Mobile' # 61

Here is another steel mobile' with plastic inserts. The plastic is bits of auto tail lights collected at intersections I pass on my bike rides. It's a rather limited palette of colors to work with but there in lies a challenge. This one is about four feet high and painted a dark bronze color.

Three Band Saw Boxes

Here are three band saw boxes, all from the same piece of wood. These were made from the scrap box in my shop. Two pieces of Douglas Fir were glued together to create that book matched grain pattern seen on the end of the boxes. The largest box (5" x 3" x 2.5") was made first. The middle box (3.5" x 2.25" x 1.5") was made from the piece of wood that was cut out of the larger box, hollowing out the inside. That sequence was repeated for the smallest box (3" x 1.75" x 1"). The are no metal fasteners or other parts on these boxes. The hinges are wooden pins. The finish is boiled linseed oil.

A box with a different kind of hinge.

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This box is 1.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 inches. It is made from Redwood and Oak, with a Suede-Tex liner. The walls of this box are slightly thicker than 1/8 of an inch. I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with the hinge on this box. Instead of a hinge attached to the back of the box, the hinge is the back of the box. I used the box joint jig I made to cut 1/4 inch 'fingers', which I rounded over and bored for a metal hinge pin, which were covered when I glued the sides on. I have since added a false floor which divides the inside into upper and lower compartments.

Canisters from scrap wood

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I made these two canisters, on my lathe, from bits of scrap wood glued together; maple plywood, redwood, cedar and poplar and pear wood. The left one is 1.75 inches in diameter by 3.75 inches high. The one on the right is 4.5 inches high and almost 2 inches in diameter. The one on the right has a cap made from pear wood, on which I used a home-made texturing tool, a chatter tool. You can see the texture a little better on the image below. Next time I won't use this kind of plywood. It doesn't look very good in my opinion.

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Catulpa wood box

This 3.5 inch wide by 8.25 inch long by 2.75 inch high box is carved from a solid chunk of Catulpa wood. That's "carved" with power tools. It's only two pieces of wood. First I cut the lid off. Then I cut out the inside of the box with a router and chisels. The bottom "legs" were cut with a band saw. The lid was rounded off with a router. There are a lot of insect damage holes in this piece of wood but I was able to get this box done and looking half way decent. The finish is linseed oil and hand-rubbed wood wax. I started this box project many years ago but it got set aside in my work shop and then became buried in the clutter. I never really forgot about it. I was trying to think of a way to finish it, having gotten stuck at some point not knowing how to proceed  . . . until years later, when I had more and better tools and a lot more know-how. . . and then the light bulb came on . . . so to speak. And so I finally have it finished. This wood has a very interesting grain and can be very beautiful if cut correctly. It's a heavy and hard wood. I've carved things from it in the past and liked the results. I'm happy with this result as well.