Please have a look at what were up to, if you have any questions or comments please post! If you want any specific pictures taken please let us know.
Tamarack Boardwalk UPDATE
Earlier in the year I completed a boardwalk project to allow for a local trail to be able to be passed during the spring time thaw and flood season. Here are a few quick pictures I snapped while out on a hike. You can see the construction of this boardwalk here on my blog by clicking the link below.
Building a rough cut tamarack boardwalk
The story of 9 sculpted wood bar stools
First up in the chair building process is cutting to tenth and width the wood pieces for the seats. I try to always do a 2 board seat giving the most visually pleasing grain patterns especially after grinding and shaping the seat. Now when clamping 2'' material lots of clamp pressure is required, I think I used every clamp in the shop!
Im using my cabinet scraper to remove the excess glue, you can see the cabinet makers triangle I draw on the seat blank when organizing the pieces before glue up, this help keep everything in order and glued to the piece it should be.
This will be one of the 2 cherry seats i'm doing, they are going to be beautiful not just from my work but from what nature has given up.
The seat blanks need to be trimmed to length, I do this using my "flying dutchman" or table saw sled, this is a great tool that really helps me make precision cross cuts that are easily repeatable and safe.
The riving knife which you see behind the spinning blade keeps wood that has tension in it from hitting the rear of the spinning blade, which at the rear is pulling up thus causing kickback.
Here i'm cutting out the notches in the rear corners of the seat, i'm using a miter gauge with a large fence and some clamps to hold the seat while I make the cut.
The front notches get most of the material removed on the band saw, I trim to about 1/16'' of the final notch size, then clean the joints up using a jig and a router.
Here are 4 beautiful walnut seat blanks
I now clamp my front joint jig the the seat and clean the joint to its final size using a router with a bushing that rides along the jig.
Now we are well on our way , the notches have been cut for all of the legs.
The notches then have a rabbit on the top and bottom of the joint to create a tongue which will fit into a dado groove in the legs, this is call a Maloof joint.
Starting to sculpt the seat using my Kutzall carbide grinding wheel
Cherry seat has been sculpted and sanded to 500 grit, some more shaping still need to be done at the front of the seat.
The seat above has not been carved yet, you can see the depth holes which help me carve to the depth that I want.
Pair of cherry seat blanks
4 seats and rear legs
Nice legs!
This is a seat that has birds maple being used as the internal blank which is the exact thickness of the tongue I created, the dado in the leg is then cut to fit the tongue.
3/4'' round over on the shaper table
The dados get cleaned up with a shoulder plane to fit
The old fashion way (-:
Look a chair is born!
I forgot the glue, kidding just a pile of legs and a seat for a Cherry bar stool
Line up of 9 sculpted bar stools well on there way through the fabrication process
Initial shaping on the seat
Always nice to loose a few pounds off your legs
5/8'' round over used for initial shaping on the legs
Now you can see the form staring to take shape
Finally gluing the front legs onto the first walnut seat
I've had my morning coffee and ready to grind!
After the first session of shaping using my angle grinder and kutzall carbide grinding wheels by Oliver.
More legs more clamps
I've been busy, all the legs have now been glued to the bar stool seats
These are my tools course and medium grinding carbide grinding wheels by kutzall, I love these things very safe never catches and lasts forever!
Clamping up some leg stretchers, still lots of work to do but i'm well on the way to making some beautiful and comfortable bar stools.
Building a rough cut tamarack boardwalk
This is the entrance to the Halton regional forest complex, they have a small gravel parking lot just off the road and a map of the trail system.
This is the entrance off of Guelph Line just across from Mohawk race track, this trail system is accessible with a vehicle but of course you need the key (-:
Day 1 - Time to get to work, supplies are arriving so it's time to start laying out the stringers. Materials used for this board walk are rough sawn Tamarack. The stringers are a true 2'' x 10'' 10 feet long, deck boards are a full 2'' thick x 6'' wide 5' long. Everything will be anchored through 4'' x 4'' posts that will rest in concrete deck blocks.
In the distance you can see we've laid out all the parts roughly where the board walk will be.
The boardwalk is 300' long comprised of 30 sections 10' long. The stringers are 2'' x 10'' x 10' long, each section overlaps and will be held together with 2 lag bolts that go through 2 joists and a 4''x4'' post that will rest on concrete deck blocks.
The boardwalk had to remain under 24'' tall, the top boards are 2'' think so we initially setup the sections with legs that held the sections at about 20'' from the ground and proceeded to level from there.
Here you see the lag bolt that goes through the stringers, it's so long because it will go through a 4'' x 4'' post.
We now have the entire boardwalk on the stilts and have begun to level the sections
Now we have installed the 4'' x 4'' posts into the decking blocks and tightened down the lag bolts, in the distance Kevin is cutting some pieces to size.
The boardwalk had to twist and turn through the trees, this shows a long arc towards the end of the boardwalk
Overall shot of the job site, we were blessed with some beautiful fall weather
Cutting the deck boards to length
Now we begin laying the deck boards
One at a time, progress will be made
In this picture it shows the main trail, in the spring time the water levels are very high and not possible to pass, with this boardwalk in place, no matter how wet it gets you'll still be able to enjoy a beautiful spring day.
Were getting there, almost to the end, oh wait we're only half way done (-:
I thought this was a beautiful picture with the shadows of the trees falling across the boardwalk
Were almost done, we just have to add the pipes along the side
This is a ramp at one end of the boardwalk, the pipe is there to help the blind to follow the boardwalk along.
Here you can see a good side shot of how the boardwalk sits, you can see the 2 lag bolts holding the post and stringers together onto of the concrete deck block
The last piece of the puzzle
Finished at last, this was a fun project to build. Its great to know that this boardwalk will not only be around for many many years to come but will be enjoyed by so many people.
Shipping a custom wood rocking chair
I start with the floor of the crate which is 3/8'' chip board with a 2x4 frame and 1/2'' felt under the rockers
I then add the side frame and top frame also built from 2x4's
The front and back have now been added
I now start placing the expandable foam bags that rest between the crate and rocking chair
The expandable bags get placed in front of the toes of the rockers and another behind the tails
The expandable bags get placed between the lid of the roof and tops of the legs, if placing the bag carefully the can expand to hold the sides and tops of the legs while also shaping around the headrest.
The last set get placed between a 2x4 that has been placed across the tops of the arms, these final bags really hold the chair down.
Cocobolo custom wood rocking chair - Day 7 & 8
View the finished Cocobolo Rocking chair
or
Follow the build process - Day 1&2 , Day 3&4 , Day 5&6 , Day 7&8
On the left arm to leg transition some rough shaping has begun
Lots of shaping has now happened but still a lot of work to go!
I applied some water to highlight the cocobolo seat that is surrounded by Walnut.
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