Another homemade trug ... ...

Warning contains yet more ways to use bits of pallet ! ! !

A while ago I made a small trug from random bits of plywood I had lying about, you can find the post here (opens in a new window) to be honest it was more a decorative thing than an actually functional carrying device.

The other night I was watching Super Scrimpers on channel 4, if you don't watch it you should really check it out, it's a great program, on the episode I watched I saw someone using a trug type basket for collecting their foraged items, so I thought (as I often do) I wonder if I can make something like that, and so today I did, and yes I used bits of pallet.

Here it is -

Mines a little different to the one I saw.

I'm oddly pleased with this for some reason, normally once I've made something I tend to look at it and start finding faults with it and thinking about how I could have done things differently, this however I'm finding faultless (at least from my point of view) you can see how it's made, it's just two curved bits of wood held together with thin strips of wood, with some natural fibre rope as handles.

This is very easy to make, and another good project for kids to try, especially if they are getting bored, the curve on the bottom is really easy to do, all you need is a few small nails and something bendy.

As I said the curve is easy to make, just mark out a length of wood to use as one of the sides, I made mine 18inches long, but it's up to you how big or small you want to make it.

Here's how to make the curve - 

Here's the wood marked at 18 inches.

Once you have marked out how long you want to make the trug you next need to mark 2 inches done from one edge, do this on each end.

Marking 2 inches down - 

There is a mark at 2 inches, honest.

Once you've marked each end you then need to find the middle of the section of wood, so if, like me you've made it 18 inches long then you need to put a mark at 9 inches.

The middle marked out - 

Next we need 3 small nails.

What we need to do now is put a small nail on each of the marks we've made, so a nail each end at the 2 inch mark and one nail at the 9 inch mark.

Nails all ready - 

I used small brass pins, I also used them to fix the trug together.

Now for the bendy bit, I used my steel ruler, but a piece of plastic trunking, or some other flat bendy substance will do, what you need to do is bend your ruler/trunking and use the nails to hold it in place, see the pictures below.

The curve already to be marked onto the wood - 

You can see how it works.

Here's a rough diagram of how to arrange it all - 

Simple really.

Ta da ! ! ! one curve - 

Not the greatest of pictures.

This is a quick way of making curves on bits of wood, and to be honest this is probably the most complicated bit of building this trug, adding the wooden strips is just a matter of cutting a load of wood and sticking it to the curved sections, I fixed mine with glue and brass nails.

All you need to do is fix the strips onto the curved part of each side - 

Roughly half an inch gap between each strip.

Now you may have noticed that the two centre strips are slightly thicker than the rest, this was just because I had cut enough wood, and I couldn't be bothered to get my table saw out again.

Here's what it looks like underneath - 

Probably best not put anything small in it.

It has gaps in it, so this is more a trug for collecting apples or other such things, as for the handles I had intended to bend a piece of thin wood over the top to make a loop type handle, but the wood I had wouldn't bend very well, so I went with plan 'B' 

(when undertaking any project it's always good to have a plan 'B')

Plan 'B' uses some natural fibre rope, which to be honest I like better, kind of makes it look more rustic ?

To make rope handles is just a case of making two holes in each side and then threading rope through and tying it off, you could also use an old leather belt as a carrying handle.

The rope handles - 

Thread through from the outside.

A simple knot does the job - 

A bit of super glue on the knot will stop it from undoing.

And there you have it, takes hardly anytime or money (if you have a load of wood lying about) and is a good sturdy functional thing, great for collecting fruit and veg when you next go foraging.

Thanks for reading.

Homemade bookends ... ...

I've been meaning to make some bookends for a while now, not that we actually have any room on any of our book shelves, too many books, which reminds me I have to make some new book shelves.

I made them from ... ... yes you guessed it bits of pallets, offcuts from other jobs to be exact.


Here they are -

Complete with books.

Now apart from the artistic bit, which I cut out of odd bits of wood using my scroll saw, these are really easy to make, and you can use any shape you can cut out for the decorative bit, maybe letters or numbers if these are for a kids room, or a dinosaur shape maybe, you are only really limited by your imagination, and perhaps a few tools.

To make the main part of the bookends you need four bits of wood, which you basically stick together in 'L' shapes, and what you should get is something like the picture below.

All fixed and ready for the arty bits - 

I used some wood glue and small brass pins to fix them together.

