I’m back at it!

Did you miss me? My guess is probably not. That’s ok. The past few years have been kind of crazy. I was out of work for a while, then finally got on with a company I used to work for some time ago. Work has kept me out of town sometimes, which means out of the workshop. Yeeesh. It’s annoying, but gotta pay the bills.

Do you remember my last post? I had mentioned a special made box for a “friend of mine”. Well, that friend is now my fiancée. The box was for her daycare provider for her kids, at that time. The daycare provider has two kids of her own, who both have a form of autism. This is what I came up with.

I used Rosewood for the base and a nice piece of English Oak for the lid. I used my woodburner to engrave the puzzle pieces and colored them with markers. I’m sorry the pictures didn’t come out as clear as I had hoped. I will work on my photography skills.

I hope you like it. I really enjoyed making this one. It’s my way of supporting Autism Awareness.

New posts coming soon.

I’m sorry for the lack of posts lately. Been having some rough times lately with one of my cats. He has been in and out of the vets. Last week, he had to be put to sleep. So this is why I haven’t posted anything. I will be posting again later this week.

Upcoming posts will be a special made box for a friend of mine, a couple of designs on Christmas ornaments and making a base for an antique treadle scrollsaw. Keep checking in to see which is next.

Templates

What are templates, you ask?  Templates are nothing more than a form you trace around on a piece of lumber.  It is a piece of material (plywood, cardboard, masonite….etc.) that you cut out in the shape of whatever you are building.  For example, say you want to build a box.  You have the designs already drawn up.  You layout the top piece on your piece of material that you are using for your template.  We will just say you are using cardboard.  You draw the top out on the cardboard. Then cut out the shape you have drawn.  Voila, you have your first template.  A template is used when you are planning on making more than one of any item. So if you are making more than six boxes, you can trace around your template for the lids to each box.  This will save you a tremendous amount of time.  All you have to do is lay the template on your piece of lumber and trace around it.  Then repeat this step for the lid to each box you plan on making. 

Depending on the dimensions for all the parts on your box, a template could be used for more than one piece.  I just made a few templates today, one of which can be used for two sides of a box.  Another could be used for all four sides.  This will give you less time laying out the pieces and more time constructing the boxes.  This helps in speeding up production.  Have fun and experiment with this!