The Rest of the Set

I decided I had a lot of scrap wood sitting around. So I decided to make more things for my desk. I made myself a monitor stand, a paperclip holder, a pencil and pen holder, a calculator riser and a foot rest.

It used up most of my scrap wood which made me happy. BUT, I learned that even if you have your brad nailer at a 90 degree angle and you have no knots of nails or other things in the way, it can and WILL take a 90 turn IN the wood and come out the side and find your thumb. OWIE! Luckily it didn't go all the way through the pad of my thumb. Did seem to go pretty far through it though. Cleaned it up and put a bandaide on there. I was even good enough to go get a tetnus shot even though I didn't think I needed it. Happy mom?! Anyway, its best to be careful and remember when using a 2 inch brad nail you have to keep your hands even farther away than before.

Back to the projects. I took some scrap wood and basically used my scroll saw to cut out the center of a few squares and then glue a back piece of wood. The use the router to round all the edges and give it all the usual stain and seal. If anyone wants details on any of these, I can of course share more details.

Life

Apparently its really hard to balance life and woodworking. I feel like I am always doing one too much and not the other. Then flipping and doing the other too much.

Sigh.

Since we last shared my monkey puzzle, I have only done a handful of projects. I buit a desk set for my new job. It started out innocently enough. I wanted to make a tissue box cover. I hate that generic corporate tissue box look. So I got a plan off of this blog I read called scrollsaw workshop. It was a pretty neat thing. There were little tabs and you glued it together to make the box.

The sides had 2 designs so if you doubled up the wood you could make the 2 matching sides at once so half the work. I chose this hummmingbird pattern.

Here is the raw design.




I glued it together which left the edges all funky. The tabs fit together, but the tabs stuck out. Then I realized this is why I have a flush trim bit. I trimmed all the edges and wa-la! I had a perfect square for the tissue box cover. I stained it and since I still didn't want to see the tissue box through the wood, I lined it with colored construction paper and now its perfect!

Blog Much?

So apparently I am super behind on this. Holidays happened. Family happened. I am going to get all my pictures together and post later this afternoon and fill you all in on my recent fun.

I have made a whole desk set for my work with scrap wood. Not super beautiful since its scrap wood and no patterns just freehand work, but they work. I particularly love my pen and pencil holder. I prefer to set my pens on the deks rather than in a cup or upright. With my holder I can have 1 pen, 1 pencil, 2 highlighters and my staple remover all contained and not rolling around and it makes me super happy. Almost as happy and my tissue box cover and monitor stand!

Okay, gotta run. I am going to make some Christmas presents on the scroll saw today for my MIL, but if the ice doens't thaw and we are stuck on our hill I am going to be able to update this blog this afternoon. WoohoO!

Monkeys!!

Took 2 hours to cut this out. I still have to go back and do the chest squiggles and the smile on 2 of the monkeys, but I got this much done!

Some New Stuff

Well, and some old. I have finished Furla's sign. Wooohoo **the crowd cheers!** and I hope I can finish sealing it by this weekend so I can mail it out to her by Monday. It came out pretty darn cool. Yeah, I only have the pic from when I had it clamped. Deal with it! LOL.



In other news I made a silly little wooden toy too. If I had that drill press I wanted, I might have done a spiffy job of it. As it were I drilled the holes by hand on the edge of a wiggly table. It was fun, but I wasn't really trying to do a perfect job. I just wanted to see if I could do it.




I got a cool magazine from a friend from my moms group and I tried one of the patterns for ornaments. Its done with a type of woodworking called Fretwork. Which I take to mean, TONS OF TINY LITTLE HOLES!! At least it seems that way to me. I like it, but I can definitely tell fretwork is not for me. I hate having to keep pulling on and off my blade to feed it through the predrilled starter holes. So I guess I wont make too many of these this Christmas.



