A Home Made Downdraft Table

After the suggestion from the sales guy to build a down draft table, Tom wanted me to do so before I sanded again. Using pine 1x6’s I had on hand, I built a 24”x36” frame with a 1x3 lip inside. On top of the lip would sit the sheet of peg board, so it would be removable to clean out the inside.

On one of the long side, I cut out a round hole and inserted a port to attach the dust collector to. I think the purple duct tape adds a little class to the whole project.

On first use, the amount of suction was not as much as expected. I added a band of duct tape to close off some of the holes around the edges which helped a lot. It still needs a bottom added but I need to acquire a larger sheet of plywood to do so.

And now we know: when building a downdraft table there is a balance of size to number of holes to suction. I’m not sure exactly how you determine the ideal ratio and don’t think I’ve achieved it yet.

Dust be Gone

Well I caved and we got a dust collection machine. Some early Christmas money came my way and instead of the router table I’ve been pining for, we went for the dust collector. It was really unpleasant working last weekend and this was something Tom had really been pushing for. A happy husband = a wife free to spend quality time in her shop!

We went to the store with the intention of purchasing a dust collection machine, which attaches to tools and sucks up large stuff, and an air cleaning machine, to filter the small stuff out of the air. After a long chat with the sales guy, he convinced us only the collector was required and if it wasn’t enough, a canister/filter thing could be purchased for the top at a later date that would help even more with the small stuff. This was great for the budget; the estimated cost of $700 was down to $250!

So the dust collector and 10 feet of hose came home with us. After putting it together (harder than it had to be as the instruction were crappy) we had fun testing it around the workshop. It is on wheels so will be easy to hook up to any of the machines and is surprisingly quiet.

With a few hours left before dinner I worked on my chairs some more. Using my new pocket hole jig I drilled holes on all the frame pieces except the arms. The pocket holes would be visible if I used them on the arms so I will be trying dowel joints for those. Using a new jigsaw blade I finished the cuts in the corners of the back rails and I even got some assembling done. The 2 sides and the front are now attached for both chairs.

And now we know: the sales guy gave us the greatest recommendation; built a downdraft table for sanding. It’s a box with pegboard for the top and you attach a port on one side to connect your dust collector to. When you sand overtop, the dust falls into the box and is sucked up by the collector. What an amazing idea, I am building one asap!

A Second Gallery Wall In the Dining Room & Adjustments to the Chair Prototype

The side of the dining room with the Monet print always felt unbalanced to me. The other side has lots of photos all in black frames and the print couldn’t compete. I shifted it into the front room leaving a big black wall

As we have traveled a lot and I like the pictures to be displayed so we can remember the good times, another gallery wall was in order. More black frames were collected, more photos were printed and I finally got around to hanging them. I like how the black balances out all the black on the other side.

Additionally some modifications to my chair prototype were in order, first and foremost some bars on the seat so we could actually sit in it to test it out. Here it is with sample cushions on it. The one for the seat will be the final dimensions (thickness and width) but the one for the back is just temporary, obviously it is too small and thin.

And now we know: the angle of the chair is good but it is too wide and the back needs to be higher. Having wooden bars as the seat and back is not comfortable; there is no give even with the cushion on top. I’m going to look into making a seat using webbing.

Painting the Stair Risers and the Trim

Lots of taping and brushing was involved but these stairs are finally looking good. I went with simple white on the risers and trim to really make the wood pop.

Although the stairwell and upstairs hall still need painting, I did get the baseboards painted. Unfortunately this just makes it more evident that the doors, door trim and railings need a paint job!

And now we know: this is a clear example of how projects can cascade, you do one thing and notice another, and another, and another…

Installing Kitchen Blinds

The blinds are done and the cat was very helpful in the install process. She not only chased the cords and tried to eat them every time they moved, but she actually stole one out of the blind and took it to another part of the house to play with. It was not fun working with cords wet from Kitteh saliva!

After I installed the piece of wood in each window, I held the blind up and marked the height. I removed the wood and stapled the fabric over the top, then screwed the wood back in place.

The hardest part was finding the little piece of hardware that you tie the cord to when they are raised. I now know that it is called a wall cleat and is located in the blind section of the hardware store.

And now we know: although this time was complicated, I think any future roman shades I make will be much easier.

The First Step for Chairs

I spent Sunday in my workshop…not alone for once. My friend came over to use my tools, she is making a set of wooden blocks in a box for her nephews first birthday.

