Wood Working project

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 I had a bit of left over milk paint in turquoise. I brush a bit here and there on top and then painted the whole thing with CeCe Caldwells White.
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 Not too bad.  It was obviously a well made piece. Nice type of mahogany. It was in pretty good shape.


 So I actually used the one marked cobalt blue. However, the rep said that they had an error listing the names, as I told him this color was no where near cobalt. So I really dont know what color this is. The one labeled turquoise is more of a teal. The company was nice enough and sent me two other colors (Peacock and Black) and a jar of their burnishing paste.  Its a matte acrylic topcoat. Sort of like using wax on top of chalk paint.

This totally looks like Bo-bo the clowns dresser.

After layering on the milk paint. Once I start sanding, the other colors will peek thru.

This shows how I layered on two other colors of chalk paint before painting over the whole thing with the milk paint.  Milk paint works best on completely bare wood. It went over the chalk paint with no problems.

 It was a paint-fest!!   I have serious issues.  While doing the dresser, I also tried out my milk paint on the new campaign dresser I picked up. Yes..a Baker Campaign dresser. For the paltry sum of $15.00!!! Dont Hate!    I will talk about that painting fiasco in my next post.....Sheesh....                               
                               









                                                          One last look at the pretty jewelry!!

This is just a quick note to pass along a cool thing that happened to me this morning. Social media of all sorts is a very interesting phenomena. Especially a monster like Facebook. I was just talking to someone the other day and saying that things are kind of odd these days because I used to live a couple of separate lives, at least two of them. There was my work, and then there was my home. And though one supported the other, those two things never really crossed paths all that often. I never subversively hid anything about my home life from my coworkers, and if they asked what I had going on the coming weekend I told them what was up. I guess I just never felt the need to put myself all out there. Social media always seems to ballance the line between bragging and whining. I try to walk the tightrope as best as anybody, but I know I slip from time to time.

Then a little over a year ago I decided to but the bullet and join Facebook, mostly to stay connected with family, and to try and reconnect with some old friends Id lost touch with along the way. The first time I had a coworker find me and request my friendship I really had to think about it. In fact I spent a couple days mulling it over before actually deciding to accept the friendship. Now I live a fully integrated life, I am Facebook friends with many people I work with and I still have to think about it sometimes when someone starts a conversation using something they read about me as a friend.

This morning however Facebook took a turn for me into the Twilight Zone, as I received this in my e-mail in-box


Only in a world blessed with Facebook would I get an e-mail where Saint Roy has confirmed our "friendship" Maybe hell let me stay in his spare bedroom if Im ever down his way, Im sure its only a matter of time before he invites me as a guest on his show.

Im positive if anything even remotely reaching a real conversation happened between me and Mr. Underhill, not only would I be a stammering idiot, but I would probably have to clean out my drawers.

I love seeing Roy, I love reading his books, watching him work on his TV show. I love how when I was budding as a woodworker and obsessed with the Normite way of life, how I would get to watch his show follow after and find there was a different way of doing things and that way was totally an accessible thing. I credit Roy with the early exposure that made it feel OK when I decided to start exploring an unplugged workshop and for continuing to be a source of both education and inspiration.

Im not sure theres enough of any substance in this world that could delude me enough to consider this e-mail to be anything more than what it is. A Facebook thing. But setting all that aside for just a second, it is still a pretty cool thing to receive on a snowy Saturday morning.

Thank You Roy! Cheers!

Oldwolf

Hi Everyone,

If youre like me and you generate a lot of small scrap lumber, youre probably always wondering what to do with it all. One thing that you can make and that is useful are coffee cup lids. These are small, circles of wood that have a small knob on top that you can put on top of hot cups of coffee and they will help to get your coffee warm for a lot longer than just living the top of the cup uncovered. In this blog posting Im going to describe how to make them.

I work with local hardwoods which means I often have a lot of oak, hickory, maple, and birch scrap in the shop and these pieces are perfect for small things like the coffee cup lid in the center of the photograph. This particular lid is made from hickory:


This blank is maple. Maple is my favorite turning wood. It cuts cleanly and smoothly:

The next step is to drill a hold in the center of the circle on the drill press with a Forstner bit (see my discussion about this on my previous posting about the black walnut vase). Be sure and clamp the wood down with a clamp before drilling:


 In this photo Ive mounted the blank on the lathe and have begun truing up the edge. Ive begun cutting from the face of the blank towards the center of the edge. This is a much easier way of truing up the blank without damaging the surface of the wood:


Next Ive trued up the face and made it flat. Even though it looks flat in the photograph, its not:

 Now Ive roughed out the knob in the center. I like to cut a depression underneath and just off to the side of the knob so my fingers will fit around and under the knob:



This photo shows the blank from the side. Notice that the surface of the blank has been cut away and the knob now stands up and away from the surface. Ive also cut into the sides of the knob so my fingers will fit under it:


Here is the top of the blank. Ive added a little detail to it and Ive also sculpted the knob a little:


Next, Im going to cut a lip on the underside of the blank. This will help the top to stay on the coffee cup (see photo below):



This is the finished top on the lathe with a little bit of linseed oil on it:


And here it is on the cup. Notice that it fits into the cup:



Here is the underside of the lid showing the lip. This lip is 3 1/4" in diameter and should fit most American coffee mugs:


As its getting cold and Im beginning to freeze up again, Im going to defer making the hickory lid until tomorrow. Ill follow the same set of steps that Ive shown here. Im going to make that lid a little smaller in case my cousin has smaller coffee mugs than I do.

You can make this lid any diameter you wish. Just be sure and measure and calculate the average inside diameter of your coffee cups before you begin. If you have cups that are larger than that, then you have a great excuse to go back out to your wood shop and make another one!

Have fun,
VW