Project Wood Working: my

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

and my knockoff project was

The Schumacher Zimba inspired draperies and Anthropologie inspired ottoman!!! AND we made it to the next round! The next theme is paint and you might know how much I LOVE paint, so Im pretty excited! We have an AMAZING project planned and I cant wait to show you!

Today I thought I would share the tutorial for how I painted the draperies :)

It was love at first sight with Schumachers Zimba print for me! But $100 a yard definitely adds up for multiple panels. For our living room/office, 4 panels would be about $900, which is definitely not in our budget! We created a similar look by purchasing Ikeas Lenda draperies and stenciling them.

Heres how we did it:

We calculated the repeat at about 27" wide and 32" high, recreated the shapes in Illustrator, printed it on 8.5x11 sheets of paper and then taped them together. Having additional sections of the repeat is important when lining it up (the more the better, I wish I would of made a few more sections)!

I created a PDF of the pattern to be printed on 8.5x11 paper. Print the sheets, line them up and tape together. I numbered each sheet on the upper left corner, but you may want to cover that up once you start laying out the pattern to avoid mixing them up with the stencil numbers. Id recommend taping paper to a table and then taping the print out to the paper to avoid them slipping around. Download available HERE

After taping the guide to the table, we traced the shapes on clear plastic with a sharpie, then cut out with scissors.

We used 1 part fabric medium and 2 parts BM sleigh bells (a warm neutral light gray) Side note: grays are tricky to pick out! They favor one color very easily. The best way to pick out a gray to hold it next to other grays (this helps show the undertone) and compare that way.

Double stick tape was placed on the back of the stencil pieces. The panel was centered and placed on top of the print out. The drapery panel was semi translucent so I could see the pattern underneath to line it up, a must for this project! Then I used a small foam roller to paint ... a lot! Once done with an area, I moved the panel and replaced the stencil, lining it up from underneath.

Each panel took about 2.5 hours to stencil. Four drapery panels would of been about $900 in fabric, this cost about $50, definitely worth it in my opinion!

The ottoman tutorial tomorrow, I used a few new materials to cut costs, so Im excited to share :)

I hope you enjoyed! Im off to work on our paint themed project! Wish me luck!

Monday, February 10, 2014

My new drill press

I finally assembled my new drill press that I bought a couple of months ago. All the cool woodworkers have one so I figured that I should pick one up too. I waited until they went on sale at Harbor Freight and then used my 20% off coupon and got it for under $60. Its not the best reviewed one out there but all I want to do is drill some straight holes in wood so I think that I will be fine. I spcifically bought the one with a chuck key. I read a lot of reviews saying the one with a keyless chuck always seemed to fail over time. Ive never actually used a drill press before so this is all one big adventure.

New in the box

Still in the box

Kinda out of the box

Out of the box

I bolted the column assembly to the base

I then slid the table down over the column

I put the motor assembly on top and tightened the 2 allen screws on the side

I nstalled the 3 feed handles next

The chuck came covered in grease

So I cleaned it and the key

I retracted the jaws all the way inside the key and slid it over the spindle

I lifted the table and put a piece of scrap wood on it (not pictured) and then

pulled down on the feed handles to force the chuck onto the spindle

It felt like I was going to break something when I pulled on the handles so the chuck

didnt seem to go as far on the spindle as I would have liked

So I layed it on its side, placed the scrap wood next to the chuck,and gave it a

couple of good whacks

It went on a little tighter that way. From looking at the spindle assembly I still feel

like it should have gone up more

It was set to the highest speed so I moved the belt to the middle. It has a handy chart

attached to the inside of the lid showing where to put the belt for the different speeds

and belt placements

I live close to a Home Depot but the Ryobi Forstner bits had a lot of reviews saying that

they were dull so I drove to Lowes and picked up som Porter Cable bits. They cost almost as

much as the drill press.

I ran a test and the chuck didnt look like it was wobbling at all

I was kinda surprised at just how much sawdust this little hole halfway through

a 2x4 made

It looks good to me. Now I can make the woodworking mallet from

WoodWorking for Mere Mortals.

Welcome To My Kitchen

Everybodys got a favorite spot,
and this one is mine.
Come on in and let me show you around.

