Barometer renovation...

There was a time when households would have had a barometer hanging on the wall as a way to tell what the weather might do on any given day, they were also used to forecast the weather as well, in reality a lot of the barometers that were available to buy were I guess treated like a gimmick, perhaps as something one might buy if you had the money, not particularly accurate compared to the instruments used by weather forecasters, but never the less they were interesting things to own.

Most of the barometers I have renovated and repaired have been aneroid barometers, these types of barometers were invented around 1844 by a French scientist called Lucien Vidi, and whilst the movements are largely the same the cases were very varied, often wooden, but sometimes in stone, such as slate, serpentine and marble, some had wrought iron cases (which is what I call them) below is an image taken from a catalogue that dates to around 1950(ish) and although the images are black and white you can get an idea of the variety that were available.

A small selection of what was available - 

Below is a video in which I make a new case for a barometer I purchased, I think it's a better fit for the style of barometer, and I'm pleased with the overall result, including reusing wood from an old pub table and stool set that was destined for the bin, part way through the video is an image of another barometer I renovated, although all that one needed was a refresh to the teak case.

Video -

They are interesting things to own and as the variety of styles is... varied there is something to suit most tastes, and in the case of the one in the video if you have the tools you can make your own case.

Thanks for visiting.

This is not one of my better ideas, but I have always (for some reason) wanted to turn chipboard (particle board) to see what would happen, well now I know.

It's not something I'll ever do again, chipboard or particle board as it's known is horrible stuff to turn for obvious reasons, the end result is oddly pleasing, but the actual turning was very messy, lots of dust so it goes without saying that you need a proper dust mask and eye protection (even when turning proper wood)

The end result is oddly pleasing though.

Here's the video -

Thanks for visiting.

Plastic washers for free...

Recently I've found myself in need of a load of plastic washers, why? you might ask, well if you read this blog you'll know I built a poly-tunnel for our allotment plot, however due to some storms we've had over the last few months it has suffered (to say the least) in fact the polythene we used to cover it has been shredded, so we've gone for an upgrade, that being corrugated polycarbonte sheets.

Like so (you can see the remnants of the polythene) -

Still some work to do, but you get the idea.

To fix the sheets to the frame work I've used screws, now normally you'd use proper fixings which although not expensive (about £1:50 a pack)  we would have had to spend around £5 on enough to fix everything down, and me being the cheapskate I am I decided I could make my own plastic washers which would do just as well, and I'd be doing a bit of recycling as well.

To make the washers I used some plastic from a milk bottle (the polyethylene ones) and to make the inner hole where the screws will go I used a hole punch.

Hole punch, like you'd use for paper - 

It makes the right sized holes.

Plastic, with some washers already cut out - 

This type of plastic works well.

To make the washers all I've done is punch a hole with the hole punch and then using a tool I made I've cut out the washer.

The tool is just a bit of steel tube that I've sharpened, I also added a roughly turned wooden handle because after a while of using it without the handle it hurt my hands, the handle is a lot easier to grip.

The tool - 

Simple but effective.

To sharpen the tube I used my bench sander, but there are numerous ways you could sharpen the tube, files or a belt sander for example, all you need to do is grind the end of the tube down at an angle, this gives you a cutting edge, you can tidy it up by running a file or a bit of sand paper around the inside of the tube.

Using it is simple, you could use a hammer to punch out whatever you're trying to cut, but I found applying a twisting motion worked really well.

To actually make a washer all I do is punch out a small hole with the hole punch and then line up the homemade cutter over that and give it a could of twists.

Time to make some washers - 

Lets twist again...

et voila a plastic washer - 

Now to make a load more.

Washers, need a few more though - 

use an old bit of wood and not the kitchen table to cut your washers.

And that's it, what could be simpler? I've used this method before to make rubber feet for some trivets I made (trivets / pot stands - opens in new window) 

This cutter works on thin rubber, foam and probably other stuff (like leather maybe) and you can use larger or smaller tubing to make a variety of cutters / punches and if like me you have a workshop full of junk you could probably find the stuff to make a cutter or two without having to buy anything.

It's pretty quick as well, I made about a hundred washers in under ten minutes, so the time it takes for a relaxing cup of tea really.

Washers done - 

Now to sort out the poly-tunnel.

A washer in use, just to prove they work - 

Maybe I'll think of a way to make screw caps.

So there you go, free plastic washers with a home made cutter, cost no money and you'll be doing some recycling as well, can't be bad.

Thanks for reading.

When is a stool not a stool?

When is a stool not a stool?.....when it's a picture frame.

