Birthday Gifts

This time last year I was just starting to gear up for the crib.  I never made it.  Ian came a bit early, and now I have a bunch of 6/4 cherry, but that's a problem for the future.

This year I had some birthday requests.  As soon as my shop was setup I started making Ian a set of blocks.  I based them off of Unit Blocks available from different places.  The idea is that 1 unit is 1 3/8" x 2 3/4" x 5 1/2" (nominally 1x2x4).  The rest of the blocks are based on those dimensions.   There isn't much to building them, just cut them out, and plane or sand (I planed the faces and sanded the corners).  Any non-90 degree cuts were roughed at the band saw and then cleaned up with a plane.  I finished them with an walnut oil carnuba wax blend.  It gave them a fantastic feel and nice color.  It is safe for mouths, and easily repaired.  Ian is a bit young to be building with them, but he will gladly knock over any tower we make.

This fort didn't last long once Ian woke up.

The completion of blocks created another problem; Ian's toys had taken over multiple rooms.  To help remedy that I built a toy chest.  This was a pretty simple build; just dimensioned poplar and plywood glued and screwed together.  The finish is chalkboard paint and milk paint.  It was a quick, fun project, and a good way to test out the new shop space.  I did splurge on the Rockler torsion hinges, and they are well worth the investment.

Ian thought some of the screws could use a little help.

With his birthday out of the way I got back to organizing the basement and found one box of beer glasses that hadn't been unpacked.  Since we ran out of room in the kitchen I made some quick floating shelves out of some oak scraps I had laying around.  I sank some 3/8" rod into the studs, then marked the boards with those locations.  I had to use a slightly larger drill bit on the boards, but they fit snugly and aren't carrying that much weight.  During a test fit, they didn't look the way I wanted so I added a bevel on the edges.  I finished them with a quick pass of a smoothing plane and a coat of danish oil.

Nothing special but they work.

While none of these projects were very challenging, the items were needed and it was a good way to test the work space. The shop space works well, and is by far the nicest space I've had.  The only problem was the lighting in the hand tool area.   That was a quick but much needed fix.

The two new lights throw plenty of light on the work surface.