I love the patterns for the scrollsaw in this magazine. My next project (probably tomorrow night's project) is a monkey puzzle. I want to do this and then stain the body a different darker stain while leaving the face or chests, where possible, unstained or whitewashed. How cute are they?!!

Talking Tools

I swear as I walked past my tools they called to me. They said "cut some wood" "come-on, forget responcibility and come play!".

LOL, I need double long days to be able to work AND have time for projects. With both me and the hubby BOTH having to take pay cuts (thank you furlough days for the State workers, grrrr) we are thinking we may not be able to swing Christmas presents for everyone.....

then again this could work in my favor. Since we can't afford lots of gifts or gift cards, perhaps I can suggest a wooden present. I can take one large piece of wood (not too expensive for just one piece) and make lots of small presents for the family. Like personalized ornaments. I know we will be the lame siblings/aunt and uncle, son and daughter for lame cheapo gifts, but we can't afford much. But homemade cookies, fudge or truffles in a homemade wood box....it would seem nicer than it is right?

Hicks Sign Again

I have done all I am going to do to fix the neck of the "bottle". I cut a groove around the end so it looks like the lip of the bottle and I used my scroll saw to cut out a cork shape. Once I glue that on and attach to a larger board for the background it will be done. Its not perfect, but I think I have reached the end of my skill set for this sign.

Bean Bag Toss Game

So my son asked me to make him a bean bag toss game. We looked at a bunch of pictures on Google and decided to do one that was painted with a clown holding a bunch of balloons and each balloon was a different number of points. He helped me get the setup right. I used scrap wood so it was a nice simple project I didn't have to spend any money on. (I think this may be a first!)

This is not painted yet, but this is the shape of the toy. I am going to build a leg thing so its up at an angle. I think I will make it stand up like an A frame so its easier for the kids to be able to see the places to throw the bean bags into.

I used some scrap plywood. Just thin 1/4 inch thick plywood and the edge is old 2x2 pieces I had ripped from a larger board. I think they were leftover from the built in bookshelves I did before. Either case, I took the 2x2s and ran them through the table router with a 1/4 inch straight bit it. This made the rabbit that ran the length of the inside of the edges. This way the board fit into the groove and with some glue it should stay that way. I think next time I will make those cuts deeper. The board barely went into the edge pieces so it was a bit wibbly as I tried to clamp it down.

For the circle cuts I used another piece of scrap wood and cut a circle out using the scroll saw. Then I clamped that to the board and used my 1/2 inch flush trim bit to cut the circles. There is a small wheel that is attached to a flush trim bit (for my momma friends who don't know what that bit is) so it will roll along a template and cut flush to that wheel. Its great for when you have a template like this to run along.

Fairly simple and fast toy. Depending on how I make the A frame, I may end up spending money afterall. I don't think I have anymore hinges laying around anymore and I would want to hinge mount the legs so that I can fold it up flat for when they are not playing with it. I also have to decide if I want to leave the wholes as they are, or attach a netting to catch the bean bags once they are thrown. That part hasn't been decided yet.

Here is our super simple scrap wood bean bag toss game (unpainted or finished).

Quick Little Project

So I had an hour to kill (because I guess I don't like sleep) and I went out to the garage to test out the scroll saw on cutting out names.

The first attempt was great. Until I realized I cut out the outside first and then when I went to drill the wholes for the insides of the letter and found my drill's battery dead. BOO!!! I made the mistake of being desperate to keep working on it and I tried to just use a nail. I forgot of course the reason we use a drill in the first place. WOOD SPLITS! Off came the top of the A. Blah!

So I sat down and redid it. This time I cut out the center of the letters first and then I cut the outside. I biffed the bottom of it when the blade started to wander and my straight bottom because slightly curved.

Either way it was fun and not bad for getting to know the machine. I can already see tons of decorative pieces I can cut out for my other projects. :-)

Here is my attempt. It was for a gift for another forum friend's son.

