Cub Scout Awards

For those who didn't know, I accepted the position of cubmaster for a local cub scout troop last fall.   I would like to believe that I have made a significant positive contribution.  In reality, I know I have .  It is an extremely busy volunteer position, and one of the things I have attempted to do is give the scouts a little more recognition for their accomplishments.   I recently made these very basic plaques for three of our outstanding scouts.   These three went above and beyond during our annual fundraiser and left the other 40 or so scouts in the dust.  I am proud to say that my son was one of the three (actually he was #1).  Our pack does things a little differently than many packs do.  Instead of popcorn sales our scouts sell pot pies and frozen dinners made by a local outlet.   The scouts were tasked with selling a minimum of 20 pot pies / meals.  The three scouts I made the plaques for sold near or well over 100 pies (Mackenson sold 183).  I believe that recognition is one of the biggest motivators there is for people and especially for these young people.   I'm giving these out at our annual Blue and Gold Banquet later in February.  Needless to say I'm proud of my scouts.

Woodturning Projects.

I purchased a small inexpensive wood lathe a few months back from Harbor Freight and started toying with it.  As it "turns" out wood turning is a quite enjoyable hobby.  I have spent hours on the lathe letting my creativity be my guide.  It is also relatively inexpensive.  So far I have made several canisters a few wooden toy tops, a bowl, a honey dipper, a spindle for a loom and a mug.  The best part is I have not paid for a single piece of wood.  All of the articles have been turned from tree branches and pieces of wood I have found along the side of the road or in brush piles.  All of my expenses have came from tools and the lathe.  I'll post a few pictures of what I have done so far as well as lessons learned.  I'm sure there will be more to follow.  Many of the pieces are not quite finished yet, and if you look close, you will see that the toy top on the left is split.  Nonetheless it is becoming a nice creative outlet and a hobby that I will continue.


Lessons:
#1  Wear eye protection and preferably full face protection:  I always follow this rule when wood-working but it is especially important when you are cutting into a piece of wood turning at up to 2400 RPMs.  Wood tends to splinter and sometimes doesn't appreciate staying on the lathe while you are gouging into it.  I have had entire projects come flying off of the lathe at high rates of speed not to mention splinters of wood.  After many hours I still have not seriously injured myself and will strive to keep it that way.

#2  Keep your tools sharp:  This is challenging for me as I have not quite mastered sharpening lathe tools on my bench grinder.  I just bought a finer stone and hope that works.

#3  Not all wood is created equal, especially green wood:  I have had wood from what I think is a hackberry be quite wet and heavy as well as quite difficult to cut into.  I have had wood that will develop cracks all the way through overnight completely ruining my hard work. I have had wood that the experts on-line say will crack and split, but seems to have completely dried out without doing so.

#4  There is a lot of sawdust:  This itself is not a problem.  The problem is that I tend to be completely covered in sawdust when I am at the lathe.  There is some minor discussion between the adults in the house when sawdust finds its way into the kitchen, living room or bed....
  

Grandma's Furniture part 2

During sanding pahse

If you read the first post about the furniture I inherited you knew that I had stripped, sanded, re-stained, and refinished a moderate sized dresser that I had inherited from my late grandmother. (see Grandma's Furniture)  It was part of a bedroom set that also included a full size bed as well as the following piece.

Door and Drawers after sanding

The second part of that bedroom set was finally completed last week and it also turned out quite well.  It is a smaller dresser of which I was repeatedly informed of its proper name - a "commode".  I was quite confused to this terminology, as I had always thought of a "commode" as a fancy french word for toilet.  It turns out it is a little of both.  According to definition a commode is a piece of 18th-19th century bedroom furniture where the chamber pot was kept. (see wikipedia reference)  Evidently out of sight out of mind and as long as one had some rosemary to cover the smell....no harm no foul.  However, we will probably not use it as a "commode" since we have a full bath adjoining the bedroom.  So from this point on it will be officially known as a small dresser.  At any rate, it is a very nice family heirloom as well as a once again beautiful piece of oak furniture.  Thanks grandma.

The finished "commode" now proudly sits in our bedroom.

Grandma's Furniture

Hello once again.  It has been a while since the Eggers were active on the blog.  We had a very busy summer and school has started once again.  Our latest project is restoring some wonderful oak furniture passed on to us by our late grandmother who had reportedly received it from her aunt.  If my math is correct that means these pieces have been in the family for 5 generations and our kids would be the 6th (assuming we pass it to them).  The pieces (a complete bedroom set) include a dresser, a smaller dresser / nightstand and a bed-frame with headboard and foot board.  I spent the 4 day Labor Day weekend driving from Pennsylvania to Minnesota to pick up a U-haul trailer and load these forgotten treasures and then drive back.  All of it was in fair to poor shape upon receipt....but with some elbow grease and determination it is slowly being restored to look nearly new.  So far we have completed the large dresser.  The process was as follows:

This is the start.  Notice the scuffs 

and the peeling varnish

1.  Remove all of the old hardware.
2.  Remove decorative beading to refinish separately.
3.  Strip off all of the old varnish with chemical stripper.
4.  Sanding -lots of sanding - to remove all of the scuffs and old stain
5.  More sanding.
6.  Still more sanding.
7.  Did I mention that we had to sand.
8.  Re-staining  with a light cherry.
9.  Two coats of shellac varnish.
10.  Replace the hardware with new.

All sanded and ready to stain

peeling varnish and water marks

Center drawer stained...notice the contrast

This piece is going in Marie's room at least initially.  She seems very pleased so far.

I think the results are nice.  As you can see from the pictures it looks nearly brand new and is well worth the effort.  A family heirloom that will hopefully last for 6 more generations.





The next piece will be the smaller dresser / nightstand followed by the bed so stay tuned and keep reading.  Also on the agenda are 4 wooden chairs to refinish also acquired from my late grandmother.

The Lastest Creation by Woodworker Joe

Joe built a book shelf for Marie.

She was very happy to have something built just for her by her Papa. The shelf is by her bed and holds her books, magazines and glasses case.

She loves to pick a story from the books on her shelf at bedtime.

The Table is Done

Joe has the table re-finished and yesterday we moved it into the house. He spent a lot of time in the garage sanding, disassembling, staining, sealing and reassembling. Joe used a cherry stain and several coats of clear poly finish. It was definitely time well spent because the table looks amazing. He left the leaf undone so we could see the difference in the old versus the new (the last photo). Next up is the re-finishing of the leaves.

Joe refinishes the table

Thanks to some good friends we obtained a very nice, very large dining room table and six matching chairs for free (thanks Danny and Kate!). It is a solid wood German table that has some water stains and loose legs. Refinishing our table has been at the top of Joe's list of projects for some time now. With our move into a house with a two car garage, he has a great place to work on all these things in his man-cave. So far he has the table top and sides sanded clean of varnish. He just removed the legs and will be working on those next. Joe wants to stain the table a dark color and top it with a shine polyurethane finish. He hasn't picked out a stain yet; we will be visiting the hardware store soon for that.