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Who's doing what?


Chris Head

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Yes, I am going to carve a 6 metre high watch tower from a single trunk with an entrance at the bottom and spiral steps leading up to a circular room at the top.  This room will contain 3 window openings (I never look North) and an insitu armchair and will be under a cone shaped roof.  The exterior will have ivory type carvings and the front door will be hinged into place and painted daffodil yellow.

Is it a feasible project?

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Well, Chris, you might be pleased with me! I have become a neanderthal woodworker...

A couple of weeks ago I had a thought - if I want workshops in England and France, that will be expensive (LOML had just told me to go and buy a thicknesser-planer but I baulked). What if I learned to use handtools and made up a big toolbox I can take to and from France with me? No problems with stuff getting nicked when I'm not there, no need for a seperate electricity supply and so on. And dirt cheap (comparatively). And I'd be much 'closer' to my work and materials, not just knocking them into shape with a powertool.

So I've been haunting eBay and tool shops, and I am now up 5 Stanley planes (#3 & #4 smoothers , #5 jack, #9 1/2 block, #71 router) - I'm still looking for a scrub plane. I've got hold of handsaws, chisels, marking knives and so on. I've been practising as much as some pretty ropey health at the moment allows, just working on mortice and tenon and bridle joints at the moment, sharpening blades, reorganising my shed/workshop for a different kind of working.

It's great - you can listen to music whilst you work! Much less nasty dust, more shavings!

Paradoxically my next 'other' task will be to sort out my bandsaw, get hold of some good timber (I was gobsmacked at being asked £50 for a 10' x 6" x 1" PAR length of poplar) at a price I'm prepared to pay.

I may be retired on the grounds of health soon, so a time-consuming hobby will become even more imperative - apart from working on the guitar (qv).

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I found a use for Leylandi !!!

2 things came together.  I felled a couple of monsters more than a year ago and I wanted rear speaker stands for my surround sound, soooo, cut the top metre off the trees, make up a base and something to sit the speaker on and there you are!  The top and bottom are routed to a depth of 1 cm to take the trunk then glued to the top and in the bottom, a coach screw holds it together.  Not varnished or anything, I keep sanding but not quite satisfied with the finish yet, I'll probably end up with toothpicks! anyway, here is one of them.

[IMG]http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/users/43cfdbc6z4482b4f8/7addre2/__sr_/2b2fre2.jpg?phA9ESGBAu2WCvGB[/IMG]

[IMG]http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/users/43cfdbc6z4482b4f8/7addre2/__sr_/b17dre2.jpg?phoMFSGB8iDzQ245[/IMG]

 

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Hmmm.. worked for me, OK let's try again.  And I've just noticed that they look wonky in the pics - they're not really, they're perfectly vertical - honest

[IMG]http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb233/Pierrezfp/PICT0429.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb233/Pierrezfp/PICT0427.jpg[/IMG]

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Bummer about the health Dick. We know people with terminal illness who I’m convinced wouldn’t be alive today were it not for the mental approach they have toward their illness. Learning to live with a poor state of health and mentally moving forward all the time has proven results. Music helps a lot, beer helps even more, Bolly is a serious cure all!

That’s quite an impressive wee collection going on there, I hope you spent out on the Tormek? If you can get the P/T it’ll pay for itself fairly quickly if you’re going to be working consistently. How about getting some products together and developing yourself a market for your work? Income and occupation in one fell swoop!

They’re ‘avin a larf with those timber prices aren’t they? Sarah might have won her meandering route up north in July, if so I’ll sort some timber out for you…but don’t hold your breath.

Like it JK! Is it feasible? Do you think the great adventurers, explorers and warriors of the past paid too much attention to whether or not their epic achievements were feasible? People failed, succeeded, lived and died in the pursuit of what you’ve described above! Is it feasible? OF COURSE IT BRUDDY WELL IS!….Just take off all the wood that shouldn’t be there and you’ll be left with all the wood that should be there! Sorted.  Don’t even think of trying to bribe me...and still waiting for those mirror piccies, what is that...a year now?

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[quote user="Just Katie "]

Yes, I am going to carve a 6 metre high watch tower from a single trunk with an entrance at the bottom and spiral steps leading up to a circular room at the top.  This room will contain 3 window openings (I never look North) and an insitu armchair and will be under a cone shaped roof.  The exterior will have ivory type carvings and the front door will be hinged into place and painted daffodil yellow.

Is it a feasible project?

[/quote]

When it's finished. JK, you should take it to Strasbourg, park it and become an MEP.

That's because it will be called an Ivory Tower.............[Www]

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