In Other News

I made some progress on Furla's house sign. I made an aweful horrible attempt at inlaying the name into the sign, but well....it was aweful. So I flipped it over and decided it was better to just lay it on the top and have a nice 3D affect. I still think that it may need something on the top of the bottle to make it look more like a bottle and less like a cutting board.

I stained it a Merlot color and I spray painted the name white. I can't find any other way to make the white look as nice as with a coat of spraypaint. Once I deal with the wine bottle top issue and I attach the name, I am going to coat it front and back with lots of layers of an outdoor sealant. I don't want it rotting or something like that. It will be outside, so I have to make sure it can take it.

Any suggestions on what I can do to make the neck of the bottle look more like a wine bottle neck than a cutting board shape?

Happy Days Are Here Agiain

I got to make some serious sawdust. I am happy as a clam! Not only that, I finally GOT how to make my scrollsaw cut like I expected it to. Turns out the biggest problem was my blade was too loose. I kept trying to figure out why the blade seemed to bend instead of cut into the wood. Last night I went out there and was playing around trying to figure out if I would ever be able to get it to work. I had watched a dozen how-to videos and yet it wasn't cutting through the wood like a hot knife through butter like in the video.

Through misadventure and accidentily tightening the blade more than I though I was supposed to and whammo (real technical there huh?) it was a thing of beauty. The blade was cutting through the wood so fast and smooth. Sigh. I was so happy.

Did a little testing of what I could do. I cut out Chloe's name and then I cut out a sun and worked on what would happen if I cut out a path as if it was a side of a bead maze. It was WONDERFUL. Granted there is no way the scroll saw will EVER replace my beloved router in my workshop, but it does open up my work I do to have decorative parts thanks to the scroll saw.

So, I thought I should share the pictures of my experimenting. Yes, I know it doens't look like much, but if I can do cut-outs like these to make bead mazes for Chloe or some of my friend's kids. It could be fun, and a nice activity on a free afternoon.

Anyway, here is the test run!

Ideas

There are so many things I want to build and so little time. I got the name cut out for Furla's sign and I have to finish cutting out the bottle shape on the outside as well as the usual finishing on it.

Then I want to build so many things. Boxes, wood table organizer things (to hold salt/pepper/napkins etc on a table), stool like thing for my son to be able to stand at the counter with me and help me cook, and large doll house like thing for both the kids to play with.

I only wish my garage was warmer, cleaner, less spider-y, and actual time to fit it all in. I am so swamped with kids and chores and visiting with friends that I can't seem to find the time to dedicate to some work.

I say it often, but I will say it again, I wish I could win the lottery so I wouldn't have to work in an office and I can just work from home in my garage. There is so much I could build and sell and gift to people.

I also got the dowel rods for the birthing stool I am going to build for a doula friend. I need to get some nice oak wood or something similarly stong and beging to build it too.

For now I will just keep dreaming as once again I am gone for the weekend and I wont get home until late on Sunday. Another weekend gone and no sawdust to show for it! Grr.

Withdrawls

I am having serious withdrawls. As it gets colder and darker sooner, it becomes harder to convince myself to go out to the garage in the evenings to work. I put it off until the weekend and we are so busy I barely have time to breathe. Its now Saturday night and I have not had even 10 minutes to go out there.

Its times like this I wish I had a full shop. Not just the garage, but a full blown shop. One with central heating and large overhead lights. Then it will be bright enough and warm enough to work. I have a lovely heater to keep me warm out there, but its directed at one spot so I can't move around. Add a small little electrical box that the fuse can't handle a heater and a power tool at the same time. So I have to switch all the time. I have the heater on, and then when I go to do a cut, I turn off the heater and turn on the power tool. Then back again.

I want warmth AND be able to use the tools together. I need more power for the garage or at the very least central heating. It not as much fun if I have to wear 2 layers or more just to work out there. Brrr!

