Not So Good

Looks a little dangerous 

   I have been in low gear this past week so no new project to post for now.   I did want to share a few things though. In the picture to the right is one of them.   Once in awhile something seems to work quite well and you just want to share it.   If you ever want to varnish boards that need to be covered on all sides just drive some nails through small pieces of wood.    When your board has been brushed with a fresh coat of varnish set that board on a set of three of these little jigs.  The nails hold the board up in the air and the point of the nail does not seem to leave any mark in the dried varnish.

This game board has seen a lot of use

To the left is a picture of my corn bag toss game boards that I had built a couple of years ago.  (Check September 18th, 2013's blog.)   It was starting to come apart.   On this particular set of game boards I had used brown pressboard for a top and had glued it down to the base.  Then I tacked nails around the edges to secure the top to the base (Like the plan suggested).  Pressboard is not an ideal product to expect glue to perform well.  To fix it,  I had to pry the damaged area open a little and add some new glue.   This time I screwed the top down to the base.  I don't think the glue will work any better, but I feel the screws will hold things in place in future games.   I guess I will have to be a little cautious when using cheap old pressboard for projects like this in the future.  

Wonder how many chicks came into the world
in that fine establishment?

   The picture to the right is kind of sad.   A nice little bird house that Pam had bought on a garage sale a few years back.   I notice the bottom was a little weak when I cleaned it out and hung it up this Spring.  Now here is an example of someone who thinks he is a fine woodworker using good old duct tape as a temporary fix.    For some reason this broken down bird house was the most popular one on the lot this summer.    The mother wren just kept pumping sticks in that hole for her nest and the bottom kept pushing out.   The duct tape gave away but the nest did not.    I was sure the cat would be eating little wren chicks for dinner some evening, but whatever construction techniques that wren used to build her nest were excellent ones.  (I build a game board with power tools and it falls apart.  A wren builds a nest with her beak and it survives the summer storms.   What does that say???)

Christmas in July

 My neighbor stopped by this afternoon.   He had a friend who was cleaning out his dad's shop and was going to throw away all this fine wood.   So he loaded it up and brought it over to my place.   There was a lot of oak, lots of walnut, some pine, some maple, some ash, and even a little hack berry.   There was one board marked "holly".   Never have worked with a holly board before.

  I know - I know.   I have been blogging all year long that it is a goal of mine to reduce the size of my wood scrap pile.  But listen.  It would only be neighborly and kind for me to help someone out by taking this free lumber off his hands.   (What a nice guy I am.)
 
In the future I may have to look for a larger storage shed.   (You know - to store some of Pam's antiques and stuff...)