Our annual market date was set months ago for 18 November. So, I will start early doing some scrolling to sell, cover my cost and generate some income for our Social Club.
Last year there just was not time as I was flat out building hives. (not much different this year)
I first had to find where I stored all the patterns and templates. Then look at what scraps were available.
Lots of pine offcuts from the hives and some mahogany from years ago.
The patterns were then laid out on the scraps and nested to get the most patterns out with very little waste. I use a template to draw the shape on the wood.
Mahogany needs a darker pencil.
- Laying out and nesting the templates
- (38.35 KiB)
Then start cutting.
- Getting Started
- (35.88 KiB)
Decided to not saw out some of the holes but use the Forstners.
Sizes, depending on object, 26mm, 22mm, 30mm
Unfortunately the Forstner decided to go walk-about on the squirrel, 30mm.
- Forstner walk about damage
- (39 KiB)
I have managed to scrape (Stanley blade) and sand out most of the damage.
Having not sawn a lot of these patterns for a long time, I forgot some my guidelines (I also cannot find them – the cupboard in the garage needs a bloody clean out)
My guidelines as remembered, far too late:
#1 Drill all the holes for the eyes, ears, mouths etc before cutting out the pattern, also the forstner drilling.
That way you have a sizeable piece of wood to hold. The forstner grabbing the small piece also damages fingers removing skin!
Only a few were cut & drilled before cutting out the pattern. DID NOT DO ALL OF THEM!
#2 Avoid the patterns that have small eye and ear cut outs, they are internal cuts and require the blade to be inserted from the bottom into the cut-out hole.
This means loosening the top blade holder and then trying to fit the blade back in. It is such a schlep when the cut is less than 10mm.
See the mouse, owl, dog ears.
FORGOT ABOUT THIS LOT!
#3 If the large hole cannot be drilled, then do the hole cutting first. See the small dolphin on the right and near the back. FORGOT!
4# Mahogany – start with a new blade. Be careful of the sharp turns as the blade tends to bind in the wood with the piece jumping up and down bashing your knuckles. FORGOT
5# The pine needs to be sealed to avoid chip outs at the bottom. NOT DONE!
For all the external pattern cutting as well as a few internal cuts I used the Heger Polycut with a #12 blade.
I tried the finer cuts with a #3 blade on the Polycut which was not successful. So I uncovered the small Multicut, got rid of all the dust, spiders and cobwebs and did all the #3 blade cutting.
Only destroyed 3 blades, 1 #3 and 2 #12.
The 1 #12 was doing the Mahogany.
I will need to order more blades.
State of play yesterday afternoon, all 42 cut. The squirrel is still in recovery ward!
- All of the 42 cut and sanded
- (44.72 KiB)
There is still a lot of fine sanding to do before any finish can be applied.
The back of the item where all the cut-fluff is was sanded on the Makita third-sheet sander.
I made a cradle for it which then just clamps into the vice. Works very well. Made a similar one for the belt sander.
- Makita sander in the vice
- (36.42 KiB)
The big question – will they be completed by coming Friday?.
No!
Run out of time, last ones cut yesterday.
But I have a start on the Xmas cuttings to give away.
All the pine will be painted by hand and the mahogany gets a poly sealer.
Disclaimer – no machines, timber or other tools were damaged in the process above.
There were a number of sore knuckles, not much blood.
The air was blue a couple of times. I did not see the wife come into the garage behind me, so she clearly learnt some new anatomy terms.
Thank you for reading.
Phil
From a very hot Pretoria. A high of 33c with late afternoon thunder showers. Tuesday we drop to 22c (YES!
), looks a cold front from the SouthLast Monday we had 40mm. It was needed as the grass is just dying.
The flower beds get some water and also get all the smaller offcuts from the sawing as well as the table saw rough dust, and the crushed egg shells.
We are still under water restrictions and can only water by hand between 6pm and 6am.
