A Trebuchet

Let's call this a prototype. I've wanted to make myself a catapult or more precisely a trebuchet since I watched a show on PBS when I was a kid. The idea that an elevated weight could be used to propel large stones at a castle was incredibly intriguing. I got even more interested when I found out that there is an annual pumpkin tossing competition that has a trebuchet category. The opportunity arose for me to make one myself when my son decided he wanted to do a medieval themed birthday party. We had also just recently painted our fence and taken down an old playhouse in the back yard. I had everything I needed. I won't go into the details of angles and dimensions as there are plenty of more detailed resources online. I effectively started with the length of the arm and all dimensions were ratios from there. When I started I was too impatient to figure out the exact ratios so I made it 'adjustable'. I learned later on in the process that the ideal dimensions are fairly consistent as you scale up and down so I didn't really experiment with any of the other settings.

Since I only had three days to put this together and the goal was to use it in a party game it's far from perfectly tuned. I managed to get it to toss a tennis ball about 100 feet. With a larger weight I think I could have tuned it to a distance closer to a soccer field. The only real trouble I had with it was figuring out how to 'release' at the right time. This is the only adjustable piece that I did take advantage of. I put a ring on the end of the string and hooked it on a nail. I adjusted the angle of the nail until it released perfectly. The other not so obvious piece was how to arm the ball in the sling. I started with the leather pouch horizontal but quickly realized vertical was the right way to go because it would release and get out of the way.

This was a fun project. Now I'm ready to build a pumpkin tossing version.

A Painted Desk

After my son got to design his desk it was time to build one for my daughter. She's three years older and had a very specific look in mind. She's also an artist so storage of paints and brushes and paper was important. The unusual thing for me was that she wanted her desk to be painted. I've certainly done painted items before but usually older looking pieces that involve the use of milk paint and a hand rubbed finish. A professional looking heavy wearing finish was going to be a different challenge since I hate painting things with nooks and crannies with a brush and I don't have a sprayer.

My favourite wood for painting is poplar because it's cheap, works nicely and is fairly sturdy. It also comes in 5/4 and 9/4 stock which gives me the ability to build things a bit beefier. I didn't actually get a good picture of what she wanted. Instead I got a description that included;
1) Solid base and sides.
2) Fitted drawers on one side.
3) Tall enough for a particular brand of paint.
4) Four drawers on one side and a single drawer where you sit.
5) Painted.

She initially wanted it all white but we took a trip to the home centre and check out the spray paint aisle and found something she liked. I figured it was a relatively small project and spray paint would be a good option. I pre-finished all parts where I could with a white primer which made the spray paint go a lot farther. I think I only used four cans to get two good coats on everything. I used full extension slides for all the drawers and we found a nice black handle. Dimensions are 21 inches deep, 44 inches wide and 31 inches high. Sides are plywood and all joints are mortise and tenon.

Mission Style Desk

My son needed a desk and rather than designing one myself I decided to let him design one. I did of course influence him towards styles that I'm familiar with but the basic size and layout was all him. We settled on a Mission Style desk with two drawers and big blocky legs. The only part of this project that I was worried about was building the legs. Being mission style I had chosen quarter sawn white oak which meant I wanted to have similar grain on all sides of the legs. I considered a few different approaches. The first was a sandwich in one direction with a 1/8 applied piece on the long grain. I wasn't convinced this would be seamless. I also considered trying to find wood with the grain running at 45 degrees but that would have mean 12/4 stock which was not cheap.

I did also briefly consider some of the fancy router bits that allow you to bring four pieces of wood together in mostly flat grain. This seemed overly complex and I didn't want to spring for the router bit. I finally decided on a simple mitre with a piece of poplar in the middle. With modern glues, an accurate 45 degree angle and the poplar adding strength I figured it would do the trick. Everything seemed to come together nicely and I added some nice coasters to the bottom of the foot to ensure there would not be any undue stress when dragging the desk around.
Final result was a leg with edge grain running on all four sides and you can't see the seam at all.

The rails and styles were all done with mortise and tenon joints and the drawers were finger jointed. I have a Forrest 3/8 saw blade for my table saw and a box jig that allows me to create box joints very quickly and accurately. I used full extension drawer slides and applied an oak front. The overall dimensions are 40 inches wide, 20 inches deep and 30 inches tall. The rails are 5 inches high and the legs are 2 1/2 inches. The finish is a wipe on poly. The thing weighs a ton but should last a lifetime.

A Cherry Bowl

I'm still not a wood turner. I can make things round, I can add a bit of a profile and I can use a Jacobs chuck to make holes in vases. The next step in my evolution is bowl making. I attempted to learn by Youtube but soon became convinced that this would be a good opportunity to take a class.  Lee Valley hosts a number of classes and one came up for turning a simple wooden bowl. The goal of the class is to make a bowl from scratch which meant we would be turning from dry wood. I've turned green wood before and it's obvious why turning green is ideal. The trouble with that is that you can only go so far before you have to wait for the wood to dry.

We started by a 6x6x3 chunk of cherry that had already been cut round. We then drilled a hole to attach the screw chuck and turned the outside of the bowl with a foot that could be turned around and attached with a four jaw chuck. We then turned the inside and created a jam chuck with a piece of poplar that we could use to turn off the foot and add a concave bottom. I managed to do all of the turning in the class and took the piece home for some hand sanding. It was a lot slower than sanding and finishing on the lathe but I wanted to make sure I got all my swirl marks out. I added a simple wipe on poly and was finish and now I have a place for my keys by the door.