For a while now I've had an old stool in my shed, it's in bits as I figured it would come in useful and recently I decided to see what I might make out of the seat part, which was the largest part, the rest being made up of various turned parts, which I'll find a use for eventually.

I give you exhibit 'A' -

But what to do with it?

Not much to look at really, it's in a sorry state, so what to make from it? well I decided on a picture frame, I had thought about making one but in the end I made eight small picture frames and not square ones either, I made round ones, well I have a lathe so might as well go round.

So the first thing to do is cut it up, I flipped it over and marked out the largest piece I could get out of it, it was then I realised that I could probably make more than one if I made them smaller.

Wood marked up - 

Worked out at around 6 and a half inches (17cm)

Next I cut out the square on my band saw - 

Plenty of wood left over.

Onto to turning, using a forstner bit I made a hole so that I could mount the square onto my lathe using an expanding chuck, then I gave it a quick turn to mark out a circle so that I could cut off the excess, it saves time basically.

Circle marked - 

Chop off the unwanted bits.

The fist thing I did was turn the back of the frame in order to make a rebate for the hardboard backing to sit in, then I realised I didn't have a chuck large enough to hold the frame so I could shape the front, to solve that small problem I made a chuck out of some old chipboard (parts of an old wardrobe) fixed to a face plate.

Chipboard chuck - 

Simple, but effective.

Frame mounted onto chuck, held in place by friction - 

It's a tight fit, so no danger of things flying off.

Once I got down to the smaller sized pictured frames it was easier and I didn't need to make chucks as I have various different sized jaws for my expanding chuck.

And when I'd finished making the frames I used a bit of dark oak wax (Liberon black bison, good stuff) it was on to figuring out how to make them hold a picture.

For the back of the picture frames I used some old hardboard that came as packing material in something we ordered, I cut circles out that fitted inside of the rebates on each frame, and fixed the hardboard into place with some small screws.

Backing cut out and small screws - 

Simple solution.

Backing fitted into one of the frames - 

One screw would do just as well.

And that's more or less it, apart from the glass for the front of the frame to protect the pictures.

Obviously you could make some of these and get small glass circles cut, not sure how much that would cost, some other options are thin perspex, one of our local diy type stores sells a large sheet of perspex for £16 and it would make a load of picture frame fronts.

For the time being however I've used a very basic solution, and that is a plastic laminator sheet, the sort of thing you would normally use to protect documents and such like, it turns out that if you run a sheet through a laminator a couple of times it makes a thin clear sheet of plastic, which is easy to cut into circles and works quite well in picture frames, you could also use the clear plastic that usually comes in the packaging for kids toys (I've used this to make stencils before - opens in new window)

Laminator sheet ready for cutting - 

Works surprisingly well.

I will probably, depending on how well this laminator sheet plastic lasts upgrade to clear perspex at some point, but for now my main problem is what to put in the picture frames, I'm thinking I might make some cyanotypes for them using the light reactive paper I have.

I ended up with eight in all, some are small enough that with a magnet glued onto the back they would stick well to metal notice boards, or even fridges, do people still have fridge magnets? and I need to come up with a way to hang the frames from walls and such like.

The finished frames - 

Not bad for an old stool.

So when is a stool not a stool? when it's eight turned picture frames, and making this has given me another idea, kind of a variation on this so look out for that at some point.

Thanks for reading.

Homemade moulds for wax blocks...

As we have a load of wooden furniture which needs a good waxing from time to time, and because I use a fair amount of wax of the wooden stuff I make it's always good when you can get your hands on a load of wax cheaply, and through our free-cycling escapades we've recently acquired a load of wax, about 2kg in fact for free.


Here's some of it -

Looks like toffee, doesn't taste like it.

What sort of wax is it ? well as far as I can tell it's a mixture of beeswax and carnauba wax, where's it from ? well again my best guess is it's actually a type of mould releasing agent for the use in fibre glass moulding, and it smells a lot like the polishing sticks I use on turned wood sometimes, which are a blend of beeswax and carnauba wax, and some oils.

This is all well and good, but in it's current form it's not that easy to use, mainly because it's very hard, and although it would be okay on hard woods, it would most likely scratch softer woods.

So how to process the stuff ? well that's easy enough, we just need to melt it, but before we do we also need something to put it in, as in a mould of some sort.

I made two moulds, which will give me slightly different sized wax sticks, which I can use for various things, to start I got a couple of blocks of wood and marked out (roughly) some rectangles.


Moulds marked out -

The squiggly line is where I'll remove the wood.

