Bed, Bridge Model and more.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we will be hosting guests. That means the we are one bed short in the house so we have ordered a new mattress but not a bed to go with it... I am building the bed, no big deal right? Just a front and back panel connected by rails that disconnect when transporting the bed. Well it hasn't been that simple. What materials will I make it out of? What will it look like? How big is a queen mattress? Oh yes, and the house would be more comfortable with a heat source. Right now it is space heaters in the bedrooms and an electric warm floor in the bathroom. Sometimes I feel like this blog is a way to get my thoughts organized and my priorities straight.

Brainstorm with my wife.

I have piles of redwood fence posts that rotted at the ground level. They are too short now for posts but they still have good wood in them. I picked through a couple piles and pulled out six or seven to choose from. I  chose the five best and figured these could work as posts for the bed. I have a couple boards left over from building the windows and jambs for the yellow Gothic farmhouse and what do you know... there is just barely enough wood to give me two side rails about 80 inches long and four top and bottom rails about 60 inches long. Looks like I have the material. The panels within the posts and rails will be a padded and tufted fabric cushion.

Redwood Fence Posts

I have cut the pieces to length and even cut tenons on the front and back rails. I am a bit hesitant because I don't really have a final plan that I am building to, I am just letting the wood guide me. It should start to take shape soon.

Wood stove wire brushed and painted.

Meanwhile I wrapped up a few more projects and jumped into another with the high school geometry class. The shingle project is now complete and my clients shop is fully sided. We almost got fancy and did some shingle art, but you know, time is money and sometimes it is hard to create the time. Also the bulletin board for the MVCC is finished and installed.

Bulletin Board

A project that I am doing with the geometry class is creating a scaled model of a 50 foot suspension bridge. The class came by at looked at the site for a bridge and we talked about bridge ideas, construction methods and also a bit on the catenary curve. I have in turn visited the classroom a couple of times and together we have been constructing a miniature bridge. It was fun creating the parts and cutting small pieces of wood that represent footings, piers, posts, beams, joists and planks. At one inch equals one foot a four by four is equal to a five sixteenths by five sixteenths. An eight by eight is just under three quarters by three quarters. I made all the pieced fit together with tenons and mortises so that it could easily be broken down. We have one more session to finish the model.

Suspension Bridge Model 

Its a wrap, carousel, doors soon.

Autumn has definitely set in and the rains have ceased for the time being. The ground and all that grows above it are almost always wet and the night temperatures are dipping into the low forties and daytime highs in the mid sixties.

It feels good to be wrapping up projects and moving on to new ones. The window sash repair went smoothly and now are installed back to their home. These double hung windows have a severe flaw. Instead of weights and pulleys, the sashes are connected on one side to a cable that is connected to a spring mechanisms inside the jamb. The flaw is the connection of cable to sash. On all sashes the wood had rotted severely at this connection point on the bottom of the left stile.

Repaired Sashes

The lazy Susan turned out flat and parallel, the router sled jig worked great. My only complaint is that I did it on the floor on my knees because I didn't have a large enough flat surface at bench height. My knees and feet hurt after being in the same position for too long. One thing that helped with comfort was pushing the router shavings into a pile under my knees. It turns out that the big selling point (besides the amazing patterns of the maple burl) with this choice of wood was that this particular tree was the same tree the clients son sat and played under (and in) while waiting for the bus as a child. This will be a gift for the aforementioned child who is now in his forties.

Maple Burl

One of my clients brought back a wooden carousel for (I think) the third time for repairs. This two level carousel has a crank that one turns that spins two discs. The larger and lower disc contains wooden figures riding wooden horses. The top smaller disc contains three musicians sitting on stools playing instruments. This particular client has always pushed me beyond what I thought I was capable of. My first commissioned kitchen was for her and I have done many more projects for her home in Big Lagoon, a door is on the list.

Wooden Carousel

I have four doors to build now. They are actually two sets of French doors. One set is for the Cockburn estate to replace two funky old doors that are rotting away and falling apart. The other two are for the Yellow Gothic Farmhouse. These will be two feet by eight feet, unusual proportions, they should look unique. They will divide the kitchen from the music room. Speaking of which I need to get down there and shellac the floor.

Doors to replace and awning to build.