Latest wood turning project ... ...

Apologies if you've been waiting for a post, seems we are currently in a situation where there really aren't enough hours in a day (or days in a week for that matter)

Due to other things I haven't been able to spend as much time at my lathe as I would like, although I'm hoping to sort that out soon.

I have managed to experiment further with the cypress I've recently acquired, I have just the other day got a load more of this type of wood, which to be honest I'm liking a lot, it's easy to work with and even though it's very green I seem to be having a lot less trouble with it in terms of warping and such like.

Latest piece -

Do you want soldiers with that ?

Yes I've made an egg, an egg box actually, again this is made from the cypress I got through freecycle, I'm going to get some more of this, but much larger pieces which I'm hoping to make some much larger pieces from, and perhaps some bowls.

Like most of the boxes / pots I make this is turned from one piece of wood, and I've applied the same logic to turning this as I did with the other cypress pot, that being I turned it a little (roughed it out) and then left it for a week or so then finished it off, this approach seems to be working, but I need to test it on some of the more difficult wood I have, mainly the fruit wood.

This piece isn't perfect, there are some small cracks on the top part (the egg) these I can easily turn out as they aren't very deep, this usually happens around knots in wood, least it does for me.

Some more pictures - 

Lid off, you can see the small cracks in the egg part.

Not as bad as they look.

I have been in some what of a dilemma about these cracks, I have to admit I quite like them, they seem to fit seeing as it's meant to be an egg, so I've wondered about making a small feature of them, however this may not be to everyone's liking so I'm not sure whether to as I intend to sell the piece in my shop, technically it's probably not a good idea to sell things with cracks in them, these won't get any worse, but as I said some people may take a dim view of the box being for sale with defects, I guess if I do decide to leave it as is and put it in my shop I'll find out.

The next thing I'm going to try with this wood is turning it end grain on, mainly to see what patterns appear as often a dull looking piece of wood yields some very interesting features when turned slightly differently, so keep a look out for that.

A few more pictures showing the grain -

The grain seems to suit designs like this.

I may turn the egg part from a different wood next time.

Thanks for reading.

Under monitor storage box ... ...

I'm always cluttering up my desk with stuff (yes I'm part squirrel) and ever since I started drawing I seem to have loads of drawing implements lying about my desk, as well as the odd screw driver, pliers, torches and memory cards and a load of other junk (all of which I use ;-)

So I decided I needed some kind of easy to get to storage solution, and as I use 2 monitors I also needed a way of putting the small one on the same level as the larger, so I made a single drawer chest of draws, which is what it amounts to.

Here's my desk (with the storage drawer) -

Slightly tidier than usual ;-)

You can see the box under the monitor, and that's basically all it is, just a box with a drawer in it, it's easy to make and I had enough bits of wood lying about to make it, but you could buy the wood cheaply enough.

Here's a couple of diagrams to give you a rough idea of how I made it, I'm sure you can buy things like this ? and although flat panel monitors take up less room this little box is still a handy thing to have.

(You can click on the pictures to get a larger view)

Diagram time - 

The drawer casing / housing.

As you can see it's just a box with one side missing.

The drawer, again just another box, all be it slightly smaller.

Obviously the drawer needs to be smaller than the housing ;-)

And there you have it, you'll need to work out how big you want yours, mine is about 12 inches square, which is just enough for the monitor and a few bits and pieces in front of it, like the rock my kids decorated for fathers day :-)

You don't have to keep it plain wood, you can paint it anyway you please or decorate it with paper, or even drawer on it, it's up to you, but it does make a desk tidier, you might be surprised how much stuff you can find to put in it ;-) 

Here's a few more pictures of mine.

I still need to paint the thing, but you can't see the top ;-)

I did plan to paint the box, but as yet I haven't got round to it, and if I'm honest I'm not entirely sure what to paint it with, or how to paint it.

And another picture - 

I've used a combination of plywood and pine.

I may replace the top with some pine, that's if I decide not to paint it, it does look a little rough, but in my defence it's unfinished.

I also added a few rubber washers (one on each corner) to lift it up slightly, this makes sure the drawer doesn't catch on the desk when you open it.

The feet (rubber washers) - 

Little feet, the rubber also stops it from sliding about.

You can put any type of handle on the front of the drawer, or you could just cut a hole in it, or use a piece of rope as a handle, the skies the limit :-) I went for an iron look handle, mainly because I had it lying about from another project.

The handle - 

I quite like it, maybe I should stain the box a dark colour ?

So if you need a little space then this is an easy to build way of getting some, and if you still use a crt monitor this would probably come in really handy, and if not I'm sure you can still find a use for it.

You don't even have to use it for under monitor storage, it could go in a craft room, or anywhere you might need to store things.

Thanks for reading.