Furla's House Sign

Although I have not really gone into my sign business yet, I wanted to share about this particular one. I have been avoiding it for awhile (so unlike me) because I wanted to make it really special and I really felt I was lacking in ability to actually do this.

She just bought a house and I offered to make her a sign for by the front door that says their name. They love wine and I wanted to do something with that in mind. I have gone back and forth on so many designs for it. I want to make it shaped like a bottle of wine. I want to be all fancy and inlay they whole bottle in another piece of wood so that the sign is square, but the bottle shape is there (obviously with a different stain color). No matter how I tried to work it up, it just wasn't working.

I think I have a better idea now what I will do. I think I will take a piece of my 1/2 wood and rout out the name using my sign maker jig. But instead of just routing the name in the wood. I am going to go all the way through the wood. So if you hold it up you can see through it. I will stain or paint this white so it will look a little like a label. Then I will inlay that piece of wood into a larger 3/4 inch piece of white wood I have sitting around. I can cut out it into the shape of a wine bottle and stain the 3/4 inch wood with a deep red color. So when the name is inlaid, you can see the red around it and through the letters.

I hope this will make it look like a wine bottle with a white label. I can use either my jigsaw or scroll saw to cut out the wine bottle shape and use my roundover bit in my router to round the edges. Seal it with my spray laquer I have for outdoor projects and it will be done.

I just have to have the time now. We are swamped this week preparing for my daughter Chloe's 1st birthday party. I have to bake a cake and decorate it and beg everyone's forgiveness since it will be lopsided and decorated horribly. Baking is NOT my forte, but at least it usually tastes great!

The Dining Room Benchseat

Here is another blast from the past. When we bought this house, we had the largest dining room we have ever had. The previous owners had a large table as well as a large desk and office space in there. We put our table in there and then we realized that there was A LOT of extra room. We had no need for office space so what did we want to do to fill the space. We toyed with the idea of bar area. We are not big drinkers (I really don't drink at all) but it seemed like someplace cool to put tall chairs and hang out with some sodas. Then we moved on to ideas of more seating. More specifically a breakfast bench and table. We looked around and priced them, but they all looked hard and uncomfortable.

My husband has a brother and SIL who combined have 4 kids. When they came to dinner (or really any group larger than us 3) we would run out of chairs. We figured having the second table would be great when they came to visit as well as great as a homework table or coloring table away from the main dining room table. We decided once again the best course of action was for me to build my own.

It came out to about 5 feet by 4 feet L shaped design. I researched how to build a bench using 2 x 4s and 3/4 inch MDF for the frame. The hard part was wanting to have it upholstered with a nice padded back and bottom. I found some nice green fabric and some 1 inch foam pieces. I am always shocked by the price of foam. Seriously! Is this a rare item or difficult to make that the price per sq ft is exorbinant? Either way, it was easily one of the more expensive parts of this project. 2x4s are super cheap and 2 sheets of MDF are also nor very expensive comparatively.

I created the basic shape with the 2x4s.


I added some posts to support the back.


I cut the pieces of MDF to fit. I laid them in place first to be sure I had the basic shape and fit I was looking for.


I did the next step in a very complicated way. I have no idea if it was the best way or the long difficult way. Either way, I upholstered each of the back peices seperately and then attached them. Same with the bottom. It wasn't easy, but I just keep finding ways to actually secure each piece and still upholster it at the same time. I used 1 inch thick foam for the back and 3 layers of the 1 inch foam on the bottom.


Here is the back and bottom all done.


I screwed the base pieces into place. It really started to take shape and feel complete here.


Some paint, some trim, and we had ourselves a cool new bench seat. All that it needs is a table right.......(see next blog for my favorite table)

The Puzzle

Here is something funny you should know about me if you happen to ever have a conversation with me in person. If during the conversation my eyes wander the room and then I look thoughtful and like I am not listening....I am building stuff in my head. My husband usually asks where I went and then answers himself that I must be building something in my head.

