Tea Box Part 2

Back again-
Time to cut out the lid. Here are several photos showing the lid being shaped:

The lid is made from two pieces of white oak. I like oak but its a coarse-grained wood and it doesnt hold fine detail well. The color is interesting and its hard and durable so Ill probably be using it again in the future.
I turned the lid and the box together one last time and here is what we have at this point:

It needs a considerable amount of sanding and Im not sure it I like that section in the lower half of the box.  Ill have to cogitate on that. But the box is nice and it will hold a lot of chocolate or whatever my friend choses to put inside.
Our next box is made out of the same materials except the lid is made from white oak with a Brazilian cherry knob on top. The box will also be shaped differently so Ill post photos of that box.
Our next thing to do is to glue the red birch box pieces together in order to make a turning block. Im going upstairs for a bit and have some lunch and some hot coffee and Ill be back later today with more photos.
VW

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DIY Folding Sawhorses Version 2 0 with Free Plans

I am calling this free plans, I have the cutout photo of a sheet of plywood with the dimensions on it. The rest pretty straight forward I believe. But, while I was building this set I was video taping a how to video and hopefully that will be up and running online soon which should make everything very simple.
The original sawhorse design was a great one, the only things I really changed for the 2.0 version were the height of the horses, the width of the horses, and the width of the leg panels. The changes made now allow for nearly, if not all of the materials to be cut out of one sheet of plywood (on the computer it says it can be done, but when I tried I failed somehow). The working height could be lowered still to enable you to get everything out of one piece except for the 2x4 top piece, but that would lower the working height to a level to low for my personal preference.
The working height in version 2.0 is approximately 31" which uses a leg panel height of 28", and the width of the sawhorses are nearly 43". The width of a leg panels is 5" which allows you to cut two leg panels out of a 48"x33" section of 3/4" plywood. It may be difficult to understand but I will have a image of the cut list soon which will help clear everything up.
Everything else is the same as the original version.
I built a set of these about three of four weeks ago and have been using them on remodeling and construction jobs and they are holding up great. I have had easily over 100 8 pieces of tongue and groove pine on them along with a miter saw and they never showed any signs of weakness. Everyone who comes to the jobs takes a close look at the sawhorses and asks my boss man where he got them, it feels good when he points at me and says "He built them, not me".
The construction is pretty simple and I think you should be able to simply recreate your own. I did however make a cut list type thing on Sketch up that shows how you can get the pieces easily out of one sheet of plywood.
The "U" shaped leg panels are 28" tall and about 42 15/16" long and 5" wide on all three segments. When it is laid out on a sheet of plywood I center my saw blade on the line since I am using both pieces on either side of the blade.
The rest is pretty easy, 6 pieces 3" x about 42 15/16" (four of them with an 18* bevel cut down one long side) and 4 at 2". Then from the inside of a leg you cut 8 pieces that are used for the inside of the legs for support.
Here is a video helping with the building process. I go into some detail about assembly and remind you of a few things, check it out.
More detailed photos and descriptions are availiable in this post that should aid in the the building process.
If anyone has and questions of comments feel free. Dont forget about The Woodworking Trip, there should be a video on these things coming soon. Thank you!

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FURNITURE MAKE OVERS before and afters 2

 

 

Here are some BEFORE and AFTER photos from the furniture makeover weekend I havent gotten

 around to showing yet. This event offered a place to work, access to a skilled professional (thats me)

 and like minded women to meet and share ideas with. I had a wonderful time meet with

 these different women and was honoured to work with them on their projects. They also had passed a

 thank you card around the class during the final day for every one to sign. The truth is I got whiff of it

 in advance and thank fully I did cause its those darn things that will make me tear up when you

 catch me off guard. Please enjoy these pictures and take away some ideas and inspiration of what

 you can do. Ill start with this short dresser that was already converted into a blanket box. The drawer

faces were fixed in place and the top was hinged. Now there is a great idea!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tool Review Hitachi 2 Brad Nailer

Here is a quick review of my Hitachi 2" Brad Nailer, NT 50AE2. Figured I would try a tool review video and see how it turned out, overall I think it went pretty well.