My project was the chairs, I got my plans out and began cutting. All the cuts are straight or angles on the mitre saw, but the back rails were the tricky part. For strength I designed them as one piece with a straight section for the back then turned 150 degrees to form the back leg. To save money, I was planning to get 4 pieces out of a 2x8x8 board. This proved hard to do; the pieces would have to overlap and could not just be run through the table saw. My friend suggested we stand on either side of the table saw and slowly lower the board down, allowing us to cut in the centre without going in from an end. It worked great and I was able to rough cut all the pieces, and then do a more precise cut once all 4 were separated.

Unfortunately 2 people with saws and sander going for 6 hours creates a lot of dust. We both spent the day with our noses running and I ended up with sinus pain for the evening. The next morning I got a nosebleed. I’m finally convinced that we do need a dust collection machine as my husband has been saying for the past few months.

And now we know: having someone working in the shop with me is fun but takes coordination of how many things are plugged in/turned on on each electrical circuit. Also black wood makes the nastiest sanding dust and gets on everything.

Painting the Front Room

I painted the front living room before we moved into the house and it has never been quite right. The shade of blue and the curtains were just slightly off and it bothered me to no end.

For the past month I’ve had paint swatches up on the wall, I started with blues and went through the whole spectrum from grey-blues to turquoises. I could never find the perfect shade that would go with everything and still be something I loved. Finally I went for what a really wanted; purple!

Unfortunately my husband was no so happy with this new direction; he flat out vetoed the dark red-purples and was very unhappy I was painting at all. He loves blue, never mind that almost every room in our house is blue as it is the 1 colour he agrees to easily. Still I went ahead and chose a grey mid tone purple.

My mum came to help me paint for the day and a few hours later the room was transformed. I am very happy with the new colour, it seems less matchy-matchy and more interesting to me. Tom just grunted ‘my living room is purple’ when he saw it. This really should have been a project done while he was away for the weekend.

I also tackled another eyesore, the upstairs hallway. The patching and spot priming had been done for a while but I was not looking forward to painting all those hard to reach spots. Turns out that paint and primer stuff was sh#t. It took and entire can to do 1 coat and it is super streaky. For the second coat I am switching back to the cheaper, yet less craptastic stuff. Another $30 bites the dust. On the positive going from cream to white has made it much brighter. On the negative the trim now looks even worse.

And now we know: I don’t actually know what is the point of paint and primer in one if you still have to do 2 coats and you wouldn’t have primed anyways? Same amount of work more cost.

Visit to the Wood Store

Off to one of my favourite places; the wood store. Too bad its hours are terrible, but anyways. I got up early Saturday and headed out with a friend. I was looking for wood for the pair of chairs I want to build, maybe oak cause it is hard with lots of grain but is cheaper than other species like maple. My friend was looking for a variety of woods in small quantities to make a block set with.

This was a very lucky trip for me, I wanted to spend as little as possible and it ended up being about $150 for all the wood I needed. We both started in the leftover cuts section, where the pieces are not full length, mostly 24” to 48” sections of all sizes and species. There was not enough 2x2’s in white oak, so I went with red oak and got all the pieces I needed except for the 2x8x8 to cut the back rails from. This I got from their stock and it was almost half of the total cost. Not only did we save a ton of money with the small pieces, but we could close the truck on our way home.

I finished 4 of the 5 items on my to-do list before I bought the wood. Seems pretty good to me and the last thing, which was to fix the latch on the bedrooms door, is not urgent anyway.

And now we know: it takes some time and pre-planning to sort through the cut pieces to get what you need but the amount you save is amazing.

Blinds for the Kitchen

At night time and in the morning before the sun rises you feel really exposed in our kitchen. There’s nothing like standing at the counter making breakfast in your pjs with crazy hair when your neighbour comes out to empty his compost into the bin.

Roman shades are nice, so I decided to sew some. Unfortunately I dislike following a pattern, so quickly veered off on my own path with mixed results.

I didn’t want horizontal stitching to show on the front of the blind as it would have detracted from the graphic pattern. After watching a tutorial on youtube, I was amazed by the power of jewel glue and glued the wood battens to the fabric instead of sewing them. It worked well and no glue seeped through the fabric. The ribbon with little rings got attached to the lining and I turned the whole thing inside out.

Somewhere around this time the cat tried to help and broke one of the wooden battens glued to the blind. More glue to the rescue and you couldn’t even tell. Luckily I then tested them and realised that because only the front fabric and not the lining was attached to the batons, the lining ballooned out when the front folded nicely. It is hard to describe but basically it looked really bad. More of the magical glue to the rescue; I glued the baton to the lining as well and was good to go.

Now they are sitting in the dining room, waiting to be hung. Why are they waiting? Well to be installed they need strips of wood at the top which I still need to cut and paint white to match the trim.

And now we know: there are some really rad sewing videos from the eighties on youtube; mauve and floral wallpaper everywhere!