I made mine about 6 inches in height, but you can go as big or small as you want, I guess it depends on the books you have.

For the rest of each bookend I marked out a piece of wood with a hand drawn design and then cut it out with my scroll saw, if you don't have a scroll saw you can also use a coping saw, but it will take much longer to cut out, although it has to be said that does depend on what sort of design you go for, mine might have been a little over complicated, but I never do things the easy way ... ... well not all the time.

The arty bits - 

Perhaps a little too fiddly, but I like them.

 

In case you aren't sure what a scroll saw or a coping saw is, have a look at the pictures below, a coping saw is a lot cheaper than a scroll saw, but harder work.

My scroll saw - 

It's a great tool to have.

My coping saw (well one of them anyway) - 

Works just as well, but will make your arm ache after a while.

Once you have your design all you need to do is fix it to the two 'L' shaped parts you've made, I used wood glue again, and there you have it, two simple to make bookends, I gave mine a good sand and then just polished them with our homemade beeswax and linseed oil polish, which you can read about here (opens in new window)

Here they are again, only a different way round - 

Not sure they look as good this way round though ?

What do you think ? long ways (like the above picture) or like the picture below ?

This is a simple make that anyone with even basic wood working knowledge can try, and it's also a good project to teach kids about wood working and using different types of tools.

Thanks for reading.

Handmade leather cuff type bracelet ...

I thought I'd post a quick how to on how to make a leather cuff type bracelet, for just a couple of quid.

It's pretty easy really, all you need is an old leather belt, the thicker the better and some press studs, which you can buy in various places, but if you buy on line you could probably find them very cheaply.

Here's what I'm on about -

Total cost is about £1.00

It's made from an old belt, this one I got from a charity shop for £1.00 it was just a plain black leather belt, and I should be able to get at least 2 bracelets from it, although this does depend on how big they need to be, I don't have very thick wrists.

You will need a few other bits and pieces as well as a belt and a press stud kit, you'll need a hammer to fix the press studs together, a tape measure (or another bracelet) to work out how much of the belt you'll need, some strong scissors to cut the belt, and something to punch holes into the leather with, I have a leather punch, but you could use a drill bit, or a Philips type screw driver.

Supplies at the ready - 

Of we go.

I started by cutting the buckle off the belt so that I wouldn't have any holes in my bracelet, but you could use the section with holes in, maybe put studs in the holes or some other type of decoration.

Belt sectioned up, ready for phase 2 - 

A good pair of scissors are handy for cutting leather.

I used the first bracelet (prototype if you like) as a length guide for this one - 

Nearly done.

The next step is to position one part of each press stud on the leather strip and mark the leather so you know where to punch out the holes that the press studs will go through.

Marking the ends - 

Use something pointy to mark where the holes will go.

Both ends marked.

You need to make the holes about the same size as the part of the press stud that goes through the material, which is about 4mm, then once you have a hole at each end of the leather you can go ahead with adding the press studs.

Press studs ready - 

There are actually 4 separate parts which will make up each half of the stud.

The press stud kit came with the little tools that you use to fix it altogether, it's basically a punch that bends the metal of one part of the stud round the other part, which is why you need a hammer, a couple of fairly hard hits and the stud should be fixed, as this is made from leather I went for some heavy duty press studs.

Studs fitted and secure - 

Part 'A' this part fits over the stud and snaps into place.

The other side of part 'A' in the picture above.

Part 'B' the stud.

The other side of part 'B'

Now all that's needed is a little tidying up of the ends, I just rounded them off with the scissors, I used a circle to draw round with a marker, then cut round it.

Ends marked and ready for cutting - 

Just cut round this end.

And this end.

And that's it all done, one simple to make leather cuff type bracelet - 

Easy.

I might need to make the ends a little tidier.

I've seen plain leather bracelets like this for as little as £5 and as much as £30 ! I've made two (so far) for £2 and I have enough leather to make at least two more, not bad and saves money, which has to be a good thing, and if you don't like the plain look you could always find a patterned leather belt, or add some kind of decoration to a plain one, the other bracelet in the pictures above was made for me by my wife for our third wedding anniversary, it's also made from leather, you can read about it on my wife's blog (opens in new window)

" But times are hard and thrills are cheaper

  As your arms get shorter, your pockets get deeper "

                        Guns n Roses -  Right Next Door To Hell.

