With this saw, and various hand tools, I am able to do most jobs of interest. This past winter, we had a lot of indoor time. I built several cabinets for my stereo set. The 2 cabinets hold the CD Spinners I had built many years ago. The major challenge with the cabinets was making the doors, with their many slats. These are pictured below.
Jan is president of the Fluvanna Art Association. The association had a need for a portable print rack, which would be used in their art exhibitions and art sales. Research indicated that the print rack would cost anywhere from $79.00 to $198.00. I figured I could build one for less than $20.00. Once I received the go ahead, I built the print rack pictured below for a cost of $20.28. Okay, so I exceeded my estimate by 28 cents. I'll do better next time. The material consisted of a 1" x 6" by 6' select pine, 2 ea 1/2 " by 4' dowels, 1/2 yd of duck material, some screws and bolts and a small piece of chain to limit the rack span.
Below are photos of the frame clamp I made and some of the frames I turned out. The art work, of course, belongs to Jan.
We purchased a new computer for Jan with the Vista operating system. Jan wants to house it in a classic style secretary desk. I looked at what was available in our local furniture stores. All the models came with drawers and we needed open space to house the computer and accessories. Therefore I am in the process of building an old style secretary desk. Below are some photos of my progress.
Several months ago, Jan was looking for a flower press. One could purchase one for several hundred dollars. I designed a simple press for her, made of birch wood and she has used it this summer to press some flowers from our garden. Below are several views of the press. In the far left image, Jan has placed some flowers for pressing. After several months, she released the press, middle image. In the far right image, one can see the pressed flowers. There are several layers of pressed flowers.
Can you tell which are dried and pressed and which are painted?
This painting received the 1st prize award in the "mixed media" category at Fluvanna Art Association's Annual Show 2007
I like to collect hats which are meaningful to me. Some are places that I visited, schools that I or my family attended, golf courses that I have played, etc. I thought I might build a display case for some of my favorite hats. I have more than 100 hats and the case I built will hold 32 hats. The result of my work is in the photo below. The internal mechanisn spins and holds 4 columns and 8 rows of hats.
My latest project is a night table for one of our guest rooms. I used select pine and finished the table with a walnut stain.
And I just finished the matching dresser!
Jan saw a small jewelry box patterned in the shape of a bombay chest. The bombay chest is noted for its sides which have a parabolic shape. She asked me to make her such a chest. I started with an 8' piece of molding. The height of the molding was not quite what we were looking for, so I added a section to increase its height. A picture of the basic chest is shown below.
For Christmas 2008, we bought a 4 volume set of leather bound classics for our grandchildren. I thought it might be a good idea to have a housing for this set, which might tend to keep the set presentable and locatable. I made a little table top case for the books. See photos below.
During the 1st week of March 2009, we decided that we needed another bookcase to store all of our photo albums. I've gotten pretty good at building this type of bookcase and the one pictured below only took one day to build and several days to stain and varnish.
Shown below is a picture of a "HOTDOG TRUCK" I purchased in 1994 at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant. It's gotten a lot of use and has needed to be repaired several times. It is in good working order, at this time. I have not been able to find a similar truck.
