This is my piece of art, when replacing floorboards in the front bedroom, I took out a length of around 11 feet. Split, with tongue/groove ripped off in various places, covered in filth and cobwebs, and painted gloss black. However, the end section near the wall had hardly any damage which I cut out. Passed though my planing machine it came up like new wood, so I sanded it smooth and routed an edge on it.
I know its not much, but this was original floorboard from when the house was built (1931), and it feels good to see an original bit of the house given new life and purpose. And at least its not the usual MDF rubbish.
Ripper, that is mighty handy dandy craftsmanship. Hat/coat/ whateveryacallit racks are very useful. That one is a handsome one.
My husband, Cuddles, will not throw out good wood....even that size. He built a nice deck for us with a friend's deck cast offs. The wood our friend was dumping was better than his replacements. It took elbow grease and painting it was the needed route for them, but it surely looks nice. We have enjoyed having the new outside space that replaces what the storm tore up nearly two years ago.
He is not quite your level of craftmansip but what he does is nicely done and well planned. Now if he could rebuild us a car like Woodsy that would be perfecto.
Toodles, thank you for the compliments and I wish you and yours a happy 4th July. When I took on this house I made a decision that has served me well, that is, timber here is very expensive and even then most of the stuff in the DIY stores resembles a dog's hind leg. Therefore I decided to put my money into machinery instead. Just 3 basic machines - saw table, routing table and a planer/thicknesser enable me to collect old wood such as pallets and make my own stuff like doors/frames, architraves, floorboards and skirting. As an engineer I figured that if I'm capable of cutting steel to the nearest 1000/inch, I should be able to machine wood to the nearest millimetre. So I have applied the same skills that I have been trained for. Over the last 6 months alone, those machines have paid for themselves in money saved.
Even offcuts too small to use have their uses, they can be cut into small blocks and glued together to make boards or sheets (very expensive to buy in the DIY stores).
I'm now in survival mode, and the way energy prices are going means I will freeze this winter, so I'm having a wood burning stove installed next month. However, this is not the USA and I would probably be arrested if I took a chainsaw to woodland. But, I have plenty of offcuts, my son in law is the manager of a motorcycle dealer and he can supply me with pallets that the new bikes come on. Pallets, old scaffold boards, fence posts, newspapers, cardboard, even sawdust - its all burnable biomass. I can make logs by soaking then compressing 60% paper/cardboard to 40% sawdust.
Even hot water - I'm not sure about whether I will do it, but by wrapping a coil of copper tube around the wood stove's flue I could use that to heat water in an old copper tank. The possibilities are endless. Also, for home heating at very little cost, check out the Griggs cavitation heater. Cuddles may think he can't build you a new car, but people nowadays never examine their own capabilites or just assume. For me, Youtube and trades forums have been invaluable learning tools.
I think DIY is a state of mind. Everyone has the ability given enough interest and encouragement. For those of us who remember childhood just post WWII with shortages of materials, money and skilled labour DIY was essential unless you had oodles of money to employ tradesmen - we didn't. I was fortunate, my father was trained as a craft teacher and loved woodwork, so it was very much a DIY household. If something needed doing you found what materials were available and did the job. As age takes its toll I find I do less, jobs are harder, things are heavier, I'm more delicate and need to take more time and care but you don't stop the habits of a lifetime. The key for me is not to price your time, it doesn't matter how long it takes, just enjoy the process. I must admit I'm really jealous of Ripper's thicknesser, I used to have one but I'm too cluttered to add more tools to the workshop since I enjoy playing with classic cars as well and oil, grease, welding and spraying doesn't make for good relations with woodwork and sawdust. Anyhow back to adjusting this old sewing machine from a friend's attic.
For my part its like I was bitten by some bug. I've complained a lot about the amount of work needed here, it feels like an insurmountable task, but at the same time I'm relishing the challenges and enjoying learning new skills that I had no idea I possessed.
At the heart of it all lies a background much like your own, a post war childhood where money was scarce and 'make do and mend' was very much in vogue in our household. I grew up in my grandmother's house, a terraced property with no electricity, so as a child I saw how my parents managed day to day life, and also where my love of electronics came from. My mother hated waste of anything, especially food and my grandmother could whip a meal up from nothing. I favour repurposing to recycling, some of the ideas I have come across are pure genius. This, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JrqH2oOTK4
I've spent the last 45 years on the welding/fabricating end of engineering so I have my own small MIG plant. I used to do bodywork repairs but now I consider myself too old to crawl underneath cars every day, but the weld set is geared up to do stainless and aluminium in addition to mild steel. The sawdust and welding combination doesn't bother me because they don't take place in the same area - having a wooden workshop means all welding is done outside. I do plan a separate workshop when all this is finished but for now the weld set is used, but rarely. Might I add, that the same risks also apply with the combination of paint/thinners and body fillers and weld sets.
Very nice, I wish I had the patience, and the money to buy ash planks.
