Here are a couple of wooden “baskets” I made with the scroll saw yesterday and today. The heart one would have made a great valentine, if only I’d made it two weeks ago. Instead, both of these will probably end up being birthday presents for my daughter.
This is a woodturning tool called an “oland tool” which I made in my shop.
In essence it’s just a little piece of sharpened high-speed steel (HSS) stuck in the end of a metal bar, held in place with screws:
The HSS insert I bought four $4 at Harbor Freight Tools. The rod is 1/2″ cold-rolled steel that I bought at a hardware store and was left over from making my chicken plucker a couple of years ago. The ferrule is made from one of the brass nuts that was with a faucet was being thrown away. The handle is a piece of ash (I’m guessing) that I salvaged from a pallet. The wood wasn’t thick enough, so the handle is flat on both sides at the thickest part. You can still see one of the nail holes from the pallet.
I sometimes really enjoy the recursive nature of making woodworking tools in my woodworking shop. I fluctuate between spending time working in my shop and working on my shop. The first is working on things that are supposed to exit my shop. I did a lot of that during the months leading up to Christmas, so now I’m taking a break spending some time working on my shop.
But it’s not a complete break. Oland tools are mostly used for making bowls, which I’ve barely started playing around with. I’ll surely try out my new tool on a bowl here in the next few days.
Here’s an ultra-simple workbench that I made out of a solid-core door and dimensional lumber. Everything is just screwed together with deck screws. I was able to bang this out in an afternoon.
I pulled the door from a garbage pile. Apparently, it was a bathroom door in its former life:
Now all I need to do is organize my workshop enough so that I have a place to *put* it.
