Teddy Bear Pirate Ship

Ye Bucket O' Scrap

Recently our neighbors invited us to their house for their son's fifth birthday party and they went all out with the pirate theme.  I don't think I could ever hope to be that organized and creative to plan something out so well but my son and I did leave the party with pirates on the brain.  The next day, my son decided that his teddy bear's birthday was soon to occur, coincidentally on the same day as one of his grandfather's birthdays.  And, for his birthday, Teddy wanted to be a pirate.  Go figure.  For some reason I had the itch to do some carving and so I reached into the bucket o' wood scraps and pulled out some excess 2" x 2" fir and some shavings from the latest frame made out of old tongue & groove.

Beware, these be sharp!

  Ever since a friend, artist, and fellow Eagle alumnus, Michael Smith, showed me how he carved wood for his beautiful block prints, I've wanted to experiment with some hands-on carving of my own.  He told me of a great shop in Portland that carries a great beginner set of carving tools and oh, so much more.  Woodcrafters is amazing if you ever get a chance to stop in.  It's a good thing I'm on a budget some of the time or I could have spent much more time and money while there.  BTW, it's also very close to Voodoo Doughnut's east-side location.  What I did end up with, besides a frame brace that has come in very handy, was a beginner set of hand carving knives and a good slipstrop by Flexcut for sharpening the blades.  The best part was that the set of carving blades came with a handy set of bandages.  Thankfully, I've yet to use them.
     From the 2" x 2"piece of doug fir, I carved the hull of the boat and with the long slivers from the tongue & groove I carved and sanded the masts and yards.  I notched the bow to attach the bowsprit and then anchored it with wood glue.  To set the masts, I drilled holes to match the size and left them loose, with the exception of the fore-mast, so that if there were ever a naval battle and the poor ship lost a mast, it would not have to be broken out and remade.  To attach the yards, I notched the mast and yard to fit then bound it with brown string and a dab of glue to hold in place.  Finally, for the sails, I had some extra muslin leftover from may last canvas creation and cut sails out of that.  I tied them on with needle and thread but left the bottoms stays off partly because I was investing way too much work on this project and partly because I am no fan of sewing.  The only thing remaining to do now is test it in water and make a stand for it since it keeps falling over.

Sailing the high-table seas.

     In the end, my son said said Teddy would love it and that he would ride it, right between the fore-mast and main-mast.  I guess as long as he's wearing an eye patch that will be fine.

What do I do with all this leftover OSB?

As you may know, I'm quite averse to throwing things in the trash that can either be reused or recycled for something useful.  Lately, along with my father-in-law, we've been building a new shed and as part of the aftermath of that project (which I'm sure I'll post on later), there was quite a load of OSB scrap.  If you don't know, OSB stands for oriented strand board and it's become the building industry's predominate choice for sheathing of smaller buildings.  You don't want to burn it since it's pressed together with chemical-laden glue but it can be safely shredded with other wood products.  Even thought that's better than letting it go straight to the land-fill, I know there has to be better things to do with it than that.  So, the bed of my truck is currently a home for several different pieces of medium-sized OSB waiting to be used for something good.

What's in the box?

One project I'm sure I'll repeat was the Tuna Tier cat tower (see previous post).  In the meantime, there was something else I needed to do.  While I've really enjoyed using my new Porter-Cable jigsaw (thanks Dad & Mom!), it didn't come with a case and I've been toting it around in it's cardboard box.  Unfortunately, during one work session on the shed it started raining and as you can imagine, corrugated cardboard does not do well when wet.  So, I devised a plan to build a case for the jigsaw using the OSB and leftover pallet scraps (see other previous post).  Using screws, glue, and hinges that I already had on hand, the box was pretty much complete.  We made a trip to the Rebuilding Center for a handle and a latch to keep it closed and came back with the handle at least.  I'm sure I could have found a latch had there been more time but if you've ever been to the Rebuilding Center, you'll know that the organization of the hardware section leaves something to be desired.  So, the box is nearly complete, all that's needed is some inserts into the blade holes so they're not too deep (I'll cut some from some blocks of expanded foam that are still sitting in my basement) and a latch.  OSB used - check.  Carrying case for jigsaw - check.

Thanks to Mon Ami for the lovely coffee cup
to help fuel my projects

Now, I still have a lot of OSB left in the truck that needs to be put to use.  If anyone has some good ideas, please leave me a comment!  I have a few shelves that I need to build, maybe reorganize the shed here at home but other than that, I'm open to some new ideas.

Explorations In Cider Making

Bubbling in the basement
at a steady 68 degrees

With the local scene (a.k.a. my neighborhood) replete with home-brewers, I've been feeling the need to join the fun for quite some time now but I've never made the time to get properly started.  Well, a couple weeks ago when I had some free time and money I finally committed to going and buying a full-on brewing kit from the local brew supply store, Bader Beer & Wine Supply.  To get buy-in from my wife, I told her I would start by making hard cider instead of beer.  Since this wasn't the season for ripe apples nor do I have ready access to a cider press, I decided to start with store bought soft cider as my stock to convert to hard cider.  Without the necessary brewing steps required by beer, this was a pretty easy undertaking and the results were well worth it.

