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Wood working does not always mean building furniture or picture frames. There are all sorts of things you can make with wood. Some can be fun to try, others because they are simply fun to have. Here are some examples. |
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| This nativity scene was made with seven different kinds of wood. It is also is a bit of a puzzle to assemble. Each piece is fitted with some kind of joint - no glue, no nails- just dovetails and sliding grooves. For example, the walls are attached to the base with sliding dovetails and the star is held to the back wall with a tapered joint. The roof planks are pinned to the walls with 1/8 inch wooden dowels. |  |
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There are times when I want to improve on a design and try a different approach. This bud vase was shown as a project in the November 2009 issue of Wood magazine. It called for gluing up three pieces of 3/4 inch thick wood. Then a 1.5 inch diameter hole was to be drilled along the full length. That was to hold a glass vase of that diameter. That was too much drilling for me, so I decided to make the 'box' out of four pieces band sawed to about .30 inch thickness. These were mitered and reinforced with some corner pieces. Also, instead of cutting the 'box' into two pieces along the curved shape, I decided to go only part way as shown. This made a much stiffer part. Later I decided to make a couple more with this curved section on all four sides. Better, but still not the best. I found a square glass vase and that is what I finally wanted. |
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There are several items in our garage that I never finished simply because I lost interest or did not have the right tools to complete. Below are a couple examples. |
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This one I call "Inutile". It is a concoction of pulleys, unusual gears
and things that don't do anything except go around, up and down and sideways.
Just crank the wooden handle and watch it perform. For example, the clown face drives an intermittent motion "gear".
There are cam followers, linkages, an "oil pump", a spring loaded idler
for the chain, etc. The whole thing
is 100% wood, no nails, no screws, just wooden pegs, including the chain that drives it all. I used four or five different kinds of wood, including some exotics. Someday I might get back to it, but it will never be finished. |
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Let's have a closer look. I took the back panel off which is easy because of all the dowel pin joints. It is hard to see, but inside is a triangular 'gear' that moves a shuttle back and forth three times for every two revolutions. Notice the linkages that makes the pump work and the leaf spring for the chain idler. The flywheel has no purpose yet. Oh, 'inutile' is French for 'useless'. |
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Another example of unfinished projects is this display cabinet. I tried to incorporate some unique joints such as the curved miter joints for the door. It also has curved walls at the bottom and dovetail joints for the top piece. I gave up because the wood was too thick for a 'delicate' wall hanging display case. There it is, just pieces sitting on a shelve. |
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Then there are wooden toys. Being a grandfather means doing something for the kids. There are many pieces that came out of my shop, but I only have pictures of a few. The centipede with eight wheels and three swivel joints was one of my favorites.
It is about fourteen inches long. There also were wagons, a wooden train set, and the rocking horse shown below. A bit unusual is the rocking rowboat. |
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