ReplyDeleteThis is my piece of art, when replacing floorboards in the front bedroom, I took out a length of around 11 feet. Split, with tongue/groove ripped off in various places, covered in filth and cobwebs, and painted gloss black. However, the end section near the wall had hardly any damage which I cut out. Passed though my planing machine it came up like new wood, so I sanded it smooth and routed an edge on it.
Deletehttp://www.creations.parga.com/20220613_163811.jpg
3 coats of light oak varnish, more sanding and some coat hooks that I had hanging around for years and its made a nice set of coat hooks for the hall.
http://www.creations.parga.com/20220620_235851.jpg
I know its not much, but this was original floorboard from when the house was built (1931), and it feels good to see an original bit of the house given new life and purpose. And at least its not the usual MDF rubbish.
Ripper, that is mighty handy dandy craftsmanship. Hat/coat/ whateveryacallit racks are very useful. That one is a handsome one.
DeleteMy husband, Cuddles, will not throw out good wood....even that size. He built a nice deck for us with a friend's deck cast offs. The wood our friend was dumping was better than his replacements. It took elbow grease and painting it was the needed route for them, but it surely looks nice. We have enjoyed having the new outside space that replaces what the storm tore up nearly two years ago.
He is not quite your level of craftmansip but what he does is nicely done and well planned. Now if he could rebuild us a car like Woodsy that would be perfecto.
Toodles, thank you for the compliments and I wish you and yours a happy 4th July. When I took on this house I made a decision that has served me well, that is, timber here is very expensive and even then most of the stuff in the DIY stores resembles a dog's hind leg. Therefore I decided to put my money into machinery instead. Just 3 basic machines - saw table, routing table and a planer/thicknesser enable me to collect old wood such as pallets and make my own stuff like doors/frames, architraves, floorboards and skirting. As an engineer I figured that if I'm capable of cutting steel to the nearest 1000/inch, I should be able to machine wood to the nearest millimetre. So I have applied the same skills that I have been trained for. Over the last 6 months alone, those machines have paid for themselves in money saved.
DeleteEven offcuts too small to use have their uses, they can be cut into small blocks and glued together to make boards or sheets (very expensive to buy in the DIY stores).
I'm now in survival mode, and the way energy prices are going means I will freeze this winter, so I'm having a wood burning stove installed next month. However, this is not the USA and I would probably be arrested if I took a chainsaw to woodland. But, I have plenty of offcuts, my son in law is the manager of a motorcycle dealer and he can supply me with pallets that the new bikes come on. Pallets, old scaffold boards, fence posts, newspapers, cardboard, even sawdust - its all burnable biomass. I can make logs by soaking then compressing 60% paper/cardboard to 40% sawdust.
Even hot water - I'm not sure about whether I will do it, but by wrapping a coil of copper tube around the wood stove's flue I could use that to heat water in an old copper tank. The possibilities are endless. Also, for home heating at very little cost, check out the Griggs cavitation heater. Cuddles may think he can't build you a new car, but people nowadays never examine their own capabilites or just assume. For me, Youtube and trades forums have been invaluable learning tools.
I think DIY is a state of mind. Everyone has the ability given enough interest and encouragement. For those of us who remember childhood just post WWII with shortages of materials, money and skilled labour DIY was essential unless you had oodles of money to employ tradesmen - we didn't. I was fortunate, my father was trained as a craft teacher and loved woodwork, so it was very much a DIY household. If something needed doing you found what materials were available and did the job. As age takes its toll I find I do less, jobs are harder, things are heavier, I'm more delicate and need to take more time and care but you don't stop the habits of a lifetime. The key for me is not to price your time, it doesn't matter how long it takes, just enjoy the process. I must admit I'm really jealous of Ripper's thicknesser, I used to have one but I'm too cluttered to add more tools to the workshop since I enjoy playing with classic cars as well and oil, grease, welding and spraying doesn't make for good relations with woodwork and sawdust. Anyhow back to adjusting this old sewing machine from a friend's attic.
ReplyDeleteFor my part its like I was bitten by some bug. I've complained a lot about the amount of work needed here, it feels like an insurmountable task, but at the same time I'm relishing the challenges and enjoying learning new skills that I had no idea I possessed.
DeleteAt the heart of it all lies a background much like your own, a post war childhood where money was scarce and 'make do and mend' was very much in vogue in our household. I grew up in my grandmother's house, a terraced property with no electricity, so as a child I saw how my parents managed day to day life, and also where my love of electronics came from. My mother hated waste of anything, especially food and my grandmother could whip a meal up from nothing. I favour repurposing to recycling, some of the ideas I have come across are pure genius. This, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JrqH2oOTK4
I've spent the last 45 years on the welding/fabricating end of engineering so I have my own small MIG plant. I used to do bodywork repairs but now I consider myself too old to crawl underneath cars every day, but the weld set is geared up to do stainless and aluminium in addition to mild steel. The sawdust and welding combination doesn't bother me because they don't take place in the same area - having a wooden workshop means all welding is done outside. I do plan a separate workshop when all this is finished but for now the weld set is used, but rarely. Might I add, that the same risks also apply with the combination of paint/thinners and body fillers and weld sets.
The Phantom was bitten by a bug too ... but in a different way.
Delete