I tried to find a local cider but since I'm not much of pre-planner, I had to find whatever I could in a pinch and used TreeTop's three-apple blend since it wasn't from concentrate, had no additives, and was already pasteurized.  Even though it was still pasteurized, I still brewed it just below simmering for about an hour.  One thing I learned in that process is that it takes a long time to heat up five gallons as well as letting it cool down.  I added three cups Muscovado brown sugar during the brew process for flavor and to up the alcohol content.  In the end, I'm not sure how much affect this had on the flavor but the final ABV was approximately 6%.  It took nine days to ferment and then I let it clarify another seven before bottling.  At bottling, I added another 1 3/4 cup honey and water mix to get some fizz once in the bottle.  Of course, I wanted to taste the fruits of my labor right away but the first bottle was just okay.  However, after letting the cider bottle age for another week or so, it has sweetened up and the carbonation is nice and light.  

Only $7.80?  Sold!

I'll be starting batch number two very soon and experimenting some more but I have to say this was pretty fun and having 27 bottles of cider ready to give away or consume is pretty cool.  With the initial cost of the brewing kit, sweet cider, and yeast, I figure it's only going to take me about 55 bottles to break even which is only two full batches compared to retail hard cider costs of around $4 per bottle.  After that, it should only cost me around $1.30 for each full bottle, what a deal!

Bucket List

After the squirrels so kindly chewed the zipper out of the bag I had on the front of my bike, I started looking for ideas on what I could use to carry stuff by bike.  I found several ideas online including DIY bike panniers and bike buckets which were the two I liked the most.  The panniers were made by taking two grocery totes and sewing the handles together to drape over a rear bike rack.  The design was fairly easy and by adding a couple of pieces of masonite the stiffen the sides, they would hold up their shape decently it looked like.  I especially liked how light weight they were and compact for storage.  On the flip side, they didn't look that sturdy and I had a feeling they wouldn't last long exposed to the elements.  They also didn't provide any protection for items I might want to keep dry.

The other idea that I liked was the bike bucket.  One of my friends is also a big proponent of the bucket and I'd seen him use his on many occasions when we would meet up at locations all over PDX.  The bucket design was also very sturdy, provided protection from the rain (very important around here), and best of all gave new life to cat litter buckets that would otherwise just be recycled.  The downside to the buckets is that they are heavier than the tote panniers and rather bulky so you have to have somewhere to store them when you don't want to use them.  Luckily, I have space in the shed to put them so storage wasn't a big deal but I can see that an apartment dweller may want something a bit more compact.  The design itself was pretty simple with just a little bit of work drilling holes and cutting sections out of the plastic side ridges.  The hardware list was also pretty minimal consisting of two cargo hooks, half a rubber bungee with hook, and associated nuts, bolts, and washers.  Total for all of that was about $7 per bucket.

I finally decided on the buckets for the extra durability (must protect the beer!) and for the fact that I wouldn't have to sew anything.  What can I say, it's not my strong suit.  My mother-in-law tracked down one bucket for me to experiment with and soon a couple of others arrived from another friend.  Unfortunately, Tidy Cat did not have street style in mind when they decided to make their buckets bright yellow with turquoise lids.  This would obviously not do.  Since I had quite a bit of primer left from my last effort of working on the pickup, I primed the first bucket with a dark gray and then we headed to the hardware store to find a good color for the buckets.  While there, I noticed chalkboard paint and decided it would be much more fun to make a surface that you could change on a whim and something that my son could help decorate with ease.  I coated the sides of the bucket with the chalkboard paint and added a semi-gloss black for the top.  The result turned out very well and the only problem I've noticed is that the paint chips off easily which is probably due to the underlying surface being too smooth.  For the second bucket and I roughed up the plastic surface with 60 grit sandpaper before applying the primer.  It's still drying between coats so I'll let you know how that works.

For a great compilation of all types of panniers and buckets try: http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Panniers/

The buckets I made were basically from this design: http://www.commutebybike.com/2009/12/09/how-to-make-bike-buckets/

Happy biking!

Hooked

One of the neatest gifts my wife and I received for Christmas was from my in-laws in Montana.  They found a coat hook made by a local artist out of scraps of wood from around his studio.  We loved the design so much, we wanted to put it up right away but we couldn't seem to find a spot for it.  The only place we could really use a coat hook like this was in the mud room but we already had three well used hooks there.  So, instead of just one, I decided we need two more to replace the older ones.

I still had piles of scraps from the pallet chair project (see last post) and a lot in small sizes that would work perfectly for this.  I cut several small pieces in varying widths and took advantage of an old iron hook we hadn't used yet from Mint Tea.  I also had an old square nail that we found in our basement upon moving in and hadn't appropriated for something else.  For the outside border, I took some slats off of scrap lattice I had leftover from the front porch and they worked perfectly.

To finish, I sanded down the outside edges but left most of the rough-saw surfaces on the inner pieces rough to match the character of the original.  Since I was using pallet scraps that did not differ much in color, I used three different stains and a clear coat to simulate the variety of woods the original artist used and it didn't turn out too shabby.  With some counter-sunk holes and some drywall anchors, the hooks work great.

I wish I could say this was an original idea but the credit is due to Nick Mask of Six Fingers Studio who created the original piece and my wonderful in-laws who frequent Tart Gallery in Bozeman, MT.  Check out Nick's page for some more glimpses of the wonderful creations happening in the studio and check out Tart for an entire bounty of cool, local made art.  These aren't the type of things you'll find in the big box stores or, if you do, you can bet they were probably made on an assembly line somewhere with virgin materials and outsourced labor.  I strongly encourage you all to find your local Tarts and Six Finger Studios and support the local arts and crafts.