagon

Every woodworkers compound needs one.

Has anyone seen the marketing department?

Well maybe there isn't one. But sometimes you just gotta get out the fencing pipe and 2X3's and forge ahead. Here's the bunkhaus ghetto photo studio. to take shots of all those pieces I'm going to build.

Also knocked up a pair of krenov sawhorses as part of the shop housekeeping phase. Four mortise & tenon joints in each horse, perfect opportunity to test drive the mortiser; nice crisp clean mortises & the xyz table cannot be beaten for repeatability. Been meaning to find the time to build a set of these for the shop for a long time. Hundred & one uses for the krenovian sawhorse, great for holding up backdrops too. must build more of these.

Spent a morning setting up the metal work department to weld aluminium. As expected, the stuff is seriously weird to weld but really fun once I got the weld puddle under control, with a couple of pretty beads to show for my efforts. Something else that's been on the list for a long time.

Continuous lighting is the way to go for ghetto photo studios. 5600 kelvin (natural light) compact fluorescent with 1600W total power & soft boxes & stands for the cost of a single strobe. Which also means you avoid the super expensive light meter. Wish I could say the same for backdrops, pretty pricey. experimenting with black first & getting some challenging but cool results.

Besides the monumental task of shuffling the drying shed (while I was sunning myself on vacation, Dan harvested the mother of all Elm trees & kindly gave me a healthy load of death elm, real treasure, thanks Dan!)...I'm actually almost running out of things to do on the housekeeping list. Well I'm gonna need to build an all terrain wood wagon to move all this wood I've accumulated on my treacherously steep property...but I seriously need the engineer to sign off on my plans so I can bribe my way through the building permit process. Even sorted & mounted all my hand tools in their new location, all ready for Mr window. Can't wait to have a window in the shop.

Housekeeping Continues

It has been over 2 months since my last post. 2010 has been declared the year of the studio. So I've set aside all new furniture designs until I get the shop sorted out. Still patiently working my way through the diabolical district permit process for a small shop addition for metalwork, and a covered outdoor working area/carport. In the meantime, I stripped the shop, built insulated walls & finished the insulation/vapour barrier on the ceiling. She's holding the heat now, just in time for the mild weather. Ripped out a whole bunch of stuff, whatever wasn't crucial, like a big utility bench. The extra space allowed for much needed lumber/in-progress racks/sharpening station/dust collector home.

Slowly getting on top of the chaos that broke loose & putting tools & machines in their place. Loving the bunkhaus laboratory's new warm, white walls, as any self respecting studio should have. Looking forward to getting the metalwork department into it's own space, then I can run ducting for the dust collection, put in a window etc.

A few words about sharpening & the sharpening station i threw together. I've been using this precision ground granite slab for flattening my sharpening stones, & decided to use it as a bench top for honing too. Some people don't flatten their stones too often, but I prefer to keep my stones flat, it eliminates possible confusion, like when you start getting a weird camber on a plane iron & can't figure out why. It's also less of a chore when you stay on top of it. Also really like this 10" slow speed electric wet grinder, works well. I had been persevering with a cool hand grinder, but I couldn't fix the annoying run-out on the arbor, so made the switch.

Here's a link about all sorts of cool local species, going harvesting with Dan has introduced me to a lot of these:

http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/24206/hank-gilpin-exploring-the-american-forest

Also a good clip, old school style:

www.finewoodworking.com/item/9932/truly-old-school-woodworking

I'm sure there's not too many people left in the world that can whittle a pair of shoes from a log. I'm also sure there's not too many people who can appreciate what it takes to set up & maintain a shop. Which brings me to a good book I read recently - 'Shop Class as Soulcraft' by Mathew Crawford, which questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a cubicle/knowledge worker, and the resulting almost complete loss of craftsmanship in our society/economy. He also takes a close look at the merits of manual work, a great read from a pshycologist turned mechanic.

and in a world where we celebrate mama pacha day once a year, but continue to buy furniture that doesn't last long, a few wise words from a designer buddy of mine (a most entertaining blog with all sorts of goodies):

http://blog.fyidesigndept.com/2010/04/tr-design-diatribe-thoughtful.html

Food for thought...

Speed Stripe Shutters

I enjoy the routine of rolling out of bed & swinging open the shutters to greet the morning & make my Pacific Northwest rain forecast (showers/light/torrential). They have a nice door-swing weight to them, mainly because the western maple frames are 1 3/4" thick with the goal of handling door dimensions as an exercise. The hinges that I knocked up run surprisingly well. I put a Tupla finger slot in the door frame instead of a pull for opening & closing; clean, comfortable, simple. I might make latches at some point. I hit the Western Maple frames with 1000 grit after hand planing & then beeswax; super silky, beautiful wood.

I'm really digging these things, although they don't feature any complex/extraordinary woodworking. I think it's because this is what customising the loft is all about. Reading about designer Eero Aarnio recently '...furthering the notion that home life and design are fully integrated into a sort of laboratory for living.' I like the experimental nature of these things. I'll continue exploring in the bunkhaus laboratory.

Shelter & Shutters

Like the Stones said - 'gimme shelter'. Here's the plan for the metalwork shop/carport; one giant bunkhaus awning. I've started some planning work; finding where the underground services are, gas, hydro etc, sourcing materials & contacting engineers. I plan to use Krinner ground screws for the foundation on the left wall (the foundation wall on the right already exists), these things are awesome http://http//www1.schraubfundamente.de/schraubfundamente.html and reclaimed 6X4's (that I salvaged last summer) for the framing. Hoping to save some weight lifting & use aluminium Ibeam for the roof trusses & aluminium square tube purlins, depending on what the engineers say, and if I can source 30 foot lengths of Ibeam from a mill. Corrogated galvanised steel roofing with a polycarbonate panel for light. I'd like to fabricate some kind of torsion kneebrace system using turnbuckles, that should make her hurricane-proof. Once the drawings are finalised I'll need to mosey on down to the district office to see if there's an outside chance they'll issue this dusty cowboy a building permit.

In-progress pics of the window shutters. A few swift, sweet passes of the jack to square & flush the ends of the panels. Love the Jack. I milled the planks for the panels from one of the many above mentioned rift sawn 6X4's doug fir 10 footers in the backyard, and a little walnut (partly a design feature, more about getting to my width). Cutting kerfs for the tenon wedges, always good to take a deep breath before cutting through a precious tenon. and shooting the door rails flush with the stiles with the jack & a makeshift shooting board. Yes, love the Jack. The massive wedged double tenons glued up like I'd welded the frame together, we'll see how they hold up. Still need to clean up & wax up, & make some hinges.