Mobile' #59

I made this mobile' rather quickly one Saturday afternoon. I had no plan, only a vague idea, when I started on this. I just made it up as I went. I knew only that it would be not too large and would have three arms with auto plastic "lights". It is welded all steel construction, except for the red inserts at the end of the "arms". This piece is 14 inches high. The legs are steel nails, the cylindrical shape is a solenoid case from a starter motor. Above that, more nails and a screwdriver blade ground to a rounded point. Spinning on that point is a domed disk made from the bottom of a spray paint can. Welded to that are coat hanger wires with big steel washers at the ends. Filling the washers is bits of auto tail light plastic.
I've been making these steel mobile's which incorporate colored plastic or glass in them. I've always liked the idea the these mobile's are "powered" by wind and gravity; natures free energy. And now I'm able to give them "lights", using free sun light to power them. I would point out also that almost all of these mobile's were made from materials I got for free from the trash or literally lying on the side of the road.

Box of the week: Two Oak Boxes

Here are a couple more boxes made from bits of scrap wood in my shop. From time to time I pick out some wood from the scrap bin to make something useful out of it. A lot of the wood I use if from somebody else's scrap bin. I hate to see good wood, even a little bit of it go to waste.

A lot of times my scrap bin projects are tests of ideas I have, or testing a new jig I made. In this case I was trying out a new box joint jig I made. This new jig uses a threaded rod and a crank to move the wood and to make the spacing for the box joint (some call it a finger joint).
So, a little bit of nice hardwood and my new jig and no metal hardware results in a couple of nice little boxes. Both are made completely of (White?) Oak. The box above is about 4x6x1.75 inches, with a beveled lid, and stained walnut color. The box below is roughly 5x5x2 inches, with rounded corners and stained "cherry bark". Both are then finished off with woodworkers wax.

Another scrap box challenge: box

Here's another box made from bits of wood from my scrap box. The main body of this  4.5 X 6 inch box is made from a piece of Poplar trim molding. I made a raised base from pine. The lid is made with 

Teak (the angled part) the flat top is MDF and the knob is Rosewood. I used a stain to make all the wood the same color. No metal parts are used to make this box. 

More boxes

Here are a couple more boxes made recently. This first one is made from a cedar fence board (sides and bottom) and mahogany (top). It has 1/8 inch finger joint corners, made with my new home made finger joint jig. This one has brass hinges and an invisible magnetic latch to hold it closed. The box measures 13 inches by 6.5 inches, and 3.5 tall.

This box is from my "scrap box challenge" project. I decided to see if I could make something interesting from the dregs of my scrap box. Choosing the worst looking bits of wood in the scrap box wasn't quite enough. I picked up some sticks from my backyard as well. The box measures 5 inches square by about 7 inches high. The "knob" on top is a bit of a Eucalyptus branch. The legs are silver maple branch sections, with the bark on. The lid is part of a cedar fence board, left rough, and the sides are spruce construction lumber scraps with 1/4 inch finger joints. The bottom is just a piece of MDF. It's a lift-off lid. Inside box depth is 3 inches. The box is left rough and unfinished. No metal hardware of fasteners were used on this box.

A new box, with corner splines

Here's another wooden box. This one is made with maple faced plywood, a mahogany top, splines and feet. On this box I used a corner spline jig I made. The splines are a two-toned spline-within-a-spline with contrasting wood colors, mahogany and spruce. The box is 6.5" X 12", with brass hinges and an invisible magnetic catch on the front.

Mobile' #58

This is a refurbished/rebuilt version of Mobile' #4. I replaced one half of this mobile', which was a bunch of blue discs, with one big yellow disc. I was never crazy about the blue half of this thing anyway. I like this much better now. I gave the whole thing a fresh coat of paint. The links between the arms are fishing swivels, so that each arm can swing all the way around without affecting the arms it is connected to.
See this mobile' and the other 57 on my art web site at: Tesserak.net

Mobile' #57

I finished this new mobile' a few days ago. This is number 57 in the series. This is all steel construction except for the colored plastic inserts in the rings. Those are pieces of auto plastic from tail lights found at accident sites. The stand is made from three really big nails (10 inches), part of a car transmission and a piece of rebar. It's all painted with a textured black paint. I built this in about six hours over two days. I really like the way this came out; almost exactly like the sketch I made ahead of time.
See this mobile' and the other 56 on my web site: tesserak.net.