Thanks for reading.

Third wedding anniversary present ...

Tomorrow is mine and my wife's third wedding anniversary, and the traditional gift is something made from leather, or involving leather and as we said we would try and make all our wedding anniversary presents I had to come up with something made with leather.

My first idea failed quite badly, it's funny how an idea that seems fantastic in your head actually isn't that great when it comes to actually making it.

I'm pleased to say that my second idea (plan b) actually worked very well, least I think it did.


Here it is -

It's written in runic in case you are wondering.

I've used the same sort of idea as I did with the valentines gift I made for my wife, that being a Buddleja frame, mainly because it is quite straight and it's easy to make it all fit together.

The writing says ' I love you ' and it's in runic (I know soft git aren't I) I basically stitched the wooden back ground with thin leather, all in all it didn't take that long to do, maybe two hours spread over a few days, I spent more time on getting the translation as accurate as I could, after all it should say I love you, and not be a recipe for pickled herring or such like, another reason for using runic was because the characters are easy to create as they are quite angular, I also like that it's an ancient language.

Here's the lettering - 

Pickled herring anyone ?

I printed the characters out on paper, then marked the points where the angles change on the wood, then I drilled holes at each point with a small drill bit, then it was just a case of threading the leather through the holes.

The frame is the same sort of frame I always use for this type of thing, mainly because it's easy to make a frame with Buddleja wood, then I used a clear varnish on the frame, and I gave the leather and the wooden back ground a coat of Linseed oil.

The frame with varnish - 

It has more of a shine than I intended.

And lastly I added a strip of leather to the top as a means to hang the plaque up with, I just used small tacks to hold the strip of leather onto the back of it.

The hanger - 

It was a bit long, so I added a knot.

That's about it, one wedding anniversary gift using the traditional leather, next year if we stick to tradition it's flowers I think (that's an easy one) or I might go for silk, which is also given for the fourth wedding anniversary.

Here it is again - 

I quite like it.

Happy anniversary to my lovely wife xxx

Thanks for reading.

Homemade spinning tops ... ...

After what seems like ages I have managed to use my lathe, after I pulled it apart and cleaned it, it was a little dusty.

No I didn't make a box or a pot, this time I thought I'd make something I've wanted to make for a while, spinning tops.

I've made 5 in all, the tops themselves have all been turned on my lathe, and made from odd little bits of wood left over from various other turning excursions.


These were the first two I made -

They are quite rough, but they work.

As I said I made them from scrap wood, if you look at the Birch one (on the right) you can see a large crack in it, the Pear wood one is okay though (the one on the left) I figured that because they are wood the ends would eventually wear down and perhaps stop the tops from spinning so well, so I used upholstery tacks on the points, I made sure they won't come out by gluing them with some impact adhesive, I fixed the tacks whilst the tops were still on the lathe to make sure I got them in the center.

The tacks - 

The tacks make them spin quite well.

Then, as is usually the case I started to wonder about designs and ways to actually get the tops spinning, and spinning fast, I've seen various methods for doing this, so I thought I'd try some out adding my own 'spin' (see what I did there) to them.

This next one is based on a similar spinning top that is some where at the bottom of the large toy box in the front room.

It uses a launcher and a bit of string to make it go, and it can get up some speed, as you can see from the short video of it in action.

The top and launcher - 

It's made from pine, and uses a tack in the base.

And here's a short video of it in action (no sound) - 

As you can see it spins quite fast and for quite a while, it would spin for longer if it was heavier, pine isn't very heavy and perhaps not the best wood for spinning tops, I have started planning a much larger version of this, maybe as big as 20cm across.

These next two tops are much more polished than the others, and although I made both of them so that you could use string to make them spin, only one of them works as well as I wanted.

More tops - 

They are both made from cypress.

They can both be spun quite easily using your fingers but I figured you could get them going much better with the help of a length of string, which is why both these tops have a large groove running all the way round them.

With the string wound round - 

The groove on the darker one needed to be deeper.

The idea is that you hold the top with your finger and then pull the string to make it go, another thing I changed was the end, the darker one as you can see has a flat end, this made it difficult to hold it and get it spinning, so the next one (the lighter one) I made with a slightly pointed end, you can see in the picture below what I was trying to do.

