Christmas Time Part I

   Every year about this time I have to do a project for the woodworking club that I belong to.   Each member usually builds a little something and then donates that project to the club.   The club will display all these projects and also at the same time there is an opportunity for people in the community to place a bid on each of the projects.    Every year I frantically concern myself with the idea that I have no idea what to build for this year's silent auction.

    Since I have been bloging for about five years now, you could go back each year to this time frame and read between the lines and see the panic that starts to build up as Christmas approaches.   (Anti-acids need to be close at hand.)    Each January I swear that next year I will not procrastinate this way since I know I will need another auction project once November arrives.   Next year it will be a "new" me.

   The normal pattern for a woodworker in this case is to think of a project  - a project that once done and once displayed will have the bidders fighting over who will be able to place the highest bid -  (not saying that club members aren't a little competitive this time of year.   Hmm.)   The second step is to find a pattern to follow while building this project.   Of course the third step is to build it.

  My process is a little opposite of normal.  (I know - hard to believe.)  I look at my huge wood scrap pile and say to myself   "What can I build to get rid of some of this wood."   (It's like going to a pot luck.   Some cooks say that they will make their famous corn casserole.   Other cooks will look out at their apple tree full of ripe apples and decide to make some kind of apple dessert. I'm the apple guy.)

  I was given some lumber that had some boards as in the picture above and I decided that I would try and make something out of it.   I think it is fir.   It is a soft wood.   It kind of has a unusual pattern.   The only thing is that fir is usually knotty.   This was not.  So I am not sure what it is.   Anyway,  I grab one of those long boards and started up my table saw.

  I sometimes turn up the country music while I work on a project.   That didn't happen so much when I was working on this project.    I think my focus was on all the political ads and speeches that were being given at the time.  (Yeah...   Sure...  Talk shows were my new thing.)   Anyway, I  just discovered that I did not take many progress pictures as I was working on this.    So I will just rattle using my verbal skills to talk about what type of glue I used - Tite Bond III of course - and my first choice of sandpaper in Norton 3X.    (Interesting huh?)

    I have decided that I will wait till next week to fill you in on just what this big piece of  "no name" wood is going to turn into.    I can say that the project was suppose to have a little antique appearance to it and I think it was more common to use this kind of wood in the past.   So, wish me luck.

   Just one more comment.   This plan called for nails to be used when connecting the pieces.   Maybe that was more common back in the old days.    I guess I like to be metal free as much as possible and that is what I tried to do here.  I used dowels to connect most of my joints.
   Okay.   That is it.   The election is over.   The wood scrap pile is down one more board.  Country music is back on the radio.    Next week we will show the end project.