Restoring Shutters

On the large job we replaced the windows many months ago for new ones. In doing so we removed the old shutters and their surrounds that they sat in. These were a real feature of the house and the customer wanted us to make something similar to what was there before.

One of the windows with plastered reveals

 We reused the old shutters, but replaced all the ironmongery and the surrounds. First we refitted the shutters then built the surrounds around them as they were all individual sizes so each had to be built to suit.
We framed below the bay windows with 3x2 this meant they weren't quite so deep and could have a wider window board.

We cut a wide architrave and machined a rope bead on the front to match the other mouldings in the house (as well as machining a smaller architrave that sits on top). We then created a frame to bring out the architrave to give the shutters the clearance they needed before fitting it all.

 Once we had done that it was a matter of installing the window boards and plaster boarding the bay so the plasterer can get it finished next week.

Three windows finished and a lot of character added back into a large room.

Punching Nails

An oak floor at the house I'm currently working at needs refinishing and blending with the new oak floor I laid in the kitchen.

My tools for the day

 The customer also wants all the cut nails filling (personally I like the nails showing like this). This unfortunately means than another chippy and myself have spent the whole day punching nails into the floor. I think if prisoners were given this type of labour they'd probably complain about their human rights!

Nails punched below the surface

By the end of the day my hands were beginning to feel the punishment of driving these large cut nails into the oak floor, one after the other. Some went easy but many took a lot of effort to get in.
Now the floor can be filled and sanded before a new finish is applied.

Log Store

A friend has been asking me for weeks to come and help him build a log store against his fence. I finally found time this weekend so managed to get it done.

Frame work up

 It's a simple construction with three 4x4 posts concreted into the ground. They're notched to support the top rail then braced to stop it from moving. The back support is fixed into the rail for the fence on the other side, we also left this long and fixed it to two large fence posts to give it extra support.
For the roof I cut rafters then we clad it with ply before adding the battens to take the slates. Maybe a little over kill but at least we know its plenty strong enough and wont move.


Roof on and posts concreted

This is ideally suited infront of the house and when he clads the sides it will make a great a place to store his timber. He wanted it building at this time of year because he likes to buy firewood split but unseasoned and seasons it himself as it works out cheaper.

Slatted and looking quite smart

I know he was pleased with it becuase the next day he text me a picture of the store with the slates on looking rather smart!
I could do with something like this at my house!


Bench Hook

Some times a project doesn't have to be complicated to be really useful.

 This is a bench hook for cutting vinyl tiles that my sister uses in surface printing.

I made it years ago and it's nice to see her still using it, even though it was just made with some off cuts and a spare 5 minutes.

Oak Flooring

We finished laying some oak flooring in the small downstairs cloakroom this week.

 The flooring is an engineered board with solid oak on the top and bottom and pine (grain running in the other direction) in between these two layers. It was easy to lay, although I'm not a big fan of the adhesive we used as it's like trying to work with treacle! It's still all over my hammer and anything else that got near it!
Other than that the floor can be treated like any other solid oak floor, the top layer of oak is thick enough to be sanded and it will take any finish that's required. It was a top grade of oak so it contained very few knots or blemishes and looked great as we put it down.

The week before we also finished laying the floor in the kitchen, as the units are being fitted over the next couple of weeks.
I'll post more pictures of the finished floor at a later date.

Dog Box

One of the lads at work wanted me to make him a dog box. This is a box that is kept in the back of your truck to keep your dog in, it's mainly for working dogs and the smaller space means they can warm up much faster after a days shooting, it also keeps the rest of the vehicle clean.

All the sides cut to size

It's built to fit his vehicle so the back had to be sloping to fit tight against his back seats and make the most of the space available. I started making it a couple of weekends ago when the weather was nice. I have to do this at the moment as I have nowhere else to make it.

Alfresco carpentry!

 I cut all the ply pieces first then joined them using a 25mm batten screwed and glued into all the corners. I used 12.5mm ply for the panels as it's strong enough but it will also mean you'd be able to lift it on your own.

The basic carcase made up

Today I made the front frame using some 25mm x 75mm PSE. I rebated the edges so the wire would sit flush with the outside using my little Bosch router.

Just hinges and beads left to finish it.

I've still got to add some trim to hold the wire in place and fix on the hinges before its finished but it's almost there. This would have been much easier to make if I had a workshop or a covered space to work but I'll just have to wait for that!

Fitted Book Shelves

I fitted this book shelf a couple of weeks ago, fitted into an alcove in one of the bedrooms.

 I made them out of Sapele with brass strips either side, so the height of the shelves can be adjusted to suit the books it's holding.

Painted up they work quite well in the room, although I think I'd have them fitted down to the floor if they were mine.

Handrail

I had to add some handrail above some stairs today.
A nice job to do but I had to notch the newel post into the stairs to make it strong enough. I know I've said it before but I always make sure the newel has a good fixing.

Mortise and tenon cut by hand

 The handrail was mortised and tenoned into the top for strength then the hole thing fixed into place as one. I then added the spindles and any beading it needed before sanding it up.

Spindles in



Newel notched into staircase

The finished article

A nice job for a Wednesday afternoon

Vanity Unit

Started to build a vanity unit this week.
A fairly simple design, I just building a desk type unit in an alcove (which I'll later add doors to) and a shelving unit above.
 