Ready to spin -

See the frayed string, I have a cure for that.

 I'm always getting annoyed at the ends of bits of string, some string is worse than others, but a little super glue on the frayed end will solve any threading issues you might have been having with it, just give the offending end a twist and then add one or two drops of super glue, just drop it on, and make sure the string isn't touching anything else, once it's dried you should be able to thread it easily, and if you should get super glue on your fingers a little warm soapy water should sort it out.

Like so - 

Super glue is great stuff, but be careful with it, it will stick fingers together.

Here's another video of this top in action (no sound) -

I didn't get it going very well in this video, but you get the idea, it will spin almost as well as the one that uses the launcher, all in all I'm quite pleased with the ones I've made so far, and my kids love them, in fact they seem to spend more time playing with the stuff I make than the gadgets we have.

Thanks for reading.

The humble moth ... ...

To be honest I'd never really given much thought to moths (or butterflies) at least until my son was born, on the night he was born it was quite warm so we had the windows open, and the usual thing happened, open window + lights and in come the moths, but we only got one type of moth that night, they are known as old ladies, they are quite a large moth and although quite common I'd never seen one, and I haven't seen one since.

Here's a link to a page about the Old lady moth (Mormo Maura) - Old lady moth (opens in new window)

Anyway since then I've given moths a lot more consideration, seems when I read nature articles and such like they are almost always about butterflies, not that there's anything wrong with them, I just prefer moths I guess.

So last year whilst I was on my travels I found a caterpillar, it turned out to be a Lime Hawk moth caterpillar, here's another link to a picture of one - Lime Hawk moth (opens in new window)

As the little chap was heading towards the road I moved him back to some trees, and on my way back there he was again, so I took him home for the kids to look at, with the intention of letting him go, but shortly after he arrived this happened.

Not a caterpillar anymore -

The kids were fascinated.

Eventually the chrysalis turned brown, and for almost a year it has been in a jar, and the kids have been waiting patiently for it to change into a moth, and yesterday it did.

Here he is (we're pretty sure it's a he) - 

Isn't he great ?

Now we just need him to sort himself out so we can let him go, this is the second moth we've had hatch (not sure hatch is the right word) the first was an Angle shade, yes that is a real moth.

The Angle shade - 

Another great moth.

We also have another Angle shade that's still in chrysalis form, so the kids are eagerly awaiting it's hatching.

Moths I feel are some what over looked, but I think they are great, all the chrysalises we've found in our garden (apart from the Lime hawk moth) we also found a load at our allotment, so we plan to find some more and watch them change and have fun identifying them, I had hoped I'd catch the hawk moth as it started to emerge so I could do a little time lapse photography, but it beat me to it.

It's a very educational experience, for us and the kids, and now we are on the look out for a couple of these.

Cinnabar caterpillars -  

Tiger pillars ?

These are an interesting moth, usually people think of moths as a night time insect, but these are usually seen flying in the day (and at night sometimes) they usually feed on ragwort, which makes the caterpillars taste really nasty to predators, the moths themselves are a lovely black and red colour.

A Cinnabar moth - 

Another great moth.

As moths go these are quite colourful, and I guess that's why people prefer butterflies, they are after all better looking and fly in the day, but spare a thought for the humble moth, we did have a extra special moth in the garden last year, it was a humming bird hawk moth, these are becoming more frequent in this country, although as yet I haven't been able to get a good picture of one, I plan to sort that out, and we'll all be on the look out for other types of moth we might have in the garden and surrounding countryside.

I guess this is all about teaching kids about nature, so next time you dig up a chrysalis of some kind, why not keep it and let it hatch, then you can have fun finding out what it is, it's a good learning experience for the kids, just pop it in a jar on a bit of tissue, make sure to put a few holes in the lid.

Here's a few more pictures of our moths.

Lime hawk moth - 

He's quite furry.

Wing markings - 

Subtle colouring.

Front view - 

Awesome moth.

The Angle shade - 

It has a slight pink tinge to it in parts.

A close up - 

Looks like a leaf.

Release day - 

Hopefully it's doing well.

So next time you are out and about, keep an eye out for our humble moths, they are just as important as butterflies, some also pollinate our plants as well.

Thanks for reading, and I'll leave you with this quote, not a truer word spoken if you ask me.

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~ Standing Bear