Next thing to do is remove the wood to make some cavities, to do this I used forstner bits and a post drill, large drill bits or spade bits would do just as well.


Cavities made -

This is the smaller of the two moulds.

I used a small drum sander to tidy the cavities up a little, I wasn't being too fussy to be honest.


Cavities sanded (roughly it has to be said) -

Why the holes and the extra bit of wood ?

You may have noticed the extra bit of wood and the holes I've drilled in each bit, I have a little experience with moulding things, and decided that even though I'd be lining the moulds with foil I might still need a way to get the wax blocks out once set should they stick, hence the holes, these are for pins that are fixed into the other bit of wood, the idea being that once the wax has set I can just push the pin plate into the holes in the mould and push the wax blocks out, I clamped the two bits of wood together to make sure the holes lined up when I drilled them out.

I made the pins from a small bit of dowel - 

A spot of glue on each one fixes them in place.

Everything lines up - 

Seems to work as intended.

Right onto making some wax blocks, this as I mentioned is just a case of melting the wax, now at this stage you can think about adding extra stuff to the wax, essential oils for example if you want a nice smelling wax, or you can add oils like linseed oil, tung oil etc for a softer wax, you can even add tints to the wax, which is something I intend to experiment with.

To melt the wax you should use a double boiler, or a glass bowl over some boiling water, like you would use to melt chocolate (probably not a glass jar in a pan of water as I have)

Melting the wax - 

How to stress out your wife in one easy step.

I added a little raw linseed oil to this batch just as the wax was starting to melt as I wanted a softer wax, and as things were progressing I lined my mould with tin foil, cling film would probably melt and may cause problems when it comes to getting it off the wax once set.

Mould lined - 

Ready for wax.

Wax poured (and now we wait) - 

Should be set in an hour or two.

And here's the finished block - 

Looks like caramel, doesn't taste like it.

The foil came off the wax easily, although it did leak a bit and the block had stuck to the base of the mould, having the pins to push the block out where handy, and worked well (better than I thought if I'm honest)

To use the stick (which is much softer with a bit of linseed oil) is just a case of rubbing it on the surface of what ever you want to polish, I tested it on our kitchen table, which takes a pounding most days, so is in frequent need of a coat of wax.

Once a liberal coat of wax is on the wood all you need to do is buff with a soft cloth, it does take a bit of elbow grease, but it's worth it in the end.

Here's the table top before waxing - 

It's quite dry, so the oil will help feed it, the wax will protect it.

Apply wax and buff, minion deployed - 

Buffing commences.

My minion gave up after a few minutes so I finished the job off, and after about ten minutes (including applying the wax) the table now has a nice shine to it.

Finished - 

Not bad.

And that's that, it does buff to a nice shine, and it will last a bit longer because of the carnauba wax, which is quite a hard wax, next I intend to make some tinted sticks to use on turned pieces, and as we have a load of wax we should be okay for polish for a while, not bad, and free.

Thanks for reading.

Plastic stencils...

If you have kids you'll know that these days the toys they all want for birthdays and Christmas all seem to come covered in plastic,I know the reason is most likely because the toys stand out when kids see them,then they'll plague their parents to buy them,but what to do with it?

When I was kid most toys came in boxes with nice pictures on them,seems they don't make packaging like they used,as well as everything else.

I'm not entirely sure you can recycle the stuff,although our local council have recently changed the rules as to what you can put in the recycling,but I've discovered it's quite useful.


This stuff -

I've got quite a stash of it.

I'm a hoarder of stuff,you know how it is,you look at something and think I’ll keep that because it'll come in useful,then you forget about it for a while,and then when you need something you'll come across it and think why did I keep that? I do this a lot (too much if you ask my wife)

As it turns out I've found a use for it,I had thought we'd use it for crafting in some way,but we haven't as yet and I needed a way of making some patterns (stencils) for various wood based projects,and this stuff is good for that,I'm sure I'm not the first person to figure this out.

What I did was to draw up the designs I wanted on graph paper,I was making some art deco type picture frames and wanted a quick way of replicating the patterns without having to measure them out every time.

So once I'd got my patterns worked out on paper I stuck them to the plastic with a bit of pva glue,and once it had dried I cut the patterns out,simple really don't know why I've never thought of doing this before.


Glued down and ready for cutting -

Just need a sharp knife and a ruler.

To cut them out I used craft knife (it has a very sharp blade) and a ruler to make sure I got the lines straight,the knife does need to be sharp,you can also use scissors,again as long as they are sharp,make sure you use a piece of wood or some kind of board to protect any surfaces,I use our wood chopping board for this type of thing.

