Watcha Makin'?

aigheadish · May 31, 2022, 09:04:58 AM

olcowhand- Those are incredible! If I remember I'll take a picture of the really sloppy dragonfly piece we bought at the flea market a few months back. It looks a mess compared to your fine art!

ffots- Well done on that tree house!

Don P- I'm between making a makeshift router table like you are mentioning, which would be handy to have around anyway, and a much smaller sled. Thanks for the tip!

firefighter ontheside · May 31, 2022, 09:57:42 AM

That is a great idea and I wish I had thought of it. I want to build a wonky shed something like Jeff has at his place in Michigan. I want to get a lot of shovels, rakes, etc out of my garage. It never occurred to me to build it to be movable. Heck, maybe it can be a product line.

jimbarry · May 31, 2022, 11:43:24 AM

Quote from: doc henderson on May 31, 2022, 08:35:06 AM
I need to build one for fuel and propane, and another for my bands that seem to take up room in the shop.

That's the next one we are building @doc henderson . Same height and depth but twice as long. And likely a third one for the ride on mower and two push mowers, brush cutters and misc garden tools.

olcowhand · May 31, 2022, 11:55:39 AM

Quote from: aigheadish on May 31, 2022, 09:04:58 AMIf I remember I'll take a picture of the really sloppy dragonfly piece we bought at the flea market a few months back. It looks a mess compared to your fine art!

Thanks! I also make Dragonflies. I paint mine with a Greenish Ford touch up Paint, then a couple coats of a Metameric (Copper/ Green) Paint, then two coats of clear Lacquer. They have a neat translucent quality that people really like. My wife told me I was asking too much for them, so I lowered my price and they're "flying" out of inventory. I'll dig up a pic...

aigheadish · May 31, 2022, 04:05:18 PM

This is the one I got, not much pride in the workmanship and I paid in the neighborhood of 20 bucks. I assume yours are more valuable.

Crusarius · May 31, 2022, 05:25:25 PM

Quote from: jimbarry on May 31, 2022, 11:43:24 AM
Quote from: doc henderson on May 31, 2022, 08:35:06 AM
I need to build one for fuel and propane, and another for my bands that seem to take up room in the shop.
That's the next one we are building @doc henderson . Same height and depth but twice as long. And likely a third one for the ride on mower and two push mowers, brush cutters and misc garden tools.

Random idea I just had....

Build the inside dimensions of the shed to fit the mower but make the outside dimensions big enough to put full height cabinets all the way around. then put doors on the outside to access all the tools in the cabinet walls.

Be the only way any sheds will ever be organized

at least mine!

JJ · May 31, 2022, 05:33:00 PM

There was a local guy who liked to make art out of old spark plugs. He had motor bikes, chain saws, fishermen, men with jackhammers, etc.. and sold in local mom/pop store in Sebago ME.

I buy his airplane model, and it lived on my desk for a long time:

one of my favorite knickknacks

JJ

Old Greenhorn · May 31, 2022, 05:36:11 PM

Jim I love those 'portable sheds'. I am going to file that away for a day when I have something with forks. If I had something now I'd be making lumber to build 2 or 3 of them right away. Boy could I use those!
Bill, love how the tree house came out. But I have to ask, shouldn't it be called a 'tree deck'? I mean, usually a tree house has some kind of roof, right? :D Still, we make what the client wants. Man, that's a lot of PT wood. Must have cost a tidy sum.

So I made something over the last day and a half. An old buddy was cleaning out and he gifted me with some ERC that probably cost a pretty penny but had a bunch of defects and lots of knots. I couldn't, in all fairness make and sell something from lumber that was given as a gift. Well the wife needs a potting bench and I saw the one Doc posted and that pretty much set the wheels in motion. It was a good way to use up the BF and keep the project at home as well as please the wife. I also used up the 1x4's of white cedar he gave me for some of the rails. And also, thanks twice Doc, that linseed oil really made a nice finish.

You can see, this has lots of knots.

At least I didn't have to go far to deliver and install it.

It looks considerably better than that rusty desk we have been using for ten years. I hated it after the first two years. The wife seems to think this is an improvement. I think she said 'pretty'.

doc henderson · May 31, 2022, 05:54:43 PM

it looks great and you get all the credit. ERC is a great rustic wood, and the more knots the better. my dad prob. said that about me and discipline. for a minor infraction, we got a single knuckle to the head.

JJ · May 31, 2022, 05:55:04 PM

Without walls or roof, it is appropriately referred to as a 'tree fort'. Geez, every 3rd grader knows this.

JJ

firefighter ontheside · May 31, 2022, 07:08:29 PM

When she approached me about the tree house, fort thing she said that she had gotten a bid from some sort of fancy treehouse builder guy and right away she said that wasn't happening. She then asked me to build this as a next best thing. I don't normally do this kind of job, but she has been a good repeat customer for my built in bookcase business, so I agreed to do it. After I add the slide that she ordered to go on one side, she will have a little over $6000 in this thing and she is happy with that.

Old Greenhorn · May 31, 2022, 07:15:42 PM

Yeah, I think 'fort' is the right name. Having the high ground in a water balloon fight is the way to go.
Well looking at the wood in that. I would say a pretty good chunk of that was in materials.
I gotta start raising my prices. ;D

firefighter ontheside · May 31, 2022, 08:32:55 PM

Yeah, with the price of wood these days, gone are the days of doubling the materials and calling it a quote.