The thing is while I am driving, eating at a restaurant etc, there are things all around me. I am curious how they were built and if I could build it. Especially if there is cool woodworking or trim around me. I have to build it in my head so I can enjoy the craftsmanship.

So if I space out its not that you are not interesting enough, but it simply is that I am rude and can't stop myself from building the stuff I see around me in my mind. I laughed at myself today because I realized in my head it even has music. Or noise really. If you have ever played those Lego Star Wars Wii games and you find a pile of Lego's on the ground. You click the button to start building some item with them....yeah, that is the sound I hear in my head and see my hands flying through the process of building that mini wall or trim around a table or door.

Is this a bad sign of my mental stability?

A Little About Now

The past is fun to look at, but also really painful. While I am proud of the work, its also a little embarrassing to see the mistakes and shortcuts I took. They are not bad projects, but they make me think of the things I would like to redo or fix on them and I haven't gotten around to it. Because, well, let's face it. Its more fun to think of current projects than past ones.

So what are these current projects....hmm...let's see. There are those current ones I am actually working on and those I WANT to be working on.

In the first category there are those I am actually working on. I have a small sign business. They are signs with a small inlay (usually an animal and most often a monkey) and a child's name carved next to that. I bought a sign making template kit to rout out the names and I freehand for the inlay. They are not perfect, but are just charming enough to be perfect signs for kids rooms.

I suppose they could say just about anything though. From "Robert's Office" to "Library" etc. For now though they are sold on a friend of mine's website where she sells baby items. http://www.yourbabysneeds.com/pesi.html While this is a lot of fun and there is a steady stream of orders, its still just a hobby on the side.

I also have a 2 things I am "commissioned" to do. I am making a house sign for one lady in my mom's group. I admit I am stalling on this one. I know what I want to do and I know what I can do. Unfortunately I don't have the skills to do it as nice as I want to do it so I think I am stalling. I hate that. I also have another mom who asked me to try to build a birthing stool for her doula practice. If I do it really nicely and its portable she will tell the other doulas in her doula groups and I may get multiple orders for them. This project excites me and is super scary at the same time. I am so worried one will crack during delivery and either mom or baby could be hurt. I will test it all ways I can, but its still scary if I don't do it right.

What I want to do encompasses so much. I want to make some dollhouses, toy chests, kids toys and other items for an etsy shop and for friends. By biggest wall is money and time. Dear sweet time that I have so little of between the kids, the house and work. As it is every weekend this month we have plans and yet I have to find time in the evenings to get some orders done because I could use the money with my daughter's first birthday party happening at the end of the month.

Balancing time is the hardest thing. If I am in the garage and I can't always pop back in the house quickly to help with the kids and I lose track of time so I tend to not cook as well on days I am working. Plus weekends are only 2 days long. During the week I am working. I am on the road at 6am and I get off work at 4pm. It takes an hour to get back from work and then I pick up the kids at their daycare and preschools and then get home, throw together dinner, get them ready for bed (bottles, baths, story time, brushing teeth, pj's etc) and then Robert gets home somewhere in the middle of the bedtime routines for the kids. Finally they are both asleep and its nearly 8pm. I try to visit with Robert, pay bills, catch up on housework (I would say exercise too, but let's not start lying to each other this early in the blog relationship) and finally I crash asleep. Its not much time with the kids or my husband. So 2 days for a weekend means we are trying to spend time as a family, play, swim lessons etc, and if I spend 4-8 hours in the garage on either day, that is even less time with them.

Its hard to be a mom and have a hobby like this. I can't just bring my nearly 1 year old out there and while my 4 year old loves to come out, its a distraction and I have to watch to make sure he remembers the safety rules and has his ear protection on before I can start up any machine. It just takes longer to get stuff done. Plus, he is a very bright 4 year old who asks a million questions about everything and wants to build stuff like me. So I have to answer questions and distract him from asking to help build stuff when its not something he can help with.

