Blocks # 3

Somewhere in the midst of all those clamps is
a bunch of little glued up scraps of hardwood 

   I know everyone is tired of looking and reading about how blocks are built, but lately it has become a thing with me.   If you like fishing and you have been fishing a lot this summer that doesn't mean you should stop fishing does it?    If you like golf  (wait - wait - who can possibly like golf?)  and you have been out on the course the last few non rainy days of spring (looking for a way to depress yourself)  it does not mean that you should quit playing golf does it?    Well, I like making blocks.

Rough blanks of glued up boards over 1 1/2 inch thick

    I continue to find all these small scraps of wood tossed in the trash or laying in the scrap pile and I just can't control myself.   Give me a glue bottle and a dozen clamps and suddenly there is this inward desire to rebuild the tree!

Blanks are cut so that they are 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch

    One of the main reasons I like doing this is that I don't have a lot of cost.   My main expense is a bottle of glue which is not that expensive.   (You go to the store and the choice is - do you get a bottle of glue or do you get a bottle of wine? Typically, wine cost a little more so your saving money by going home with the glue.) 

Each Block is hand sanded on all six sides. 

 
I have even come to find some pleasure in hand sanding.    You turn on the radio so there is a little country music strumming away in the background.   You put that 4 oz sanding block in the palm of your hand and move it back and forth giving you that feeling that your bicep is getting stronger as the day moves on.    You put a little pencil mark on the side of each block to remind you of what sides you still have to sand and mentally you can drift away.  You can daydream of those days long ago when you had to do real work.   (And you got a real paycheck.) 

Samples of the end results. 

My rough blanks I like to make larger than the required 1 1/2.    Normally wood out of the lumber store is 3/4 of an inch thick so gluing two boards together should give you 1 1/2 inches of thickness.   Sometimes I find that thickness can be just slightly less than 3/4 of an inch thick.   To make sure I have the required thickness I glue a small piece in the middle of a blank and then trim the blank back to 1 1/2 inch thick when the glue is dry. That is why you see that little strip in the middle of the block some times.   1/4 inch Baltic plywood also works great to be used as that filler.

Food safe mineral oil is applied to each block

  I am starting to acquire quite a pile of these neat multigrain little wooden blocks.  I can not help but become mesmerized by all the grain patterns.   I need to remember that these are for little kids to play with, not for old woodworking guys like myself to drool over.   

   So I am about to box up a few of these and road test them,  I need to find a kid or two to try them out on.   Or maybe find a grandpa out there who wants to try them out on their grand kids.     (Or maybe a grandpa who will play with them himself,)