Don P · May 31, 2022, 08:45:09 PM

I used to frame a house for that, and thought i was in high cotton :D

@aigheadish I wouldn't buy it for one project, unless I could really distract the wife. Google overarm pin router. That is how we would do that in a large shop, then you can see what you are doing. I've seen shop built ones in DIY woodworking magazines a time or two. I have fallen into that trap of building a nice router jig for some one off job, and then its too nice to burn and hangs from the rafters like an albatross till the big auction :D

Actually, there's a router poked thru a half sheet of ply leaned up in the walkway in the barn. Well, ya never know.

aigheadish · June 01, 2022, 06:41:30 AM

Pin routers look pretty sweet, kind of like a cnc? I think I have a table saw coming from my parents, at some point, that has a much larger top than my small DeWalt saw, I wonder if, sometime in the future, I could work out a modular attachment for it and a router... I've got plenty of materials sitting around for the poor man's table router but I think the smaller sled may be more useful. I'm thinking a 2.5' wide one that's only 1/3-1/2" thick rather than a 4' wide one that's 3/4" thick. We'll see, since I missed the deadline of last Saturday for delivering the cutting board I have some time to sit and think on it.

olcowhand · June 01, 2022, 07:26:58 AM

Thanks for all the positive comments regarding my Art. Using Kitchen Ware as the medium has its own set of "Opportunities" (I'm branching out to include some scrap art but haven't completed anything yet). My latest piece is meant to depict the internal struggle most of us feel, when deciding to use the older, more traditional "by Hand" methods vs. "Mechanized". These struggles also occur in the Kitchen, so I thought I would use Kitchen Ware to depict this "Kitchen" struggle:

....and I did find some Dragonfly pics:

Hope you all like it...
Steve

WDH · June 01, 2022, 07:51:02 AM

Steve, you are a true artisan.

aigheadish · June 01, 2022, 08:19:31 AM

For real. It took a minute of looking at the simplicity of the dragonfly to realize it's (spoiler!) a few butter knives. So pretty!

olcowhand · June 01, 2022, 08:51:12 AM

Thanks, Gents.
I've been a "Stick Man" sketch Artist for almost all of my Automotive career. So.... it's kind of easy to transition to this very simple "Sculpture" Art with Kitchen Ware. Not to give too much away, but that's how my "simple" mind works.
But I will say this: I thought the big Pay Day was going to be in the selling of this stuff. Since I've been displaying it, I've really come to appreciate the enthusiasm and joy it brings to folks. On a three day event, I get tons of great comments and miles of smiles.... Being called an "Artist" or "Artisan" intrinsically must mean that part of my fulfillment is the enjoyment it brings to others. I never realized that before, and it means a great deal to me. Thanks again.
Steve

jimbarry · June 01, 2022, 10:42:37 AM

Well that filled up rather quickly. Time to make another.

Tom K · June 01, 2022, 10:55:15 AM

I agree with the other cowhand, very nice work.

I've done a couple simple pieces, but nothing out of silverware. I made this dragonfly for my wife a few years ago, and the butterfly last year.

olcowhand · June 01, 2022, 12:52:18 PM

Quote from: jimbarry on June 01, 2022, 10:42:37 AM
Well that filled up rather quickly. Time to make another.

Jim,
How does one accumulate that many functioning fuel containers that still have all their caps, spouts and vents? I have a whole collection of ones without one or more of the needed accouterments....
Please share the wisdom and skill required to amass such fortune.

Old Greenhorn · June 01, 2022, 01:30:25 PM

Yeah, what olcowhand said with all them pretty words. Obviously if it filled that fast, it was dearly needed.
I have one of the very heavy plastic old combi cans I would love to find caps OR spouts for, no soap. It's killing me not to be able to use that.

aigheadish · June 01, 2022, 01:55:54 PM

Not to mention any of the old "extremely dangerous" spouts of yesteryear that can be kept around to not make filling a tank nigh on impossible...

My son, who is capable of doing literally everything he tries backwards from how it normally gets done, went out to mow a couple weeks ago. The mower needed fuel so I told him to grab a red can and fill it up (he's watched me and has done it himself a few times). Minutes go by and I don't hear the mower. I try to nap on the couch and it's been like 15 minutes and I still didn't hear it. He finally fires her up and mows, puts the mower back in the barn, and comes in to tell me the gas can is broken. I ask if he did it right and what does that mean. He says yes (he's still learning that it's ok to not know what you are doing) and that it just poured really slowly. I knew immediately that he didn't engage the safety button that allows the fuel to really leave the can, instead he stood there for like 20 minutes while the fuel trickled out of the closed spout. Made me laugh pretty hard and he was amazed when I reminded him of the safety button to see how quickly the fuel flowed. We're convinced, sometimes, that really he's an evil genius who is just messing with everyone in his life.

Tom K- Those are sweet!

firefighter ontheside · June 02, 2022, 06:03:26 PM

I'm going to build a "pallet shed" patterned after Jeff's whimsical shed in his back yard. It will at least hold my gas and diesel cans, plus garden type tools. I'm thinking 5' wide, 4' deep and maybe 7' tall at the peak. I should be able to pick it up empty and move it with my forks.