All in all, I try to pack everything into a few hours each night and a little during the day on weekends. Its tiring, and really hard in the winter when its super cold in the garage, but its worth it when I can give someone a gift or place a new piece in our house.

Our Dream Nightstands

At this point, I should have found something small to practice using my tools with. Something simple.......yeah, not really the way I end up doing these projects. I went big and complicated next. Hee hee.

My husband and I are avid readers. We tend to have a LOT of books on our nightstands. I also have a pet peeve for having my clock below eye level when in bed. No matter where we had looked in the stores, we couldn’t find nightstands we liked. So we drew up what we would like in a dream nightstand. Basically we wanted larger drawers to hold books, a small drawer at the top for hair-ties, remotes etc. I had just bought myself a nice laptop and I voted for a laptop drawer so I could have a place to store my laptop. (I primarily used my laptop in bed and still do. I am not a desk kind of girl at home.) Lastly I wanted them to be tall enough that even with our taller bed, I could have my clock slightly above my eye level.

And so I drew up some plans. We decided on two 12” tall drawers for our books, one 6” drawer at the top and a 3-5 inch drawer for the laptop. I have to dig through my stuff to get my exact measurements out again. I can’t remember how we decided how deep to make it though. Pretty much laid in bed and measured out to where it seemed one should end.

I started with the same basic square with one support piece in the middle going across as I did with the bookshelf. For the top I added a nice large piece of pine and used the router on the edges to give it a nice look on top.

I looked up instructions on how to build a drawer online. For simplicity (and no guts to learn new stuff) I used butt joints again. I used ¾ inch wood for the front and back and ½ inch wood for the sides and ¼ inch stock for the bottom of the drawers. After a few tries I was able to get all the drawer sliders screwed in at the right height. Once all installed I cut some pieces for the drawer fronts. This was the hardest thing for me. I am still not sure the best way to do this so they end up lining up properly in the finished piece. Much like everything else I am sure its just practice until I learn some tricks for it. They don’t line up perfectly, but they work which is important. I added some hardware to the drawers and stained it to match our bed. Added some poly and I was done.

I want to rebuild mine. My husband seems to have taken good care of his, but my laptop drawer front has fallen off and I must have not made it perfectly square because the drawers are catching instead of sliding smooth as they did when I first built it. Still so much to learn, but they still function quite well. I would also like to sand it down and stain it a different color, fix the routered edges and seal with a lacquer or shellac for a smoother surface. I have learned so much more about everything which makes me want to redo nearly all parts of the nightstand. I love it, but I just wish I had built it knowing what I know now and not what I did then. I want to make better drawers too using box joints and dados etc. Everything functions on it as we wanted, I just want it perfect. Robert likes his just the way it is so I have not jumped to rebuild since he seems so happy with his. He doesn’t see the mistakes and just loves it since I built it. Sucker! Hee hee

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

After my husband (then boyfriend) and his son moved in with me, I realized we were sorely lacking in cabinets. They worked fine when it was just me and my cats, but another adult and numerous jars of babyfood later I needed something more. Since I had just gotten a bunch of tools I decided it was time to do something simple. I needed someplace to store extra boxes of soda and all the jars of baby food. So we figured why not have me build a simple bookshelf type thing to hold the extra cans of food. Like a makeshift pantry.

I bought a couple pieces of whitewood (the cheap stock from the big box stores). I measured the space next to the fridge and it was only about 8.5 inches deep, but 3-4 feet wide. Basically this would go on the side of the fridge. I still hadn't learned how to make my circular saw work all that well, but I had my table saw now that I could cut the pieces to length. I started out making a basic square. I laid it all out on my back patio trying to look like I knew what I was doing. I didn't, but how hard can it be to make a square right?