If you watch HGTV you might think
you cant afford to do this,
but with a simple plan and rough lumber
it doesnt have to cost an arm & a leg.
We love our backyard space.

Here is our outdoor dining area.
We went for a sort of a Tex Mex theme for the
dining room and kitchen.
Note the chalk board menu.

Here is the bar and saloon doors we built that separate the kitchen and dining area.

The wooden box is actually an ice chest.

Now lets check out the kitchen.

Here are my two pellet grills.

The cold water sink.

Here is the Big Green Egg charcoal grill.

Double propane burners.
Some HOT..HOT chilli has been cooked on these as well as wok cooking etc.

I told you it was Tex Mex. Cool huh?

I wish you could sit down and stay a while.
Id fire up a grill and start cookin!

Thanks for checking out my blog.

I would love to hear your comments
and if youre in the neighborhood stop by for some good food.

Steve (and Connie)

Tried To Get My Feet Wet And Drowned

I recently tried to run with the big boys. Scary stuff!

If you cruise the web looking for information on vintage tools you have probably come across David Stanley Auctions. It is probably one of the premiere auction sites for vintage tools out there. The tools they consign for auction are notably far and above the average. Their recent auction included both private and museum collections which meant some pretty amazing stuff. I got hooked on this company and signed up for a years worth of their catalogues.

Their last auction was held on March 26th and on the 24th I received their catalogue in the mail. Thinking, "In for a penny, in for a pound" (little did I know), I figured I would give them a go. Not knowing how all this worked, I picked three lesser valued items to start; a 5" Brass Protractor, a Marples 15" Square and a Pair of Dowel Rounders.

The Protractor was listed as, "A 5" combination brass protractor and scale rule G++ (30-50)". The image supplied in both their printed and online catalogues showed a nice looking example so I listed my maximum bid on their Absentee Bidding Form as 50₤. It sold for 60₤.

The Square was listed as, "A 15" brass faced rosewood handled try square by Marples with bench stop G+ (15-25)". Knowing that their grading system was as high or higher than those The Best Things uses, I felt confident placing a bid for it at 30₤. It sold for 32₤.

Finally, the Dowel Rounders were listed as, "A pair of handled beech dowel rounders G++ (30-50)". I placed a top bid of 50₤, which is exactly what they sold for.

Here is what my single winning bid got me...

They are really a nice pair of cutters which look as though they didnt cut very many dowels over their lifetime. They are stamped with a previous owners name, "J. Harvey". They also have size stampings; one stamped "8" (¾") and the other "9" (1"). The "MES Howarth, Warrant Cast Steel, Sheffield" blades are probably very close to their original length, based on the very little amount of play below the mounting screws when the blade is set. As a result of all of this, I have no complaints about the tools purchased.

Now lets have a look-see what these tools actually cost me.

The invoice I received had the listed lot and selling price of 50₤.

There was then the "Premium", which I expected, of 7.50₤

Following this was a Credit Card charge of 1.98₤. I didnt see this one coming.

Then the shipping charges were added, the 17.58₤ charge being one thing, but added to that is a VAT charge of 3.52₤.

Insurance was additional, which was 0.50₤, and again the VAT charge reared its ugly head to ding me for another 0.10₤.

Now Im not blaming David Stanley Auctions in any way for these charges. Other than the Credit Card charge, I was well aware of them before placing my bids. In actual fact, David Stanley Auctions didnt charge me the 3₤ handling charge they were supposed to, according to their literature, so they treated me more than fair.

All told, though, my 50₤ ($78.50 CAN) bid for these two Dowel Cutters ended up costing me 81.18₤ ($128.00 CAN), which means landing the tools on my desk cost more than 60% of their purchase price.

I should have expected this. When I was in London, England a few years ago, my first purchase was from a chip vendor on the street, and was just a can of Coke. When he asked me for 5₤, I didnt think twice, and just handed it to him. As I popped the tab on that can walking away, though, it hit me that I was about to drink an $11 can of pop.

England. You have to love it, but I guess only the big boys can afford to live there.

Peace,

Mitchell

As an aside, I will mention that while David Stanley Auctions is a spectacular company that deals in better than the best in vintage wares, they are a tad lacking when it comes to communications. Two emails that I have sent them asking for clarifications have been left hanging. As an international company dealing on the Internet, I was quite surprised at this revelation.