Sewing Box Renovation...

It's been a while since I've written a post on here, the last few have been cross posted from my Youtube channel, so I thought I'd do things the other way round maybe.

I have over the years repaired many things, and this sewing box that I recently acquired was in need of some attention.

Sewing box (cat for scale) - 

The box was made around 1930 / 1940 and it's made from Oak, and has it's original Bakelite casters, a nice thing, it was lined with a silk like material, however over the years it had become badly stained and I think maybe moths had been at it as well, the wood work also needed some tlc, nothing drastic just joints re-gluing and the finish was very patchy.

So as with most jobs like this it has to get worse before it gets better, time to take stuff apart, which wasn't that hard seeing as time had done some of the work already.

Pile of bits - 

You can see the green material, which was glued to very old board, what was also interesting is that whoever made the box had used 2 bits of board to fix the legs to the box part, which meant I needed to find a way of fixing the 2 bits back together, but first sanding the old finish off and removing the years old glue that seemed to be everywhere.

Right most of the sanding done, time to start putting things back together, a good idea when doing something like this is to use a tub with a lid for any screws and other fixings you take off, that way they don't get lost.

First the top section which makes up the box needed to be glued back together - 

I had to do this in stages, but it worked well in the end and once that was done it was on to fixing the box section back onto the legs, to replace the board I removed I cut thin strips of oak salvaged from an old table (made around the same time as it happens) and used these to glue and pin the 2 sections together, I used a load of clamps to make sure there was good contact between the 2 sections.

Many clamps - 

I also used strips of wood as wedges to push the strips of oak into the top section, this was also necessary as the top had a bow in 2 sides which is now gone.

In the image the black lines indicate the new strips of oak that fix the 2 parts together, the bits with red marks we just wedges.

 

I did also need to cut a new pieces of wood for the base of the main box, the drawer and the 2 smaller top boxes as these had been lined with the green silk and none were salvageable, another good tip if you do anything like this is to try and remove the parts in one piece as this will give you templates for any new parts you might need to make, just makes life easier.

Once I had it all glued and pinned back together it was just more sanding to remove access glue and then the wood needed to be stained (I used a light oak stain) mainly because the sanding process removed some of the colour, and after the stain had dried I applied a dark oak wax and buffed it to a nice shine, and then I've applied a further clear wax to help maintain the finish.

And here it is, all done and ready for many more years of service, very pleased with the end result.

Saved from landfill, now just got to sort the other one I have out (some assembly required)

Yes there's a bit more work in this one, but once it's done it should look similar to the one in the picture below, which was another sewing box I renovated a while ago.

Thanks for visiting.

How to tidy up a hole using a forstner bit.

This is a handy tip if you ever need to tidy up a hole in something wooden, in my case it was were holes had been made in the back of an Oak tv unit, I could have made things easier for myself by using clamps, but it worked out in the end.

If you don't have forstner bits then holes saw would work just as well.

Anyway have a look at the video -

Thanks for visiting. 

Simple to make cat scratcher...

A quick slide show of the steps I used to make a cat scratcher, luckily I had some wood which worked well for this as it already had grooves in it, and we always have cardboard about the house and as the cardboard wears out we can easily replace it.

The design is as basic as you can get really, but there's no reason you couldn't make it in a different shape, or with a slight angle or even one that sits upright.

Overall it cost nothing in materials to make, it's all recycled stuff and the cat seems to like it.

Here's the video -

Thanks for visiting.

How to make Rhubarb wine...

Rhubarb wine has become one of our yearly wines, it's simple to make and is usually ready quite quickly, and as we grow our own rhubarb it's also a good way of using it up if you have loads, anyway here's a short video on how to make rhubarb wine, or at least how we do it, it's a simple recipe and works well, the resulting wine is very nice and has a good flavour.

Here's the video -

Thanks for visiting.

Simple wooden christmas tree decorations...

Simple to make wooden christmas tree decorations, these are made from scrap wood and don't require any special tools, they're easy for kids to make as well, and cats seem to approve as well.

These are a good use for some scrap bits of wood, and there are numerous ways you could make something similar to these, they can be painted or left plain and decorated with lights as we have, if you wanted something a bit more natural looking you could use sticks or small branches.

Here's the video - 

Thanks for visiting.

Cleaning up old door hinges...

A short how to on removing paint from door hinges, I use a blow torch because it's quick and I'm lazy, but you could just wire brush the hinges, or use a heat gun (the kind for stripping paint) solvents would work as well, like the liquid paint stripper you can buy, I just prefer this method.

Works on steel hinges, I'd be careful if the hinges are brass though as excess heat may warp the metal, easiest way to tell would be to use a magnet, a magnet won't stick to brass.

After the hinges are cleaned a small drop of oil, or spray of WD-40 will make them work like new and they'll be ready for use on another door, this would work on hinges used on windows as well, and the casement stays, basically any metal that is covered in paint could be cleaned using this method, but make sure you use a well ventilated area when doing this, and be aware that the metal will get hot, so wear good heat proof gloves, or hold the hinge in some grips.

Here's the video -

Thanks for visiting.

Homemade copper slug rings...

A short slideshow on how we made some slug rings to protect our young sunflower plants,and other plants, these are easy to make using just hand tools, and all you need is some old plastic waste pipe (which is what I used) or some other type of pipe that has some flex to it, and some self adhesive copper tape, which a lot of garden centers and diy type shops sell.

You could also use larger sizes of pipe to make bigger rings, basically all you need to do is cut the pipe into sections that are the same width as the copper tape, and then cut them so you can open and close them, then all that's left is to wrap them in the copper tape, easy and they are reusable as well.

They worked well to protect our young sunflowers so we'll be using them again on other plants that slugs and snails like.

Here's the video -

Thanks for visiting.