Turns out it CAN be hard, but I chose to ignore how hard it was. I was doing just plain old butt joints and screws. I was not trying to even countersink the screws or dado in the shelves. Just slap them against eachother and screw them together. I don't think I even used glue, eek. In the end I had a square box and I added a few shelves in the middle. I did make every attempt to attach the shelves at 90 degree anges so they would be level when I stood this up. Once I had it standing, it was....close. But Robert agreed that it was close enough that we could easily use it. Nothing was going to fall out and if anything it slanted slightly to the back so the jars would have slipped farther into the back of the unit.

I bought some 1/4 inch pine for the back of the unit. It gave it stability and looked nice when you looked in there. Some minor trouble with cutting the pieces perfectly square so when laid next to eachother there was no gap. But again we decided that the few tiny wholes would be obscured by jars of food. This was a servicable unit and not some fancy piece afterall.

With that done I set it in place. It looked okay, but looked.....unfinished somehow. I decided to cover the front of each of the shelves and the sides with 1x2 pieces of wood. I put the flat grain part out so instead of looking at the side of each shelf/board, you were looking at the face of the 1x2's. Feeling fancy I added some top and bottom moulding to fancy it up and even mitered the corners. Now I had a fairly dressed up simple shelf system. Its amazing how much nicer just adding those 1x2's made it.

By then I just couldn't stop. I wanted to make it even nicer. Feeling more confidant with each thing I added I wanted to go bold. I wanted to put on doors. I wanted to be able to keep the little man out of there. He was only about 12-16 months old around then and into everything. Since this was going to be on the side of the fridge I wasn't going to be able to attach it to the wall or anything like that. Building doors with a single handle high up seemed a simple solution.

The width posed a problem. I didn't know a lot about hinges and I was buying most pieces of wood already the correct size since I wasn't great at cutting sizes yet. Naturally the width of the piece was not able to be evenly divided by 2 for 2 doors. After much debate, Robert gave me the solution. Why not add 2 pieces of wood the side so that you can have something to attach the doors to and have them be the right width. Perfect right? It was!

I added 2 pieces of 1x4 I think on each side and then was able to have 2 doors each 16 inches wide. I used my new router table to make the inside seam more decorative. Added a few hinges and it was done. Sure the doors might not be 100% perfectly straight, but they closed and opened perfectly. With a little stain and a few layers of poly we had a fancy new pantry. I was pretty shocked and how nice this came out for being my first project.

Unstained (yet filled to see if it would work. It really held a lot of stuff. We really loved that)

Stained to match our existing cabinets. The stain and poly really made it look schnazzy.

The final pantry. We didn't even need to put a lock on the handle because in the end they were too high for L-man to reach.

The Greatest Gift

Sometimes the greatest gift you can receive is the freedom to pursue your dreams. For years I had wanted to build things, but I was hesitant to take that leap. Then I met my husband. He has always supported my dreams and once he learned about my secret dream, he decided I needed to stop talking and start doing. He got a tax return and had a little extra money and he wanted to make this happen. Robert told me his plan to buy me tools. I was told that I had no choice but to take the $$ and get all the "toys" I wanted. It was not a lot, but enough to open up this whole world of power tools to me.

I would never have done it without him pushing me to do it. I got myself my first table saw and router table, miter saw stand and a new brad nailer. I love that brad nailer....anyway....I also had gotten a jigsaw from my mom for Christmas so I was in heaven. Obviously I didn't buy top of the line, but rather found the nicest base level tools. Until I got my skills up, it would be a waste to go straight to high end.

I got some scrap wood and started practicing. I found many how-to videos online which was essential to learning to use the machines safely. There are a lot of dangers if you use them incorrectly or try to make them do something they are not designed to do.

For my momma friends who wanted to know what tools I am talking about. Let me see if I can help fill you in on these tools. The Circular Saw - This is handheld and can be one of your most useful tools. You can adjust how deep of a cut you are making as well as adjust it side to side to make angled cuts. For those of us starting out, use a straight edge to guide the saw. It makes life SOOO much easier.