Routing the housings to hold the shelves

 For the shelving unit I housed in all the shelves using the little Bosch router. This was the only way of doing it as the unit had to be assembled in it final place, as things like architrave being in the way prevented me from lifting it in as one. Also housing the shelves in makes the unit much stronger than just being screwed.

There will be doors fitted on the bottom section

 This was all made out of sapele again. Still not my favourite wood in the world, but it's a strong hardwood and ideal if it's going to be painted like this is.

A solid set of shelves

Hanging A Large Oak Door

Yesterday I hung a 3'3" wide oak door delivered by the joiner.

 I think this is the widest single door I've hung. But there's a 3'5" one to do yet.

It's nice to work with some oak again as we seem to be using lots of sapele lately - which is not my favourite by any stretch of the imagination! I've got to glaze it yet and add the ironmongery but it's a smart looking door leading to the orangery, I hope the customer likes it.

An Old Wall Hidden

Not the most interesting post, but I always like to show what sometimes has to happen behind  a blank wall.

Pipework and rough uneven plaster work ment something had to be done about this wall

 The wall in this old house was out of level, the old plasterwork wouldn't provided a key to new plaster and there was pipework to box in.

The timber stud built around the pipework

I decided that the best course of action would be to stud the wall out. This would mean that the new wall would be level and it would also hide all the pipework and the new plasterboard would give the plasterer a much easier job to get a good finish.

All hidden!

Once all this stud work was installed it was time to plasterboard it so hopefully it's never seen again!

I've still quite a bit of work to do in this bathroom but it's only being done on the weekends so not as fast as some of my other jobs.

Lead Tools

I stumbled across this trio of tools the other day.
Lead beating tools I made back in 2005.

Homemade lead working tools

I made these so I could work on fitting lead roll mops to a flat roof on an old property we were working on in the Teme Valley.

Somehow buying these tools didn't enter my head. Instead I found some beech I had in my store and knocked them up in a night so they were ready for the next day. The bossing mallet was a little big (I only had a picture to go on) but it was still useful to "pull" the lead round corners, whereas the chasing chisel was great to get the lead tight into corners and edges - the ferule is a bit of 28m copper pipe to save the end from splitting.

I've Got 99 Problems...

And the van is one. In fact it's more than one. It's pretty much my only problem(s) at the moment.

Half a wing mirror anyone? Last seen going into orbit at around 7.30 in the morning?

Since coming back to work since Christmas it's broke down 4 times, with different problems. The gears, the alternator and the power.

The trouble is I'm not the only one with these problems. There are four of us at work with transits and we've all been going through the same things. What happens to one seems to happen to the others.

When some idiot knocked my wing mirror off on Thursday I joked it would happen to the others. Friday came and the one lad pulled up in his transit not smiling, he was also minus the glass from his drivers side mirror. If one of us crashes I'm staying at home!

 The only advantage has been that everything has been relatively easy to fix but it still costs time, money and a lot of hassle.

The old transit advert used to say transits were the backbone of Britain, if this were true I think we'd be paraplegic. Can't say I'm not a little disappointed with it's performance so far.

Death Of A Thousand Cuts

Well 2208 actually.

Glass going in

 I'm starting to fit the double glazed units, all 276 of them.

Each piece of glass needs 4 beads (that's 1104 in total) and each bead needs at least 2 cuts (assuming I get it right first time) making 2208 cuts. That means quite a bit of time spent at the saw with a very simple jig!

A simple jig

 I measured all the glass as well so if it's wrong it's on my head. There's 14 different sizes and so far everything fits perfectly.

A lot of beads cut ready

It is a little repetitive though, one set of windows needed two lots of 112 beads at the same size - not something you want to be cutting again! Anyone else done a repetitive jobs lately?

Axe WorkShop

I've just come back from a great weekend away camping up in a wood in staffordshire learning how to use axes. It was snowing when we got there but that only added to the fun!

We also made charcoal over the weekend and you can read about that here.

A very snowy tent

 

First lesson - learning not to embed the axe in your leg - an important lesson!



Splitting wood safely



Chopping down some small trees that needed to be removed



Learning to tie faggots using a woodmans clamp



Base camp for the weekend



Jonny showing a method of sharpening an axe



A extra safe and precise way of splitting wood - good for blanks for tent pegs



Some rough tent pegs



Dan making a mallet



Some spoon carving lessons



A rough shaped mallet

The group stood with our measured "cord" of wood

It was a great weekend, I learnt some new skills and practised old one. I also got to spend quality time with my brother doing what we both love.

This was our second axe course (find a link to our first one here) run by different firms and they were for completely different things so it would be unfair to compare the two. This one was from a bush craft point of view where the other was more to practise the traditional skills of the men that used to fell trees with axes for a living. 

This was our third course with Survival school and we weren't disappointed. It was nice to be outside and dedicate yourself to learning bush craft skills for the weekend with no other distractions. Going back to basics is great fun and although some of the things you can make straight off the axe are a little rough round the edges its a great skill to develop and learn and one I hope I'll be using more in the future (even if it's just to split fire wood) and I'll use the knowledge I've picked up to help me. The instructor were great making the whole weekend fun as well as some good company from the other students. I love weekends like this!