I made a few and they all seem to be very good,the plastic is thick enough to give a good edge you can follow with a pencil,and as they are plastic they last a while,obviously the more they get used the quicker they'll wear out.

Simple to use - 

It means I get the same shape every time.

Here's one of the picture frames I made using a different stencil - 

Meet my wife's great grandparents.

I also had some wood turning to do,I've been making spools and again using these little stencils I can quickly mark up the wood and I'll get consistent results,it's not perfect,but it does save time.

Spool patterns cut out - 

These where little bit fiddly to cut out.

The idea is I can offer up the stencil to the wood and easily mark where I need to cut with a pencil,as I said it's not perfect,there are slight differences from spool to spool,but for the most part they are the same.

Marking out - 

The patterns are numbered as I made different sizes.

The end result - 

They turned out quite well,good job really I have a load more to make.

There's no reason you couldn't use this plastic to make stencils for painting on walls,furniture or just pictures of what ever takes you,Halloween is coming up,you could make a couple of pumpkin shaped ones for easy replication,I have plans for some more creative picture frames and making patterns from this will help a lot as the designs aren't something that's easily drawn onto wood.

I might have a root around to see what else I've kept,you never know I might actually find a use for it.

Thanks for reading.

My inner womble strikes again ...

I'm always trying to find new uses for things,like using old windows to make cold frames,or plastic piping to make covers for various plants,I like making things from something else,and not just because it saves money.

This is one of those occasions,our house is on a hill,and at the back of it is a bank that's around 25 feet high from the road below,it runs along the whole street and is covered in a variety of plants and trees,at one end of this bank is a block of flats and it would seem that people often use the patch of waste ground to dump things.

I happened to find myself exploring this waste ground the other day (looking for one of our cats who has gone awol) and I came across what I first thought were planters,turns out they weren't,they're actually some kind of packing crate for either roof tiles or some kind of floor tile or paving stones.


Here they are -

Only 5 in this picture,but I ended up with 6 in all.

Like I said my first thought was that they were planters,it wasn't until I looked at them more closely I found out that they had been dumped and that they were packing crates,so I figured I'd make use of them,and this is kind of how my brain works,I tend to see what a thing could be,not what it was and someone evidently thought these crates were rubbish.

After dragging all 6 of these crates back to my house,which wasn't that easy I figured I'd turn them into what I had originally thought they were,that being planters,they're a good size for planters each one is just over 5 feet long and about a foot wide and about 8inches deep.

To turn them into planters I first got rid of the bits of cardboard and the staples that were dotted around the edges,then I lined each crate with some plastic sheet.

All clean and ready for the liner - 

They got lighter as they dried out,which was good.

Liner fitted,ready for the next stage - 

I used some plastic sheeting I had lying around.

I just stapled the plastic sheeting to the inside of each crate,I could have left them,but the plastic will help retain more moisture,I've found in the past that wooden planters dry out quite quickly in the summer.

Next thing to do was add some canes for supporting whatever plants end up in these,for that I used a 10mm spade bit to make holes down each side of each crate,making sure that the holes on each side were (more or less) opposite each other.

Like so - 

Bit hard to see from this picture,but there are holes there somewhere.

The idea is to push a length of bamboo cane into each hole and then put a piece across as a horizontal support,having the cane fitted into the holes makes things more stable.

The canes are just thin bamboo ones that can be bought for a few pounds from most diy / garden type shops,I used 2.4 metre canes and cut them in half.

Canes ready for cutting - 

Nothing special,just standard bamboo canes.

Here are the canes in place - 

You get the general idea.

Once I'd got the vertical canes in place the next step was to put a longer cane across the top and then tie it all together,to tie the canes I've used a plastic coated wire,it's quite basic,but does the job.

Canes all tied up - 

Simple frame work.

And that's about it really,we now have 6 planters all the same,which will do for growing tomatoes,beans or cucumbers,they can be moved about,although that would take two of us now they have soil in them,we have room to almost double the amount of tomato plants we grew last year,and these look nicer than the black plastic tubs we used,they are solid as well as they all still have the steel banding to reinforce them.

Here's one completed - 

Just needs some plants.

These ones we used round our patio, it gets very warm - 

I think they look nice,kind of rustic.

In all these planters cost about £10 once you consider the canes and the plastic,I would have used sticks to make the frames,but I didn't have any long enough,but even so £10 is quite a saving when you consider that some places are selling planters that aren't as big as this for about £30 a go,so it proves that it's worth looking at things before you bin them,use a little imagination and you may well find a use for something that was destined for the bin,unleash your inner womble.

Thanks for reading.