Some things I learned.... For a year I avoided using this because it kept binding (getting stuck and not cutting) until I learned the most important trick. Don't make a deep cut with only one pass. I can't go in a straight line so I used a fixed guide. This means I can make multiple passes easily. When cutting something 3/4 of an inch thick, make 3 passes at 1/4 inch, 1/2 inch and then the 3/4 inch. If you do, this will run through the wood like a hot knife through butter. After learning that, I have decided to love this tool after all.

The Table Saw - I got this basic model of bench top table saw. This is great for cutting down large sheets of plywood and for ripping and crosscutting boards. Ripping is making a cut with the grain of the wood and crosscut is across the grain. This is very helpful for making a board the exact size you want it to be.

You can make a 45 degree cut with this and there are plenty of jigs (Templates or other helpful tools that assist you in making a repetitive cut) that you can make for this saw. I would love to upgrade my table saw. Its the one tool I feel limited with based on the model. It doesn't have a very large surface so its harder to balance a large sheet alone (I end up using the circular saw because of this) and I want to use the guide but it doesn't let you go out very far which is not good for a lot of my projects. I would love to upgrade to a cabinet makers table saw or contractors. Basically more powerful and a much larger surface area and width you can do with the guide.

My Miter Saw - This is a very useful machine. Makes a nice 90 degree cut and can also be adjusted to any angle. I use this a lot for a mitered corner where 2 pieces meet at 90 degree angle so each piece has to be cut to 45 degrees. The top of the saw can also be angled to do the angle that way. I use this a lot to cut boards to length and I do make a lot of mitered corners because I like the look a lot. My miter saw is a simple one. Just up and down cut. There are laser guided and ones you can pull back toward you for longer cuts, but I still use my simple one for most every project. Some day I may upgrade, but I haven't felt it really necessary as I have with the table saw.

My Jigsaw - This tool is used to make many different cuts. I use it when cutting out a shape and especially when cutting out the inside of something. For example cutting a square for an outlet to show through the backing of my built ins. Or cutting the opening in the front of a birdhouse. Anywhere you might not want to make a cut from the outside of a board. I have also use it to shape one of my signs to look like a surfboard. Mine doesn't have a lot of power and I can't always get the cut I want. This is probably because I don't use it much and without the practice there is no way to perfect technique.

My brad nailer - You attach this to an air compressor and I can nail in brads (small nails with no head on the top so they are barely seen. Also called finishing nails) up to 2 inches long. This is great for stabilizing an piece for extra assurance. I also use this when putting on trim. The nails are so small they don't split the trim piece and they go below the surface of the wood so with a touch of putty they are unseen when finished. I love the power, I love the feel of it. Its one of the tools that fits my hand nicely. A lot of tools are build with a man sized hand in mind. Despite abilities, my hands are sometimes too small for hold a tool and feel totally comfortable.

And finally my router table - While I now have 3 different routers, at the time I only got this one. The idea is you put the router bit in the router and you run the board along the guide and it will cut the edge with the bit. I used this for decorative edges on my pieces. I plan on getting a new upgraded router table for Christmas this year. This one annoys me. It does a fine job, but I can never get its stable enough. The screws come loose at the corners from the vibration of the machine etc. But it works for small jobs. Nowadays I find myself using my fixed base router and palm router (also called laminate trimmer) for my projects because they are just easier.

I am so thankful for my husband who gave me this gift. The tools were great, but the gift of encouragement and a push to follow my dream hobby has been the greatest gift of all. He had to move around schedules and his time so I could be in the garage making sawdust. While out there, he had to watch our son and sometimes that meant he couldn't relax with his hobby. I'll talk about the balance of time in another post. Hopefully now when I mentioned some of my tools, the mommas who read this will be a little less lost. Obviously I have WAY more tools than just these, but they are the backbone to all my projects. Thank you Dear Husband of Mine!